Thank you as ever! I’m the light novelist, Sakaki.
This was the second volume of Fake Fake, which used to be serialized in Hobby Japan’s Novel Japan, and is now a part of CharaNov!.
Now, in the last volume, I talked about the other author who gave me the initial idea for this series. I met that same author, Yuji Nakazato, at a Rookie of the Year award ceremony and took another small idea from him.
“Sakaki-san, Sakaki-san.”
“What is it?”
“About your work with HJ.”
“Ah, yes, Fake Fake.”
“What happened to the memory card?”
“Huh?”
“Well, if that robot was based on the a*bo, then it should have a memory card that stores its individuality. So, no matter what happened to the body, if they can get a new one, he’ll be fine.”
“Oh!”
So I added some to that chapter.
Frankly speaking, it did bother me how easily Pamil got over it in the next chapter (it’s less of an issue in a monthly form, but when published as an actual book...), so it was an unexpected bit of help.
Thank you, Nakazato-sensei.
Back to the topic at hand.
I went to Taiwan recently for some market research, as well as a bit of a break.
There’s actually a lot of my works, including Fake Fake, that have Taiwanese versions. One of the reasons I went was because I wanted to see how they were lined up in the stores. Taiwan is one of the three famous pro-Japan countries (I think the others are Turkey and Palau?), so it was a pleasant trip.
Well, the cities weren’t too different from Japan’s, and you see a lot of signs in Japanese (it looks like the character の is in vogue at the moment, so you often see it sandwiched between Chinese words, probably like you see a lot of ‘&’ between adjectives in Japan).
It was a bit of a surprise to just see CharaNov! being sold in the bookstores, though. I didn’t specifically go to stores that catered to otaku, and yet even normal bookstores in the towns had Japanese anime and game magazines. In Japanese, of course.
Western books are sold in Japan, but it’s usually in the corner of the shop, or only in specialty shops. I was surprised it was so different over there.
There were illustration collections from artists I know, and Taiwanese versions of us authors’ books, but it was more for enthusiasts (like, they were at the bottom of the shelves, or in enthusiast stores).
At any rate, I had an enjoyable short three-hour flight. Well, I proofread this light novel and a book from another company to use the time, so it was a fun journey.
Anyhow, it was somewhat strange to see my own name in a bookstore in another country.
At any rate.
I think this series will only be one more volume, but I hope you will accompany me to the end.
Fake Fake production staff:
Ichiro Sakaki
Miki Sakamoto
Think! Hidaka (production management)