Afterword
This volume contains touched-up versions of the Full Metal Panic! short stories that ran in Monthly Dragon Magazine from July through November, plus one more story I wrote just for this. It shares the setting and characters of the novel Fighting Boy Meets Girl, which is already on stands, but I think you can enjoy these stories as stand-alones. Big concepts from the novels like Mithril and the ASes will appear very rarely in this series. Instead, it’s a pure school comedy. I hope everyone enjoys it, young and old.
Well, okay, so I’m not sure my grandmother would really enjoy it...
Anyway, I’ll offer a few comments on each story.
“Man From the South”
The love letter story. Incidentally, in middle school I received an anonymous love letter. The handwriting was all very feminine, but for some reason, the initials at the end read “J.D.” My thoughts immediately went to Daigouin Jaki... or maybe Jaiko? It made me so nervous that I just ignored the letter. Later I was strangely relieved to learn it was just a prank set up by a friend of mine. (Regarding the initials, he said he just made them up. He could really use more attention to detail.)
“Propaganda of Love and Hate”
This doesn’t have much to do with the main story, but I think graffiti in school buildings and stuff is really interesting. It’s always stuff you could never put in print, and you sometimes see an absolute gem. In the building where I attended club in college, I saw lots of first-rate phrases I’d never think up myself, like “Children of the flowers blessed by God, dance in the morning sun,” and “Overthrow the imperialist government of modern Japan and revive the Muromachi Shogunate!” Go out and find your own graffiti gems!
“Summer Illusion of Steel”
When you look at GUN Magazine, you frequently see pictures of people blasting watermelons with rifles. It feels like such a waste. What will the farmers think when they see you wasting their food like that? Ah, I guess I’m being needlessly antagonistic. I’m sorry.
By the way, in times like these, I guess that particular knife doesn’t seem like much. There are lots of stories around me where the protagonist uses a blade that’s a meter or longer... But I guess I’m being needlessly antagonistic again. I’m sorry.
“My Boyfriend is a Specialist”
I’m the kind of person who always sings anisong when I go to a karaoke parlor. You typically don’t hear words like “fight” and “justice” showing up in pop or enka songs, you know? I’m a little unsatisfied that recent anisong tend to be singing more about love and such (seriously). I can’t get my blood racing with talk about love. Give me an aggressive song. You know, “Our enemy is D*stron, with its armies straight from hell” or “Watch me, H*niwa G*njin, I’ll destroy you!”
But still, I get it. You really shouldn’t have people talking about destroying each other in Pokemon songs.
“The Hamburger Hill of Art”
I’m a horrible artist, personally, and the main reason is that I don’t have any patience. Once, during a middle school art field trip, I copped out by just drawing a close-up of an empty soft drink can someone had left on the ground. Of course, I got in trouble for that.
“Cinderella Panic”
This is the new story. Is it okay to write this? I mean, this is already a parody series, and now the writer’s doing a parody of the parody? It felt like I was treading on forbidden ground, but I put those concerns aside and went for it. It was a pretty nerve-wracking experience for a writer... Gulp.
I guess those aren’t particularly good comments. Maybe it’s recoil from my attempt to sound smart, cool, and professional in my afterword for Fighting. It’s not good to force yourself into the wrong mold for too long, so I’ll probably do things like this from now on. I ask for your understanding.
Anyway, I got a lot of help from the people around me when writing these stories up and getting them published. I should probably offer my official thanks here. Thank you very much.
See you next time, when Kaname’s fan howls through the air once more. (Although, did it actually do that this time?)
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