Magical Explorer

Magical Explorer: Reborn as a Side Character in a Fantasy Dating Sim (マジカル★エクスプローラー エロゲの友人キャラに転生 したけど、ゲーム知識使って自由に生きる) is a Japanese light novel series written by Iris. The series originated on the Shōsetsuka ni Narō website in February 2018, before being published in print with illustrations by Noboru Kannatsuki by Kadokawa Shoten beginning in November 2019. A manga adaptation, illustrated by Yukari Higa, began serialization on the Young Ace Up website in August 2020. An anime adaptation has been announced.

Light novel
Written by Iris, the series began publication on the novel posting website Shōsetsuka ni Narō on February 26, 2018. The series was later acquired by Kadokawa Shoten, who began publishing the series in print with illustrations by Noboru Kannatsuki on November 1, 2019. As of March 2024, ten volumes have been released.

Yen Press is publishing the series in English.

Manga
A manga adaptation, illustrated by Yukari Higa, began serialization on Kadokawa Shoten's Young Ace Up manga website on August 20, 2020. The series went on hiatus in June 2021 due to Higa's health. As of March 2024, the series' individual chapters have been collected into two tankōbon volumes.

Yen Press is also publishing the manga adaptation in English.

Anime
An anime adaptation was announced during Kadokawa's "Sneaker Bunko 35th Anniversary Festa!" livestream on September 24, 2023.

Reception
The novel has 50,000,000 views on the Shōsetsuka ni Narō website.

Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network praised the illustrations, but criticized the female characters as lacking development. On the story, Silverman wrote "from the very first sentence, we know what we're getting into, and luckily, it does it decently well". Demelza of Anime UK News felt the series was a "serviceable" isekai series, though Demelza was critical of the writing.