I believe that for many of you, this will be our first time meeting. My name is Mio Nukaga, and I’m the author responsible for adapting The Summer Hikaru Died into a novel.
The pronunciation of my name is “Mee-oh New-kah-gah.” Some find it surprisingly difficult to pronounce the Nukaga part, but it’s similar to how you say Utada, the surname of the famous singer Hikaru Utada. Usually, I write coming-of-age and sports-related novels.
I first read The Summer Hikaru Died in July of 2022.
I’m a novelist, but I sometimes teach at a university. My classes mostly consist of creative writing workshops aimed at students who want to write novels.
I often exchanged recommendations for prose, manga, and anime with a student named K, who was enrolled in my course at the time.
One day, just before summer break, K approached me, saying, “I’ve found this super interesting manga. The first volume just came out, but I’ve been following it online ever since it began its web serialization because of how interesting it is, and it’s just so good—I wish I could write a novel like that.”
The manga that K introduced to me with such enthusiasm was The Summer Hikaru Died.
“Please read it,” he’d said. “I’d like to hear your thoughts.”
With K’s strong recommendation, I went to a bookstore on my way home and bought the first volume of The Summer Hikaru Died.
K’s ability to both find interesting works and present their greatness in a way that resonates with others is second to none, so I clearly remember being really excited to read The Summer Hikaru Died as I made my way back home.
And when I did read it, I found The Summer Hikaru Died to be incredibly entertaining and felt truly happy to have been introduced to such a great work.
As it so happens, when I was writing this afterword, I messaged K, saying, “Sorry if this is sudden, but would it be okay to mention you? I won’t use your real name,” to which he immediately replied, “Please go with ‘K’!” That’s how I was able to write this anecdote.
After reading Volume 1, I eagerly awaited the release of Volume 2 as just another reader.
It was right around that time that I received a request from an editor at Kadokawa to write the novel adaptation. Writing a novel on my own from scratch and adapting a manga, anime, or movie by another creator into a novel are two very different processes, despite the fact that novels are the end product in both cases. With an adaptation, there are more things to be mindful of and cautious with, and it feels like I’m using my brain in a slightly different way compared to when I’m writing my own work.
The creature known as a novelist is one that wants to do everything it can to send the stories it’s conceived out into the world, so when it comes to adaptation work, I try to only accept projects that I find to be genuinely fascinating or ones from creators that I truly love.
I have to feel like I won’t regret using my time—time that should have been spent writing a volume of an original work—for that particular work or creator. If I can feel like that about a work, then it’s one that I can enjoy adapting into a novel.
So when I was asked to novelize The Summer Hikaru Died, I instantly replied, “I’ll do it. I’ll make the schedule work.”
Writing a lengthy review of The Summer Hikaru Died as just another reader would make me come off as some annoying fan, which would be a little embarrassing, so I’m happy to let you know it was that enjoyable to me.
And so, I somehow made the schedule work and successfully completed the novel version of The Summer Hikaru Died, but I’ll leave it to you, the readers, to judge whether or not I’ve stayed faithful to the original or have expanded on it uniquely through this novelization. I’ve also been asked by my editor to share my thoughts on the adaptation process, so I’ll go ahead and do so, but I’ll keep it brief.
Personally, I focused on capturing what The Summer Hikaru Died can evoke uniquely through the medium of a novel. I believe the appeal of novels lies in their ability to depict emotions through detailed descriptions of things like the scenes a character sees, the sounds they hear, and the temperatures and sensations they feel with their skin. I was particularly focused on those points when adapting this work.
The time I spent writing was mostly occupied by the protagonist, Yoshiki Tsujinaka (I used the kanji for his name in the Japanese version for better visual recognition and readability), so it was almost like my writing process was spent entirely in conversation with him.
I spent a lot of time thinking about the destination of his casual glances, picking up on the true intentions lurking within his subtle expressions, and exploring how he might perceive the world beyond the manga’s panels and story. It was a lot, but also very fun.
Also, one memory from this project that’s stayed with me is when I asked the original author, Mokumokuren, about the color of Hikaru’s “insides.” The reply I got was, “There’s no clear color, but it’s a hue that would wear away at your sanity just by looking at it,” and after that, I remember thinking, Oh, this is where a novelist can really show off their skills.
If you happen to be reading this afterword before starting the main story, I encourage you to pay attention to Hikaru’s “insides.”
I was debating with myself on how to close out this afterword, but it looks like the latest chapter of The Summer Hikaru Died just went up, so I think I’ll end things here.
This adaptation ends in the middle of the story, and there’s a lot more to go, so I hope to see you all again.