Hello, everyone. Riku Misora here. Thank you so much for reading through volume 8 of Chivalry of a Failed Knight. Did you enjoy it?
You know, I think Amane-kun’s a surprisingly upright guy. If I had a power like Nameless Glory, you bet I’d just be doing whatever I want with it and enjoying life on easy mode, lol. Though I guess maybe I’d feel kind of nihilistic too if I knew everything I had hadn’t been earned. Like, I was really happy when I first won the GA Bunko prize and made my debut as a professional author, and I probably wouldn’t have felt that joy if a magical power had given me that prize instead.
At any rate, the next volume will be the long-awaited climax of the Seven Stars Battle Festival. Stella and Ikki will finally get their rematch. In a way, their promise has been the driving force for this series, and now they’ll finally get to fulfill it. You can think of the next volume as a culmination of everything that’s happened so far. I’m planning on giving it my all to write the best climax possible, so I hope you’ll stick around for it.
Also, the anime for Chivalry of a Failed Knight has finally started airing! I was present for a lot of the staff meetings where they hashed out the script, and I’m really happy with how things turned out. Did you guys notice how long act one of the first episode was? That was because the director and a lot of the other staff working on the series didn’t want to chop up the first Stella versus Ikki duel into multiple parts, so they extended the first half. It really made me glad to know the staff cares so much about these small things.
I really loved the bit leading into the ending of episode one (which of course played the OP) too. Ikki went for a handshake, but Stella just punched his open palm. Seeing that made it clear to me that the people working on the anime really get the characters. After all, that’s exactly the kind of girl Stella is. I’m truly grateful to have an adaptation made by a team who understands the work on such a deep level. I can’t wait to see how episode two looks.
Moving on to a completely different topic, I visited Taiwan in August. Sharp Point Press, who publishes the Taiwanese translation, invited me to an autograph session there. There was a manga event at one of the Animates, and Sharp Point Press had a booth. Before I went, my editor kept telling me about how hot and humid it was, and how he was dripping with sweat twenty-four seven. But either I must have gone during the perfect time or my editor was exaggerating, because the weather was great, and I was even able to get some writing done.
As for what I thought of Taiwan, the first thing that left an impression on me was how many 7-Elevens there are! It felt like there were even more of them than there are in Japan. When I was driving around, I felt like I saw one every minute. There were a decent amount of Family Marts too. I also saw a lot of Japanese restaurant chains like Yoshinoya. Even restaurants that weren’t Japanese sold a lot of food and snacks that you see in Japan, so I highly recommend it as your first overseas destination if you’re a Japanese person trying to get into traveling. It’s very easy to get by, if nothing else. Though I was there for work, of course.
It was my first overseas autograph session, so I was honestly quite nervous. Thankfully, the editor from Sharp Point was really helpful, and all the fans who came to get books signed were super enthusiastic, so before long, my nervousness melted away. Some people even gave me words of encouragement in Japanese, which was really heartwarming. I’m guessing this afterword will get translated as well, so I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of my Taiwanese readers. I’m truly grateful for all of your encouragement.
By the way, there was just one autograph where I messed up the date. I’ve done hundreds of signatures now, and while I don’t mess up my signature anymore, I guess I still forget the day sometimes... What’s worse was that it was for one of my female fans! There’s so few female fans of Chivalry, and I messed up her autograph! I’m really sorry about that.
Anyway, once the event was done, I was able to actually tour the country. I’d always wanted to check out Taiwan’s famous night market, and I got my chance! Apparently, most people open their shops at night because it’s too hot during the day, and when I went, there were definitely way more places doing business. They weren’t stalls like the kind you’d see at a Japanese festival either; they were just regular shops selling daily goods and clothes and stuff. The night market’s a famous tourist attraction, but ultimately, it’s just a place for locals to buy and sell things to other locals. That’s part of what made it so fun to explore, though.
I also got to try their famous stinky tofu. I’ve read so many manga that featured stinky tofu, and I knew from reading Wakakozake that they sold it there, so I knew I had to try it. When I ordered it, I was expecting something that smelled awful and was impossible to stomach...but it was surprisingly normal? It kind of just tasted like normal fried tofu. In fairness, the whole shop stank to high heaven to begin with, so maybe my sense of smell had just been numbed by the time I ate the tofu. Still, for me, it was no different than eating fried tofu. Though according to the editor who was showing me around, the stinky tofu I ordered was pretty mild, and there’s way stinkier options out there. I can’t wait to try those next time I go.
I got to meet with overseas fans and try stinky tofu, so it was a worthwhile trip all told. Thank you so much, people of Taiwan.
I’d also like to thank Won-san for his godlike illustrations as always. He even dealt perfectly with the irregular schedule we had to work with because the anime was airing.
A big thank you to Soramichi-san for drawing the manga adaptation as well. The manga’s now at the volume 2 climax, with the battle against Kuraudo. The action scenes are drawn really snappily, so I’d highly recommend anyone who hasn’t to go check out the manga!
I’d like to thank everyone who helped work on the anime adaptation too. The editors, Director Onuma-san, and of course, everyone who worked on the script. Thank you all so much for continuing to polish the script right up to the very last second.
A huge thank you to Sakai Mikio-san for singing such a banger opening song. I’ve looped the PV hundreds of times now, lol. And an equally huge thank you to ALI PROJECT for singing such a wonderful ending. You guys captured Stella’s inner world perfectly!
Last but not least, thank you to all of my readers! Without your support, this anime would never have been possible! Really, thank you so much! It’s because of all of you that I got to see Ikki and the others moving around on the big screen. I hope you all like the anime as well.
May we meet again in volume 9. Sayonara!