On the outskirts of the Pleasure City of Midas lies the Ceres special autonomous area, commonly known as the slums. Gang leader Riki, looking for an easy pocket to pick in the nightlife districts, gets caught red-handed…by none other than one of the highest-ranking, golden-haired android elites ruling from the capital Tanagura: the “Blondy” Iason Mink!
By all rights, a Blondy standing at the pinnacle of aristocracy and a slummer should have never crossed paths—their chance encounter marks the beginning of a love twisted by obsession, soon spiraling into a karmic chain of events...... more>>

⬇️ //// About the Japanese novel and anime adaptations ////
⬇️ //// About the English translation ////
⬇️ //// Current translation status ////
⬇️ //// Drama CDs, prequel and side stories ////

//// About the Japanese novel and anime adaptations ////

Originally serialized in the bimonthly magazine Shosetsu June (小説ジュネ) spanning six chapters from December 1986 to October 1987, the novel was released with minor revisions into a hardcover edition in 1990.
This first version of the story received a two-episode/OVA anime adaptation in 1992 and 1994.

Between the years 2001 and 2007, the original story was greatly expanded upon and released in six paperback volumes. After a change of Japanese publisher, two more volumes were released between 2009 and 2010, completing the series (the six aforementioned volumes were released as volumes 1-4 in the newest Japanese edition).
This second version of the story was meant to be adapted into a twelve-episode OVA anime—initially planned to release in 2010—but was postponed to 2012, only to be discontinued after the fourth episode’s release.

//// About the English translation ////

The English paperback expanded edition is made up of eight volumes: the six first volumes (Seibido/Crystal edition) + the two later volumes (#7 and #8 in English, but #5 and #6 in the newest Tokuma/Chara edition).
The change in Japanese publisher led to a change in translator for the English edition between vol1 to 6 and vol7 to 8: it is highly recommended to read the fan translations of #7 and #8 as opposed to reading the licensed edition, due to the massive loss in translation (expect a 50% word count difference between the two).

//// Current translation status of the different editions of the novel (as of April 20th, 2024) ////

. Shosetsu June edition, unlicensed: 2/6 chapters, ongoing fan translation.
. 1990 hardcover edition, unlicensed: 2/6 chapters, ongoing fan translation. An older fan translation had 4/6 chapters translated but the project was dropped.
. 2000’s expanded edition, English licensed: fully translated, complete.

//// Drama CDs, prequel and side stories ////

– The Shosetsu June story was adapted into a drama cassette and a drama CD (Dark Erogenous).
– The expanded story was adapted into three drama CDs (Destiny, Nightmare, Resonance)
– A prequel called Midnight Illusion was serialized in Shosetsu June between December 1992 and April 1993, and released as a hardcover in 1996. 3/6 chapters have been fan-translated into English.
– The 5 side stories have all been fan-translated into English (Kizu/Wound, File-0, Cal’s Sighs, Musk, Illusion Night) and are based on the expanded version of the novel.

Look up online “Ai no Kusabi Master List LiveJournal” to find the links to all the material listed above and more.

[This page was updated as per an anon’s request, all credit goes to the AnK community where credit is due.] <<less

The series takes place in an indeterminate time in the future, 500 years after an apocalyptic war between all of Earth’s nations destroyed civilization, when humanity has reestablished itself. ... more>>

In this future world, the Roman Catholic Church has become a major military power, whose goals include the protection of humanity against the vampiric Methuselahs, who war upon humankind (or “Terrans,” as they call humans). Their seat of power is the Vatican, an attractive place with traditional European architecture; it is likely the same Vatican city in the real world (albeit perhaps rebuilt following the previous war).

The Methuselahs are themselves another major political and military force. Their capital of Byzantium (presumably built on the site of the real world’s Byzantium, now Istanbul) appears as an elegant metropolis, surrounded by a field of particles which filters out UV radiation, thus protecting the Methuselah population. <<less

A collection of short stories by Otsuichi which resembles a Zoo with its many short stories covering different topics, settings, and genre.... more>>

Identical twins brought up in the same household where one is treated like dirt and the other a princess.

The last man on the planet builds a robot to bury him as he muses about his own impending doom.

A family tries to find their father’s spare blood as he bleeds to death after having been stabbed by a kitchen knife.

And many others. <<less

At a unspecified point in the future, the Earth dies. Then, a genius engineer only known as “Y” manages to revive the Earth using only... more>> gears and clockwork. Thus the world is renamed “Clockwork Planet”, with cities being build inside the planet’s gears. A thousand years later Naoto Miura, a student and lover of machines living in the Kyoto gear, finds a crate has crashed through the roof of his apartment. Inside the crate is a coffin containing the broken body of an automaton. Using his superior sense of hearing, Naoto fixes the automaton, who is named RyuZU Yours*ave, who reveals she has been broken for over 200 years. RyuZU promises complete loyalty to Naoto and the two become close. Later they meet two people trying to find RyuZU: Dr. Marie Bell Breguet, the youngest person to become a “meister”, a group of master engineers; and her bodyguard Vainney Halter. A month after their encounter, all four appear in Akihabara, Tokyo, having now become the world’s most infamous terrorists <<less

A special extra volume of Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? released with the anime DVD / blu-rays.

