Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest

Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest (ありふれた職業で世界最強, Arifureta Shokugyō de Sekai Saikyō) is a Japanese light novel series written by Ryo Shirakome and illustrated by Takayaki. Originally a web novel, the series has been published in print since 2015. The series follows Hajime Nagumo, who is transported to another world with the rest of his class but receives only the most average of magical abilities, forcing him to fight to improve himself.

The novels are licensed in English by J-Novel Club, with Seven Seas Entertainment publishing them in print. A prequel light novel was published in 2017. The series has received a manga adaptation, serialized on Ovelap's Comic Gardo website since 2016 and also licensed by Seven Seas, as well as a yonkoma comedy spinoff and a manga adaptation of the prequel novel. An anime television series adaptation by White Fox and Asread will begin airing in 2019.

Plot
Seventeen year old Hajime Nagumo is your average, everyday otaku. However, his simple life of pulling all-nighters and sleeping in school is suddenly turned upside down when he, along with the rest of his class, is summoned to a fantasy world! They're treated like heroes and tasked with the duty of saving the human race from utter extinction. But what should have been any otaku's wet dream quickly turns into Hajime's nightmare. While the rest of his class are blessed with godlike powers, Hajime's job, Synergist, only has a single transmutation skill. Ridiculed and bullied by his classmates for being weak, he soon finds himself in despair. Will he be able to survive in this dangerous world of monsters and demons with only a glorified blacksmith's level of strength?

Light Novels
Ryo Shirakome originally published the series as a web novel on the user-submitted content site Shōsetsuka ni Narō. The main story ran for 8 books between November 7, 2013 and October 31, 2015, and has been followed by 3 after-stories and an extra story since. The series was picked up for publication by Overlap, and the publisher released the first light novel, with illustrations by Takayaki, under their Overlap Bunko imprint in June 2015. When the anime adaptation was announced to have been delayed until 2019, the eighth volume of the light novel was also delayed by a month, from March to April 2018.

A prequel light novel series titled Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Zero (ありふれた職業で世界最強　零 Arifureta Shokugyō de Sekai Saikyō Zero), or Arifureta Zero, began publication in December 2017.

Digital publisher J-Novel Club licensed the series for an English release, and published the first chapter on February 21, 2017. During their panel at Anime Expo 2017, Seven Seas Entertainment announced that they would publish a print version of the novels as part of their collaboration with J-Novel Club. J-Novel Club has also licensed Arifureta Zero, and the series was the publisher's first simultaneous publication.

Manga
A manga adaptation by RoGa has been published on Ovelap's Comic Gardo website since its inception on December 22, 2016, and the first volume was published three days later on December 25 to coincide with the release of the fifth light novel. The series has been licensed by Seven Seas Entertainment.

A yonkoma comedy spinoff by Misaki Mori, titled Arifureta Nichijō de Sekai Saikyō (ありふれた日常で世界最強), began serialization on Overlap's Comic Gardo website on July 11, 2017.

An adaptation of the prequel light novel Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Zero by Ataru Kamichi began serialization on February 23, 2018 on the Comic Gardo website.

Anime
An anime television series adaptation is in production. The series was initially intended to premiere in April 2018 on Tokyo MX, AT-X, and other channels, but in January 2018, its release was pushed back until 2019 due to "various circumstances". Originally, the series would have been directed by Jun Kamiya and written by Kazuyuki Fudeyasu, with animation by studio White Fox and character designs by Atsuo Tobe, who also would have served as chief animation director. However, following the postponement, it was announced on April 29, 2018 that Kinji Yoshimoto would be taking over as director and studio Asread would be joining White Fox as animators. Additionally, Chika Kojima took over from Atsuo Tobe as character designer to adapt Takayaki's original designs, and Kazuyuki Fudeyasu left his position as scriptwriter.