So, then, how to have a main character who achieves his position as the strongest by using guns? I mulled over a number of possibilities, and the outcome was Bluesteel Blasphemer. You might notice that the term “blue steel” can also refer to the results of protecting the steel (not stainless steel or wood) parts of a gun from rust through a process known as “bluing.”
Since I had gone to the trouble of setting up this world, I wanted the heroine to have a gun, too. The orthodox approach to a girl with a gun says you must give her a huge rifle. (This provides a nice contrast between the cuteness of the little girl and the bad-assery of her firepower.) I had been doing that until recently in a certain work of mine, and I decided to give things a twist this time.
She wears glasses, but she’s a sniper. She’s a sniper, but she uses a pistol. And not just any pistol—she sticks a scope and a bipod on a revolver!
Yes! That’s it! Sniper girl with glasses and a scope-ready custom revolver!
Incidentally, you may think a revolver with a bipod and scope, intended for sniper use, is a pretty poor excuse for a custom weapon. That maybe it was just made of whatever parts were lying around, or that the person who put it together was not thinking very hard. But while real-world examples aren’t common, some such guns actually are used by the French special forces.
I do have a specific reason in mind for having the main character use a lever-action carbine and the heroine a single-action revolver—but forget about that for now. I’m not normally that into guns, so to write this book I went out and bought a bunch of air guns and model guns. That’s right: it’s all research. Not a flimsy excuse to... No... Really...
Well, anyway.
I tried to basically re-create the heroine’s “Red Chili” using an air gun, thinking it would be good reference material for my illustrator, but to my surprise Tera Akai-sensei created 3D models of Durandall and the various other weapons. I can’t thank him enough.
And while this book doesn’t exactly conform to the standard blueprint, it’s true that the guns are pretty cool and the heroine is pretty cute, and I can’t wait to see it in published form.
I can’t wait for you to read it, either. I will be thrilled if you enjoy it.
3/31/2015
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Copyright
Bluesteel Blasphemer Volume 1
by Ichirou Sakaki
Translated by James Rushton and Kevin Steinbach
Edited by Sasha McGlynn
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 Ichirou Sakaki
Illustrations Copyright © 2015 Tera Akai
Cover illustration by Tera Akai
All rights reserved.
Original Japanese edition published in 2015 by Hobby Japan
This English edition is published by arrangement with Hobby Japan, Tokyo
English translation © 2017 J-Novel Club LLC
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.
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The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
Ebook edition 1.0: May 2017
Bluesteel Blasphemer Volume 1 Page 16