Several hundred thousand players are trapped in a gritty zombie apocalypse survival game just after game launch. There are hints that deaths in the game might be serving some other terrible purpose in the background of reality…... more>>

The main character, Liu Gan, is a quadruple amputee in real life. A quirk in the server code recognized his prosthetic limbs as ‘real limbs’ in game, giving him ‘normal’ arms and legs that nonetheless have the strength and power of steel limbs, and thus far more power than a normal player. With this minor cheat helping him survive the early stages of the game, Liu Gan sets out to find out what exactly is going on, and to endure as long as he can. <<less

Due to various "reasons" having to leave his parents and living alone, is Kirimura Seiji. With his classmates and a very beautiful bishoujo named Fuyuki Youko (a forceful girl which actually wants the Kirimura Seiji for herself), he barely manages to pass through "normally" each day.... more>>

Until one day, falling out of the sky, is a girl wearing gothic attire. This cute little girl is called Yuu, and she claims to be a vampire. Her appearance is due to the fact that she is searching for her thousand year old reincarnated lover.

Originally he thought that she was raving mad, but never in his farfetched dreams would he have expected to find a Rabbit butler (Sekitoku) and a Steel Maid-en (Koshizu) (a combination android/maid) would appear to retrieve her (Yuu the vampire) home. With these new arrivals, Kirimura Seiji's daily "normal" life is over, and triggers the beginning of his "very abnormal, love life". <<less

Yang Feng somehow transmigrated into a different world and received a legacy of an ‘ancient high tech’ family, which does not directly raise his power, but gives him the technology to build things which are way more advanced than the seemingly medieval world.... more>>

But to build something you need resources and energy. To receive resources you need strength. To gain strength you need knowledge. To gain knowledge you… need strength? or a background? Or maybe a fully armed army of high tech robots who aren’t afraid of death?

But is this legacy really for him to keep? <<less

The world has advanced to a stage where most of society has been left to human-shaped robots known as hIEs. A 17 years-old youth, Endou... more>> Arato, met with the android Lacia one day and became her owner. Although looking no different from a normal human at one glance, she was actually one of the five Red Box android created by a Super Intelligent AI which boasted of abilities beyond what the world has seen—. The five each have their own will and begin fighting each other to exert them. Between the adults who can do nothing but watch as the fight unfolds, and the youths who have begun to form a new relationship with them. What is it that connects these far too advanced androids and the human world? Just what is important and vital in this age where everything has become convenient and what is the relationship between humans and object, the choice that Arato makes for the future having met Lacia who far surpasses human is—. <<less

It was the bond between humans and humanoids that changed the world.
The Non-fiction Novel "No Collar: Part One" won a literary award. What is... more>> the thought behind the Afterword? <<less

Hatou Manabu has a very odd friend at school named Marii Yukari. Yukari has purple eyes and a bizarre way of looking at the world: she sees all living things as robots. This has not always worked out well for Yukari, even costing her a best friend when she was younger. However, Yukari insists that the things she says she sees is true, and her vision seems to give her insight into the abilities of others.... more>>

Manabu thinks she's just weird, but she soon realizes that Yukari has unexpected talents. Her eyes allow her to view the world in a different way, and even the police come to hear her insights. Eventually, her eyes also get Manabu wrapped up in dangerous plots, and force Manabu to not only step up and take a much more proactive role in her own life, but also to question what being a human or a robot actually means. <<less

Hashimoto Maya, a weak 22-year-old woman and a pushover, got herself a kind boyfriend in the form of an android. But there was a mistake so the one that reached her was the “Ore-sama” android…... more>>

*Ore-sama is a way of addressing oneself haughtily. Basically, the android she got is someone who thinks highly of himself; a person with an attitude. <<less

Tong Lexian lost his son Xiao’an. In order to fill the void in his heart, he bought a high-intelligence AI to replace Xiao’an.... more>>

But something is wrong with this AI. He could not use the AI as a replacement for his son and the AI did not want to have a father-son relationship with him.

These are sweet and bloody short story with tens of thousands of words. <<less

A semi-serious school action story revolving around the main protagonist, Tomoharu Natsume. He is haunted by his childhood friend, Misao Minakami, who became a ghost... more>> ever since he barely survived an airplane accident three years earlier. Tomoharu Natsume takes the opportunity to live on his own when he enters high school in his new place of residence, Meiou-tei, and starts enjoying a carefree high school life. His life changed when a beautiful girl named Kurosaki Shuri appears with a trunk which she claimed Tomoharu's brother, Naotaka Natsume, asked her to deliver to him. The presence of the trunk causes the appearance of Takatsuki Kanade, a girl dressed like a shrine maiden who is after the trunk. Tomoharu is in possession of the trunk, which reveals secrets about the world they live in. <<less

To oppose the deceitful world and save the lonesome princess—the young man raises the flag of rebellion.... more>>

The Anti-vampire Combat Automata, “Byakudanshiki”—the five siblings created by the genius machinist from the Principality of Helweiz, Professor Byakudan, were the heroes to save Europe from the invasion by the vampire army…… or so, they were supposed to be.
The “failed unit”, Minazuki the Sixth, wakes up after ten years to confront a reality that stupefied him.
His five siblings had their names engraved in history as “Carnage Automata” due to a rampage incident which was never supposed to occur.
Moreover, the Grand Duke signed a peace treaty with the Vampire Lord that turned the Principality into the only Republic in the world where humans and vampires live as equals.
Through the encounters with the daughter of the deceased professor, Kanon, and the Vampire Princess, Rita, Minazuki gradually gets used to this new “everyday”.
However, the curtain rises when the creeping tendrils of conspiracies entwines around him and the girls.

