Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume32 Postscript

Afterword

Because of the image of my works, it seems like I don’t play games at all, but that’s not the case.

Though not to the extent of waiting in line for a new game console when it goes on sale or having a series of video games that I always buy when they come out, but I do play games. I’m on the level of “I have four game consoles”. And all four of them have been left with one game plugged into their respective machines (maybe they are dedicated machines?) and have been neglected for a long time. If you are busy with work, you can’t play them.

Hello, it’s Konno.

The moment I let my guard down, something that I was about to write at the beginning fell out of my head and flew away like a piece of paper blown by the wind, and no matter how long I waited, it never came back. So I decided to write down whatever come to mind. In any case, unless you write an afterword, it (basically) won’t become a book.

Anyway, now that I’ve gained some momentum, let’s talk a little bit about games.

After analyzing the trends in games that I like (games that are played using electricity), I came up with the following.

◯ Simple games

◯ Games with levels that gradually increase in difficulty

◯ Games where you can save properly whenever you want to stop playing

◯ Games played by one person (but multiple people can have their own records)

◯ Games that record your past scores and praise you by overwriting your record when you exceed it

⸻ Well, that’s pretty much it.

It may be difficult to clear all of them at once, but I feel that the more of these conditions are met, the more likely I am to get into it.

That’s the kind of game I like, so I often wonder, why they wouldn’t make something like this. For example, once you start, you can’t save until the end (you can suspend the game temporarily, but you can’t turn off the power). Or it’s a one-off game and you can’t have the fun of surpassing your previous record.

As I mentioned earlier, I like simpler games, so I often get hooked on games that come as an extra instead of on the main ones. For example, fishing in “Donkey Kong” (I can make the monkey catch the fish pretty well), and eradicating bacteria in “Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day!” (for a while I would only come to see Professor Kawashima because I wanted to eradicate bacteria).

I ended up talking about games for longer than I expected, so let’s talk about this work here.

The subtitle is “Pre-Graduation Tableau”. As you can see from the five kanji characters, it’s a small scene before the graduation (no explanation needed). As mentioned in the intro, there are many things that happen before graduation. To both the ones sending off and the ones being sent off. A collection of short dramas sounds like a collection of short stories, but the format is different from short story collections such as “Variety Gifts”. The POV character changes with each chapter, but the story remains the same.

Because you are about to part, there may be a lot of awkward talks. Everyone is worried and confused. Hmm, it’s a story that you either love or hate, isn’t it?

Now. This summer (August 2008) I went to Taiwan. At the invitation of the Taiwanese publisher that publishes the Taiwanese version of “Maria-sama ga Miteru”, I went there for three days and two nights. Illustrator Reine Hibiki was also with me.

The main event was an autograph session at an event called Manga Expo in Taipei.

A manga expo is a large event venue with many booths and stages set up, with many exhibits (maybe manga, anime, light novels, figurines, etc……. though I didn’t get to see them, so it may not be accurate) where various events are held. When I asked if it was like a Comiket, I was told that there were no doujinshi-related participants. So that’s how it is.

The autograph session in Taiwan was very different from the autograph session in Japan, and it was interesting.

First of all, there was a stage at the autograph venue (maybe because it was a part of an event). There, the host and his assistant (wearing Lilian’s uniform) did something akin to an introduction to warm up the audience (it’s like a public variety show). Specifically, what they did was practice saying “Gokigenyou” or get people excited by saying things like “If we don’t get excited, the senseis won’t come out”. However, those of us who were in the waiting room could hear it. I couldn’t understand anything other than the occasional Japanese word, but I could feel the enthusiasm.

After that, those on the signing the autographs side (Hibiki-san, myself, the interpreter, and the Cobalt Editorial Department) went on stage and the autograph session began there. It seems that people don’t usually sign books in Taiwan, instead using colored paper with illustrations. Though, the colored paper used for this event was made of transparent resin (although it is strange to call it colored paper since it is not paper). It was hard to get used to because it was different from usual, but it was easier because I didn’t have to “open” it like I would with a book. There is no need to hold it down so that it doesn’t close while you’re writing. However, the pen got blurry easily, so I pressed the tip of the pen against the paper and drew out the ink as I signed. White paper gradually changed into a golden polka dot pattern. Ah, by the way, the ink in the pen was golden.

The people who came to the autograph session were all cheerful and energetic (maybe it’s because of what I’ve talked about earlier? Or maybe it’s the national character?). There were many people that spoke japanese, which was helpful. Of course, I also appreciated being able to communicate through an interpreter.

When I have an opportunity like this, I think about how great it would be if I could speak the language of the place I went to. The only words I was able to use were “Xie Xie” for thank you and “Heian” for gokigenyou. Really, I am sorry. I really want Doraemon’s “honyaku konnyaku”.

By the way, “Maria-sama ga Miteru” is written as “瑪莉亞的擬望”. My name is written in kanji, but Hibiki Reine’s became “響 玲音”.

In addition to autograph sessions, I also did media interviews and appeared on radio programs. I did all of it in one day, so I felt like I was a celebrity (lol).

Thank you to everyone who came to the autograph session and to all the staff members. ⸻ Well, even if I write these words here, it will be a while before this book is published in Taiwan, so I don’t know how many years will have passed when it arrives (The Taiwanese version that has already been received is the second part of “Beloved Times”, and the illustrations on the colored paper for the autograph session were from “Holding a Parasol”).

I still have a few pages left, so let’s talk about current news.

I wrote about it in the Cobalt magazine, but I recently started making rice bran pickles. Cucumbers, eggplants, carrots, daikon raddish, turnips, celery, okra, yams, asparagus, ginger, gourds, zucchini… I pickled all kinds of things. I worked too hard during August, and Nukadoko complained, “I’m tired”, so I’m letting her grow for a bit now (I’ve heard that if I stir the vegetables occasionally instead of pickling them, she would become healthy again). I’m thinking about starting it up again soon.

It can’t be helped that your hands smell like rice bran when you stir it. However, nail polish is taboo, so even if you go out with it on, you have to remove it as soon as you get home. There are useful machines in the world that can mix miso with rice bran, but I prefer to feel it with my hands so that I can understand its condition, and so I just mix it by hand.

My rice bran is currently vegeterian, so I don’t add boiled eggs or cheese.

I’m interested in the taste, so I will try splitting it into containers and trying it out.

You may have gotten tired of it, but here is the annual (?) summer gecko report.

This summer one got into my room. A baby gecko. I saw it twice and tried to get it out twice, but it was night and I lost it both times (because it was small and charcoal gray). So, it may or may not have got out, the first may have been the second, or the first and second may have been different geckos.

Why do they appear in the room? All of them are babies, but that’s a lot of good sized kids.

My older sister’s deduction is this.

“Don’t they come in through the air conditioning unit?”

Indeed, the outdoor unit is literally attached to the outside of the room, and the hose from which the water comes out is more than thick enough⸻. Last year I laughed it off with a “No way!”, but this year I’m starting to think, “Maybe”.

The one I saw this year was that small.

I hope it managed to get out safely.

Konno Oyuki

𐮛This is a work of fiction. It has no relation to any real person, organisation or incident.

Translator's Notes

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