…I suppose the one major problem is that the chef makes the food but there is no one to say that it is delicious. That somehow makes it all feel so empty.
File 19: A Unification of Standards is Urgent Business
The theme here is transformation heroes. I like the idea of a security buzzer that calls in a hero because I could see a toy like that actually being made. I’m not really sure if magical girls still use wands in this day and age, but any other form would require an explanation as to why it was shaped like that.
It might have been good to have the father at the end “transform” into a dandy company worker by putting on a toupee.
File 20: All Sorts of Offerings
A Japanese mythology story. It all might have been easier to imagine if I had used western gods like Zeus and Odin rather than Japanese gods. The idea of “I smell another woman’s perfume” has become about as common a “seasonal term” as the clothespin or the pencil cap with a hole in it. Here, I have used that in the form of offerings.
…I wonder if a local god really would view that as cheating?
File 21: Let's Think Up a Romantic Language of Flowers Meaning
You sometimes come across surprising things in the language of flowers. Like the Western European-style grape. I thought it would be fun to show the scene of someone seriously worrying about various things when thinking that up.
I just do not find girls who end their sentences in “~ssu” to be very moe[1], but it is one of the easiest-to-pick-up-on sentence enders alongside things like “~gozaru”. I once mentioned that “~gozaru” was not moe to my editor, but he said it could be if it was a blonde foreign girl who mistook it for proper Japanese. I really had the scales fall from eyes there. …Maybe there is a way to use the fundoshi as well.
But then, perhaps it is just a universal truth that a beautiful girl will look cute doing pretty much anything.
File 22: The World's Most Enjoyable Lesson?
It was something I just happened to write in the story, but I really liked the line about “Micro” not being the JIS mark.
Even after all the explanations, I still wonder if black holes are really safe, but maybe I am just being left behind by the times.
File 23: This Time the Ice Age is Real
This idea started with amazement that we had real time translation software on handheld game systems and with how many amazing things smartphones can do.
Those kinds of apps tend to be like a supplement. I think it is normal to search for things to fill the gaps where you yourself are lacking. But if everyone does that to enough of an extent, no one will have any individuality.
…Perhaps having faults is important.
File 24: How to Defeat a Powerful Enemy That Does Not Exceed Human Understanding
A story about using human greed as a new method of exterminating monsters. But with the more grotesque aspects like the abridged description of opening up and checking through the inside of the troll, this could be a difficult story to expand on. It may have been a bit milder if it was the story of someone in the jungle observing their target through binoculars to find out if it could be used in any way. And by actually heading out to the scene, I could add in some action-y bits of danger.
As one creature’s population shrinking can lead to the population of that animal’s prey increasing, the professor’s methods have a different risk.
The Introduction to the Participants at the end had something akin to the compatibility quizzes often seen in magazines that use yes or no questions. With the contents of the survey and the survey itself, “the absurd” was used as the theme of the entire novel. It is a common term, but it is one of those terms that looks like a technical term when given an arbitrary term in furigana, isn’t it?[2]
Having the opening of that part be so low key was to create enough of a contrast to make it clear the story had left the “play within a play”. This meant that story had to get off to a slow start.
I guess I will stop there.
I give my thanks to my editor Miki-san, my illustrator Haimura-san, and all of you readers.
I used a gimmick to give the whole thing an uneasy feel to it. I did not technically use any psychological tricks or anything though, so don’t worry about it too much. Everything was fiction from beginning to end.
…If my ideas pile up enough again, I might make another one of these, but I doubt that will happen anytime soon.
Anyway…
The next assignment is to research the water and soil that makes seeds grow.
-Kamachi Kazuma
References
↑ The girl in this story ended her sentences in “~ssu”.
↑ Throughout the endings, the Japanese term for absurd had the English word given in furigana.
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