Magical Explorer
Magical Explorer: Reborn as a Side Character in a Fantasy Dating Sim is a Japanese light novel series written by Iris. The series originated on the Shōsetsuka ni Narō website in February 2018, before being published in print with illustrations by Noboru Kannatsuki by Kadokawa Shoten beginning in November 2019. A manga adaptation, illustrated by Yukari Higa, began serialization on the Young Ace Up website in August 2020. An anime adaptation has been announced.
Premise
There is a legendary game that has become popular among Japanese gentlemen, named "Magical Explorer" or Magiweo for short. The game's protagonist has a cheat-like power with twelve different beautiful heroines to flower with, including additional twelve heroines from the DLC, a harem of twenty-four beauties. Kousuke has become that protagonist, actually not. Instead, he has become the third-wheel character who always laughing like an idiot next to the protagonist. There is no heroine that would lay their eyes on him.But now he could not care less about the protagonist and his heroines, because he discovered magic. While he was using it, he has become interested in it. He wants to master it and become the strongest. Thus he has decided. He would abandon half his role as a protagonist's friend to train his magic and then he would beat the hell out of that cheat who can solo the demon king. He was training with that thought in mind, but somehow he keeps getting closer to the heroines and furthermore, he does not know why he keeps encountering events like he is some eroge protagonist.
Characters
;Kousuke Takioto;Marino Hanamura
;Hatsumi Hanamura
;Ludivine "Ludie" Marie-Ange De La Tréfle
;Claris
;Nanami
;Iori Hijiri
Media
Light novel
Written by Iris, the series began publication on the novel posting website Shōsetsuka ni Narō on February 26, 2018. The series was later acquired by Kadokawa Shoten, who began publishing the series in print with illustrations by Noboru Kannatsuki on November 1, 2019. As of October 2025, twelve volumes have been released.Yen Press is publishing the series in English.
Manga
A manga adaptation, illustrated by Yukari Higa, began serialization on Kadokawa Shoten's Young Ace Up manga website on August 20, 2020. The series went on hiatus in June 2021 due to Higa's health. As of January 2026, the series' individual chapters have been collected into three volumes.Yen Press is also publishing the manga adaptation in English.
Anime
An anime adaptation was announced during Kadokawa's "Sneaker Bunko 35th Anniversary Festa!" livestream on September 24, 2023.Reception
The novel has 50,000,000 views on the Shōsetsuka ni Narō website.Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network praised the illustrations, but criticized the female characters as lacking development. On the story, Silverman wrote "from the very first sentence, we know what we're getting into, and luckily, it does it decently well". Demelza of Anime UK News felt the series was a "serviceable" isekai series, though Demelza was critical of the writing.