Kino no Tabi:Volume4 Author's Notes

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Afterward —Preface— [1][edit]

Hello everyone. Thank you for reading this far. As always, this is the author, Keiichi Sigsawa.

‘Kino no Tabi’ has finally reached its fourth volume. This is all thanks to the readers.

Why, thank you very much for your support! [2]

Because of a sudden turn of events, even this author doesn’t know what will happen next (laughs).

This time, I was considering an idea of making Kino’s last journey to be that into space. At the onset, it will be revealed that the real enemies are the ‘Four Great Demons of the Universe’. In the final battle, a can opener will accomplish an important role, and the hot bath in the third chapter will serve as foreshadowing. I was quite satisfied when I wrote it down.

Even though I really planned this out since the third volume, making Kino’s character more solid seemed a good idea, and it turned out that the first appearance would be here!

I wanted to make Hermes transform into a green spaceship by the end of volume two, but I changed my mind. The plan is crazy in some places so I will just develop what will happen next based on my gut feel (laughs).

I think it would be surprising if I reveal that Riku is actually a spy of the enemy and have Shizu kidnapped using chloroform. Shizu’s sword will break into five pieces, and as to what Shizu would do then… Even the author doesn’t know the answer to that (laughs). But I haven’t decided yet (laughs again).

But there’s one thing for sure. The real fight has just begun to determine Kino and Shizu’s future. There’s more to come.

To defeat one of the ‘Four Great Demons of the Universe’, Kino and company will have to obtain the legendary persuader, ‘Big Cannon ~Shining Iron Demon Destroyer~[3], which even Master cannot get her hands on. Then they will be heading towards the outskirts of the universe.

From here on, the main plot will deal with the mystery to surpass the demon’s territory ‘Void’, a ‘human story’ in a planet they will pass by, and a series of thrilling battles with the enemy’s special forces, ‘The Forty-Five Color Dark Army’.

Oh, right. In the final chapter, when they come out twice the astronautical speed, Kino will say, ‘But eye drops are bitter.’ This will be a big, big hint on what will happen next. Ah, I’ve written it down (laughs).

In a side story, Master will reappear in a dining room scene, where she would be having a fierce argument with Shizu. I loved this stylish dialogue to such an extent that I wrote a whole chapter without a single narrative.

But the editor said, “It’s too long,” and I reluctantly cut out some of the dialogue (cries…). Someday, if I get the chance, I would like to explain in detail why Shizu was fixated on grilling using charcoal fire.

Well from here on, the next three volumes or so of ‘Kino no Tabi’ will be focusing on the main battle, though the development will be fairly hard. The second part will be tasteful; with Kino becoming involved in malicious stock trading after arriving at a certain planet. How will Kino be able to recover after she loses all of her money as well as Hermes? I believe this will be Dengeki Bunko’s first stock trading drama. Twenty volumes are slated for the second part.

And with a sudden turn of events, in the third part, Kino will end up as a student in a certain planet, and will get involved with troublesome situations [4]. The enemy here will be… *drumming noise*… one of her classmates. The one who would play a particularly important role is the mysterious student council president who would take over the school. And then, there will be the reappearance of… oops, I’m not going to tell (laughs). Perhaps, everyone’s booing me right now (grins).

There’s still more in store for ‘Kino no Tabi’. The current plot will end in 34 issues, but there are plans to extend it up to volume 454. I think we will have quite a long partnership, so from here on, I’ll work even harder in writing. Please continue your support!

Summer, 2001

Keiichi Sigsawa

Translator’s Notes[edit]

  1. Normally, the title should be atogaki, which means ‘afterword’. However this one is entitled atogasa, which sounds to me like ‘What happened after is…’, hence this title. As a side note, atogaki and atogasa are identical except for their last characters, and moreover, the hiragana characters for ‘ki’ and ‘sa’ are very similar.
  2. Specifically, the author said “kansha kangeki amearare”, which means something like, ‘gratitude and appreciation raining like hail’. After digging for a bit, I read somewhere that this was a pun on a phrase used in times of war, “ransha rangeki amearare”, literally, ‘bullets being fired blindly like rain and hail’.
  3. Translation borrowed straight from Untuned-Strings' Gakuen Kino translation.
  4. So this is the joke that gave birth to the spin-off series, Gakuen Kino… ^_^