Afterword

This is my 41st book. Zounose here. When I signed up for this event, I said I was going for a more serious book about Rumia. But in the end, I got other ideas and felt like drawing some gags after all, so I had to make some last-minute changes. The end result is something of a not-quite-gag book, but anyway...

I've mentioned a few times now that I want to make my lines thicker, but this time I didn't just think about it, I actually made some fundamental changes to my pen settings before starting to draw. Even I myself have no idea yet how it'll actually look in print, but here's hoping.

By the way, about that anecdote on Asita's disciple: It's actually from Tezuka Osamu's manga "Buddha". It's not a real legend, just so you know...

But of course, by being centered on Shou, the themes couldn't help but overlap with my own maiden work "Hungry Tiger". The self-contradiction of how she must deal with her opposing identities of "avatar" and "youkai" seems to fascinate me to this day. Truth be told, I can't help but feel like the book would've been more fun if I'd just gone with the original gag-based idea, but in the end... hitting people in the face with what you want to draw is the true thrill of doujin...!

Even now as I write this afterword, no one can actually tell for sure if this event is going to happen. You really do wonder where this is all going. But that being said, I intend to maintain this pace, so I hope you'll keep picking up my books... in one form or another. Next I'm planning a very god-like story starring Kanako, Eirin, Tewi and Suwako. Although, it seems like it'll be another one high on the production costs so to speak, so I might change at the last minute once more... But, well then. I hope we can meet again.

When I first decided to go for more gags, I was planning for Hijiri to have a larger role as she watched the slapstick show of Rumia and Shou trying to hunt some humans, supporting and cheering them on. But when I took a closer look at SoPM to double-check the backstory, the line "She likely couldn't even return to that (man-eating) form of the past." in Shou's article had a sad, somehow forlorn sound to it. I ended up making that the centerpiece of the story.