Volume 1
Chapter 4-1
Chapter 4 – In the Beginning, G.o.d Created the Template (Part 2 of 2)
Part 1
“You call this a moe battle anime? Screw yooooouuuuuuu!!!”
A DVD case came flying over my head with the speed of a bullet, spinning rapidly as it flew. There’s an expression that disgruntled owners of trashy anime and c.r.a.ppy games like to use when it comes to criticising the product. “Just play around with it like a frisbee!” they say. However, it’s quite deplorable to actually do so.
These owners are also the ones who smash such a product into pieces and send the remains back to the company, all while mouthing off that the “heroine was just recycled goods, even though the product I bought was new.” Such actions are truly sickening.
“To-Tomoya…you know that I really can’t stand horror, right!?”
“Hmm? “KoreZom? Yes, it’s a George A. Romero t.i.tle.” Was that recommendation not to your liking?” (1)
Oh right…that noise she was making earlier, when she was crawling up the stairs, had been quite zombie-like.
“Anyway, what was up with the fourth volume?! The first three volumes were real up until that one!”
“I guess I was just careless?”
The third volume had ended on a good note, so naturally it would be the perfect place for this.
“I mean, everything was the same until the opening of the fourth volume. But as soon as I got past that, there were just guro scenes everywhere! And it wasn’t just that, someone had also made edits in the most annoying places possible!”
“So are you suggesting that I even created the DVD cover just to trick you?”
That being said, for Eriri to be unable to distinguish the fake from the real, you could call this a job well done.
“Kuah! Tomoya! What’s the purpose of this? What are you up to? What are you aiming for with this stupid, brain-dead, childish, annoying prank? Spill it right now!”
“Cool your head a bit. Describing it as just a ‘stupid prank’ is more than enough, don’t you think?”
It seems I had gotten her fired up a bit too much. She went through quite a bit of her lexicon to describe basically the same thing over and over.
“Why did you start rejecting my calls anyway?! I had no choice but to come in person because of that! And I even swore that I’d never ever come to your house again!”
“Well, you started rejecting me first. We’re even now, right?”
Despite being so averse to coming over to my house ever again, it seems you’re well-drilled in knowing how to force your way in.
Then again, we never did change the hiding place of the spare key. It’s been the same since we were in elementary school. The fact that you actually remember it after all this time, though, must mean….
“Arrgh! I’m so mad that my head is starting to hurt a bit…”
“That’s actually normal, considering the b.u.mp on your head. Should I go grab the first aid kit?”
“You’re the one responsible for this b.u.mp in the first place! How can you be so calm over this?!”
“I guess you’re right about that.”
Hmm…this senseless rage of hers…how should I put it? It’s a strong attribute. However, it follows the template a bit too much.
Such a template is a double-edged sword. A character can certainly stand out with that kind of template, but you’ll end up with a dilemma of overusing that attribute if you push it too far.
As a character, she is finely balanced as is, but if she ever breaks into one of her rages, she’ll end up degrading herself into one of those various irrational-type characters…
“Oi, Tomoya you dating sim-riddled half-brain! Are you making internal criticisms of people’s personalities again?!”
“That kind of superpower to see through someone is just like the template for the childhood friend!”
See what I mean? Exactly like that.
Oh, by the way, even though there hasn’t been any ‘dere’ from her for more than ten years, I can’t say that the ‘tsundere’ character is dead.
“He-hey, Aki-kun?”
“…Oh, you’re alive, Katou.”
I had, to my regret, completely forgotten about Katou over the past few minutes.
“…Who?”
There she was, hiding right behind me, trembling as though she had seen a ghost.
As cute as she was, it was still the usual flat Katou whose personality can be described as being as still as a statue.
“I’d be laughing by now if I were some other person listening to this conversation. Anyway, Katou, you’ve been attending the same school as us for more than a year now, haven’t you?”
“Aki-kun, do you think you’ve been attending the same school as I have over the past year?”
“That light jab back is the stuff, Katou!”
While we held our inevitably flat conversation, I pointed to the girl in front of Katou.
“Anyway, let me introduce you to our friendly neighbour Sawamura Spencer Eriri. She’s been attending the same school as me from elementary through middle and now all the way up to high school.”
“Wait, that can’t be right…That’s not Sawamura-san.”
