Apothecary diaries vol 16

[junsevith]

Hello as of now nearly 3 month have passed from the last chapter release and 2 months from volume 15 official release, which is a lot more than amount described in the release schedule. From what i know volume 16 was released in japan in may 2025 so that shouldn't be a problem.
What is the reason for the delay, is there some problem with licensing?
Is there a date when we can expect the releasing to begin?

[GeorgeMTO]

@junsevith each volume has to be licensed individually, it's not a matter of it being automatically available to JNC the moment it releases in Japan. It might not be any kind of specific problem, just going through a long process with multiple people involved who have lots of other tasks to do as well. Even once the license is finalised, there's other factors that could cause a delay, like the translator or editor needing to finish up some other series they're working on (as they're all freelancers they may be working for other publishers).

The last time a different series from the same JP publisher was a new release that JNC had to license, it took over a year for prepubs to begin. I wouldn't be concerned for a while yet.

[LurkingMcLurk]

Adding to what GeorgeMTO said, the series is published by Shufunotomosha under their Hero Bunko label. Below are four licensed series from the same publisher.

The Apothecary Diaries
Shufunotomosha released Volume 16 on 2025-05-30. That will be 161 days this Friday.

I Could Never Be a Succubus!
J-Novel Club finished Volume 6 pre-pub wise on 2025-02-08. Japan had released Volume 7 on 2024-07-31 and J-Novel Club didn't start Volume 7 pre-pubs until 2025-04-05. That is a 248 day gap, however it is possible that the delay between J-Novel Club finishing Volume 6 pre-pubs and starting Volume 7 pre-pubs had nothing to do with licensing.

The Ideal Sponger Life
J-Novel Club caught up to Japan with Volume 14 pre-pub wise on 2023-10-24. Japan then released Volume 15 on 2023-12-28 and J-Novel Club didn't start Volume 15 pre-pubs until 2025-01-28. That is a 397 day gap.

Restaurant to Another World
Seven Seas caught up to Japan with Volume 5 on 2020-10-22. Japan then released Volume 6 on 2021-10-29 and Seven Seas won't be releasing Volume 6 until 2025-11-13. That is a 1,476 day gap.

The remaining three licensed series from Shufunotomosha are Dimension Wave (last Japanese release was Volume 7 on 2024-09-30), Knight's & Magic (last Japanese release was Volume 11 on 2021-11-29), and Seventh (last Japanese release was Volume 10 on 2020-10-30).