Joseph Luster
July 19, 2023 
A new series from Satoshi Wagahara—the author of The Devil is a Part-Timer!—is officially on the way. Kadokawa’s Dengeki Bunko light novel announced that Wagahara is getting ready to launch a new light novel title, complete with illustrations from Tochi, with the first volume set to ship in Japan on September 8.
The light novel is titled Shokurakuen -Meshitopia- Houshoku Society, and the story is set in Japan in the year 2075. In this near future, Japan has taken measures for health and life expectancy to a whole new level, leading to a society that only consumes the healthiest foods. Those who eat unhealthy foods are marginalized and labeled as “Addictors,” practically erased from society.
Niijima is one such Addictor whose chef father has passed away, and is joined as dual protagonist by a by-the-books member of the government’s Food Protection Unit named Mito. That unit is tasked with cleaning up Addictors, and as such the pair get entangled when they end up trapped together in the basement of an abandoned building. Forced to eat illegal cup noodles to survive, they keep their meeting a secret as Mito starts “investigating” Niijima regularly as an excuse to continue eating junk food together.
Wagahara’s The Devil is a Part-Timer! light novel series first launched in 2011, featuring illustrations by 029. It has since inspired a manga adaptation by Akio Hiiragi, as well as three seasons of TV anime, the third of which just premiered on July 13. Crunchyroll streams the anime and describes it:
Foiled by a hero when he’s inches away from conquering the world, the devil finds himself in modern-day Tokyo. With no real-world skills to speak of, the devil is forced to make ends meet flipping burgers at a fast food joint! To stall any further plans of world domination, the hero tracks the devil’s trail and takes on the lowly tasks of a telemarketer.