“Are you sure you’re looking at reality here, Katou?”
That being said, I can understand why Katou wouldn’t be so trusting of my claim.
One of the first things you think of when it comes to Eriri is her blonde hair, tied smartly into her trademark twintail appearance. However, there was no sign of that right now: her usual twintails were gone and her hair was untied and loosened in a frantic mess all over her head.
On her forehead was a large, swelling red b.u.mp in place of the usual porcelain white skin that girls usually yearn for.
Those bright blue eyes of hers, so often the talk of boys, were almost half-white, similar to the shocked expressions on chibi characters.
As a final blow to her usual image, she was dressed in a green Shimamura middle school jersey, complete with the emblem of the school. When it comes to Eriri’s best and worst….
“Ho-Hold on a sec here, Tomoya!”
Eriri, the childhood friend dressed in her gap moe get-up, had finally noticed the situation. Having seemingly realised the number of people and ratio of males-to-females in the room, she lowered her voice a little.
“……Literally who?”
“She’s someone I introduced you to just two days ago. She’s in the same year and same school as us as well…”
“I guess that’s just the impression I make on people; I only realised it when I was treated the same way by Aki-kun.”
It might be that I’d grown a little more familiar with Katou in the time I’d spent with her, but I noticed that in her usual flat responses there was a bit of strength and spirit.
Although, if I were to accept her the way she currently was, I’d feel it’d already be over for her as a main heroine.
※ (TL Note 1)
“Hmph…”
“U-um…?”
“Hold still for a moment!”
“S-Sure…”
Eriri was now circling around Katou, who had stood still like a soldier at attention.
“He-hey, Aki-kun…”
“Don’t drag me into this.”
“That’s your comment after getting me into this?!”
The event unfolding before me could be described as an encounter between a tiger, whose fur was the golden sheen of b.u.t.ter about to be made, staring down at the very ordinary frog. Between the two of them , I could not understand in the least bit the roars and croaks they were exchanging. At any rate, the encounter between the two of them was a bit too warm for me, I could hardly bear to watch it.
“Maybe it’s just my imagination, but I get the feeling that Sawamura-san is staring at me very hard right now…”
“Oh, don’t mind her too much, she’s just super short-sighted. She wears contacts at school.”
“Oh, is that really all there is to it? But this…”
“This? What, exactly?”
“Hya!”
Hmm, although I told her not to mind Eriri too much, I quite understood Katou’s feeling at the moment.
When Eriri doesn’t wear her contacts, her eyesight and vision are seriously the worst.
“Hmm, so you’re Tomoya’s…”
“I’m his f-friend.”
“I’m not really interested in whether or not you’re his friend, girlfriend, otaku friend or friend with benefits.”
“Um, that last comment you made to me was rather rude.”
“Oh, don’t mind her, Katou. It’s just her incredibly rotten personality shining through. She does put on the perfect disguise at school, though.”
To ill.u.s.trate, just earlier Katou had gone and wet her handkerchief in order to cool down the swelling on Eriri’s forehead, but Eriri didn’t even show an ounce of grat.i.tude to Katou.
As you’d expect, the zipper of mascot cat costumes can’t be seen; they’re hidden away inside the golden tufts of fur.
“Well then, I guess I should explain it all…I don’t really mind either way, though.”
After completing her merry-go-round inspection of Katou, Eriri seemed to finally calm down a little. Her att.i.tude had now changed to a more relaxed tone as though she was the only person in this room.
…I had a bit to say about her sitting down cross-legged in a man’s room, but I guess now isn’t the time to really nitpick over it.
“So to summarise what’s been happening, I’ve basically been forced into another one of Tomoya’s ‘Most Brilliant Yet Stupendously Silly Plans’, sp.a.w.ned from his inability to see anything outside his little bubble and his selfish, narrow-minded desires.”
Even though she’d calmed down, she was still mouthing off her entire lexicon as usual.
“Actually, I’m rather glad you got the message from me today. If you hadn’t ended up coming, Katou would have been staying over at my house for the night.”
“Huh? You would’ve made me stay over?!”
Katou’s hysterical response was rather late.
If you took a moment to consider the circ.u.mstances, though, I suppose it’d only be natural to freak out a bit if you were invited over to a man’s room for the first time by someone you’d only known for a week and then told “you’re not going home tonight”.
