Gakusen Toshi Asterisk - Volume 11 - Chapter Aft

AFTERWORD 
Hi there, Yuu Miyazaki here. 
As promised at the end of the last volume, this one was mainly about Kirin. The cover illustration might be of Haruka and Varda, but well, Kirin was given center stage there last time, and we’ve got to give everyone their turn! And, of course, this is the first time we’ve really gotten to see Varda, which is pretty exciting. 
Now, I’d like to touch on what happens this time around. There will be spoilers here, so do take care if you haven’t finished reading! 
To be perfectly honest, this volume was probably the hardest for me to put together thus far. I already had a general outline before setting out to write it, but whenever I sat down to work, it was unexpectedly difficult to make Kirin step off the page and come alive. She’s timid and reserved in character, tender-hearted and with an indomitable will, so I ended up wracking my brain trying to work out how she would convey her feelings. In the end, after trying a bunch of different scenarios, this was what I came up with. That said, while I did want her to take a step forward, maybe she’s gone a little too far… 
I’ve also finally been able to pull back the curtain a bit on Ayato’s family, Haruka included. I had been holding back on revealing too much about them until now, but seeing how it all ties into the main events back in Asterisk, I thought it best to start shedding a bit of light on everything. 
As mentioned above, okiura’s wonderful cover illustration depicts Haruka and Varda! The same goes for the covers for the side-stories, but okiura’s designs are about to enter new territory! I can’t help but be struck by how awesome they are! The basic rule for the Phoenix arc in the first six volumes was to show just one character, while for the five volumes of the Gryps arc, we wanted to feature two characters on each one. We’re going to be introducing a new format starting with Volume 12, so I hope you’re all looking forward to it as much as I am! 
Ningen’s manga adaptation of The Asterisk War in Comic Alive is about to enter its final round! I’m so grateful to Ningen for really bringing the first three volumes to life so stylishly! I’d like to express my thanks for all the hard work! 

Also, the final volume of Akane Shou’s manga adaptation of The Asterisk War: The Wings of Queenvale in Bessatsu Sh?nen magazine is scheduled to be released on September 10! It’s truly a wonderful series, especially considering that the manga version is an original work, which we then worked on adapting into a pair of light novels! I’ve lost count of the times we both got so excited talking about everything over the phone. I’m so grateful! I hope you’ll all join me and keep following Minato and all the other characters who are featured in it until the very end! 
On top of all that, the anime adaptation of The Asterisk War has successfully reached the end of its twenty-four episode run! Now that a few days have passed since the last episode aired, I’ve had a bit of time to reflect on just how superbly everyone working on it managed to adapt everything to the screen! It’s been quite a while since the project first got underway, but it feels like it’s all passed in the blink of an eye. As the author of the original novels, I couldn’t be happier! I hope one day we’ll be able to bring Ayato and others back to the world of anime! 
On top of all that, I’ve been involved in supervising the setting for the mobile phone application The Asterisk War: Brilliant Stella, which is now available! Please take a look at it! 
Last but not least, I’d like to express my thanks to everyone who’s helped me out so much again this time around. Or rather, I’d like to apologize for always causing you all so much trouble once again. 
I want to extend my deepest thanks to O, my new editor, along with my previous editors I and S for all their work organizing the anime and dealing with the rights. I’d also like thank everyone else in the editorial department, everyone involved in the anime, everyone who worked on the video game adaptation, and everyone else who’s supported me along the way. 
I hope to see you again in the next one! 
Yuu Miyazaki 
July 2016