Afterword
Spoiler alert!
There’s one more epilogue after this afterword, which focuses on Miledi. It contains spoilers for the Arifureta Zero series, so if you’re planning on reading that, I’d advise you to hold off on this epilogue for now. And for those of you with no interest in the Arifureta Zero series, please listen to this humble author’s request and at least read the first chapter of the Arifureta Zero manga. It’s free to read on the Comic Gardo website, even! That should give you enough context to understand what’s going on at least, and maybe make the ending hit a little harder emotionally. So please, at least read the first chapter!
With that warning out of the way, I want to thank you for picking up Arifureta’s thirteenth and final volume.
It’s been a long journey, but we finally made it to the end. The first volume was published seven years ago, and it feels like the years dragged on forever, but also flew by in a flash.
Arifureta got a manga adaptation, had a full spin-off prequel published, and even got an anime. It’s very humbling to see how popular it’s become. The web novel version of the story’s been done for a while, and I’ve been updating the after stories whenever I feel like it, but now that the published version is finished, it feels like I’ve truly finished something monumental.
This is all thanks to the support of you readers. Thank you so very much for sticking with Arifureta until the end. You have my undying gratitude.
Now then, I imagine some fans are wondering if this is really the end of Arifureta. Well, I might have some good news for you. After all, I want to see the after stories published too! Plus, I’d love nothing more than to see Takaya-ki-sensei draw all of the new characters who show up. That being said, I can’t promise anything on my end, but I’m doing my best to convince Overlap to make it happen!
On an unrelated note, did anyone watch the Arifureta OVA that came bundled with the special edition of this volume? I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, so I won’t say much about it except...that it was awesome. Seeing Hajime’s party meet up with Liberators in animated form was really moving. Thank you so much to all of the anime staff who worked on it! For those of you who didn’t get the special edition, I’m sure the OVA will be on streaming sites eventually, so please watch it then!
Oh, and I have one more anime-related announcement. If you read the obi cover, you probably already know this, but the anime’s going to be getting a season 3! There aren’t too many novel series that get three full anime seasons. Honestly, I doubted my ears when I heard the news. This, too, is thanks to everyone’s support.
As always, I’d like to finish off with the acknowledgments.
A big thank you to my illustrator, Takaya-ki-sensei; as well as the artist for the manga, RoGa-sensei; the artist for the everyday manga, Misaki Mori-sensei; and the artist for the Arifureta Zero manga, Kamichi-sensei. I’d also like to thank my editor, my proofreader, and everyone else involved in the publication process, as well as all of the staff who worked on the Arifureta anime! And last, but certainly not least, thank you dear readers. The seven years I spent with all of you were an irreplaceable part of my life. I’m truly grateful to have had this opportunity.
Actually, I guess it’s been nine years for those of you who’ve been following me since I started writing on Narou. It’s thanks to all of your support that I was able to get published and express my gratitude here in print.
Once again, thank you so much for sticking with me this long! I pray we’ll meet again in a future afterword!
Ryo Shirakome
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