“Katou-san, was it? There’s really nothing to worry about here. Even if he was alone with a girl, this guy would only choose to play games all night or do an anime marathon.”
“What are you saying, Eriri?! Even I don’t spend my entire nights playing MaOio Kart. I spend the nights conversing about love instead.” (2)
“So you mean you’ve switched your genre from racing games to only dating sims, instead.”
While saying that, Eriri turned her scornful sights onto the game on display.
“Still, having this ancient game on now…”
“Better to call it a cla.s.sic masterpiece. Back in the day, even you were addicted to this game, weren’t you?”
“That was back in elementary, wasn’t it? Anyway, you were crying and forcing me to stay back with your ‘no-leaving-until-one-route-clear’ policy.”
“I see that some of the things you say haven’t changed since elementary school, Aki-kun.”
“Overdoing the thing about MihOrin being my waifu wasn’t any good, I guess…” (3)
“Oh, what’s this? It’s really cute…”
“Ah, if you take a look at the old logs posted by ill.u.s.trators, you can trace and see some of the changes in artwork from the past several years. It’s a fun journey to follow the design changes over time, Katou.”
“I wouldn’t overload myself with going back to basics. When it comes to being an artist, the ability to look at past drawings can be a more bitter experience than death itself.”
“Still, having some past artwork up isn’t bad.”
“If you do that, you won’t be getting any hits. Why am I stating the obvious here?”
“Sure, sure.”
“Ah, Sawamura-san. Did you also draw that moe ill.u.s.tration?”
Katou’s eyes were now drawn to the page being shown on the monitor of my PC which had ‘Welcome to the egoistic-lily homepage!’ displayed on it.
“Wait, this means you really are an otaku…”
The page was filled to the brim with ill.u.s.trations of the latest popular anime and heroines from the best-selling dating sims, an attempt to clearly jump on the moe bandwagons.
“You better remember this, Tomoya…”
“It’s just that I wouldn’t have believed you otherwise if you hadn’t shown me the real deal.”
And so, Katou had seen the unkempt, jersey-wearing Sawamura Spencer Eriri; however, she was still a long way from understanding the truth behind this otaku girl.
Expanding her narrow-minded stubborn views would only be possible by revealing all of Eriri’s secrets, culture shocking her in the process.
Profile
Handle Name: Kashiwagi Eri
Circle Name: egoistic-lily
Gender: ♀
Birthday: 25th of June
Event Partic.i.p.ation Schedule: 30th of April COMIC☆Niche A-26 egoistic-lily (4)
Planned Release: [Bicycle H&H] (24 Pages)
As Katou glanced back and forth between the details on the page and the sulky look on Eriri’s face, it seemed as though she had finally understood what I had been trying to say.
“Geez, Tomoya. First you made me watch horror, even though you know I can’t stand such things, then you made me trip myself coming up the stairs, and now you’re going off revealing my home page. You really are the lowest form of sc.u.m.”
Eriri was every bit as sulky as the look on her face had suggested.
“Come on, don’t get so angry over it. Here’s the real fourth volume. Take it.”
“You should have lent me this from the very beginning. I was completely traumatised, you know.”
“…Also, here. These are the rough sketches that were a special offer bonus from buying the whole volume set.”
“W-wait…it can’t be. Are these the sold out, first-press, limited-edition-only ill.u.s.tration cards? The so-called purgatory rares?”
“Ah, yeah. These were being auctioned for well over 10,000 yen on the internet. Not to mention all of these character sketches were also published by the art director. I’m sure they’d be priceless for anyone wanting to make doujins for it…”
“…And why would you give these priceless goods away?”
“As a means of showing my sincerity in apologising…but in all honesty, I already bought another set solely for collection purposes.”
“Your ways are underhanded, as usual. You realise that I won’t be giving these back, right?”
“Do as you wish.”
“You really are an otaku…from top to bottom….”
It seems that, after baiting Eriri’s otaku mentality with concepts such as ‘First-Press-Limited-Edition’ and ‘Special Offer’, Katou had further indirectly understood what I had been getting at.
“So, do you understand now, Katou? Do you understand exactly why we need this popular genre-leeching, money-making, otaku girl? Do you understand exactly why we need this girl, who pretends to be a perfect lady at school, yet dabbles with all her might in doujins, to help us make our dating sim?!”
