An Afterword I Couldn’t Put Off for Later/

But an Afterword Nonetheless

In one corner of a dying world, a young man whose story should have already ended accepts the end and meets girls who fight…

That’s the gist of WorldEnd: What Do You Do at the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us? (or simply WorldEnd), all five volumes of which are on sale and doing very well, thanks to everyone’s support. The sequel series, What Do You Do at the End of the World? Could We Meet Again Once More? (or simply WorldEnd2) is also coming along quite nicely. I hope you check that out, too.

These titles are so long!

Anyway, it’s me, Kareno. I’ve brought you a book that contains two little episodes that have a bit of a unique position within the series as a whole.

Let me write down some terrible spoilers for the enthusiastic folk who never learn their lesson and always start reading from the afterword: Ummm, Chtholly eats cake. And Lillia eats cookies.

To say exactly what is so unique—well, I believe my more intelligent readers will have already noticed without waiting for my explanation.

…Hmm? Yes, that is correct—the girls on the cover are not crying this time. But that isn’t the most important point. I mean, it is important, but that’s not the only thing.

First, this is a short story collection for WorldEnd, which is already completed. This is not the most recent volume of WorldEnd2.

What was it like on the surface way back when, which was rarely ever portrayed due to the development of the main story (and I currently have no plans to depict it any further in the future)? What did Lillia, who is probably the most courageous kid in the whole series, actually think of Willem? There’s Lillia’s story, and then there’s Chtholly’s story, which shows the few days right before the faerie soldiers left on their mission. This takes place at the climax of Volume 1 in the first series, which was omitted due to the flow and scale of the series. And then Lakhesh pops up every now and again in between.

So all these stories are snapshots of a time when things were relatively more peaceful. It’s about how these girls spent their days before they started getting very busy with the end of the world. Readers can treat these anecdotes as brief peeks into the girls’ daily lives before all the fighting.

Every story, by the way, has Seniorious in it. Perfect attendance. That was why this book’s code name while I was writing it was The Seniorious Trilogy.

Among my scrapped plots was one of a personified Seniorious, just grumbling over a drink, “Everyone’s always like, ‘It’s all your fault; it’s all your fault,’ but look, I’m just doing my best here, okay?!” Yeah, I’m glad I scrapped that one.

Now we come to the anime information corner: The show will begin airing very soon.

At the time of my writing this afterword (December), there is no question that a lot of details being kept under wraps will have already been made public.

Like how production will be handled by Satelight (!).

And how the anime will be directed by Junichi Wada (!!).

And the structure of the series will be handled by someone who’s never done anime before.

…Er, yes. You’re right.

I, Kareno, will be doing that. The structure of the series. And the scripts for several episodes.

The complicated setting, the excessive psychological descriptions, the tangled flow of emotion, my dependence on what it is the readers enjoy, and so on and so on—Basically, I’m going all out with things that can only be used in the medium of novels for the WorldEnd series.

And I’ll be writing the scripts based on that.

It sounds like a rather intense fight, but I stupidly thought, Those pro script writers will use their pro skills to figure something out!

“We believe that only someone fully versed in the details of the original work will be able to write the script.”

“Well, sure, that is the type of story this is.”

“And so, Kareno, we would like you to do it.”

“…Whaaat?”

That conversation may or may not have happened, but my current role is the result. Anyway, as this is my first time working on something of this nature, I am learning a lot on the way. I’m doing my best to make this story enjoyable for both those who have read the books and those who haven’t.

And that’s the system in place for the anime adaptation of WorldEnd: What Do You Do At The End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us? that is currently in earnest production. Please wait a little longer until it airs.

The novel series will, of course, continue.

The next volume of WorldEnd2: What Do You Do at the End of the World? Could We Meet Again Once More? will be number four. It should be in your hands relatively soon…I think. We’ll be fine, I’m sure.

And so we shall meet again somewhere beneath this sky.

Winter 2016

AKIRA KARENO