Yen Press is in a heavy licensing cycle, having announced multiple slates across 2026 including a nine-title batch at Anime North in May, two manga at Anime NYC in August, and nine more licenses at its Anime NYC panel. It is also preparing a new imprint launch in October 2026 and expanding its Yen Audio line.
Yen Press spent 2026 announcing licenses in volume. On May 15 it revealed 11 manga and six light novels for November 2026, including Ryoko Kui's Terrarium in a Drawer and a DanMachi prequel novel, Argonaut. A week later at Anime North in Toronto it announced nine more titles, among them a Wistoria: Wand and Sword prequel novel and a novel adaptation of Honey Lemon Soda, with releases set for December 2026 and winter 2027. At Anime NYC in August it added two manga, The Goblin Samurai and My Crush's Crush, then nine more titles at its main panel, split between two light novels and seven manga, with no release window given. A final batch of six licenses followed in October.
Alongside the licenses, Yen Press is moving into new formats. Its Yen Audio line will release an audiobook of Keiichi Hikami's Elden Ring-themed light novel See You at That Site of Grace After Work in November 2026, a month after the Yen On print and digital editions. The company also plans to debut a new imprint in October 2026 with two launch titles: Ryoko Kui's The Dragon School is Atop the Mountain and Futa Kimura's Fate Rewinder.
The stories do not agree on a single release window for the Anime NYC panel titles, and the nine titles announced there still have no window. What is settled is the pattern: light novels, franchise extensions, and collected editions dominate the slate, and the November 2026 and winter 2027 windows are the ones most consistently named.
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Yen Press announced six new licenses on Friday: the light novels Kafka's Journey, Oh Boy, Was I Wrong About Her, and The Returned Tyrant Princess Rewrites Her Dark Past, plus the manga Lilies in Love for 101 Days, Lord Hades's Vernal Honeymoon, and Desire of the Untouchable Flower. Kafka's Journey is written by Chizuru Mizushina with illustration by Haruyuki Morisawa.
Manga Up! Global added Ato Sakurai's If Witch, Then Which? manga on Tuesday. The romantic comedy follows Haruka Kuze, who cross-dresses to help a witch named Maruna Rinjou graduate from magic school. The manga ran in Monthly Shonen Gangan from June 2019 to May 2020, with three volumes.
Yen Press announced nine new licenses at its main industry panel at Anime NYC on Saturday, split between two light novel series and seven manga series. The company did not give a release window. The light novels are The Witch's Conviction, The Beast's Redemption and 'Cause I'm Freedom! The manga slate includes Seal My Lips With a Kiss, Übel Blatt II: Knights of the Fallen King, and The Gray Exorcist.
Yen Press announced at Anime NYC on Friday that it licensed two manga: The Goblin Samurai by Kikurage and My Crush's Crush by Sekina Aoi and Ryō Tsuzura. It also announced an audiobook of The Boy and The Beast light novel and the November print debut of Rise of the Lowborn: Ascending the Ranks by Crushing Incompetent Nobles.
Yen Press announced nine new license acquisitions during its industry panel at Anime North 2026 in Toronto on May 22. The slate includes two novel series and seven manga titles, scheduled for release in December 2026 and winter 2027. The novel pickups are a prequel to the manga "Wistoria: Wand and Sword" by Fujino Omori with illustrations by Yunagi, and a novel adaptation of "Honey Lemon Soda" by Anju Goshirakawa based on Mayu Murata's original story. The seven manga are "Snowmelt and Agapanthus" by Nauchi, "Witch and Cat" by Yodaka Kuroi, "Sinful Is the Angel Who Loves" by Yukari Sakai, "Shigahime" by Hirohisa Sato, "Studio Cabana" by Uma Agri, "Gusts and Beats" by Karuho Shiina, and "Twilight Vessel-Gods" by Shin Yamamoto. The genres span supernatural romance, psychological horror, action, and queer romance. The "Wistoria" prequel novel, titled "Tsue to Tsurugi no Wistoria Grimo Acta: Hajimari no Namida" in Japanese, arrives as the manga's second anime season began airing on April 12, 2026.
Yen Press announced on May 15 that it has licensed 11 manga and six light novel series for release in November 2026. The manga slate includes "Moscow 2160," a near-future story by Kumo Kagyu with art by Kōtarō Sekine; "Love at the City's Edge on a Moonlit Night" by Sakuhiro, about an onmyoji and a demon; "Terrarium in a Drawer," a collection of 33 short stories by Ryōko Kui of "Delicious in Dungeon" fame; "He Was My Brother" by Minoru Matsuda; "egg: I'm Your Child" by Sino Torino; "After-School Duty" by Meiji and Gakuto Coda; "Contract Sisters" by Hijiki; "Izumi and the Dragon Encyclopedia" by Nagimiso; "My Girlfriend Is a Colossal Cutie" by sanorin; "Tale of the Wizrain Kingdom: The Dragon Is the Bride" by Hyōgo Amagasa and sugino; and "Witch and Hound" by Rainy Kamitsuki and Minori Tsukahara. The light novel licenses are "Argonaut: Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Tales of Heroes" by Fujino Ōmori; "The Story of the Moon Waiting for the Evening" by Akumi Agitogi; "Valkyrie Bullet" by Yomu Mishima; "On the Way Home After Defeating the Demon King" by Ichiro Sakaki; "Rise of the Lowborn" by Kosaka Hanane; and "The Demon King Seems to Have Infiltrated the Hero's Party" by Kamaseinuesu. Yen Press also plans an audiobook for Keiichi Hikami's "Elden Ring"-themed novel "See You at That Site of Grace After Work."
Yen Audio will release an audiobook adaptation of Keiichi Hikami's light novel See You at That Site of Grace After Work in November 2026. The announcement came from Yen Press on May 15, 2026. The novel, which Yen Press licensed in April, follows Wataru Aida, a socially awkward salesman whose only joy is playing video games alone. His routine shifts when senior coworker Reito Kashima catches him reading a game guide and asks for help with Elden Ring. What begins as cooperative play becomes a story of friendship and connection. The English hardcover and digital editions from the Yen On imprint are scheduled for October 13, 2026, a month before the audiobook. Hikami wrote the original work, with illustrations by lack. Kadokawa first published the book in Japan on March 29, 2024. The audiobook will be available on Spotify, Audible, Google Play, and other streaming platforms.
Yen Press will debut a new imprint in October 2026, launching with two titles. The first is Ryoko Kui's The Dragon School is Atop the Mountain, an early collection of one-shots from the Delicious in Dungeon creator that treats the extraordinary as ordinary daily life. The second is Futa Kimura's Fate Rewinder: All Great Feats Require Time, a children's manga about agents who use micro-time machines implanted in their eye sockets to rescue people from tragic deaths. The imprint arrives as part of a broader wave of licensing news. Glacier Bay Books will publish Marco Kohinata's Akari in June 2026, a standalone story about mistaken identity and found family selected for the MINT manga initiative. Mangalith will release Hideko Mizuno's Fire! on October 14, 2026, bringing the 1969 shojo manga that helped open the genre's 1970s flourishing to English readers in a single volume. Kodama Tales will publish Hisae Iwaoka's The Magical Forest of Hoshigahara in November 2026. Manga Mavericks Books will release Minami Q-ta's Ball and Chain in March 2027, a story about two queer people pushing back against assigned gender roles and the expectations of marriage. The licensing announcements follow the death of Yoshiharu Tsuge on an unspecified date. Tsuge, born October 30, 1937, was the creator of the surrealist manga Nejishiki and an artist who twisted the medium with an uncompromising personal vision shaped by postwar poverty and lifelong anthropophobia.