Afterword
My afterwords usually start with a typical greeting like, “It’s been a long time,” but with this book, not much time has passed since the release of the short story anthology Peaceful Days of 16 Magical Girls. That aside, it’s been more than a year since Magical Girl Raising Project: Aces, the previous installment of the main series, came out, making this the greatest “It’s been a long time” in my personal history. I really am sorry. It’s been a long time. I’m Asari Endou.
I think that by around the time this book goes out, the anime will be reaching its climax, too. With the help of many people, it’s become a wonderful, very well-regarded anime that greatly satisfies the original author as well.
Though my efforts didn’t amount to much, I was allowed to help in various ways, writing shorts and checking the scripts and such. With the scripts, I feel like I was less checking them and more simply enjoying reading them. But I had fun, so it is what it is.
I was also allowed to be present for the voice recording of the first episode of the anime. Oh, it was so impressive! As a writer, I’d hardly imagined voices at all before, but when I actually heard them, I felt like, “This is it! Oh, so this was how it was! So her voice was like this!” You know. When I was at the recording session, I think I went on about how I was very lucky that day or something, but I don’t really remember. I’m sure it’s a good thing that I don’t remember.
After the recording session, I went back to the publisher for a meeting. Marui-no, who’d also been at the session, was beside me drawing pictures of Puk. My managing editor, S-mura, and I were getting worked up, passionately arguing about how “We should do this” or “No, that’s weird,” and then S-mura turned to the one sitting next to us and said, “Hey, Marui-no, listen, please. Don’t you think Endou’s opinion is weird?” As I was thinking, It’s not fair to get other people on your side like that, hey, you jerk, the meeting ended without a hitch. Wait, there were hitches. Pardon me.
And so, for the first time in a long while, I was blessed with the opportunity to think lots about the characters of the first book. Which reminds me that the other day, it seems Marui-no-sensei and S-mura had a serious discussion about what sort of person Sister Nana is. Sister Nana is a devilish woman who will charm the hearts of people no matter where she appears. Maybe it would have been best to leave her to Winterprison.
Now let’s move on to this book.
Lots of things have gotten bad in lots of ways. I’ve heard there really are people like out of an urban legend out there who will read starting from the afterword, so I wanted to keep the spoilers to a minimum, and now I have a big problem. To you over there reading from the afterword: I have nothing bad to say to you. But just read it from the beginning. I’m sure it’ll be more fun that way.
There’s the impression that, overall, those characters with lots of worries still have lots of worries, but will they resolve them? Does the author have any intention of resolving them? It’s all very interesting, huh? Please wait for the moment.
To all the people of the editorial department who have guided me, and to S-mura: Thank you very much.
Marui-no: Thank you very much for your wonderful illustrations. It’s become a bit of a cliché at this point for me to receive your illustrations and shriek about putting Lethe or Puk on the cover after I’ve already decided who would be on it. I will consider the survival route next time.
To all the readers who have bought this book: Thank you very much, truly. Thanks to all of you, I can live on. Oh, but to you over there who’s starting from the afterword—please try properly reading from the beginning, okay?
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