Afterword
Nice to meet you all. I’m Shippo Senoo. This is my first book, and my first afterword.
First, some thanks.
To my editor, Kurita-san, thank you for all your help getting this book published.
The illustrations were done by Nidy-2D-san, whom I’d wanted to have do the illustrations even before I won this prize. My dream was granted. Kuon, Hanabi, the Master, and En all turned out so adorable and cool. I am incredibly grateful Nidy-2D-san took the job despite being so busy. Thank you so much.
To my Twitter friends, Senya-san, Kirin-san, Gunsou, Konodera-san, Manabu-san, and all my wannabe friends, thank you for reading things before submission. Thanks for believing I’d win more than I ever did. If Nagashima-sensei reads this, please treat yourself to some great German food.
Thank you to everyone involved with the publication, and most of all, to anyone who picked up this book.
I am so thankful I could easily fill this entire afterword with gratitude.
What did you think of Division Maneuver: Vol. 1?
This went through several revisions between winning the 6th Kodansha Lanove Bunko New Writer Prize. This is my first work as a writer.
The earlier version of this story was set in space, on one of nine lunar colonies in orbit around the Earth, but, after revising it, the setting changed to Earth itself.
As a result, you get to see Hanabi-senpai end up wearing a string bikini on a south seas island beach, so I think this was the right choice.
Those of you who are motorcycle fans may notice the character names are all taken from circuits in Japan.
Suzuka, Motegi, Fuji, Tsukuba, Okegawa… There are so many of them, but as a Honda guy, my favorite is the Suzuka Circuit.
The fireworks at the end of the Suzuka 8 Hours are fantastic. The NSR is the greatest machine of my biking life. The En Nidy-2D- drew is far too cute.
So, in other good news, I also won a prize from Shueisha-san. There’s no release date over there yet, but there are some connections between that story and Division Maneuver, so I hope you’ll look forward to it.
I hope we can meet again in the near future.
Thank you for reading all this way.
—Shippo Senoo