Translation: ZackZeal        

Editing: SingerOfW

"The moon is beautiful, isn't it?"

—From, Masada Takashi

How does one go about translating the English sentence "I love you" into Japanese?

Well, the Japanese never say "I love you", so you translate it in a roundabout way as "The moon is beautiful, isn't it?".

This anecdote is attributed to the author Natsume Soseki, but it's mostly idle gossip of questionable authenticity. But it is famous, and it's a wonderful phrase that many are enamored with. I am no exception to that.

And so, this phrase was referenced and included in my works twice. The first time was when Habaki from Kajiri Kamui Kagura said it, but in his case it was a complete joke and had no romantic value to it whatsoever.

The one time I did use this Soseki reference correctly and appropriately was in Soushuu Senshinkan Gakuen Hachimyojin, in the love confession scene between two characters by the names of Oosugi Harumitsu and Itou Noe.

So this time, I would like to take this chance to speak about the two of them.

These two are existing historical characters. To be exact, the man's name was Oosugi Sakae, but for story reasons I had to modernize his name into Harumitsu. In my heart, it's written as Harumitsu, but meant to be Sakae.

I've stated this fact in the past, so some people may already know about it, but these two are actually Masada Takashi's great grandparents. Sakae and Noe's third daughter's second daughter's second son is yours truly.

Likewise, Nozawa Shouko, who appears in Bansenjin, is my cousin. She's their third daughter's third daughter's eldest daughter, and is said to look strikingly similar to Noe. She's a real beauty. In my youth, I greatly admired her, and so I took the liberty of including her in my story without asking for permission. Using her actual name. Out of love. It's fine, Shouko-san will surely forgive me.

I got off track but, anyway—Harumitsu and Noe-san. In my last column, I mentioned that Hachimyojin is a work infested with my personal grudges. That's true, and it is filled with vulgarity, unsightliness and is so bankrupt of integrity I don't want to look at it again—but there are parts of it that were absolutely brilliant.

Namely, the protagonist Yoshiya and his friends. To be quite honest, they are near and dear to my heart even now. I get in touch with the voice cast, showering them with gratitude and apologies, and always ask them to get together with me, hang out, go out for a drink.

They're probably a bit creeped out by that, but that just goes to show how much I love Yoshiya and his pals.

Hence, I'd like to speak of Harumitsu and Noe-san. They are, as mentioned, modeled after my great-grandparents and are the secret main characters of this story.

Like I said last time, Hachimyojin was a story that spawned from Seijuuro. He was the first character I created for it, and therefore it stands to reason he's the source of the story. The order in which I came up with the characters was as follows:

Masada's evil thoughts emanate—>Seijuuro is born—>Amakasu (temporary) is born—> Shinno is born—>The Sera siblings are born—>Yoshiya is born—>Eriko is born—>The Manase father and daughter are born—>Harumitsu and Noe are born—>True Amakasu is born

That’s what the story was like in its initial phases. “Amakasu (Temporary)” means that at that point, he didn't have a name. That's right; at first I had no intention of including the historical figure of Amakasu Masahiko in my story. It was only when I came up with Harumitsu and Noe-san that I decided to establish Amakasu as the final boss.

First, Seijuuro was born of my grudges, and I needed a god-slash-devil that would endorse and affirm his beliefs to stand as the final boss.

Then I came up with Shinno to personify the final boss's doctrine and ideals in an exaggerated, vulgar form.

The Sera siblings were written to be Shinno's favored victims.

Yoshiya was written to be the one to save Mizuki and defeat both Seijuuro and the final boss.

Eriko and the Manase family were written to be the counterbalance to Seijuuro, his natural enemies.

So far, everything is written around Seijuuro, and you can see how Hachimyojin was a more mentally tormented Masada's attempt at self-counseling. But at this point, I was starting to snap out of it, and I realized something.

Huh. Is it just me, or is Mizuki taking after my great-grandma?

The Taisho period was a time when the new and the old met and intermingled, where progressive ideals and people started to appear, and conservative types grew in fervor to reject them. After all, people who were born at a time when ideas of human rights and diversity were as good as non-existent had amassed power and were able to repress the coming of newer ideals.

A period like this would probably be the worst time of all for a woman who was slightly better than her male peers.  

That's the impression I had of my great-grandmother. I mean, she was a girl in the Taisho era who brazenly went around cheating and stealing men from their spouses, saying marriage means nothing and that she'll just study, show her talents and earn money that way. People called her improper and a demon, and she scoffed at them all by naming her daughter Mako (魔子), Demon Child.  

Damn, she's strong. You're too powerful, Great Grandma. The average man can't match you.

And while I’m impressed by her, looking at the women in my family makes me think I can hazard a guess at Noe's personality. She probably didn't take it all with as much stride as she let on. Just like everyone, she felt frustrations and sorrows, and fought on while keeping fear and doubts at bay.

Mizuki is a version of my grandmother who lost the will to fight after losing Nobuaki.

And when I realized this, something clicked into place in my heart. At the same time, I also concluded that if I'm going to draw a story that juxtaposes the modern age with the Taisho era, I'll have to depict people who suffer from clashing values. Besides, writing stuff like that is what I like—maybe it's genetic or something, but it's a lot like what my great-grandparents did, albeit on a much smaller scale, and it deals with similar ideas.

I am man, and the other is man. Hence we are equals—a self-evident truth.

