In November 2021, New York based publisher Yen Press announced they were entering the audiobook market with a few of their light novel works. The question on everyone’s mind is… who would be narrating the stories – especially considering some of the works have been adapted into anime and beloved for many years. Fortunately we need wonder no longer, with the first three narrators confirmed in recent days.
Spice and Wolf Vol. 1 will be narrated by J. Michael Tatum, who voiced the protagonist Kraft Lawrence in the Funimation dubs of Spice & Wolf and Spice & Wolf II. J. Michael Tatum is an actor, writer, ADR director, and adaptive scriptwriter. Nurtured by anime classics, Tatum has lent his voice to several popular anime franchises over the years.
After being cast as Rikichi in 2005’s Samurai 7, Tatum was able to attain a slew of dream roles, most notably Kyoya Ootori in Ouran High School Host Club, suave, demonic Sebastian Michaelis in Black Butler, France in the Hetalia franchise, Tomoe in Kamisama Kiss, and the equal parts maniacal and vulnerable Rintarou Okabe from Steins;Gate. Recently, he can be heard in the epic My Hero Academia as Tenya Iida. Volume 1 of the audiobook series is due to be available starting 15 March 2022 – a week and a day from now.
The second audiobook, So I’m a Spider, So What! Vol. 1 will be narrated by Caitlin Kelly. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Caitlin Kelly got started in voice acting in Tokyo, Japan. She fell in love with narrating audiobooks in New York, and has recorded over 250 titles in her history.
Kelly loves working in all genres but usually finds herself in fantasy worlds, notably narrating Holly Black’s Folk of the Air series. Caitlin currently lives in Tokyo with her husband and daughter. The So I’m a Spider, So What! Vol.1 audiobook is scheduled to release on 12 April 2022.
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai Vol. 1 will be narrated by Andrew Grace. Andrew Grace is a Los Angeles–based, multi-racial, SAG-AFTRA actor. He recently completed work on an upcoming series for Showtime and another for the CW. He has lent his voice to The Summit of the Gods and The Journalist on Netflix, as well as other projects scheduled to premiere in mid-2022.
On stage he played the lead role in Cupid and the End of Love, his original stage play, which ran for over six months including at the Hollywood Fringe Festival (2019). Grace can also be seen in numerous commercials for brands such as Apple, Verizon, and Intel. In his free time, Grace enjoys writing stage plays and indie folk records, and shooting abstract photography. Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai Vol. 1 is scheduled to release on 14 June 2022.
Want to know about each of the three soon-to-be-released audio books in the Yen Audio imprint? Scroll down to read synopses for each.
Spice and Wolf
Story by Isuna Hasekura
The life of a traveling merchant is a lonely one, a fact with which Kraft Lawrence is well acquainted. Wandering from town to town with just his horse, cart, and whatever wares have come his way, the peddler has pretty well settled into his routine—that is, until the night Lawrence finds a wolf goddess asleep in his cart. Taking the form of a fetching girl with wolf ears and a tail, Holo has wearied of tending to harvests in the countryside and strikes up a bargain with the merchant to lend him the cunning of “Holo the Wisewolf” to increase his profits in exchange for taking her along on his travels. What kind of businessman could turn down such an offer? Lawrence soon learns, though, that having an ancient goddess as a traveling companion can be a bit of a mixed blessing. Will this wolf girl turn out to be too wild to tame?
So I’m a Spider, So What!
Story by Okina Baba and Tsukasa Kiryu
I used to be a normal high school girl but in the blink of an eye, I woke up in a place I’ve never seen before and—and I was reborn as a spider?! How could something that’s nothing more than a tiny spider (that’s me) possibly survive in literally the worst dungeon ever? Are there no rules? There should be some rules! Who the hell is responsible for this? SHOW YOUR FACE!
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai
Story by Hajime Kamoshida
Bunny girls do not live in libraries. This is simply common sense. And yet, that’s exactly where Sakuta finds one in the wild. More bewildering is who the bunny girl is: Mai Sakurajima, a girl one year older than Sakuta, famous at their school for her acting career even though she’s currently on break. To top it all off, it seems like no one else in the library can see Mai at all, no matter what she does or…wears. Wanting to find out more about this mystery and maybe get a little closer to this beautiful upperclassman in the process, Sakuta launches an investigation to discover why an unforgettable bunny girl keeps becoming totally invisible.
