Afterword
Afterword
She said it! 
I know I said in the Volume 8 afterword “With so many bombshells locked and loaded, I wonder which one I’ll detonate first [evil grin],” but that was a lie. I was planning for this from the beginning, and that’s why I wrapped things up with this RPG session—the only place Chihiro was allowed to be her true self around Itsuki.
Thus, Volume 9 finally ends with Chihiro exploding. Miyako and Ashley had some new developments as well; we have a new full-on loli character in Nadeshiko, and overall I think I packed a lot in here. If you enjoyed it, I’m happy.
By the way, I just want to say there is no relation between Toki’s past and that of anybody in real life. Many thanks to my editor, Iwaasa, for the tremendously useful stories he told me!
Between the industry material, the nudity, the beer, the board games, and so on, this series contains pretty much everything I enjoy in a single package. The one thing it lacked was a kid, so with this volume, everything’s finally complete. The series really is just an extension of all my hobbies, so I doubt many readers are a fan of everything that’s appeared from Volume 1 forward. (If you are, try writing a novel. I insist.) However, it does look like a lot of people got into writing novels, or craft beer, or board games, or tabletop RPGs thanks to reading Sister, which I couldn’t be happier to see. I’ll do my best to keep on stoking your curiosity.
So as of a few weeks before I’m writing this, the anime version of A Sister’s All You Need. has wrapped up all twelve episodes of its TV broadcast. I put everything I had into it, serving as story editor, and I’m sure I’m going to cherish it as something I love for the rest of my life.
Itsuki’s statement in the final episode, along the lines of “But it’s still fun, and that’s why I’m here,” isn’t in the original novels, but I think it’s a good way to sum up the writing aspect of this series. Not every part of it is fun—in fact, the majority of it is really hard—but in the end, I guess that’s what it all comes down to. So as long as I find it fun, I think I’ll want to keep going at it.
And to the readers as well—if watching the anime to the end helped make you feel a bit more optimistic about matters, then I’d be overjoyed to hear that.
Anyway, the first of two Blu-ray box sets for the Sister anime comes out January 26, 2018 in Japan, with the second one coming March 23. I hope you enjoy the incredibly fun (and occasionally heart-wrenching) adventures of Itsuki and the gang.
By the way, as mentioned in the story, television media is a huge pain in the ass to work in. Words that no network had problems with three or six months ago are suddenly banned, things that are ever-so-slightly racy get subject to the most inane restrictions… It’s all so incredibly common. We tried to toe the line as much as possible with the scripts and visuals for the Sister anime, but things I assumed would pass with no problem when I wrote them turned out to be gigantic headaches. A penis is just a body part, people!
…I’m completely satisfied with the anime itself, but to be perfectly honest, not everything about what was broadcast on TV was my original intention. I hope you’ll be inspired to check out the Blu-ray version to see how things really are.
As a bonus for the twin Blu-ray box sets, each one comes with a 100 percent original drama CD written by me. In Set 1, Itsuki’s sick with a cold, and Chihiro, Nayuta, Miyako, Kaiko, Ashley, Haruto’s sister, Alice, Kenjiro Toki, and other members of his beautiful-girl harem come along to help him out in The Get-Well-Soon All-Stars. Thanks to binaural recording, it really feels like you’re there—it’s like some kind of far-future technology, and it’s great. As you might guess from the cast, it all turns out to be a dream in the end, but it’s such a powerful story, you won’t even care that I just spoiled it.
For Set 2, the disc contains two stories: The Ashley Ono Route (Digest), and The Kaiko Mikuniyama Route (Digest). Yes, just like in a dating sim, Ashley and Kaiko go after Itsuki’s love like their lives depend on it. Both characters are essentially the heroes of their own story lines in the novels, but since this is a bonus for the anime—itself a parallel world—I figured writing something like this wouldn’t be a bad thing to have. Ashley heaping attention upon Itsuki is incredibly cute, and no matter what timeline she’s living in, Kaiko never stops acting insane. It was super-fun to write and record, and what’s more, Jouji Nakata provides the voice for Kaiko’s dad, a character who didn’t make it into the anime. You’ve got this incredible voice huffing panties in the midst of the story, so I hope you’ll check it out.
Both stories are subtitled (Digest) simply because, due to time restraints, they had to be compressed a bit, but perhaps you’ll see a non-digest version in audio or novel form for the Ashley and Kaiko routes. What am I saying? There absolutely won’t be. Sorry. What you will find in the box sets are bonuses like a character-song CD, material for the Landscape series and A Sister’s All You Need! that’s all far higher quality than it needs to be, and so forth. Be on the lookout.
Q&A Corner
[Q] Will Kasuka Sekigahara make an appearance again?
[A] In the novels, that’s a big TBD from me. I’d be happy to have her show up in the Q&A Corners between chapters…but I’m concerned it’d ruin any future plans. If enough people want to see her, I’ll make it happen.
[Q] In the world of A Sister’s All You Need!, what did Yomi Hirasaka do after wrapping up Haganai?
[A] Good question. Chances are, he either retired from writing and just goofed around in Gifu Prefecture, or maybe he’s beavering away on some other series.
[Q] Do you go on as many trips as Itsuki and company do?
[A] I’m not quite as free of obligations as them, but I do like visiting Hakone and making other quick trips from greater Tokyo.
[Q] Will Miyako find happiness?
[A] I don’t know how you’d define happiness, but maybe she’ll look back on how she is now—lost and searching for her own way—and see that as happy times.
[Q] Are there really tax accountants with as good a rapport with their clients as Ashley?
[A] I go out to eat with my tax accountant quite a bit, actually, so I think they do exist. There’s a decent age difference between us, but we went to the same high school, so for the most part, we just whine about how shitty it was.
[Q] What issues did you run into producing the Sister anime?
[A] The things I was directly involved with—screenwriting, the bonus drama CDs, voice recording—generally went pretty smoothly, so I don’t really have any sob stories to recall (the producer and editors had a harder time, but…). There were a ton of assets for me to look over and approve, which certainly kept me busy, but it also taught me how nice it is when they actually ask me to check everything, rather than slum it. I didn’t see that as a pain at all.
[Q] I want an anime season two!
In the “favorite character” surveys, Nayuta had been number one for nearly the entire series, except for Miyako in Volume 5. However, in Volume 8, Chihiro finally took the top spot for the first time. Generally, for the first five volumes, Nayuta, Miyako, Chihiro, Itsuki, and Kasuka were neck and neck, followed by Ashley, Haruto, Ui, and Kaizu vying for sixth place. It’s not that survey results change what I write, but I always secretly look forward to reading them.
Anyway, here’s hoping I see you in Volume 10 and the Blu-rays!
Yomi Hirasaka
Ravishing Silver-Haired Nude Female Novelist
Early January 2018
Afterword
This is Kantoku, the series illustrator. Imagine! Aoba, of all people, serving as a drop-in wife of sorts. Allow me to draw her in a uniform for this page, please. I always believed she wouldn’t keep that snippy tone forever, but I had no idea she had the potential to be so sweet.
There’s a lot of tears in this volume’s illustrations overall, but I think the plot isn’t sad so much as moving at a pretty fast clip. And the impact at the end! As the illustrator, I want to produce more visuals of Chihiro as a girl, but what will the future hold there?! That’s what I’m most excited about this year.
