Afterword
My name is Asari Endou. Thank you ever so much for your readership.
Some of you may be thinking, Come on, man, what happened to your usual vibe? This is you and me, you can be more chill! But this time, I chose a more formal greeting.
My reasons are twofold:
First, there’s something I must apologize for. The other day, the publication date for the latest Magical Girl Raising Project book, QUEENS, was postponed. It’s basically my fault. My sincerest apologies to everyone who has been looking forward to it. I’m doing my best to pursue higher quality in its writing.
And here is the second reason: The anime is in the middle of broadcast right now. And this book is a collection of short stories depicting the sixteen girls who appear in the first book, Magical Girl Raising Project, from various perspectives. In other words, there’s no guarantee that there are no MGRP beginners here who were like, “Ooh, there’s a Magical Girl Raising Project book out! Does it have a story with my favorite character, Magicaloid [please switch “Magicaloid” out for your own favorite]? All right, I’m buyin’ it!” Now, if the beginners read the afterword and are like, “This author is offensive. I quit this book,” that would be bad for me. For the regulars, you may feel this is terribly overly formal, but please show mercy.
Of course, it’s not as if I’m only showing consideration for new readers while giving sloppy treatment to those of you who have been supporting me since before MGRP got made into an anime. I’ve buried lots of elements all over the place, like Mary-brand land mines, just for the hardcore fans to enjoy.
For instance: Who would have thought this was the cause of that tragedy? Or This is what happened after that, huh? Or The girl who was so cheerful and energetic in this story, she… I’ve put together a whole bunch of short stories that will be satisfying precisely because you’ve been reading all this time.
Also, we have the chapter that was first published in Magical Girl Raising Project: Special Edition, “The Lady Knight’s Lonely Battle.” Veteran fans have told me it might be the most sexual short story in all MGRP history (tentative second place: “Knight of the Day of the Offline Meetup”), and it’s come back with a vengeance.
Last time I wrote a little too much, and because of the page count situation, with tears in my eyes, I was forced to cut a few things. This time it’s the long-awaited director’s cut. However, it’s since been brought to my attention that “Your tastes are getting so old, man,” and in the end, things got edited out anyway, but I am proud that through the process, the book has been improved.
To everyone in the editing department who has guided me, and to S-mura, thank you very much.
To Marui-no, thank you so much for the wonderful illustrations. The white cover with Nemurin and Swim Swim shocked me. As you said in your comment with Tama’s smile: I got a sense of their lives, and I found myself quietly moved to tears. Rumor has it you’re mind-bogglingly busy. Please take care of yourself.
To Yumiri Hanamori, who voices Nemurin in the anime and contributed the blurb on the cover ad, to all the voice actors who gave passionate performances as the magical girls, and to the entire anime staff, thank you so very much for making such a wonderful anime. I saw the first episode in a preview showing before it was broadcast, and it made my soul tremble, lighting a fire within me to write these short stories. I plan to invest my personal funds to buy one Blu-ray set for viewing purposes and another for family treasure purposes.
And finally, to all the readers who have purchased this book, from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much. And to those of you who started with the anime and then picked up the original novels, then later bought this short story anthology, the books from Restart onward are interesting, too, you know. Yes, this is an advertisement.
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