Chapter 8
God
It’s late mentioning at this point, but the novels Itsuki Hashima, Haruto Fuwa and Nayuta Kani write are considered within the category of ‘light novels’ .
Light novels, or as dubbed, ranobe .
In recent reasons, light novels had become a familiar term for common people, but the actual definition remained undefined, and often, there were people arguing (pointlessly) over it .
The reason why there’s a difficulty to define light novels is because, while it is possible to categorize the contents, packaging, font type, authors, publishers, reader demographic, story genres, or personalities of the characters, there would be countering examples to disprove the claim .
In the work ‘light novel club’[28], there is one scene of one of the protagonists, Misaki Asaba reading several books that any ordinary person might classify as light novels, and then declare that ‘it feels like such works are considered light novels’ . While it might be a crude definition, without any given definition, and only based on vague impressions, this might be a logical way of rationalizing it .
So, assuming that we’re imitating Misaki Asaba, and define light novels as “In summary, those printed by publishers that are recognized as publishers of light novels, Shogakukan’s GAGAGA Bunko, with novel covers that (typically) are anime or manga-styled” with a soft, fluffy feeling . [29]
Speaking of which, for most of the products out there in the market, besides books, the packaging is an important factor .
Packaging is the summary that attracts the looks from the customers, and induce them to purchase the goods . Taking books as example, the cover, title, obi strip and summary are all part of the packaging .
Amongst them, the most important aspect to a light novel, and what can be called the crux of the packaging, are the illustrations (with few exceptions) .
No matter how charismatic the characters showing up in the story are, no matter how moving the scenes are, it’s all for naught if there’s no way to attract customers into picking up and browsing a book .
Of course, there’s no hundred percent guarantee in the world that there will be sales as long as the packaging is complete . However, it’s an undebatable fact that with poor packaging, there’s no way the product can stand on the same standing as the competitors (will be read) . This phenomenon doesn’t just apply to light novels; anyone who had their products on display will surely experience such heartbreaking pain .
Thus, for light novel authors like Itsuki, the illustrators in charge of providing illustrations for them are extremely important entities that will affect their fates—simply put, they are basically Gods . The world of illustrators is similar to a world of gods, and thus, there are omnipotent gods like Zeus, somewhat unreliable gods, some gods that are oozing with lots of potential but lack stability, and some rebellious gods that will create troubles that damage the work, author and publisher (a mere few of them), but basically, they are all great existences worthy of respect . [30]
…And at this point, Itsuki’s playing games with one such god .
The boy seated across the kotatsu from Itsuki is called Setsuna Ena . [31]
He has an immature appearance, one reminiscent of an impish puppy, as diminutive as Itsuki in terms of height, and slender in build .
His hair’s dyed in three colors, with blue as base . His clothing style is probably based on Harajuku, befitting of the colourful, glittering personality . [32]
He’s sixteen years old .
He’s the extremely popular illustrator in charge of Itsuki’s second work ‘Creation of a Little Sister (Genesis Star) of the New World’, pen name ‘Puriketsu’ [33]
He specialized in drawing cute girls, and it’s said only he can draw the ‘cute, bouncy asses’ . [34]
The first volume of ‘Genesis Star of the New World’ remains the topseller of all of Itsuki’s works, and it can be said that he’s the benefactor who led Itsuki into the realm of a ‘bestselling author’ .
This ass god isn’t just appreciative of Itsuki’s works; he has quite an intimate relationship with Itsuki himself . After the work’s done, he would drop by from time to time to look for the latter .
“37 points . ”
Once the game points were counted, Itsuki stated his score .
“I only got 35 . Eh~ Too bad! Just one more sheep!”
“Fuhahaha! This is the difference in ability ahhahaha!”
Itsuki boasts proudly, not holding back at all .
What they’re playing is a tabletop game called ‘Agricola Farm Animals’, a remade two player version of the topselling game ‘Agricola (two to five players) . It’s a two player version of Agricola, so in Japan, it’s called ‘DualCola’ .
The players in the game roleplay as farmers, and the objective is to maximize the facilities of the farms they manage, and increase the number of animals . Within eight turns, the player that can run the most prosperous farm wins .
The biggest difference between DualCola and the original is that the former takes away the critical element of dice and card draws and all other factors that involve the critical element of ‘luck’ . Like Go, shogi, Chess, Othello, it’s a game with both sides have perfect information .
