Afterword
It’s been a while!
With this, the final volume of The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar draws to a close. I’m the author, Seiichi Takayama. It’s so good to see you again, and I’m very sorry for having you wait so long for the conclusion. There were many reasons for the delay, but as I feel it wouldn’t be tactful for me to detail them here in the afterword of the final volume, I’ve decided to talk about the work itself instead. So, with that...
Whew! Finally, at long last, the story has reached its true end. I started building the framework for this tale in January 2013, meaning it’s taken ten years to get to this point. In fact, those last few lines of the epilogue had already been decided by the time I’d finished writing the very first volume. When I finally got to write those words in the actual story, it made me feel very emotional.
It’s crazy, though. It feels like it went by in a flash, but ten years really is a long time. My daughter, who was in her second year of elementary school when I started this work, is now a fully grown adult! It really makes you feel the passage of time. During that time, my work was made into an anime, and all sorts of other wonderful things happened. I was blessed with many great experiences, and I felt I grew as a person as well. To The Master of Ragnarok, I have nothing but gratitude.
Now then, since it’s all over, I would very much like to offer you, the readers, a deep dive into each of the main characters of this series. Suoh Yuuto
The protagonist. He was a character who I designed to be most like me out of everyone in the series. His past experiences, worldview, value system, and way of thinking are all very similar to mine (of course, it goes without saying that there were also many exaggerations, so he’s still a different person), and as a result, that made him the easiest character to write out of the bunch.
This story is, at its core, a chronicle of Yuuto’s growth, so by the end, he did end up quite overpowered, didn’t he? (lol) But as the author, he is the character I’m the most emotionally attached to, and he’s probably my favorite as well.
Felicia
Yuuto’s right-hand woman. Even though she’s supposed to be the main heroine and showed up on all the promotional material, she ended up a bit less popular than I would’ve liked. Personally, she’s my favorite out of all the heroines, so I have complicated feelings about that outcome.
As for her concept, the main heroine of my previous work, Ore to Kanojo no Zettai Ryouiki, didn’t really have any notable abilities, which made the story extremely difficult for me to write. For Felicia, I wanted her to be able to do everything. I decided to make her Yuuto’s adjutant because I figured under him, she’d have plenty of opportunities to display those skills.
Her personality was planned to be an “aloof, yet gentle, older sister” character. It would seem, however, that the author apparently has difficulty writing aloof characters, so she became more grounded as the story progressed.
Sigrun
Yuuto’s left-hand woman. Much like Felicia, she showed up on a lot of promotional material. At first, she was the most popular character among readers, which was exactly what I’d counted on. Her past had already been hammered out from the beginning as well, but it wasn’t until the latter half of the series that it ended up coming to light. Back then, I had been of the belief that flashback scenes ruined the pace of the story, so I simply didn’t use them. Lately, however, I’ve come to understand that as long as it’s short enough to not interrupt the flow of the narrative, a flashback scene interspersed with the main story every now and then can do wonders to add depth to a character. If only I’d realized that earlier.
Her concept was, in simple terms of parameters, “Strength: 95, Leadership: 80.” The protagonist was supposed to be Yuuto, of course, so I had to let her struggle a bit in the beginning against foes like Yngvi (Volume 1 Final Boss - Strength: 100) and Steinjiorr (Volume 2 Final Boss - Strength: 150), but she displayed exponential growth throughout the story, didn’t she?
She was meant to be a more typical tsundere, albeit with a rather large gap between her cold and warm sides. Her personality is also a lot like mine, so I recall her character being especially easy to write.
Mitsuki
The hidden heroine, more or less. Here’s something interesting: when Yuuto was forced to make his decision in Volume 8, I’d actually planned for him to abandon Mitsuki. However, when it came down to it, I couldn’t bear for Yuuto to make that choice, considering how devoted she was to him, and before I knew it, I’d installed her as his legally wedded wife. A shocking turn of events, indeed!
Ability-wise, she’s like an undercover Einherjar. In fact, I didn’t get to touch on it in detail in the main story since there was no way for Yuuto to verify it at the time, but the reason Yuuto and Mitsuki were able to communicate with each other between the modern world and Yggdrasil was because of the power her runes held.
Her personality was meant to be that of the ideal wife: good at housework, energetic, and devoted. She was someone who should’ve been just a typical everyday girl, but perhaps due to the influence of her past life, she ended up surpassing even the author’s expectations to become someone worthy of standing by her king’s side.
Linnea
The main heroine of the anime version, some would say, heh. Ability-wise, she’s meant to provide behind-the-scenes support to Yuuto, doing all the clerical work he can’t do himself. As for the concept behind her personality? Honestly, I didn’t really have one. I’m more or less infatuated by characters like Felicia and Sigrun, but after the first two volumes, I viewed Linnea as a guest character that I could insert whenever it was convenient.