The Rebellio of the Machina starts now—. <<less

The story is centred around a cute android who initially had a happy life with her master who dearly loved her. But she was then... more>> struck by a series of misfortunes and ended up in a robot-equivalent of concentration camp. Through experiencing and witnessing the sufferings towards herself as well as the people/robots around her, she eventually gained a better appreciation of life. <<less

24th-century Tokyo is a ruin. Synthetic 'food' and electronic drugs practically spill out of the city as militant gangs roam the streets... but even in the end times, people have got to eat. After a long, hard day's fighting, they flock a restaurant that can be called nothing short of a miracle -- Garandou.... more>>

In the kitchen, the so-called 'Encyclopedia of Edibles' Uka works with an angelic smile. In the front, the former-mercenary-slash-waitress Lyco stares down would-be troublemakers. Every day brings the two girls a lust for new food. No matter what chaos they find themselves thrown into, their quest for full stomachs and fuller smiles knows no bounds -- from man-eating dragons to lethal poison mushrooms, and even old attack drones!? The only sure thing is, they'll eat well and have a great time. <<less

In the distant future, the world was in ice... more>>

Humans live in cryo facilities underground, awaiting for the distant Spring,

Robots manage the facilities

They built a ‘village’ there and lived there.

They dreamed that, one day, they would live together with the ‘Humans’ (Master).

This, is the story of the Ice Country. <<less

Sasami Tsukuyomi is a high-school shut-in who often stays at home and is doted upon by her older brother, Kamiomi. However, due to unknowingly possessing... more>> a god's power, Kamiomi's habit of trying to appease Sasami often puts the world into chaos, while the three Yagami sisters try to put a stop to it. <<less

Obino Kazuya was doing multiple jobs so he could save up 30 million by the age of 29 and retire. After getting kidnapped by his... more>> internet poker friend, who turns out to be a Maou, he became her pet/caretaker. <<less

Now that he enters his high school career, Satomi Koutaro begins his life living alone in an apartment that only costs him 5000 yen per month, an extremely cheap deal even for this small apartment. There’s a catch: the apartment is apparently haunted by a cute ghost that has driven its prior occupants away.... more>>

Next thing he knows, not only is there a ghost trying to drive him out of his new home, but magical girls and other unique female characters turn this small apartment into a battleground of sorts. <<less

On his usual way to home Mikado Tsuchio fell into a hole that suddenly opened on the ground. Just like that, Tsuchio falls in a different world, he lands on a Grappler Wyvern and manages to tame it.... more>>

Tsuchio decides just like that to live in the other world, the reason for his quick decision: he wants to make a monster girl harem. <<less

It is the story of a young man who died and was reborn as a level 1 skeleton soldier in an underground world. Follow our... more>> protagonist as he struggles to survive in a foreign, RPG-like setting surrounded by danger and monsters. Watch as he levels up and overcomes all obstacles through sheer perseverance and wit, rising to prominence <<less

~A Novelization of the anime Tenchi Muyo GXP created by the original author. It goes in much further depth and continues on beyond the scope of the anime~... more>>

Yamada Seina is a young Japanese high school student living with his parents and younger sister in rural Okayama, Japan. One morning, following a hapless bike ride through the country, a large spacecraft crashes into the lake behind the Masaki residence, causing a violent tsunami that Seina is unable to escape from and he sinks, almost drowning. He regains consciousness shortly after, meeting Amane Kaunaq, the spacecraft’s pilot, who gives Seina an application. Seina takes it, and shows it to his family at home. Mistaking it for a contest entry, his mother and sister aggressively force him to fill it out; afterwards he retreats to his room and falls asleep. The following morning, awakened aboard a vessel in orbit, Seina is informed by an official that he has successfully joined the Galaxy Police. <<less

My childhood friend who lived next door since preschool, Ja Saeyeon. On the outside, she appears like an adequately pretty girl who’s like a drawing, but only her body has grown; she was a girl whose mental age was truly that of an elementary schooler. We’d spend time together from time to time, but Saeyeon’s parents, who were often not home, would pay me to take care of her, so we merely had a ‘work’ relationship. But this time her spoiled behavior was more severe for some reason. She fretfully asked for me to sleep together with her since she was too scared to sleep by herself. I even sang her a lullaby, but she... more>> thought that I was going to run away so, with great care, she asked if we could sleep while holding hands. We then slept together. Really, seriously, we merely slept while only holding hands.

But the next morning⎯⎯⎯there was a young girl lying down between us?! <<less