IS:Volume2 Afterwords
[edit] Afterwords
Hello hello everyone. We met again after the first volume came out of the market. I'm Yumizuru.
The ratings of the first IS volume was really good thanks to everyone, and the sales exceeded my expectations, so we're selling another volume again. I want to sincerely thank all the readers who bought the books. It's thanks to all of you, and in the future, I will continue to satisfy the demands all the readers place on me. For the time being, I'll be in your care.
And then now, it's now the second volume, and all the main female characters are gathered! Though there will be other female characters, including Charlotte and Laura, all the main cast have gathered (Basically)
Though it's somewhat mentioned at the end of the second volume, in the third volume that's coming out, Houki's sister, the inventor of IS, Shinonono Tabane will officially appear, and Houki will finally have her own personal machine! Please look forward to the developments! I'm really looking forward to Okiura-sensei's illustrations, I can't wait!
Speaking of which, many people often tell me that the setting of this novel is extremely detailed, that even the unnecessary parts are included. Well, I'm really a fan of detail, so this can't be helped. But basically, I already finished thinking of all the riddles and foreshadowing, so please relax!
On a side note, I would put write my ideas down into documents, so basically, the ideas for the outline has already amassed till half a novel's length.
But well--I can't really show others what to give up on or what to use...so I could only leave them in my brain. If I read it, I suppose I won't be able to understand as well, and may even have doubts like 'eh? it's supposed to happen like this?' Well, I did write all these anyway...
I still have a lot of stories I want to talk about, and in the future, I hope I can showcase them in a way where it's not too draggy. This will have to depend on my hard work and the readers' response, so please guide me through. However, if it's too boring, please tell me as well (laughs).
This time, Okiura-sensei helped me out with brilliant illustrations. I feel really honored and thankful, and really, I want to thank all the assistance he put in for every volume.
Besides the illustrations that were put inside the book, there were also some blueprints and all sorts of ideas in them. I myself got more or less influenced to think of new ideas.
I experienced this 'external touch that's not of one's own' many times in my many years in the game development industries, and those will push anyone's works to ways that can't be reached on one's own.
Besides, the work is definitely not something that belongs to the author; it's something that can only be completed through many people's power and assistance. Of course, the readers are a part of it, so my duty is to find out what everyone wishes to see.
My job is to create, so I often have to remind myself not to think that 'this belongs only to me'. Though the work has my name on it, it's not something that belongs to me.
As there's still additional space, let me talk more about IS.
We--ll, actually, at the planning stage, IS was a completely different story. There was nothing similar in concept except for the IS, as the initial plan was to have 'a cross-dressing guy' (!).
(But the name of the protagonist hasn't changed, it's still Ichika, because I like it.)
Then, after discussing about the content with Misaka-san, the chief editor, he gave me a lot of ideas, and after that, I restructured it to form the current storyline of IS. (And after that, I even removed 3 designated settings, including the female lead Houki.)
Though the story's completely different from how I envisioned it, as I continue to write, I felt, 'this is rather interesting'. Actually, it's also because I really want to see that I thought 'lets write this book!'
Normally, I (at least during the time of planning) would normally write what I want to see, show it to others, ask others for illustrations and publish it. After passing through these phases, the work naturally became 'something that belongs to everyone'. Well, since it belonged to the author in the first place, this can't be helped.
However, I may start to incorporate all sorts of suggestions from the planning stage on.
The work involves a lot of people that allows others to add in their touch.
So in the future, I hope to create works with all sort of people.
Alright, we'll meet again in the 3rd volume. Goodbye!
--Yumizuru Izuru
A certain day in July, 2009.