But that was, in the end, probably for the better. As I said before, my current running theory is that the characters who are closest to me in personality become the most developed, so if I’d continued down that path with her writing she might have ended up having similar development, worldview, and thoughts as me. In that sense, she would’ve just been a carbon copy of Yuuto. And, in fact, when I finally got to see the anime for the first time and view my own work through an objective lens, I found myself thinking that Linnea really was the character that stood out the most in this work.
Ingrid
The subheroine whose efforts never bear fruit. Poor girl, ha ha. But, well, aren’t those types of characters the cutest in the end? Maybe that’s too mean...
At any rate, because the series concept was “use modern technology to become invincible in another world,” I realized that the hero would need someone to create the tools he needed. Thus Ingrid was born. Without her, it would’ve taken much, much longer to create the many overpowered tools Yuuto had up his sleeve, and the Wolf Clan would’ve been stuck in a rut. In fact, in terms of what she contributed, she’s actually right up there with Yuuto as one of the Steel Clan’s most valuable members.
Her personality concept was essentially someone who has the worldview and casualness of a male while actually being the girliest girl you’ve ever seen. This, too, is absolutely in line with the author’s preferences, hah...
Kristina
One-note comic relief.
That had been my original plan for her, at least, so how did she get to be Yuuto’s most trusted advisor?! Hah! How strange things can turn out!
Well, while it’s true her cold demeanor wasn’t exactly to my personal tastes, it did make her very easy to write—especially in comparison to her younger sister Albertina. Her concept was basically “She who controls information controls the world,” so, of course, she ended up serving as Yuuto’s intelligence gatherer. She also helped me out of a number of tight spots when it came to the story’s logic, and for that, I’m incredibly grateful.
Albertina
Comic relief partner in crime to Kristina Her ability concept was “anti-assassin assassin.” For someone in Yuuto’s position, assassins coming to take his life would be a given. With that in mind, I figured he’d need someone to deal with those assassins, so I had Albertina fill that role. I didn’t really end up making much use of that idea, though, did I?
Her personality was carefree, always optimistic, and always happy. But as I wrote in the previous volume’s afterword, this made her incredibly difficult to write. I could never find good places to fit her in. I think because I’m such a logically minded person, it’s difficult for me to write about someone who doesn’t operate on reason. And that’s a shame, because I really like her as a character, even if she does leave me with a lot of regrets.
Hildegard
^redacted*
Just kidding. Honestly, though, that’s about as on-brand for Hildegard as this section of the deep dive could possibly be, so we’ll just leave it at that, as I appear to be running out of pages.
So, with all that said and done... I really am overcome with emotion right now. Somehow, we managed to make it to the end. Thank goodness. To all the editors who supported me; to everyone else who had a hand in the final product; to the illustrator, Yukisan; and to the readers who have cheered me on the past ten years, thank you. This story would not have been finished without you all.
As for the new work I mentioned in the last volume, you shouldn’t have to wait much longer. The manuscript is basically complete, and we’re aiming for a release sometime this year. It’s the story I mentioned last time detailing Skavidr’s new life after his reincarnation, and I’m personally very proud of how it turned out. It finally gives him the happiness he deserves, so fans of his should definitely check it out!
If possible, I’d love to be able to meet you all again in my next work. To my dear readers of The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar, thank you so much for your support over the years!
Yukisan’s Afterword
Dear readers, this is the first time we’ve met during the afterword, but I am Yukisan, the illustrator for this series. This is the final volume, so even though I was turned down once, I begged them to let me include an afterword in this volume, and I was graciously given some pages to share my thoughts and feelings.
First off, I’d like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the readers of The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar for sticking with us all the way to its conclusion. And though it feels awful for me to have to say this at the very end of it all, I am truly sorry for having you all wait so long.
Due to personal circumstances, I became unable to devote my full attention and energy to the illustrations for a period of time, which then became a longer period of time, and then an even longer one, and so on. For that reason, the past several volumes have featured a noticeable decrease in illustrations, greatly inconveniencing not only our beloved readers, but the editor and Mr. Takayama as well. Recently, I’ve finally gotten back to a place where I can draw again at full capacity, but I am truly ashamed to have kept our editor waiting so long in the meantime.
I truly love this series and all the characters depicted in it. They struggle, make decisions, and even mess up at times, but they always move forward regardless—I can’t get enough of them. As someone who had a hand in creating these books, I’d like nothing more than for you as a reader to feel similarly and love this series as well.
Lastly, to not only Mr. Takayama, but to everyone else involved in this project, I offer my sincerest thanks. I’m truly grateful to all of you for supporting me over the ten years since I first debuted as an illustrator.
May we meet again on some other journey, perhaps.
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