Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? - Volume 33 - Chapter Aft

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Afterword

Long time no see, everyone. It’s the author, Takehaya. This time sees the release of volume 33 of Invaders of the Rokujouma!? There’s also an attached drama CD being sold with the special edition in Japan, so work got pretty busy for me there for a while. Luckily, everything got done on time. Whichever edition you purchased, I hope you enjoyed it.

Now, we have a lot to cover here. Just like last time, the new drama CD is part of the ten year anniversary celebration, and BOOK☆WALKER thankfully took the initiative to make it happen. More specifically, they held a vote on their site about which of the other nine girls should be featured on the CD. Maki was the winner, and Clan was the runner-up. As such, Maki is featured on the drama CD and Clan is featured in the second half of this volume. As expected, the two invaders who didn’t get much of a showing in the anime had the strongest appeal. They’ve been consistently popular in the polls, and I think Maki ultimately won out against Clan because Clan was already featured in the drama CDs for volumes 7.5 and 8.5. Really, these results tell me that there isn’t that much of a difference between the girls in terms of popularity. I think Maki and Clan had an especially strong showing here because people want to hear more from the defectors after switching sides.

In fact, the running was pretty neck and neck. I think the results and the order of popularity will simply change based on what the poll is. Like who should get the next drama CD, who would make the best wife, who you’d want to go on a date with, who you’d want to live with, and so on. Yurika would likely also be consistently popular... except for if we voted on best roommate. (Ha!)

Anyway, Maki was ultimately chosen to be featured on the drama CD, and that’s where the trouble began. Maki is the most serious of the girls, so any romantic development with her needs to go through the proper steps. In other words, it would take time. Fitting all that into the length of a drama CD (75 minutes at max) was a challenge. I racked my brain over how to make that happen, and the answer was Dozy. A free spirit like a kitten could lead the serious Maki down unexpected roads. And once I had that, everything else fell into place.

I wrote a short story for the drama CD and handed that over to the anime’s scriptwriter, Yasukawa Shougo-san, to be turned into a script. We were able to get together the vocal cast and production team from the anime (which is an amazing feat), and the making of the drama CD was a huge success.

Harumi/Alaia’s voice actress, Takamoto Megumi, did a wonderful job last time, and Kitou Akari did another wonderful job as Maki. The anime only covered about halfway through volume 7, so diving right into Maki from volume 33 was quite a challenge. And not only did she have to depict old and new, but also the gradual shift between them. I’m sorry for being so demanding, but I knew the readers would really want to hear what Maki is like once she gets along with everyone. My hands were tied. (The perfect excuse.) All I can say is that I owe a very big thank you to Kitou Akari-san.

Incidentally, the Heart Invaders—Naganawa Maria (Theia), Oomori Nichika (Yurika), Suzuki Eri (Sanae), Tazawa Masumi (Kiriha)—as well as Kitou Akari have all grown so much since the anime! They’re full-fledged adults now, although they haven’t gotten any taller. You always hope for that one last growth spurt in your twenties, but that wasn’t the case for them. Nevertheless, they’ve hardly changed otherwise. They were all squealing with nostalgia.

I’m glad to see them all doing so well. It’s a relief. It goes without saying, but professionals really are something.

Once everything was all done and over with, I realized that this was the series’ sixth drama CD and that almost no other series has gotten this many of them. That speaks volumes to your support as readers, as well as how blessed I am to have this production team and cast. I’m so very grateful to all of you to be able to create something like this for the series’ ten year anniversary.

Now then, let’s move on to discussing this volume. Volume 33 consists of three short stories from Invaders of the Rokujouma!? Hercules! for the first half and a freshly-penned story for the second.

Looking back on the short stories, they were released in January, March, and May of 2017 respectively. That was around the time volume 25 came out, during the Forthorthe arc. Essentially, they were all written before the group traveled to Forthorthe—somewhere around the time volume 23 took place. That was quite a while ago, but the girls’ hearts and minds were already made up, so I guess things weren’t too different from how they are now. Maybe when it comes to honesty, but certainly not emotion.

As for the second half of the novel, we have our feature about Koutarou and Clan becoming a couple. Both of them are so stubborn that there are a lot of twists and turns before they finally get there. I can only hope you enjoy that tantalizing feeling. Honestly, I could imagine Clan’s voice actress, Tamura Yukari-san, struggling with that. Well, not her. I think she’d pull it off flawlessly. During recording, Tamura Yukari-san was as accurate and precise as a professional sniper. Oh, but she has a playful side too. She actually voices one of the stray kittens that appear in the drama CD. Probably. The kitten roles were up for grabs for any of the vocal talent present, and she offered to do one. So I guess... you could call her a playful sniper?

Speaking of, the kitten roles were surprisingly popular. Everyone wanted to get a shot at them. (Ha!) Anyway, I think that about covers it for this volume. Let’s talk about what’s to come.

I touched on it a little in the last afterword, but the next volume will be about the underground dwellers’ spiritual energy technology. Vandarion’s faction got both some magical and spiritual energy technology via Elexis, but they were far from understanding it. They merely assumed that it was some new technology from DKI. The remnants of Vandarion’s faction now, however, know better.

So the next volume will involve their scheme to try to get their hands on it. Of course, Koutarou and the girls will do what they can to stop them... but things won’t be as easy as they have been before now that they’re facing more thorough opponents. Will they really be able to keep the underground dwellers’ technology safe as the battle becomes more than a simple clash of strength? Please look forward to finding out.

I think this is a good place, so I’ll wrap things up here. Allow me to end with the usual acknowledgments.

I would like to thank the editorial department for their assistance when writing this volume; Poco-san who never complained once even as work piled up thanks to the special edition; everyone who was involved in the production of the drama CD; all of the returning vocal cast; and most of all, all of you readers who have stuck with me all this time. The tenth anniversary celebration is coming to an end, but I would like to keep up my efforts, so please continue to support me.