“Uh-um, that’s….”
“Well, I’m heading back. Also, screw you Tomoya. Go die please.”
“No, Eriri, you will definitely be joining our group! With your talent in designing distinguished characters and your crisp, modern, trendy style of drawing, we can make this utterly featureless Katou into a super moe character….”
“U-um, so basically you’re saying that without Sawamura-san’s drawing skills, we won’t be able to model a featureless person like myself…?”
“Err, it’s just that, when it comes to light novels or dating sims, (I hear that) 90% of the sales are due to the ill.u.s.trations.”
“I’ve got no clue how to follow the things you say, Aki-kun.”
“Wouldn’t your hurdles be lower if you just stuck to doing an original character instead of trying to model someone?”
“No, that would be a problem since Katou is part of the plan.”
“Well, I’ve got no motivation to be a part of this anyway, so just do whatever, Tomoya.”
“Err, that would also be a problem, as this plan would not work without you, Eriri.”
“That just goes to show how flawed your plan is. Anyway, since I’m not partic.i.p.ating, you should just do what certain companies with brands do: release sequels to t.i.tles without any of the original staff.”
“Stop, please! That brand is one I happen to respect. This matter and that matter are separate cases entirely!”
“Kyaaaa?!”
“Geh.”
“What’s wrong, Katou?”
While me and Eriri were exchanging heated words over the widespread practises of how Fandiscs were being…I mean, the current state of the game industry, Katou let loose a hysterical scream.
“A-Aki-kun! Th-this girl! Parts of her are…censored!”
“W-woah Katou! Did you click on the ‘Are you over 18?’ b.u.t.ton?”
“A-ah…how did I get all the way here….”
As I looked to where Katou was pointing at the screen, I could see that the heroine, who had been drawn smiling in a moe pose just earlier, had now changed to an ill.u.s.tration of her drooling while being penetrated from the front and behind by two invisible men.
“U-u-um…Sawamura-san, is this….”
“Katou-san, don’t you know that it’s good manners to not enquire about every little thing that you see?”
“Aren’t your pictures a greater violation of good manners?!”
“What are you trying to get at here? I mean, sure, it might be forbidden for minors to browse 18+ pictures on the internet, but there’s no restrictions on minors drawing 18+ pictures, now is there?”
“So, basically, Katou is the only one who has broken the law here. Honestly though, despite being a minor, why did you click the ‘Yes’ b.u.t.ton, Katou?”
“You’re going against me too, Aki-kun?!”
This revelation might have also come as a big shock to Katou, but I guess you could say it’s another fact about Kashiwagi Eri, or should I say Sawamura Spencer Eriri, the doujin leech.
Eriri’s genres are games and anime.
However, instead of being focused on one particular genre, she’s the type to take full advantage of the marketability of the genres, quickly switching from one popular t.i.tle to the other..
She basically updates the ill.u.s.trations on her home page daily. In effect, the number of hits on her page goes well over 10,000 a day.
She usually partic.i.p.ates in monthly events and makes huge amounts of money out of it, too.
As a result, she’s managed, with ease, to promote her circle to wall status at Comiket.
Although she’s perfectly capable of drawing and selling regular moe ill.u.s.trations, she is steadfastly dedicated to maintaining her popularity. She even goes so far as to create indecent depictions (such as the one earlier) to do so.
With that being said, I haven’t actually seen any of her 18+ works. I am a minor, after all.
“Th-then…who manages the 18+ site…?”
“There’s no need to be concerned over that. It’s my papa who manages it.”
“Huh….”
“Oh, then I may as well mention that the people who sell her goods at the events are also….”
“W-what?!”
“I’ve been telling you all this time, Katou. Your image of her father as a diplomat is quite different from the truth.”
There’s no doubt that Eriri is, as everyone says, a cultivated elite of ‘n.o.ble birth’.
However, during her ‘cultivation’, she was given some ‘qualities’ which are a just little off from what the world might usually call ‘n.o.ble’.
As the child of an otaku, foreigner father, and a fujoshi mother, Eriri is the thoroughbred of otaku culture….
