Phenomeno:Volume 04, Afterword
Afterword[edit]
Contests.
I’ve wondered why people are eager to take part in contests, but I think that in the end, don’t they do it because they want to protect their identity? People resolve themselves to compete when confronted with others who do not share their values, when that other person rudely intrudes in their domain. At times, that is done through violence, through exchange of arguments built on logic, and through acts classified through a certain set of defined rules in sports, but that has some element of excitement for the spectators. It is then sublimated into entertainment and highly commercialized, leaving not a fragment of the pure individual resolve made at the beginning to engage in a contest.
Why I first began to think on this is because I was weak at contests for a long time. I wasn’t a fan of lumping people into winners and losers. In that context, I was under the impression that the medium of ‘novels’ was almost limitless in its diversity, and similarly, that the feelings of each person who reads them is dependent on the reader, and that there’s no ranking of first place, second place – But, in today’s society, novels too, are subject to relative value, be it the month’s best sellers, Amazon sales rankings, or simply and purely in the number of copies in circulation, things one can’t always control.
Of course, there are writers in this world who have the motivation to become bestselling authors, and it’s not my intention at all to disparage them, even so, when they wrote the first word of their first novel, the person they had to fight was something hazy inside themselves. When they conquered the battle in that inner blaze of conflict, a novel materializes, which is then evaluated by society, becomes their day job, and somehow, before they know it, it becomes not a battle with oneself, but instead becomes a battle with someone else – no, I thought that would be fine if that were the case, but…I don’t know. However, in the end, things that are exposed to time and countless critics are the real deal. The tiny battle that is only for oneself may eventually grow to the entire world that involves others, and to the grand battle that transcends even time, or at least, those are the self-conscious immature thoughts I have.
And -- thinking that far.
I realized, Ah, so that’s it. In short, the reason the people want to compete, is to move forward, even if only a little, and it might be an instinct to confirm that they have moved forward. Not to protect their own identity, or to knock down others, or even to classify them into winners and losers – it may just be a ritual to confirm that you were born into this world and that you are indeed headed somewhere.
Well, the world is so full of uncertainties that even such a wild thought exercise is only applicable to me personally, but at any rate, the world may be interesting because it is full of uncertainties, and I would like to become a mature person who can enjoy it with a sense of freedom.
Well then, the Phenomeno series is entering the second part of the overall story from this volume.
Yoishi, Nagito, Krishna, Sako, Takamura – we ventured into the stage where the main characters have all become part of one larger flow after having walked their separate paths, and even as I exaggerate so, in the end, it’s a small fragment in an even larger world, but from the perspective of those who live there, it’s the one and only thing, and I too, want to quieten my heart and follow them.
Please allow me to write a word of thanks here.
Yoshitoshi Abe-san produced wonderful illustrations this time as well. I don’t know how to thank him for the cover, a profound expression of Yoishi that is enough to suck out the soul, but I’m also extremely glad to see Sako Takita in visual form. Thank you so much!
The director in charge, Katsushi Oota-san, the assistant director Moegi Hirabayashi-san. Thank you for assisting me with a smile and never scowling, even when I was rewriting so much.
And lastly, to all those who have read this far.
I believe it is a type of fate that we meet here, I will treasure it like a precious stone, and try not to betray it even if it is vague and will be diligent from here on as well.
Even if my fight against myself is a victory 51 times and a failure 49 times…I desire to show you my self that will crawl forward.
October 2013
Hajime Ninomae
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