City Series:Volume2 Afterword

Afterword

Now, what am I supposed to say here?

I’m not sure if I can talk about personal things like this here, but just the other day (specifically January 4 of this year), I appeared on a radio show. (Calm down, Kawakami.)

It was a late night Sunday culture show. The show was sponsored by Media Works and called Dengeki Awards, but it was really a lot of fun.

I hung out at a friend’s house and listened to the broadcast there, but on the way back, another friend called me even though it was 3:30 in the morning.

“Oh, Kawakami? I heard you on the radio, you idiot.”

“You heard that? What’s this? Are you out drinking?”

“I’m at work. Now, while I was listening, I started wondering if anything bad had happened to you recently.”

“What? Why would you think that?”

“Well, your mood on the radio was something else. You were really intense.”

“Aren’t I always like that?”

“Yeah, but that’s not what society thinks an author is supposed to be like. I thought you were gonna ruin their show with all your jokes and casual comments.”

“Are you saying how I normally act is enough to ruin a radio show?”

“Dwa ha ha. Well, I had a good laugh about it. Now, a drink to Media Works for allowing that to air.”

“So you are drinking!”

As you can see, it was all sorts of trouble. That’s when I realized how much trouble being an author is. (Or is this problem unique to me?)

But when reading the fan letters from Panzerpolis 1935, there really were a few that said they bought it after hearing me on the radio show, so maybe acting like that was for the best.

Anyway, my background music while writing was EPO’s Hyakunen no Kodoku (it’s a perfect theme for the final chapter) and I was listening to it again while re-reading the book.

“Everyone has a part of them that’s like Amon, don’t they?”

It got me thinking about that.

Now then, now then. I’m thinking about making Hong Kong the next stage.

February 1997. A “Hey, I think it’s snowing outside” morning.

-Kawakami Minoru

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