Equipped with money and the understanding of her parents, or should I say the greatest contradictions to otaku-kind; Eriri is the greatest of all otakus, wielding wealth as her sword and the blessing of her parents as her shield.
“Then again, some of Katou’s remarks weren’t that misguided. It might be better in some ways to cease your 18+…err, that’s not quite it. Wouldn’t it be better to perhaps save your 18+ activities for when you’re over 18?”
“Hmm, but what I’m doing now allows me to sell my art.”
“No Eriri. Doujinshi is a hobby. Therefore it has nothing to do with being able to sell them or not.”
“What are you talking about, Tomoya? There’s quite an obvious difference in being able to sell or not.”
“Wha….”
“I can be as absorbed as I want with my hobby, however, my customers are still going to end up moving away over time. I have to dedicate myself to reading up on the latest trends to match their needs so that I can push out my drawings in a timely fashion. Otherwise, I can’t maintain my popularity.”
“E-Eriri….”
All of a sudden, there was a feeling of sporadic pain in the back of my neck.
No doubt a result of Eriri’s super-exploitive otaku-remarks.
During our chilhood, Eriri and I had followed the same dream, but along the way, our beliefs had begun to diverge too much.
“Anyway, this is the most important point really…there’s no point in making doujinshi if you’re not selling it or if you’re unpopular.”
“You’re wrong!”
“Huh?”
“You don’t have any optimistic spirit at all, Eriri! You always were quite the immature one!”
And so, I shouted.
I had become rather irritated at Eriri, my childhood friend, whom I had always known to be a bit of a maniac. Because of her manic tendenices, our paths had diverged…and, to my slight regret, she now only ever shows me her malicious side rather than her good.
“I mean, it’s true, don’t you think? Do you really think that people who hold such easy-street mentalities can produce works in a consistent manner? Let’s also ignore for a second that your releases are monthly. The way you do things, it’s like you’re aiming to release weekly instead. Do you really think that it’s sustainable to push out new art one after another like that?”
“Tomoya….”
Eriri wasn’t always like this. She was quite different in the past.
She used to be an adorable girl. She was so hooked on the dating sims I made her play that she would play them until she had managed to unlock the ‘All Clear, Congratulations!’ CG on her memory card. (5)
“I mean, having the desire to sustain your popularity and profitability alone won’t be enough to go on, don’t you think?”
Back in the day, Eriri also drew a picture of KataO AyaO. Although it was a rather crude ill.u.s.tration, it was full of warmth and love. Eriri proudly showed it to me with a smile and look of happiness on her face. She was a very charming girl back then. (6)
“Without pa.s.sion, things simply cannot be done!”
“Oh? But I can go on, Tomoya.”
“Geez, Eriri! Shouldn’t you at least be a little shocked from the intensity of this conversation?!”
“On the contrary, Tomoya. It’s the authors open to profit and have business sense who are constantly attending events and making money without problems, you know? A neighbouring circle of mine has somehow already….”
“Stop! Stop! No more crushing the dreams of this consumer otaku please!”
For a brief moment, the back of my neck was frozen with rage, as though the blood vessels had seized up from Eriri’s words.
It’s pointless. It really is pointless. I don’t think we’ll ever understand each other.
“Anyway, Tomoya, weren’t you going to switch sides to join us dirty exploiters? It won’t do you any good to keep holding onto your naïve ideals, you know?”
“It’s different in my case. My work isn’t commerical, it’s going to be a freedom of expression!”
“Then was it a lie, Tomoya, when you said that you wanted to produce something based on this girl? Would you be completely unconcerned over whether or not the game sells? Would you not care if no one knew about it, if no one in society could recognise her character? All in all, are you simply not aiming for anything beyond personal satisfaction?”
“Kah….”
I had a feeling that our argument was starting to get mixed up between the commercial world and the doujin scene, but since the realities of the doujin scene had always been in the mix of the argument, I simply bit my lip without any real response to Eriri’s words.
However, there was one girl who was concerned about the tense atmosphere in the room….
“U-um, I think the two of you shouldn’t be fi…”
“Be quiet, you!”
“Katou, it’d be better for you not to b.u.t.t into our conversation right now. Just be quiet and keep playing the game for me, okay?”
“Um, then why did you invite me over…?”
Sure, you’re here now, Katou, but your presence is currently a distraction.
