Saekano
Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend, known in Japanese as and the short form is a Japanese romantic comedy light novel series written by Fumiaki Maruto, with illustrations by Kurehito Misaki. Fujimi Shobo published thirteen volumes between July 2012 and October 2017 under their Fujimi Fantasia Bunko imprint. The story follows high school student Tomoya Aki, who recruits a trio of beautiful girls to help him develop a visual novel and sell it at the Comiket convention.
Saekano has received a manga adaptation in addition to three spin-off manga adaptations. An anime television series adaptation by A-1 Pictures aired from January 9 to March 27, 2015, on Fuji TV's noitamina block, which has been licensed by Aniplex of America. A second season aired from April 6 to June 23, 2017, and was streamed exclusively on Amazon Prime Video. A visual novel based on the anime, titled Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata -Blessing Flowers-, was released on April 30, 2015. An animated film, titled Saekano the Movie: Finale, was produced by CloverWorks and premiered on October 26, 2019.
Premise
, a male high school teenager who works part-time to fund his otaku lifestyle encounters a beautiful girl one day during spring vacation. A month later, he finds out that the girl is his classmate, Megumi Kato, who is hardly noticeable to her classmates. Hoping to create a visual novel computer game, he turns to school beauties Eriri Spencer Sawamura for designing the art, and Utaha Kasumigaoka for writing the game scenario. Tomoya then recruits Megumi to star as the "heroine" of his game, thus forming the development team "Blessing Software", in which the three most renowned students in the school work on one of the least noticeable. The series follows their adventures in developing the game and their plans to sell it at the Comiket convention, as well as the emotional entanglements among the team.Publication
Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend began as a light novel series written by Fumiaki Maruto, with illustrations provided by Kurehito Misaki. The first light novel volume was published by Fujimi Shobo under their Fujimi Fantasia Bunko imprint on July 20, 2012. In the twelfth volume, Maruto announced that the series would end in the thirteenth volume, which was released on October 20, 2017. As of November 2018, thirteen volumes and two short story collections have been published.Media
Manga
A manga adaptation with art by Takeshi Moriki was serialized from January 9, 2013, to August 9, 2016, in Fujimi Shobo's shōnen manga magazine Monthly Dragon Age. It was collected in eight tankōbon volumes between August 2013 and November 2016. It was published in English by Yen Press between January 2016 and December 2017.A spin-off manga titled with art by Niito was serialized from February 4, 2013, to May 2, 2014, in Kadokawa Shoten's seinen manga magazine Young Ace. It has been collected in three tankōbon volumes. Another spin-off manga titled with art by Sabu Musha was serialized from August 24, 2013, to April 25, 2018, in Square Enix's seinen manga magazine Big Gangan. It has been collected in ten tankōbon volumes. A manga adaptation of Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata: Girls Side was serialized in Fujimi Shobo's Monthly Dragon Age magazine from September 9, 2016, to June 9, 2017. It has been collected in two tankōbon volumes.
Anime series
An anime television series adaptation of the light novel series was announced in March 2014 to premiere on Fuji TV's Noitamina block in January 2015. The anime was produced by A-1 Pictures and directed by Kanta Kamei, with scripts written by series creator Fumiaki Maruto, character designs by Tomoaki Takase and music by Hajime Hyakkoku. The opening theme song for the anime was by Luna Haruna, while the ending theme song was by Miku Sawai. The series began airing on January 9, 2015, and finished airing on March 27, 2015, with a total of 13 episodes. The first season has been licensed for North America by Aniplex of America.A second season to the anime series, titled was announced on May 3, 2015, with the main staff and cast returning from the previous season to reprise their roles. It aired on Fuji TV's Noitamina block from April 13, 2017, to June 23, 2017, running for 12 episodes, with the web-only episode 0 streamed on April 5, 2017. The opening theme song for the second season is by Luna Haruna, while the ending theme song are for episode 0 to 10 and for episode 11, both sung by Moso Calibration. The second season streamed exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.