Maria-sama ga Miteru Volume 25 Chapter 8
Wah, wah, wah.
What should I do, now Ive done it?
h.e.l.lo, this is Konno.
You often read, "The character just wrote themselves" in other afterwords.
"The character wrote themselves, and as the author I just had to hold on."
- Something like that.
That does occasionally happen to me too, but typically that sort of thing doesnt happen walking down the storys main street, its one of the characters in the side-alleys, so it doesnt really have much of an impact on the overall story.
But this time they really did write themselves. Well, to be precise, she would suggest things like, "How about I act like this here. What do you think?" and Id agree, "Ah, that sounds good." (Feel free to call this a wild delusion.)
Oh no. Its not connected to what I thought Id write in the next story, and the one after!
Wah, wah, wah. What should I do, and so on.
Well, that includes short stories too. I think when a character writes themselves, its because thats the most natural course of action for them. Right, Noriko?
Setting aside that glimpse backstage, lets discuss "Maria-sama ga Miteru: Big Door, Small Key."
Readers that are reading this after the novel may be thinking "Huh?" because theres something different about this volume.
What is it thats different? None of the stories are told from Yumis point-of-view.
Up to now, weve seen Norikos point-of-view, Shimakos point-of-view, Yoshinos point-of-view, Reis point-of-view, Sachikos point-of-view, the graduated onee-samas points-of-view, and others, but I dont think theres been a volume of "Maria-sama ga Miteru" that hasnt had at least one story with Yumi as the main character (excluding the Premium Book and Ill.u.s.tration Collection).
In exchange, about half of this volume is told from Toukos point-of-view, which we havent seen much of before (except in small parts like Joanna).
Im sure the back cover and advertising for this volume will probably have "Toukos secret!" As for what the secret is, read the main story and enjoy (although saying "enjoy" feels a bit awkward).
* * *
The food and drink that appear in this volume didnt make me feel all that envious, either writing about them or reading about them. Especially Kashiwagi Sugurus souvenir. I hate feeling like Ive been tricked.
Occasionally, I find myself craving cola. Its like Im after the "beer after work" feeling, although Im not a regular drinker so I dont really know what thats like. But, like beer, its not the sort of drink thats there when I open the refrigerator (although Im sure theres some households that would always have cola), so typically Ill just trick myself with cool tea, thinking "If only there was a convenience store right outside our house." Naturally, our refrigerator doesnt have beer either.
Right, right. Be careful, because drinking too many carbonated drinks can be dangerous (too much of anything is not good). About ten years ago, I got soda-addiction and ruined my health. What sort of symptoms did I have? If I didnt have soda, Id start feeling withdrawal symptoms, and I didnt want to drink anything other than soda. My stomach would hurt, but I still kept craving those sweet fizzy drinks. Id get on my bike to go to the corner store to buy them. Soon Id be back in soda h.e.l.l. Getting free was tough. Hearing that story, most peoples first thoughts are, "&h.e.l.lip; Thats scary," followed by, "That doesnt sound like you, Konno," finally leading to the question, "So, did that make you put on weight? Lose weight?" I mean, come on, the point wasnt whether I lost weight or not. My life was in danger -
* * *
On to my ill.u.s.trator, Hibiki Reine-san.
As everyone already knows, Hibiki-san has been drawing wonderful covers and insert ill.u.s.trations ever since the first volume of Maria-sama ga Miteru (which Im told fans call "Unt.i.tled"). For the last couple of years, shes been doing autograph sessions with me, for which I am eternally grateful.
Theres a lot of autograph sessions out in the countryside, and when were traveling there well always sit next to each other and chat away like a pair of schoolgirls. Whether it be in a plane, on the bullet train, or in a taxi. About the only time were quiet is when one of us is sleeping. The editor from Cobalt publishing who travels with us doesnt say anything, but Im sure theyre thinking, "Wont they ever run out of things to talk about?"
I think a large part of why we can continuously chatter is because of Hibiki-sans sociable personality, but part of it is that she and I have widely diverging topics we can talk about. As a result, Hibiki-san has introduced me to a lot of interesting manga, as well as showing me pictures of cute cats.
On a recent trip, Hibiki-san let me play a game on her handheld game console, and it was so much fun that when I got home I bought the complete set (hardware and software) from a big camera store.
Now, even with this good a relationship, there were a couple of matters left outstanding for many years.
I think it was Hibiki-san that noticed it first.
"I dont have a book signed by you, Konno-san &h.e.l.lip; !"
Despite all the autograph sessions wed attended together, despite the hundreds of books wed signed together, we didnt have a single one with the others autograph. But the idea of the author and ill.u.s.trator lining up at the register to purchase a number of "Maria-sama ga Miteru" books (whatever they were selling!) was just too foolish so we gave up on it.
"Then, next time (well bring along some books)."
We said this when we parted, but then the next couple of times we both completely forgot until we saw each other and said, "Ah." But then last summer, we finally stopped the string of "Ah."
At the "Lillians Midsummer Festival" anime event we lined up two copies of the latest book, "Ill.u.s.tration Collection," signed them both, and each took a copy home (finally!). The paper in the "Ill.u.s.tration Collection" is glossy, so our signatures were a bit different to normal (and probably not all that good), but these are the only two books in the world with both our signatures that have never been opened at an autograph session.
Then, this summer, there was another advancement in our relationship. We exchanged email addresses.
"Huh - after all this time?"
Ah, what a joke, so funny. But its true. Despite being such good friends, the opportunity hadnt arisen, so both of us had been too naive to ask, "Can you tell me your email address?" Whenever we had to meet for work, it would go through the Cobalt editorial department, so we were never inconvenienced by it. But then a friend I knew through the anime said to me, "Id really like to get in touch with Hibiki-san, but &h.e.l.lip; " so I acted as an intermediary between them and became Hibiki-sans email-friend too.
So with that, I was going to get Hibiki-san to write some of the afterword too, and even got agreement beforehand.
- But, wouldnt you know it, she didnt think shed be able to fill two and a half pages :)
Konno Oyuki.