Ichiro Suzuki is a 29-year old gaming programmer who was tasked with fixing several bugs in two MMORPGs his company is preparing for publication. However, he becomes extremely worn out as he is working during the weekend. After taking a nap, he mysteriously wakes up in a parallel world that resembles some of the fantasy RPG worlds he had worked on, as a 15-year old named Satou Pendragon, a nickname he uses while running beta tests, and with what looks like the menu screen of the game he was working on appearing before his inner eye. However, before he can grasp his current situation, an army of lizardmen ambushes him and launches an all-out attack on him. In desperation, he uses all three of his special 'Meteor Rain' attack options at once and wipes them all out - accidentally killing a god as well. As a result, his level jumps from 1 to 310, maximizing his stats immensely and making him one of the most powerful people in the world. With no way to return to his world, and as a high-leveled adventurer armed with a myriad of different physical, cognitive and magical abilities and weapons, he sets out to uncover the secrets of this new world, earning the trust and affection of many people in the process while keeping his overpowered stats concealed.
Hiro Ainana first published Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody as a web novel on the user-generated content site Shōsetsuka ni Narō in 2013, before republishing it as a light novel with illustrations by shri. The first volume was released by Fujimi Shobo in March 2014. Twenty volumes have been released to date. North American publisher Yen Press announced its license to the novels on May 20, 2016.
Manga
Ayamegumu began serializing a manga adaptation in Fujimi Shobo's Age Premium magazine in December 2014. Age Premium ceased publication with its 49th issue on July 9, 2016, and the manga was one of five titles that were transferred to Monthly Dragon Age. The manga has been licensed by Yen Press. Akira Segami launched a prequel manga, titled Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody Ex: Princess Arisa's Otherworldly Struggle, adapted from the short story by the same name in Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody: Ex, in Fujimi Shobo's shōnen manga magazine Monthly Dragon Age on February 9, 2018. The manga ended on July 9, 2018.
Anime
An anime adaptation was announced via a wraparound band on the fourth volume of the manga on December 10, 2016. The television series is directed by Shin Ōnuma at Silver Link and Connect with scripts written by Kento Shimoyama, while Shoko Takimoto designed the characters. MONACA composed the music at DIVE II Entertainment. The series aired from January 11 to March 29, 2018 on AT-X, with further broadcasts on Tokyo MX and BS11. It ran for 12 episodes and covers the first 3 volumes of the light novel. The opening theme is "suraidoraido" by Run Girls, Run! while the ending theme is "Suki no sukiru" by Wake Up, Girls!. Crunchyroll streamed the series, while Funimation streamed an English dub.
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Reception
The series was the 10th best-selling light novel series in Japan during the first half of 2018, selling 211,393 copies.
