Bring it on.
These final words were something I decided on from the moment I started writing Sister, not long after I gave my all on the final volume of my previous series. With them, A Sister’s All You Need., an encapsulation of my emotions in several hundreds of thousands of words, comes to an end. If something in it touched your heart, I couldn’t be happier as a writer.
The series has run across five years and fourteen volumes, but I proceeded from start to finish on it without any major trouble to speak of. That being said, I naturally ran into a lot of unexpected issues; in particular, I never expected that Ashley would become such an important character. When she mentioned she was acquainted with Kaizu and Kasuka at that one get-together, I was like “Are you kidding me?!” but I’m glad that she found happiness in the end. I was feeling bad about using her inability to get married as a throwaway joke anyway.
I did make one clear mistake, however. When I depicted Itsuki writing Sisterly Combat and All About My Little Sister at the same time, that was so I could show his editor griping at him to stop working on Series A and write more for Series B instead—something that I find so incredibly annoying about my career. But in Itsuki’s case, he ran into a lot of other constant trouble in his life, and between this and that, I completely missed my window for covering that subplot. It feels a little pathetic now, and it’s one thing I really wanted to get across, so I’ll write it here instead. To a writer, all the series they create are equally precious to them, and when an editor says something like that, it does nothing but torpedo my motivation. It’s a major blow not only to me, but also to fans of Series A and Series B, so please refrain from saying that to me (and, if possible, other authors).
So this series went along exceedingly well, far better than anything I was involved with before, but that’s thanks in no small part to my artist Kantoku producing astonishing work, both in quality and in faithfulness to the schedule. I really don’t want him to abandon me, and my next work for Gagaga Bunko is still up in the air, but I’d love a chance to work with him again.
I also need to thank Iwaasa, my editor who’s been by my side the past five years. Life seems perfect for him, both at work and in his private time, and it sounds like his second child will be born shortly. Meanwhile, I still can’t get married. It’s time to do away with kind little pleasantries like “I hope your dick falls off” with him. I’m gonna rip Iwaasa’s dick off myself!
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Yomi Hirasaka,
Silver-Haired Nude Lolita Writer
January 2020
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• When I said last volume that the latest drama CD would be the last piece of Sister spinoff media ever released, I was lying. Sorry. The Japanese audiobooks of the Sister series are now on sale at Amazon, Apple Books, and so forth. Unlike the drama CDs, these audiobooks include all the non-dialogue narration and even the afterwords, which is pretty embarrassing for me, but it’s fun in its own way apart from the books, so give it a listen. Kaizu’s monologue from Volume 7 in particular made me cry. We’re planning to release the entire series in audio form and most of it is out already, so I think Volume 14 will be released before long, too.
• Kantoku is releasing an artbook that includes illustrations from the Sister series. It’ll come out the same time as this book in Japan, and I hope you’ll buy it and take a look back at the series through its artwork. It also includes a talk between me and Kantoku where we discuss Sister and reveal some secrets behind its production.
• We’re planning to release a series of stamps for the LINE social media service featuring the chibi characters that show up in the table-of-contents pages throughout the series. I have every intention of actually using these in conversations, so they’re meant for practical use, I promise. Check them out and start spamming away.
• I contributed a short story to the Sorcerous Stabber Orphen Anthology, on sale now from TO Books (which, by the way, was one of the models for Branch Hill). I’m sure a lot of Sister readers are Orphen fans as well, so if you enjoy it, that’d be great.
• Yuri Before the Deadline is due for release from some publisher that’s not Gagaga Bunko, but a preview has been posted on the Japanese web novel site Kakuyomu (as of January 2020). It’s set between Volumes 13 and 14 of Sister, and you can find it by searching for my name and Kakuyomu online. I might post other stuff as well if the fancy strikes me.
• Few of the things I wrote about above have solid release dates in place yet, so check out Gagaga Bunko’s Twitter account, web page, or my own Twitter (@hirasakayomi) for the latest information.
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This book will now be rounded out with a side story set ten years after the events of Volume 14, starring Sora Hashima, Yuu Yasaka, Shiori Hashima, and so forth. Please enjoy.