A game without the element of luck means that it’s most fun when facing a player with similar ability . The one closest to Itsuki in terms of ability is Setsuna . [35]
“It’s really fun playing DualCola with you, sensei . Let’s have another round!”
Setsuna laughs heartily, asking for a rematch, but Itsuki shook his head, refusing .
“I’ll have to stop here for today . Right now, I have to come up with a new proposal . ”
“Eh?” Setsuna curled his lips unhappily, and his already immature looking face was looking more like a kid .
“What Eh? You’re the one who came running over to my house without talking to me . ”
Setsuna hardly would not contact others beforehand . He doesn’t have a traditional cellphone or smartphone, and the only way to contact him would be the telephone set at home and the email on the computer . He often slipped out from home, hardly checked his email, and whenever he’s was focused on drawing, he would not pick up his phone; thus, it was difficult to contact him . When creating ‘Genesis Star of the New World’, he caused a lot of trouble for others (especially the editor-in-charge Kenjirou Toki), and caused a hole in Toki’s stomach .
“What’s the problem, sensei? You’re always at home anyway . ”
“Fuahaha! You idiot! I went out to Okinawa until yesterday!”
“You serious!? Amazing! That’s great!”
“Fufufu, be jealous all you want…ah, here’s a present for you . ”
Itsuki handed a box of chinsukou to Setsuna . [36]
“Thank you! Is Okinawa fun?”
“Yeah . I went to look at the whale sharks . ”
“I heard of them too! They’re large, aren’t they!?”
“Yeah, shockingly large . I was stunned when I had a look up close . Really couldn’t help but be moved seeing such a large creature . ”
“Oh? Speaking of which, don’t you have a whale shark as your phone accessory?”
Setsuna’s sharp eyes notice the accessory dangling from Itsuki’s smartphone .
“Looks like you really like the whale sharks . ”
“Yeah, so much that I wanted to have a whale shark as a protagonist for my new work . ”
“Really?”
“…But I got rejected by that damned editor-in-charge . ”
“Really!? What’s the story about?”
Itsuki share the story of the whale shark bro and the naked little sister that was rejected the previous day . [37]
“So cool! As to be expected of you, sensei!”
“Hahaha . Isn’t that so?”
Upon seeing Setsuna look so impressed, Itsuki grinning away from ear to ear .
“But sensei, how do fish and humans mate!? I remember seeing salmon hatch eggs, and they spray the sperms onto the eggs!”
“No problems . You see, amongst fishes, sharks are exceptions . They receive the sperm inside, so they have organs for that purpose . ”
“Really!? So sharks have penises too?”
“Yeah . The protagonist is a shark, and not other kinds of fish, so at the moment of climax, it would be a perfect, god-like scene that goes with the setting…! But that damn incompetent editor-in-charge doesn’t understand my hard work…” [38]
“I’ll try drawing it!”
Setsuna suddenly says this, takes out a mechanical pencil and sketch book, and starts doodling away cleanly .
“What are you…”
While Itsuki watches on flabbergasted, the illustration’s completed in the blink of an eye .
“This is…!”
What Setsuna illustrates is the mating scene of the whale shark and the pretty girl in the water Itsuki just described .
“Something like this!”
The naked pretty girl’s looking blissful, while the thing at the lower abdomen of the large shark’s reaching into her .
If seen from afar, it might look like a pretty girl just swimming around with a whale shark . However, there’s an unspeakable lewdness lingering between the girl and the fish . The whole illustration however gives a mystical feeling, one that gives the feeling of a person lying around in the tropical blue seas . [39]
The most important point being that the girl’s round voluptuous butt look sexy .
It’s a high-level piece of work, such that it’s hard to believe it’s done by just a mechanical pencil; the quality is so high that it can be used as a novel illustration . Itsuki even felt that if it’s presented to Toki, the latter might even nod and let it pass .
“…”
Itsuki stares at the illustration wordlessly for a while .
This illustration encapsulates the imagination in his head, the climax of the action he tried writing—no, it might be more exciting than what he imagined .
“I feel like eating salmon roe!”
Setsuna suddenly mentioned for no reason .
Note : Please download the sponsor's game to support us!
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login