Editing Kämpfer:Volume 7 Afterword





Volume 7, Afterword

I'm Tsukiji. Delivering the latest volume of ''Kämpfer'' to you all. The previous volume was like an intermission story, but this volume's plot charges forward dramatically. Really charges forward.

Thanks to everyone, ''Kämpfer'' is steadily being released volume by volume, edition by edition, and the story is heating up. Please continue your support.

Now then, I might have mentioned this before, but my household keeps a cat. An American Shorthair, a very cute cat. And this guy really loves paper.

A novel isn't finished once the writing is done; it goes through proofreading and then comes back to the author. Then you revise unsatisfactory expressions or correct errors pointed out by the proofreader.

At this stage, you get the galley proofs – papers printed in the same way as the final book – sent over. And my cat absolutely adores these galley proofs.

When the proofs arrive, the cat has to inspect them first. In our house, she's the boss. Whether it's a delivery or mail, she sniffs them to judge if they're good or bad. If the cat is satisfied, it's fine, but she loves the proofs so much she'll bite and lick them to taste them. (At which point I take the proofs away).

The cat always wants to sit on these proofs. Literally. When I need to start work and spread the proofs out on the desk, she inevitably comes and sits on them. If I try to move her, she threatens me. If I force her off, she bites me, then yowls and scratches me. Then she sits back down on them and does as she pleases. She's practically a terrorist. So I tried ignoring her, but then she just started sleeping on them, so that didn't work either. In other words, when dealing with a terrorist, you have no choice but to use force. My wrists are covered in scratches from constantly battling her. I just want to work normally.

This cat also sits in front of the monitor or on the keyboard. But her favorite is the galley proofs. I could put the proofs aside and do other work, but then they end up full of bite marks and lick stains – it's a big problem, they just become the cat's toy. The sheer carelessness of this creature, who shows no consideration, constantly amazes me. From the perspective of understanding human speech, the internal organ dolls are better. But still, the cat is very cute, so I'll add that here.

Changing the subject, let's talk about this volume. As you can see, it's a pool story, and the season is summer. You know, in Volume 5, Tōda asked Natsuru about his summer plans, right? The content for this volume was planned long ago; it's not something I suddenly cooked up. Really, it's not~

Actually, it was a far-sighted plan, haha, aiming for this volume to be released in summer to match the season... ...My apologies, I got carried away. It was actually a coincidence.

So, summer naturally means swimsuits, which naturally means Senmu-sensei's illustrations are also of swimsuits. Natsuru, naturally, is in a swimsuit too and looks very cute, but everyone, stay calm – this person is male! Even though the chest is large, it's still a guy! While writing things like this, I'm also thinking, hopefully this swimsuit appearance will boost the protagonist's popularity even more.

Just talking about female Natsuru's figure and measurements... they aren't actually finalized. At a rough glance, the best figure among the girls is Shizuku's, which is practically a given. Next, it was probably intended to be Sakura-san and Natsuru, but I wonder if it might be Suzu (undecided). Then after that, Natsuru, with Sakura-san trailing by just a bit – I wonder if it's like that. Then, lagging behind by a fair margin, or quite a lot, is Akane, but after transforming, she should rise quite a bit, I suppose.

As for the plot content, a pool trope is hard to reuse once you've used it, so I thought I'd use it thoroughly this time. Should we have a wardrobe malfunction too~? Just a standard malfunction isn't interesting; it should be more unusual. Like an earthquake making the swimsuit fall off, or a fire burning it off, etc. Although both are pretty unrealistic, ''Kämpfer'' itself is a very unrealistic story, so maybe such recklessness is acceptable? Even if a localized fire breaks out, just jump into the pool and it's OK, right?

Well, that's the general idea. The next volume is scheduled for release in July. The content continues from this volume. The hand extended by Sakura-san will pierce through Natsuru's heart. (Just kidding)

Please look forward to it.

February 2008

Tsukiji Toshihiko













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