AFTERWORD

So I guess I like post-apocalyptic worlds.

If I look through the novels, manga, and games on my shelves, there’s quite a few where the world has ended. I wonder why.

Lately, I’ve started to come up with grandiose-sounding reasons like “Because it’s only in a world of ruin that the power of life can truly shine!” and such.

The Mohawks from Fist of the North Star are a good example. I know they’re supposed to be the bad guys, but they know what they want and chase after it, unrestrained and undoubting, every day glittering with sweat and excitement over the loot they’re going to plunder today.

“Hya-ha! Water!” they cry! Such optimism, even though we all know Kenshiro is going to tear them to shreds three seconds later. I can’t help but feel somewhat enamored with those silly little guys, weak and unfortunate though they are. They live fast and leave pretty corpses. They transcend good and evil; they’re pure, transient forces of nature.

That’s the kind of feeling I tried to instill in the world and characters of Sabikui Bisco. (And I don’t mean in their superficial qualities like their looks or their silly voices… I’m talking about their hearts!) I tried to have them inherit the brilliant life energy of the Mohawks.

I could handle the world, but I wondered how to write the heroes. What made the heroes different from the Mohawks? In my mind, it was that the heroes had a mission. Something on which to focus their limitless life energy. That could be many things. Depending on the themes of the story, it could be “justice” or “ambition.”

For the characters in Bisco, I gave them “love.”

Now, love is a very complicated word. For Sabikui Bisco, I defined it as strong feelings between one person and another (so that included things like hate and obsession). It’s all for love that these seven characters run through this twilit world, risking their lives and growing beaten and bloodied. They’re barbarians. They have no respect for society. They simply cannot think of anything but their love.

Even today, if you find something you love (be it a person, a job, art, or even writing) and stake your life on it, you can endure any pain. And every time you do, you shine brilliantly.

That’s the sort of love I wanted to write about—and whose praises I sang in writing the characters of this book. If their pure, single-minded devotion gives strength to any of my readers, then as an author I can ask for no greater happiness…

…And with that, I will draw this afterword to an end. See you next time.

—Shinji Cobkubo