But even though I decided on this, Mizuki's situation was too bleak, like she's trapped in a bog. And her entire idea is that she can't get out of that quandary easily. So if Mizuki is the only character to stand for that theme, it'll just stress the readers out.

Like I said, at this point I've come to my senses somewhat, so I wanted to write a version of my great-grandmother that more gallantly and gracefully raced through the sweet and bitter of the turning of the ages. Otherwise, the story wouldn't be balanced—it would only be about pained, nasty grudges.

So what do I do? How do I do this?

…Just write her as is, dammit!

I just decided to wing it. And I think I was right to do so.

If the main heroine's story is so heavy, the protagonist would have to be a rigid, stern Taisho boy at heart. And so, to compensate for those two, I wrote the pair of Unraveling Law specialists so as to soften the story.

That's why I said that Harumitsu and Noe-san are the secret main characters.

Noe-san harbored the same conflicts as Mizuki, but had none of her fatal failings. Harumitsu was much sillier than Yoshiya in all sorts of ways, but was the most modernized member of the friend group. He had the least of the Taisho period's values instilled in him, granting him the most progressive outlook out of everyone in the cast.

When faced with a woman who felt guilty for being strong, he's the one whose natural, sincere reaction would be "What the hell, that's so old-fashioned."

My great-grandfather, Oosugi Sakae, was that kind of guy. An anarchist advocating for free love. The kind who'd never fight for the country, but would lay down his life for his friends and the woman he was smitten with.

And that fits Harumitsu to a T, don't you think?

Indeed, my great-grandfather had such funny anecdotes. When he became romantically involved with Itou Noe, he proposed three rules.

The first was that both of them would remain financially independent from one another.

The second was that they would not insist on living together.

The third was that their romance was non-binding, and they were free to pursue love with others.

Very mind-boggling, don't you think? I mean, this was back in the Taisho period! Even nowadays, a man who says things like this would only be seen as a liability.

But then again, my great-grandmother answered, "Oh, fine by me", so she's out there in her own way.

And as for how that story ended, well, my great-grandfather became penniless, so he broke the first rule. And then he got stabbed by another woman he had an affair with, so he clearly wasn't capable enough to live up to the third rule.

Hey, he was kind of a good-for-nothing, wasn't he? The way he talks big only to never quite live up to his promises… I hate to admit it, but I think those bad parts of him got passed down to me.

Which is why Harumitsu became the comic relief character. Normally he always screws up and flops, but when the need calls for it, he pulls through. And alongside Noe-san, the two of them become true heroes for each other, dazzling and outshining even the rest of the cast.

I'd like to think I managed to express that well.

And if I'm going to include my great-grandparents, the last boss would have to be Amakasu. But this is a matter I have a lot of mixed feelings about, so please don't ask me to explain that in detail. If I had to give any kind of explanation, I'll just say I peered at my rotten aspects through Seijuuro and beckoned Amakasu from the sea of the collective unconscious to properly sublimate him into myself.

And also, to make a brilliant stage for Harumitsu and Noe-san. That's about it.

But you know, spelling it all out, I'm starting to realize my writing style is strongly influenced by my great-grandmother. Like the way I write lots of powerful women who are conflicted and plagued with doubts, and how the parents in my story always end up being weird.

In the case of the former, Harumitsu and Noe-san fit the bill, right? A sincere girl who knows her personality is different from the rest, but can't and won't change herself to conform. And yet, she admits there's something restrained and improper to that.

Arma and Mashyana both belong to this type. Even Nanten is conflicted over her love for Nobuaki. And of course, if there's one character who burns in the fires of unfulfilled love, it's Eleonore. Lisa, Beatrice and Rindou are women caught between new and old values. And there's a lot of other examples—honestly, most of my female characters are like this.

Then there's the way I write weird parental relationships. In the end, I guess I just have a fixation on blood bonds. Much like how Yoshiya's final trial for conquering the eight layers of Kantan is learning to forgive and accept Seijuuro, I believe those who can't accept both the good and the bad sides of their parents and move on are incomplete people. Magsarion embodies this concept of growth through inheritance, as well.

My own family tends to be split between backlash and deep respect toward Oosugi Sakae and Itou Noe. One could go so far as to call it a family tradition. And I don't know if they're aware of it, but I think most of them are inclined towards the latter.

"Choose an earnest, reliable member of the opposite sex to marry and educate your children to be the same, but still love the misbehaved children who break from that norm."

It eventually comes down to this. My great-grandparents were extremely peculiar people, and as such, my grandparents' generation suffered greatly. So they concluded it would be the best to live normal lives, never standing out. But they ended up being weak to unrestrained people of the opposite sex and gave birth to naughty children.

It may seem contradictory, but I think it's because they understand both the good and the bad parts of their parents.

The aforementioned Shouko-san and myself were both naughty children who were greatly doted upon. And as for the younger generation, my older sister's first daughter is starting to develop these kinds of tendencies, too. Which is why I love her to death.

Huh, somehow this turned into me bragging about my family. But hey, Harumitsu and Noe-san are basically my relatives, so let's just say it works.

…By the way, a few years back they did a drama series with actress Yoshitaka Yuriko playing the role of Itou Noe. Which means she and I are destined to become family.

Huh? Stop dreaming? Wake up already? Shut up! I'm a free love advocate!

If I were to say that to Shouko-san, she'd pat me on the head while looking at me like I'm human trash.