AFTERWORD

Hello, Yuu Miyazaki here.

Here you have it, Volume 5 of The Asterisk War. I apologize for the long wait.

When I started to write Asterisk, I already had the outline planned to the end. But some things are bound to change as one writes. This volume’s cover girl, Sylvia, for instance—she’s one of the five heroines I had planned for the story. She was supposed to make her debut in the upcoming Gryps tournament, but we pushed her up to Volume 5 at the insistence of my previous editor, Mr. Iwaasa. Now that I’ve written it, I see he had the right idea.

And, as the readers who just finished this volume will know, this concludes the Phoenix arc of the story. In the next volume, after a brief digression (I say that, but it will be plenty significant to the plot), we’ll start the Gryps arc. I hope you’ll join us for the next phase of the story.

Once again, I’m so grateful to okiura for the amazing illustrations, starting with the brilliant cover art of Sylvia. We spent quite a bit of time going over her design, her weapon, her hair color… So I’m confident that it came out well. Our okiura really is great!

On top of all that, the first volume of The Asterisk War manga by Ningen came out recently. It’s full of Julis and company looking fine and awesome in dynamic action, so please add it to your collection! And the series is running in Monthly Comic Alive!

Now, last but not least, so many people helped me get this volume out, too.

I’d like to thank the staff at Luckpim Publishing, for their help in the signings in Thailand, and similarly the staff at Sharp Point Press for the events in Taiwan.

To my new editor, Mr. Ikemoto, who rushed around to help after being assigned to me, thank you so much. I’m grateful to Ohrui, Shimizu, and the rest of the editorial staff—and more than anything, to my readers for your support.

Hope I’ll see you all in the next volume.

Yuu Miyazaki

February 2014