Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? - Volume 18 - Chapter Aft

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Afterword

Happy new year, everyone. It’s the author, Takehaya. This time I’ve safely delivered volume 18, and I hope you enjoyed it. That’s right, volume 18 is actually the twentieth installment in the series (thanks to the two side volumes). When I imagine all twenty volumes lined up side by side on people’s bookshelves, I get a little excited. There aren’t many works that make it this far, much less get an anime. I’m extremely grateful for being blessed with many fans. We’re entering the sixth year of the series’ run, and I am very appreciative of your continued support. Thank you all very much, and I hope you will continue to support me in the future as well.

Now then, the magical girl arc begins unfolding in this volume and will continue into the next. Since it’ll be in two parts, I wanted to get a closer look at some different characters, which is why I focused more on Maki this volume.

With Maki’s background in Darkness Rainbow, she has a dark past and various connections. This time around, we got a closer look at her relationship with Dark Crimson. While Maki and Crimson accept each other, they can’t quite see eye to eye. They finally clash in this volume, and I honestly think it’s one of the best parts. I hope those of you who have finished reading the volume find the conclusion satisfactory.

And since we got a nice portrait of Maki in the first half of the magical girl arc, we’ll be getting one of Yurika in the second half. Having become a true magical girl after all this time, she finally resolves herself to fight Darkness Rainbow. The setting will shift to the Magical Kingdom of Folsaria as that happens, but Rainbow Heart and Darkness Rainbow have been fighting for centuries. Whatever resolution there is to be had between them, it won’t come easily. Just how will Yurika deal with that? That’s what the next volume is all about, so I hope you enjoy it.

I’m actually writing this afterword the night of Christmas Eve. With the new year in sight, I’m finally done with this year’s work and am spending my days quite lazily. While taking it easy, however, everything that’s happened this year seems to pop into my head. It’s been quite a busy year, so there’s a lot to look back on.

Around this time last year, writing started on the scenario for the anime and I was going to several meetings a month. This was also around the time I first met with the voice actors. All the new voice actors looked so nervous they might drop dead, all huddled up in a corner and everything. I remember thinking they were as cute as scared little forest animals. I think I might actually be a little disappointed to hear they’ve matured enough to grow out of that terrified adorability (ha!). But I do hope they’re all doing well.

Not long after that, an initial event was announced. That was about the time I really started to feel like my work was becoming an anime. After that, as the recording sessions began, I started getting really busy with meetings. There was probably a point where I had to stop and wonder if I’d have enough time to work on the novels, but in the end, it all worked out somehow. I think I was busiest during the summer, and before I knew it, the anime was already on air. By August, my work on the anime was gradually dwindling, and the number of meetings started decreasing. Then by fall, the anime was over and I was back to being a regular author.

Once my workload returned to normal, I decided to get a motorcycle license. Seeing the beginner voice actors try so hard, I wanted to try something new as well. That’s why I was practicing riding and writing every day during the fall. Doing something you’ve never tried before is both stimulating and refreshing. The test for the license is something most people don’t ever even get to try, so I felt like I was really showing some guts in going for it. However, perhaps because of my age, I failed the exam when trying to cross the narrow plank bridge (ha!). According to the instructor, your sense of balance changes drastically with age. However, he also said that your driving posture is extremely important on the narrow plank bridge. And so, after improving my posture, I passed the exam the next time I took it! In picking out my first bike, I chose something basic and classic rather than anything flashy or adventurous. Recently, I’ve been taking it for rides to a ramen shop that’s pretty far away every once in a while.

As I was getting used to driving my bike, there was an Invaders of the Rokujouma!? event in the beginning of December. It was fun meeting everyone involved again after such a long time, and I finally got a sense that the anime was complete. I was also moved that we could pack a 700-person hall with fans. I would personally like to thank everyone who came. And with the final event over, I officially returned to my pre-anime life. It’s been half a year since then, and looking back on it all is incredible.

What I’ve learned this year is that people should challenge themselves to try new things. Between the anime and my motorcycle since, I’ve begun thinking that ever since I became an adult, I’ve been passing up on things that weren’t guaranteed to be fun or I knew I would succeed at. Maybe I’m relying too much on what other people say. When I was a kid, I never thought about that and dove headlong into all kinds of experiences.

Since most of my readers are high school students, this might not yet make sense to you. However, before too long when you start to become an adult, you might feel your life getting more trivial. If that happens, I encourage you to try something new without overthinking it.

What should I do next year? Since I can feel my stamina going down with each passing year, maybe sports would be a good idea. Maybe I should learn some martial arts. Or maybe play some ball. I still haven’t decided, but I’m planning on trying to challenge something new.

That’s right, I have some news to share! I don’t know if it will have started by the time this volume is released or not, but HJ Bunko will be starting up a new site called “Read it! HJ Bunko.” Some short stories from room 106 will be posted there with some regularity, so for those of you who are interested, please check out HJ Bunko’s website. I’m sure you can reach it from there.

That’s about all the space I have for the afterword, so I believe it’s time to wrap it up. Finally, I would like to give my regular acknowledgements. I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to everyone at the editorial department, to the illustrator Poco-san, and to all of the readers who bought this volume.