The Overlord Volume 15 release date in Japan is confirmed for June 30, 2022. The official title in English is Overlord: The Half Wood Elf God-kin (Han Mori Yousei no Shinjin).
The publishing release date for Overlord 15 was announced during a special live YouTube program on March 12, 2022.
The event discussed many topics, including the light novel Overlord Volume 15, the Overlord video game, and the Isekai Quartet: Another World movie release date, but the highlight of the event was the Overlord Season 4 release date being confirmed for Summer 2022. The event featured the second Overlord Season 4 trailer preview.
The Overlord light novel series is being written by Japanese author Kugane Maruyama. The story first started life as a web novel back in 2010, but starting in 2012 Kugane teamed up with illustrator so-bin to adapt the story into the light novel format.
Japanese publisher Enterbrain released Overlord Volume 14: The Witch of the Falling Kingdom on March 12, 2020.
In the past, Maruyama had been consistently releasing at least one Overlord book per year. However, in recent year Maruyama had trouble keeping to his planned schedule. Volume 12 was delayed by a month and Overlord Volume 13 was supposed to come out in December 2017, but it was not published until April 2018. Overlord Volume 14 was similarly delayed by a year.
Overlord Volume 16 is the second half of Overlord: The Half Wood Elf God-kin
The Overlord Volume 15 release date was originally planned for Spring 2021 but then was delayed for over a year. But it seems that the length of the story was a major factor.
Volume 13 was a long book, numbering 574 pages compared to the 410 pages of Volume 12. Similarly, Overlord Volume 14 is 584 pages long.
On January 4, 2022, Maruyama tweeted that the first draft for the Volume 15 manuscript had exceeded 700 pages. As such, the second half of the book is being split into Overlord Volume 16.
“Happy New Year! The draft manuscript is now over 700 pages,” the author explained. “Therefore, it will be divided up and down into Volumes 15 and 16. I’m working hard to get them out as close to each other as possible. I hope you can wait a little more …… I know it’s been quite a while.”
Overlord light novels ending with Volume 18?
Back in May 2016, the writer said he was planning on ending the entire story with Overlord Volume 18. Three years later, this plan began to change as he became depressed over copyright violations of his work.
In April 2019, Maruyama said he was planning on cutting down the amount of story content in order to finish the light novel series. He claimed it would be difficult to conclude with Volume 16, so he decided to take things at a moderate pace and target Overlord Volume 17 for the ending. In August 2019, Maruyama reportedly said at AnimagiC 2019 that ending with Overlord Volume 17 was still the final plan.
As of March 12, 2022, Maruyama still hadn’t clarified whether his plans had changed. Since Overlord Volume 15 was split into two books, presumably that means Overlord Volume 18 will now contain the ending again.
Overlord Season 5 anime TV show to adapt Overlord Volume 15?
The new Overlord 2022 anime projects will cover the story arcs of Kugane Maruyama’s light novel series up through the Paladin of the Holy Kingdom arc. The total number of episodes is a secret, but it seems likely that the Overlord Season 4 anime TV show will adapt light novel Volumes 10, 11, and 12.
Therefore, it’s very likely that an Overlord: Holy Kingdom movie will adapt Volume 13, finishing off the Paladin of the Holy Kingdom story arc.
If that’s the case, then the Overlord Season 5 TV series could pick up the story again in Overlord Volume 14: The Witch of the Falling Kingdom. The fifth season could also adapt Overlord 15: The Half Wood Elf God-kin. Stay tuned!