Thank you very much for reading Yuri Tama: From Third Wheel to Trifecta The Fifth!
With this volume, the childhood-friend-centric storyline that began in The Third has reached its end. What did you think of it?! I’m sure plenty of readers will react with something along the lines of “That’s what she settled on?! Really?!”—but Yotsuba Hazama is, by her very nature, a girl who always takes the most direct path to the outcome she desires. Have mercy on her, please!
Now then, there were all sorts of twists and turns along the path that led us to this point, but I’m truly glad that The Fifth managed to make it to publication in the end. It feels like I’ve really accomplished something—I wrote all sorts of scenes that I’d been wanting to put on paper for a long time, and got to enjoy plenty of Kuro Shina’s illustrations while I was at it. There are still plenty of sides to all of the characters that I’d like to show more of, but on the other hand, I do feel like I’ve been able to depict all of them as at least a little more than their most basic selves, hopefully.
In all likelihood, this volume will mark a stopping point for this series. That is not, I assure you, because I decided that here is where the story should end. Rather, it’s because of the fact that unless the series manages to make some sort of dramatic, status-quo-upending breakthrough, a variety of practical considerations make its further continuation unrealistic. If you’re wondering why I didn’t decide to bring it to a clear and formal conclusion...well, just think of it as a show of stubbornness on the part of me and everyone who’s helped make this series a reality. I do have (some) ideas for what a continuation could look like, after all!
The tragic reality—if that’s the right wording for it—is that I’m grateful just to have been able to keep this story going for as long as it has. In light of this likely being the final opportunity to do so, I also themed the bonus short stories available by purchasing this volume at particular retailers around a “What if?” sort of theme, setting each of them several years down the road from the point at which the story ends. (They are all just what-ifs, of course, and should be viewed as purely hypothetical thought experiments for what might happen in parallel universes that might not even necessarily totally stick to the continuity as established in volumes one through five. I hope you’ll be able to enjoy them with that caveat in mind!) All in all, I’m glad that I was able to bring this story to a conclusion that I enjoyed.
Needless to say, I most certainly did not make that happen on my own! To start, the illustrator who’s been providing incredible artwork for the series since its very inception, Kuro Shina, deserves tremendous credit for everything from the initial character designs to the stunning illustrations that made all of those characters more lovable than ever. I also owe it to my initial editor, who found the short story that this series was initially based on rolling around on the internet and made its long-form publication into a reality, inspiring all sorts of new characters and plot developments along the way, and to my second editor, who facilitated the publication of the fourth and fifth volumes despite the year-and-a-half-long gap between them and the third. If even one of them had been missing, this story could never have turned out the way it did.
Finally, this story could never have reached this point if it weren’t for all the readers who’ve followed it. If it had been canceled after the first volume, then Makina would never have appeared at all, and Koganezaki would never have gotten to be anything more than a member of the fan club. It’s all thanks to you that that didn’t happen, and from time to time I still go back to read the reviews you’ve left for it—they never fail to encourage me!
I deeply regret that I can’t satisfy the readers who’ve made it clear that they want the story to keep going...but fear not! As of 2024, the moment at which this volume was initially published, the world has begun to enter an unprecedented yuri boom!!! Yuri-themed novels and manga are being adapted into anime form one after another, and new series are coming out in droves as well! There’ve been all sorts of developments throughout the light novel industry, and the possibilities for what could come next are genuinely exciting. I’m positive that all sorts of new and compelling series will be coming your way soon enough!
One of the most fun things about books is that you can never know when a reader will encounter a volume for the first time. Some of you likely eagerly awaited this volume’s release, bought it on that very first day—Christmas Day, 2024—and read it immediately, while others probably waited for the New Year, waited for another New Year on top of that, or even picked it out from the old-books shelf at a used book store. If that sounds like you, and if you read this afterword and find yourself thinking, “Too bad...I wish I could have read more,” I encourage you to not stay trapped in the past. Instead, face forward and channel that energy into cheering on all the wonderful series you’re sure to encounter from here on out! That’s the best possible way to play your part in supporting them. That’s a fact that has always been true and will never change! Speaking personally as a fan of the yuri genre, I look forward to watching it grow and mature from here on out, and I can’t wait to find whatever new series happens to become my next favorite!
So...that probably would have been a mildly sad but stylish way to wrap this afterword up, but the truth is that even as I write these very words, I’ve been working on a brand-new series. Its name: My Older Stepsister Wants to Be My Little Sister (Final Title Pending)!!! I’ve only written a plot outline so far, but the plan is for it to be just as fun, wild, and slightly morally dubious as Yuri Tama. Speaking as a self-proclaimed member of the Make Overlap Overlap with Yuri Culture Committee (current membership: just me), I fully intend to continue to be an active participant in the yuri boom! I hope you’ll look forward to it!
And with that, thank you very much! Good night, sleep tight, and don’t let the bedbugs bite!