Monster no Niku wo Kutteitara Oui ni Tsuita Ken

Monster no Niku wo Kutteitara Oui ni Tsuita Ken is a fantasy adventure. Its English title is How I Became King by Eating Monsters. The story comes from a Japanese light novel series written by Daken and illustrated by Shiba. A light novel is a type of Japanese book for young adults with some anime-style pictures. In Japan the books are published by Micro Magazine under its GCN Bunko label, starting in 2023. Cross Infinite World publishes them in English, and the fifth English volume came out in April 2026. There is also a manga version drawn by Karin Suzuragi, which runs on Hakusensha's Young Animal Web site.

The hero is Mars, the oldest son of the king of a country called Farune. He is only twelve, but his life is already in danger. Someone wants him dead, and his food is often poisoned. So the young prince cannot trust the meals that are served to him. To stay alive, he sneaks away from the castle and goes into a nearby forest full of monsters. There he fights wild beasts and eats their meat, just so he has something safe to eat.

One night, while he is out hunting, Mars meets a woman with red hair who carries a huge sword. She sees something special in the boy and offers to train him as her student. Mars thinks she has the wrong idea about him. But she knows something that he also found out: the meat of monsters makes a person who eats it grow stronger. Under her training, his power grows.

With his new strength, Mars can finally protect himself from the people who want to kill him. But this is only the start. As the English title says, the boy who just wanted to stay alive ends up on the road to the throne. Along the way he is pulled into bigger and bigger conflicts, first across his own kingdom and then across the whole continent, with wars and secret plans all around him. Japanese descriptions of the manga say he rises to become the strongest king even though he never wanted it.

The genres are action, adventure, and fantasy. The story mixes survival, sword fighting, danger inside the royal court, and the strange idea of monster meat as food. It follows a familiar fantasy idea, a young prince in danger who becomes powerful, but adds a fun twist by making what he eats the key to his growth.

In May 2025, the publisher released a promotional video for the novels, narrated by the voice actor Takeo Otsuka. At the time of writing, details of the anime production, such as the studio and the premiere date, could not be confirmed from reliable sources.