Slayers - Volume 3 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

Hello again! It’s me, L, back with the author’s full permission to handle this afterword! What’s that, you ask? What’s that concrete lump in the closet? How should I know? It’s none of my business! I’m sure the author could tell you all about it, but more’s the pity, he’s not here right now!

Now, on to bigger matters! Those of you starting with these new editions, and even those of you who read them back in the day, you may have questions. There’s a lot that goes unexplained in these Slayers novels, isn’t there? For example, all that “my big sister back home” stuff!

So for this afterword, when I was interrogating the author—I mean, while we were having a nice chat on a fashionable cafe terrace—I asked if he could explain it. Unfortunately, he said it’s all for flavor, not foreshadowing.

You see, back when the author was going to design school, during illustration class, he heard his teacher comment on a drawing of a party done by a classmate, “The whole group fits so perfectly on-screen, it’s hard to believe there are people off-screen.” That really stuck with him for some reason. To phrase it differently, if everything that appears in the story is fully explained, it makes the whole world feel smaller.

Unlike TV, manga, and other forms of entertainment, novels have to be expressed in words and the most powerful weapon is always the reader’s imagination! So things like Lina’s big sister back home, Gourry’s grandmother, and Gourry’s first adventure in Sairaag are just there to stimulate the reader’s imagination. The author might not even know the whole story!

From what I can tell, that’s a very artsy-fartsy way of him saying he doesn’t want to be bothered to answer questions in-story. Some of what isn’t explored are clearly just things he never gave any thought, but there are other things that have been designed and are just never revealed. Like Lina’s sister. There’s actually a big afterword in the short story collection that talks about her.

On the other hand, there are also certain things that don’t get explored simply because it’s a first-person narrative. For instance, there’s the assassin Zuma who will appear in a later volume. The author had a backstory in mind for him, but because the novels are told from Lina’s point of view, it seemed unrealistic for him to start talking about it out of nowhere. Of course, if you ask me, it’s the author’s fault for not creating a situation where Zuma would talk about his backstory!

Speaking of which, Slayers is getting another TV adaptation this year [2008], and Zuma’s going to be in it. When the author realized that, he gave the staff some material about the character that never made it into the novels, so you might learn more about him if you watch the anime.

Of course, there are lots of things the author just never got around to talking about, but there seem to be even more he never got around to even thinking about! Like what happened to Gourry in Sairaag! He said he hasn’t given it one iota of thought. So if you’re hoping for an episode about that, you’ll likely be disappointed. Then again, given the author’s wishy-washy nature, I can’t say it’ll never happen.

Rather than drawing up outlines and writing according to plan, he’s the type to figure out what happens as he goes. Some writers say stories just come to them, but for this silly author, it’s more like he’s trying to put together puzzle pieces he’s scattered around on the floor. Really, he’s less like a storyteller and more like a puzzler. To the author, a story isn’t a stroke of inspiration, but rather something that he constructs. In another series, it’s possible he even added a cool bad guy and then started worrying, like, “Wow! What a strong enemy! That’s great, but how do we beat him?”

He might actually just be stupid, you see.

When I think about it that way, it’s kind of a miracle you Slayers readers have supported him this long... Maybe it’s really because of my wonderful afterwords! Though, given the author’s personality, it’s possible he might write stories about such incidents as he thinks of them.

Anyway, up through volume 3 here, he’s pretty much been telling stories as he gets ideas. But starting with volume 4, our heroes will be swept up in a grander epic!

Next up is Slayers, volume 4: The Battle of Saillune! It’s a story about Lina and friends heading for the capital of Saillune, Saillune City! Which is kind of like sightseeing in Tokyo, if you know what I mean! Like going to Tokyo ******land and saying something overdone like, “But it’s not technically in Tokyo.” Or whining about how you’d rather go to the Ra*nbow Br*dge. Or finding a famous celebrity while you’re walking around and getting a selfie with them.

That last one would’ve been fun too, but too bad! Too freakin’ bad!

Anyway, that’s the kind of story it is! So, that’s Slayers! See you again in the next volume!

Afterword: Over.