After the Afterword
by Kuroda Yousuke
(STUDIO ORPHEE)
I’m…soooooooorrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyy!! There’s no “big show” this time, either… On the other hand, that might be perfect for those people who’d rather read more of Kajishima-san’s personal and wonderful writing and not hear anything from dumb ol’ me. So really, all’s well that ends well. That’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it.
Actually, this time (again?), I was the one who was supposed to be making things happen, but I relied too much on Kajishima-san and caused all sorts of trouble. I had to put off the publication date, and Kajishima-san’s artwork was done before the text. I made Kajishima-san rush on the editing, and I caused Sato-chama, my editor, so much anxiety that he instantly aged seven million years. There’s an unforgivable villain here, and that’s me. C’mon, apologize! I hate myself and the stars.
But then, with the publication of this third novel, “Washu,” we’ve managed to include eight plot points that Kajishima-shi created for True Tenchi Muyo! There are sixteen in all, so there are eight left. We’re finally at the halfway point, so I guess I’ll be writing three more books someday, which means I might just be working on Tenchi even in the 21st century. That’s amazing when I think about it, but I should probably get back to work.
Oh yeah, Akara Naja, whom Kajishima-san has drawn in doujinshi before, takes center stage for the first time, and a distant relative of a character who showed up in the second novel appears in a subtle way, and Juraian warriors are super cool, so there are so many highlights. Kajishima-san is really a fiend of a super-creator who just grabs the hearts of his fans this way, wraps them around his little finger, and never lets go. I’m just an assistant writing the prose. Actually, I’m the one most enjoying the world that Kajishima-san creates in Tenchi.
Did Kajishima-san think up this magnificent story right from the start? He’s so amazing, and I will follow Kajishima-sensei forever and ever, and to the ends of the earth. He’s like the ocean… I know you young, hopelessly romantic youth these days (that’s kind of a blunt way of saying it) are thinking that, but to be brutally honest, this? It’s nothing. I have worked with Kajishima-san for five or so years since the Tenchi anime, and I get to hear tidbits I’ve never seen or heard before on a monthly basis. For real. And the crazy thing is that they harmonize beautifully with the previous canon. So, the Kajishima Tenchi-verse will likely keep expanding and ballooning until Kajishima-san dies or until it explodes. To put all these ideas into a story, we’d have to publish one each week with multiple writers, a la Perry Rhodan. Hey, Fujimi Books, don’t take that seriously! It was just a French Orphee joke, for crying out loud.
Well, with this book coming out, Okuda Hitoshi-sensei, the manga artist, will hopefully get many new ideas for the manga version of Tenchi. I hope you’ll get to work on that, Char Aznable. Okuda-san, let’s go out for a drink sometime (why can’t I just call him?!). What did you say? “Get back to work?” La la la la la. Let’s not stand on ceremony! C’mon, everyone, let’s dance and party and cry and rip our hair out and laugh and agonize and sing and shout and fall in despair. Tra la la la la, que será, será… Jojo is over!! (Super shock!!)
Anyway, besides Tenchi, I’m working with Kajishima-san on the (hopefully) acclaimed broadcast on the WOWOW network, Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure. I’m credited ostensibly as the story editor, but I’m swamped with the work of condensing Kajishima-san’s epic (how is it always so epic?!) ideas into a thirteen-episode series, and I just feel like a glorified traffic control officer sometimes. But I’m enjoying myself, so if you have a BS (broadcast satellite) antenna, you should watch (it’s unscrambled, so it’s free). Why am I saying this? Not because of the Dual/Tenchi Kajishima connection but because I’m writing a manga for Monthly Dragon Junior published by Fujimi Books. I wasn’t even asked to mention this, but I’m the son of a merchant, so this is basically a clever chain reaction marketing ploy. And the manga artist is none other than Ushida Yuji-sensei. He probably doesn’t even remember, but we went out drinking once. I just wanted to name-drop.
For the Dual! anime, Kajishima-san looks over the script and the storyboards, submits concept designs, and is hysterically busy. It looks brutal, so what am I doing, dragging him down with this novel? I deserve a thousand deaths and obliteration and conviction and exile and The Ring and Uzumaki and another subliminal advertisement and awesomeness. But you know, this was my first time writing action scenes with realistic robots! This will go down in my personal anime history. My first was Parallel Trouble Adventure! Wow, that sounds really fake when it’s just the subtitle by itself…
I’ve gotta take a moment to write about me now. The novels that I’m working on with Fujimi went out spectacularly, with Magical Girl Pretty Sammy and Photon (just say they concluded, dammit!), so the only thing I’m working on now is this True Tenchi series. The End.
Not! Fujimi is finally publishing a completely Kuroda-original novel! Hooray for plans!! The Monthly Comic Dragon Magazine Editorial Department is doing such a wonderful job. I sob like a man, which then turns into full-on bawling. I cry so much I should fail as a writer, which makes me cry more. I can only say that it’s about some unbelievable stuff, but I’m working hard so that the proposal can become reality. So, if it does become real, please check it out. Oh, the illustrations are going to be by Uon Taraku-sensei, who was rumored to have had a bromance with Kuroda during Sammy and Photon. It was also rumored that Kurata Hideyuki was jealous! Oh, this is a while ago, but when I was working on Tenchi and Photon with Kajishima-san, I said to him, “Kajishima-san, when I write my own original novel, will you do the art for me?”
And he said, “Of course.” This oath between men (don’t tell me he agreed offhandedly!) is yet to be fulfilled, but I’m doing everything I can to make it happen. If only my prose and composition skills leveled up about three times, I could proudly ask Kajishima-san to collaborate. What if I suddenly go up to him in ten years and ask, “Will you do the art for me?!” Before you start agonizing, do some work, self! But I just finished my part on Dual! In other words, I’ve been working on Dual! instead of working on True Tenchi. They’re both by Kajishima, so I wasn’t sure what to prioritize. Well, of course I do know, but I ignored Sato-chama’s increasing wrinkles and prioritized Dual!, which airs relentlessly every week. Still, I was late turning in the scripts and got Asada-san, the showrunner, mad at me. Chasing two rabbits allows you to catch neither; I’ll pull off catching both, dammit! And yet, I failed at both. Proverbs are hard.
I’m blabbering on about stupid things, and I’m an idiot, I’m such an idiot, ha ha ha! (I’ll be rotting in hell.) So, here’s a teaser—if there is ever a True Tenchi novel four, that certain someone who fought Tenchi in the first OVA series might make an appearance. I’ll declare here and now that the Tenchi-verse past depicted in True Tenchi also has foresight into the future. For the upcoming (though, as of this writing, I don’t know if it really will happen) third OVA series, I’d like everyone to read True Tenchi carefully to prepare themselves. Actually, writing this book made me want to write more of Ryoko and Ayeka in a script.
P.S. I advertised it all over the place and still made everyone wait, but I finally got the homepage up and running for Studio Orphee, where I work. Actually, since I don’t want to be a liar, I’ll warn you that I made it in such a hurry that there’s really no content. Still, please look it up just to check it out, even though it’s guaranteed to be just a placeholder page, and a failure, and a big regret of mine.
P.P.S. (Kajishima) I do remember that I promised to do the artwork.
P.P.P.S. (Kuroda) Yay!
THE END