Kämpfer:Volume 1 Afterword
Hello everyone, I'm Tsukiji. This is my first time having the opportunity to publish my work with MF Bunko J. It's nice to meet you.
This work should be classified as a love comedy battle novel, but it's actually a story about a guy with cross-dressing tendencies, a person with a dual personality, a lesbian, and a talking stuffed animal causing a ruckus... If I write it like that, you'd probably think, this guy has finally lost it, and well, you wouldn't be entirely wrong. Of course, the characters also do some normal things. Saying also might be too generous; they should be normal from start to finish, right? The characters Senmu-sama[1] draws are so cute, I'd feel bad always having them do strange things. Probably.
This time, I'm continuing with a school-themed work. I quite like stories set in these fairly large-scale composite settings. I decided to make it a strange school, split right down the middle of its grounds, with both sides unable to freely interact. In my mind, it's like Berlin during the Cold War era[2]. Maybe one day, watchtowers or iron fences will appear, and at night, someone might be monitoring the students with searchlights.
Jokes aside, school life occupies a very important part of a person's life. It's an experience during adolescence, the period when people are most sensitive. Even for those who refuse to go to school, it still has a significant impact.
Furthermore, this time is something you can never get back once it's gone. Things that have passed can only be looked back upon; they can only exist in memories. You might not feel it while you're actually living through it, but after graduation, you realize just how important that period was.
So, I thought, why not take a look at a strange place... This idea was the impetus for creating this weird school. The school is strange, the teachers are strange, the classmates are strange, and you yourself are strange... If such weird people existed in real life, it would probably be terrifying. But if they're characters in a novel, it's fine. In fact, the more eccentrics, the better.
During my own high school years, I had a very fulfilling time because I had a group of somewhat strange classmates. It's just a pity we were only at the classmate stage. The school and teachers were all very ordinary. If everyone had been strange, high school life might have been even more interesting... I'm not sure if it would have been more fun, but having the protagonist of this work surrounded by a bunch of oddballs might be one of the reasons for that.
The day will surely come when Senou Natsuru's surroundings become like this. A peaceful, uneventful life is impossible for him. So, let's start with his classmates. An obsessive photo maniac would be lonely if there was only one, right?
Well then, until next time !
October 2006,
Toshihiko Tsukiji
Notes[edit]
Translator's Notes[edit]
Translation Source[edit]
- This afterword was translated from the Chinese translation of the original Japanese text.
- All names and terminology follow the project's official Kämpfer: Names and Terminology Guideline.
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