Afterword

Hello again, Yuki Yaku here.

Publication of the Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki series began in May 2016, and this volume goes on sale in May 2018. That makes an even two years from the launch to the sixth volume.

They say time goes faster the older you get, but when I look back over the two years since my debut, saying time went fast sounds like an understatement—I feel like three or four years have passed, and I’m sure it’s because of all the new things I’ve been lucky enough to try out during this time. From author events and television appearances to having the series turned into a manga and needing to meet regular deadlines, these two years have been full of new experiences.

Among those new experiences is the simultaneous release of the sixth volume of the book with the first volume of the manga, which is currently also being serialized in Gangan Joker. I’m very grateful for all this, and I hope my readers will check out the manga version, too. I also hope I’ll be able to continue taking on new challenges so that future years feel just as long when I look back on them.

And as for those new challenges, I suppose I should start with the little things, like this afterword. In that sense, a certain topic naturally presents itself as the focus.

Yes: the angles of Gumi-chan’s joints in the second full-color opening illustration, which depicts her making her hands into a pair of rabbit ears.

Now, I’m sure some of you are thinking—why this again? Was that line about “taking on new challenges” just a convenient segue? But I’ll ask you to keep your comments to yourself. I’ve come this far, and one of these days, I’ll be writing the final volume, so I plan to continue with my standard MO regardless of your censure or praise. Prepare yourself. I’ll keep writing about what I like until the bitter end.

Anyhow, the first things I must note are the angles of her shoulder, elbow, and fingers in the hand holding her cell phone.

Requests for opening illustrations of specific scenes are usually communicated to the illustrator once the manuscript has been firmed up to a certain degree. This time, when the editor and I sent in our illustration requests, we asked for a picture of Gumi-chan making rabbit ears with both hands, but of course, we didn’t go so far as to specify the angle of her arms or anything like that.

All the same. The illustrator has reduced the angle of her arms to the bare minimum of what could be called “making rabbit ears,” and, in doing so, subtly communicates her lazy personality so that readers will instinctively sense it.

Also, as you can see at a glance, Gumi-chan is sitting on the edge of her chair. Again, through the angle of her hip joints, readers are able to instinctively understand that while she has roused herself a bit at this particular moment, she was slouched against the back a second earlier.

It’s not just her joints, either. The fact that she’s making the rabbit ears while holding her phone deserves mention, too. That small detail communicates the fact that when she made this little pose for Tomozaki and Mizusawa, she didn’t go to the trouble of putting her phone away but instead just made a slapdash gesture. Once again, Gumi-chan’s personality comes through powerfully.

Add in her cute expression and the sloppy way she’s got her legs crossed, and you have a drawing that perfectly illustrates the character.

When this series first started, I needed to share my images of the characters with the illustrator, Fly-san, whom I’d never met or even talked to. I sent him a mysterious note saying, “I’ve emphasized the high-school-girl-ness of the characters in this series, so please create the same mood in the illustrations,” which I think put him off a little. But this illustration really does vividly overflow with that “high-school-girl-ness” I requested.

In short, through the details in the illustrations—like the knot on Mimimi’s gym clothes, the transparency of Kikuchi-san’s school-uniform blouse, and the turquoise necklace that Yuzu wore, which became famous because I freaked out Fly-san a little by saying, “Hey, that’s turquoise, isn’t it? I totally get that. Yuzu would definitely wear turquoise”—he always draws out the essence of each character. And once again, when it came to depicting the typical contemporary high school girl Gumi-chan, he used simple, realistic details like the lazy angle of her joints and the sloppy way she holds her cell phone to bring out her personality.

If Gumi-chan were a real girl, I’d tell her she should use this picture as the background image for her LINE home screen.

I hope I’ve managed to communicate my feelings on this subject.

Now on to the acknowledgments.

To my illustrator, Fly-san, thank you for sticking with me through even my most detailed suggestions. Iwaasa-san and I always praise you to the skies. I’m a loyal fan.

To my editor, Iwaasa-san, I know I promised you after almost missing the deadline for the last volume that I’d do better this time, but once again, I barely made it. I promise I’ll do better next time.

To my readers, thank you for all your support. I pretty much scour the Internet for my own work, so I’ve probably read most of your reviews. I’ll do my best to further your reading enjoyment even more in the future, so I hope you’ll keep up with the series. See you in the next volume.

Yuki Yaku