Editing Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume19 Postscript

==Postscript==

 

Hello, it’s Konno.

This paperback is the second collection of “Maria-sama ga miteru” extra stories. It may be easier understood as a “Variety Gifts” sequel or “Variety Gifts 2”. It is a compilation of stories published in the Cobalt magazine in the year of 2004.

The order of publication was: “Chocolate Coat” in the february issue, “Cherry Blossom Folk Tales” in the april issue, “Library Book” in the august issue, “Silent Night’s Vision” in the december issue. So, I added the “Joanna” part (as the anime seiyū have proposed) and wrote “In Library” and the single tome of “In Library” was made (there is no ‘the’ between ‘in’ and ‘Library’).

I came up with the idea of setting the stage in a library around the time I finished writing “Cherry Blossom Folk Tales” and was wondering as to what to do next. The day will come again when I will put them together. I wasn’t thinking anything when making “Variety Gifts”, but here I thought that if they had something in common or were grouped together by a keyword, they would line up nicely when compiled into one book. So, belatedly, I looked at the two stories I had already written side by side. “Chocolate Coat” happens outside the school but there are a lot of libraries. The theme of “Cherry Blossom Folk Tales” is stories written in pamphlets. Then I had an epiphany, “this is it!” This led to “Library Book”. In “Silen Night’s Vision” the protagonist, Shizuka, is a librarian.

Speaking of memories related to libraries.

I believe the name of the library newsletter in the middle school I attended was “Library”<ref>The name "Library" here is spelled out in hiragana, "らいぶらりぃ", instead of being the actual word for library, which is 図書館 (toshokan)</ref>. I don’t remember whether it was in second or third grade, but my friend S-san was a member of the library committee and I remember that she took the lead in publishing some pretty good stuff. The layout was beautiful, and in the margin was written the “Library” theme song, a parody of a family restaurant commercial, which gave it a playful feel. And the content was also great. Well, with that good image in my mind, I decided to name the library newsletter published by the high school library committee of Lilian Girls’ Private School “Library”<ref>Here the name is spelled out in katakana: "ライブラリィ"</ref> (although I don’t have an actual copy in my possession, I still remember it quite well).

In order to write the stories in this collection I have read (and returned) several books. I would be happy if even one or two people felt like going to a library after reading this book. Unfortunately, the “Cherry Blossom Folk Tales” pamphlets are not commonly available, but the titles of the books that can be read in real life do appear in the story.



Konno Oyuki



=== Translator's Notes ===

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