“Hey, which one should we ride?”
→ Haunted House
“So, Tomoya, what sort of heroine are you going to make her into?”
“What sort…huh….”
“A virtual idol? A Vocaloid? The National Girlfriend? A 3D COstOm Girl?” (7)(8)
“Erm, that last suggestion is….”
As Eriri plugged in the USB, a dangerous feeling struck me.
“Well, it’s not as though I was going to join you anyway, so just do whatever, Tomoya.”
“There’s a solid ratio of highly unpleasant material here.”
“Ah, I’m feeling kind of tired.”
“Do you think it’d be better to add the ‘white, viscous discharges’ to the picture last?”
“When it comes to being a creator, do you not know anything about the term, ‘All-Ages’?”
“Thanks for today. Make sure to invite me again. Goodbye.”
“Well as long as it’s moe, I don’t really mind R18+ Couple’s Love that much.”
“U-um, I would also like for you to draw things that minors such as myself could purchase….”
“…Oi! Katou! You’ve made the wrong choice again!”
“Huh? But we’ve already gotten so lovey dovey with each other, geez. It shouldn’t matter what choice I make now, right? This girl is definitely going to confess to me.”
“You’ve got to be giving it your all until the very end! Would you be saying this on a real date?!”
“Ahh, alright, I get it. Well, would it be okay for me to just load the save from around the time I invited her on the date?”
“No, Katou, you don’t get it, you don’t get it at all! I’ve told you countless times already! Both life and games are one-round matches. Trying to go through them using reset b.u.t.tons and the like is just an act of heresy!”
“Looks like I’ve misjudged you, Katou-san.”
“Huh? Sawamura-san…?”
“I made a bento today. Do you want to eat it together?”
“Hey, Eriri, you’ve only been creating secondary works of popular t.i.tles up until now, right?”
“What makes you say that, Tomoya?”
“Don’t you think it’s about time that you started promoting yourself through your own original works?”
“No….”
“Well, you certainly should be thinking about it. If your own original works manage to become a big hit, your doujin sales will rise, and it’d be due to no one else but you, right?”
According to some of the sources I listen to, the amount of money you get in proportion to the amount of work you do in industries such as dating sim and eroge development aren’t particularly high. In fact, it’s much easier to earn money through making doujinshi instead.
Basically, the people in these jobs would go into doujinshi to further supplement their income. They would reluctantly…actually, no, this only really applies to some of the authors, doesn’t it?
“Those are just stories from the industry, Tomoya. Anyway, what’s more for the irrelevant, individual-level circles to strike it big with their goods is just some dream success story. If I had the time to be drawing for some fantasy like that, I would’ve been able to push out five whole art books already.”
“Don’t you remember though? In the doujin scene, there was a nameless, tiny circle that pulled off a miracle. They transformed their hobby into a ma.s.sive novel and then dominated the industry for several years.” (9)
“The reason why that circle was so successful was ultimately due to the G.o.d-like story, wasn’t it? They also tried hard with the ill.u.s.trations…er….”
“That’s exactly why it was so successful and why it was so fundamentally solid.”
“Tch….”
“Anyhow, Eriri, who did you think the scenario supervisor was going to be? Did you think it was that Kasumi….”
“I had no intention of joining you from the beginning, since if ‘that person’ does join, I will 100% for sure not be joining.”
“…Despite your intention to not join, why are you so specific in singling out ‘that person’?”
“Oh, that reminds me, Sawamura-san. Back during our first meeting, your att.i.tude towards Kasumigaoka-senpai was also rather sensitive, wasn’t it? Could it be that something happened in the past….”
“Be quiet and keep playing your game. Ah, she’s got a bomb next to her name, you know? What are you doing?” (10)
“Oh? Ah, you’re right. That was dangerous.”
“…Pulled some tricks here, huh?”
“Huh? What?”
“I’d been wondering about the same thing earlier, Eriri. Why do you dislike Utaha-senpai? You’re both popular people, so I would’ve thought that there would be a lot of things in common for you two to talk about.”
“What about yourself, Tomoya? Isn’t your att.i.tude towards that person rather different than last year? Back during the first days of our first year, you were over the moon for….”
“Th-that was….”
“Oh that reminds me, Aki-kun. You were also rather awkward towards Utaha-senpai, weren’t you? Could it be that something happened last year….”
