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Kyoto Animation's KA Esuma Bunko Prints Full Metal Panic! Author Shoji Gatoh's New Novel (Updated)
posted on by Joanna Cayanan
Update on October 6: Kyoto Animation will release Shoji Gatoh's MOON FIGHTERS! novel on November 22. Nobuaki Maruki (animation director for Free! franchise, Violet Evergarden) designed the characters in the novel illustrations. Kyoto Animation is collectively credited for the illustrations, including the cover image below.
＼✨情報解禁✨／
— KAエスマ文庫編集部 (@KA_esuma) October 6, 2023
――月がアツ苦しい！
11月22日（水）発売
『MOON FIGHTERS!』
著者：#賀東招二
キャラクターデザイン：丸木宣明
イラスト：京都アニメーション
月面で働く男たちのお仕事エンターテインメント開幕！
🌕https://t.co/um7Oxp1xJp#MOON_FIGHTERS#KAエスマ文庫 pic.twitter.com/kVKLgXaAyX
The novel takes place in the future on the moon, after the moon has been developed and many people aside from just astronauts choose to live there. A special relief force nicknamed "Gekkyū" exists to provide aid to the people who live on the moon when any trouble arises. The novel follows the daily lives of the members of this task force.
Below is ANN's original article from June 27.
Kyoto Animation's KA Esuma Bunko imprint announced on Tuesday that it will publish the new novel MOON FIGHTERS! (left in image below) by Shoji Gatoh (Full Metal Panic!, Amagi Brilliant Park) this fall.
Gatoh's light novel series Full Metal Panic! debuted in 1998, and Fujimi Shobo published the series' 12th and final novel in the main series in 2010. The novels have more than 11 million copies in print. Tokyopop published the first four volumes in English, and J-Novel Club retranslated and published the entire main story in four omnibus volumes. J-Novel Club announced in May that it is producing the light novel's audiobook series.
Gatoh will launch a new sequel story for the light novel series' 25th anniversary this year, set about two decades after the main story's climax. The sequel follows the daily family life of the main leads Sōsuke and Chidori, now all grown-up. The July issue of Kadokawa's Dragon Magazine published the opening excerpt of the new story on May 19, and the September issue will publish the full first chapter on July 20.
The franchise inspired the 24-episode Full Metal Panic! TV anime series in 2002, the 12-episode Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu TV anime in 2003, and the 13-episode Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid TV anime series in 2005. Additionally, the light novels inspired the Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid video anime episode in 2006. GONZO animated the 2002 anime series, and Kyoto Animation animated the two sequel series and the video anime.
A new television anime titled Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory premiered in May 2018. Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired in Japan, and Funimation streamed an English dub.
The original novel series has also inspired several manga spinoff series, as well as several light novel spinoffs (including Another) and short story collections.
Gatoh launched the Amagi Brilliant Park light novel series with illustrations by Yuka Nakajima (Listen to Me, Girls. I Am Your Father!/Papa Kiki!) in 2013. Fantasia Bunko published the eighth volume in 2016. J-Novel Club published the series' eight volumes in English. The novel series inspired a television anime adaptation by Kyoto Animation in 2014, as well as manga adaptations and spinoffs.
Sources: Kyoto Animation, Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history