Horizon:Volume 5B Afterword

Afterword

That was Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon 5-B. This was the first A-B only volume in a while, so I made sure a lot of progress was made. Some of them are finding things tough in both their public and private lives, but that just means they need to work hard.

Anyway, the movements around Kantou in this era are kind of hard to figure out even in Japanese history. I kind of see it like a blank period between the fall of the Kamakura Shogunate and Ieyasu establishing his shogunate in Edo.

This is generally taught in Japanese history as laying the groundwork for the unification of Japan and it tends to focus on Hideyoshi as the leading figure in that. Ieyasu was under Hideyoshi’s command during this period, so even if Ieyasu controlled most of Kantou, the Hideyoshi POV just sees that as one of his men controlling Kantou. And since the only real action Hideyoshi takes is the attack on Houjou, it isn’t talked about all that much.

Similarly, we tend to focus on Nobunaga too these days, but until Nobunaga got famous in video games and dramas, he was really only seen as “Hideyoshi’s superior”. When you look at it from a historical viewpoint, he didn’t unify Japan, so while you might talk about his political achievements, he’s just one of the many people who laid the groundwork for the creation of Japan. This is one of the reasons that people who get into Japanese history from video games, manga, and novels find themselves saying “Huh? Why does everyone have such a poor opinion of my favorite commander?” Basically, school lessons aren’t there to teach you about heroes or characters. It’s about Japanese history, so anyone who wasn’t involved in the creation of Japan will ultimately be omitted.

Now for the usual chat.

“Did anything fun happen in class during your schooldays?”

“In home ec class during elementary school, we gathered some wild plants growing near the school and made tempura. …The next day, 23 of the 42 kids in my glass were out sick, but our teacher went on with the lesson without commenting on it.”

“Report them.”

“Yeah, but then they’d get in trouble with the police. Looking back, that was a pretty sketchy year of school.”

“Yeah, that happens sometimes.”

Also, that number of kids in a class really makes you think of the old days. My work background music this time was Hotgirl by Pearl. It feels like a head-on expression of power, but you need something on that level for a fight against dragons.

Anyway, this time I was wondering about this question:

“Is there anyone who isn’t left with anything?”

Now, Volume 6 will begin some big and exciting battles. Wait just a while longer.

2012. A morning nearing the end of summer.

-Kawakami Minoru

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