“Quiet you and keep to the game. Things are going to get ugly if you don’t raise your Physical Strength by Christmas.”
“…The two of you sure are alike, don’t you think?”
“I have faith that you’ll make a regular on the team.”
“So please do your best at soccer.”
“….”
“….”
“Um, what’s up with you two?”
“Huh? Oh, ah…nothing.”
“Th-there’s…nothing wrong at all, Katou-san.”
“H-hey, Eriri, could you think it over one more time?”
“I’ve said that it’s impossible countless times already. Just give it up, Tomoya.”
“Hey, remember the completely awful ‘What’s about to Come’ genre that I’ve been telling you about?”
“Yeah, what’d you say about it?”
“Well, don’t you think you should return some of the favours I do for you? You do want to avoid all that bad karma, right? I mean, just how many of the games, anime, and other stuff over at your house do you think were once mine?”
“Your in-fashion goods lean far too much to moe, which means that they’re no good for striking it big. If you could cover some more expansive genres, I’d be able to use more of your goods.”
“Woah, I’d expect no less from that aristocratic att.i.tude of yours.”
“Anyway, I’ve got an upcoming event next month, so I’ll be busy. Sorry, but….”
“If it’s alright with you…could you please take me with you to the national stadium?”
“…Ah.”
“…Mmh.”
“Are you two crying?”
“And so, the curtain closed on my three years in high school.”
“From here on out, I’ll be walking together with SaO.” (11)
“….”
“….”
“….”
“Ah, it’s over….”
“Aah….”
“Oh, it’s getting bright outside.”
Translation Notes and References
TL Note 1. There are times in the light novel where time skips a few minutes or hour or two, or the segment of a particular scene/dialogue/train of thought ends and this symbol is used to denote this. This symbol though does not denote strongly, a change of location or a time skip of great length (days for example). This will make it easier to see where the transition of dialogue ends. Previous chapters will also get this symbol later, as will future chapters.
1. A non-censored(!) reference to Kore ha Zombie Desuka? Or its true name in English, Korean Zombie Desk Car. Incidentally this is also being translated by NanoDesu so you should head on over and read it! (Totally not shameless self-promotion.)
2. Refers to Mario Kart. Mario Kart on N64 was pretty d.a.m.n fun if I may say so myself.
3. Another reference to Tokimeki Memorial. Refers to Miharin or Tatebayashi Miharu. For a character from a game as old as Tokimeki, she’s pretty cute. Good taste Tomoya.
4. Often you might see j.a.panese artists post weird coordinate lookings letters and numbers like this on their pixiv name/twitter name etc. This denotes where their table is located at a particular event and helps customers search for them. You’ll definitely notice this during comiket time if you follow any demi-prominent artist.
5. CG or Computer Graphic are special ill.u.s.trations of scenes in Dating Sims/Visual Novels etc.
6. More Tokimeki Memorial references. This time the character in question is Katagiri Ayako. Interesting to note the parallels between her and Eriri. Both are artists.
7. National Girlfriend is a reference to Love Plus, a series of popular games on the 3DS well known for the controversies their characters caused. Examples include people marrying their 3DS and unknown reports of jaded wives and girlfriends whose husbands and boyfriends focused more on the Love Plus characters than their real life partners.
8. Refers to 3D Custom Girl, a piece of software which allows you to create your own female model to play around with.
9. Can refer to two potential doujin groups. First and most likely is Type-Moon, creators of the Tsukihime and Fate/Stay Night visual novels which are immensely popular and have sp.a.w.ned countless spinoffs. The second is 7th Expansion, the group behind the Higurashi visual novels. Not nearly as prominent as Type-Moon but have still come a long way from being a simple doujin group. Also, those ill.u.s.trations man.
10. The infamous bomb from Tokimeki. In the game, having a bomb next to a heroine’s name meant she was going to turn really nasty and start all sorts of horrible rumours about you. This would make it harder for you to score with the other heroines. A way to avoid this was to do round robin dating. (Pretty weird, don’t you think?)
11. The final Tokimeki Memorial reference in this part, refers to Nijino Saki, manager of the Soccer/Baseball team in the game. Katou’s first conquered Heroine now. I wonder what links we can draw from this?