Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 15 - Ancient City Insurrection (II) - Chapter Aft

Afterwards

How did you like ‘Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei’ Volume 15 ‘Ancient City Insurrection Arc (II)’. Although the subtitle ‘Ancient City Insurrection Attempt Arc’ might suit the content better, but the title would been a spoiler for you. That’s why, I ask for your understanding and forgiveness that I didn’t put ‘attempt’ in the subtitle.

Now, we finally see the Yotsuba’s branch families. Although they were only in supporting roles in this installment, for me this is something memorable as ‘...finally these guys can come out’. Well, I can say that they will be in supporting roles in the future as well, since they are an essential part to producing the climax of ‘Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei’, they were always waiting for their turn. The installment where they will make a major appearance will be one of the climaxes of this series.

The appearance of the branch families itself had been decided from the beginning, although their structures and family names were only decided recently. The various NG (A surname of Asian origin), I was quite troubled by them. Shiiba, Mashiba, Shibata, Kuroba, Mugura, Tsukuba, Shizuka. Among those, Shiiba, Mashiba, Shibata are the easiest to understand. Each of them carry ‘four-leaf’, which is a variation of ‘Yotsuba’.

Maybe you’ve already noticed about Kuroba, it was taken from ‘Yotsuba no Kuroba’ (four-leaf clover).

Mugura was derived from a plant called ‘Yostsubamugura’.

Tsukuba was taken from ‘Tsukubanesou’. Tsukubanesou is a perennial plant of the Lily family with four leaves.

Shizuka was inspired from a plant called ‘Hitorishizuka’. It is also a perennial four leaf. During the process of choosing their surnames, I had a hard time in attempting to follow the naming law, thank goodness I could find good names.

Lastly, a little background story of the creation for the setting of ‘Zhou Gongjin mixed up with Qi Men Dun Jia’ (in the end I’m going with this setting), in ‘Yokohama Disturbance Arc’ and this ‘Ancient City Insurrection Arc’ came from the ‘The Romance of the Three Kingdoms’ (to be exact, the play which was written by Yoshikawa Eiji-sensei) with some improvisation in the episode where Zhou is coming out. In other words, rather than using the story of Kongming and Qi Men Dun Jia, I only used his Qi Men Dun Jia as a part of the setting. It doesn’t mean that Zhuge Liang wasn’t depicted in ‘The Romance of the Three Kingdoms’, in the end, I was just using the setting of Qi Men Dun Jia in this story.

I’m heart fully thankful to you for having read this series up to here. If it suits you, please look forward to the next installment Volume 16 ’Yotsuba Succession Arc’.

(Satou Tsutomu)