The light novel series Buta no Liver wa Kanetsu Shiro (Butareba: The Story of a Man Turned into a Pig) by Sakai Takuma will end with its next novel on March 8th, 2024. The news was confirmed last week by Kadokawa’s Dengeki Bunko imprint. The novel to be released in March 2024 will be the ninth novel released for the series, but it is designated as the “n-th” volume.
Sakai launched the light novel series with illustrations by Tousaka Asagi in March 2020 after winning the gold prize in the 26th Degeki Novel Prize in 2019. Kadokawa’s Dengeki Bunko imprint publishes the light novel series in print, with the eighth novel released in Japan in October 2023.
The novels have inspired an ongoing manga adaptation by Minami, launched in August 2020 in Kadokawa’s Dengiki Maoh magazine. The novel series also inspired a TV anime adaptation, which started in October 2023 and will air its 12th and final episode in Japan on February 5th, 2024
A run-of-the-mill otaku collapses from stomach pain after tasting raw pig liver and wakes up in a whole new world—as a pig, of all things! He’s helplessly trapped in his pen until Jess, a girl who can read minds, comes along and rescues him. Our porcine hero must work to keep his boar-ish thoughts to himself, but sweet Jess isn’t deterred. She wants to spoil this little piggy rotten!
By Jess’s side, it seems like life as a hog might not be so bad after all, yet there’s more to this strange fantasy world than meets the eye. Jess is a girl of many secrets, and she’s in danger. But what can a mere pig with no special powers do to protect her from her cruel fate? Will his modern knowledge, quick thinking, and sharp nose be enough to ham it up and save her?
