KADOKAWA’s Fantasia Bunko label has announced that the Reincarnated as a Giant-Mech〈LAYDAS〉web novel from Full Metal Panic‘s Shoji Gatoh is getting novelized. The light novel version will feature illustrations from BUNBUN (Sword Art Online) and mechanical designs from Kanetake Ebikawa (co-mechanical designer for Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury and the upcoming Expelled from Paradise sequel).
An illustration from Ebikawa was released with the announcement.
According to the description on web novel site Kakuyomu, the premise sees a middle-aged man reincarnating as an 18-meter-tall humanoid prototype mech. It’s described as a “survival battle” story depicted humorously, and the synopsis also mentions a moon colony under attack, a young male pilot, and the protagonist’s attention “occasionally” going towards female thighs and other things.
The first chapter of Reincarnated as a Giant-Mech〈LAYDAS〉(Kido Tensei【Tensei shitara Kido Heki datta (Shisaku Ichigoki)】) was released on Kakuyomu on January 28. Gatoh says that the story, which has 58 chapters as of November 16, is written in-between work.
Gotoh’s recent and current work includes the Kyoto Animation-published Moon Fighters! light novel (about a rescue team in the future that handles trouble on the moon), the KADOKAWA-published manga Meoto de Safari (“adventure romance” in a world of monsters, where the female lead gets married to a guy younger than her), and Full Metal Panic! Family, the sequel series to the sci-fi action-comedy Full Metal Panic! The third volume of Full Metal Panic! Family, which also has a manga, was released in Japan on November 20, the same date as the novelization announcement for Reincarnated as a Giant-Mech〈LAYDAS〉.
Source: @fantasia_bunko (via Dengeki Hobby Web)