It has been a while since I did a trivia post for Innocence Seekers: The Black Rose. While I will be focusing on April Light, I will also discuss the entire saga itself. A word of warning: there will be spoilers.
While I do have plans for Innocence Seekers: April Light, I am willing to change those plans as I see fit. This means that I may introduce new characters or plot threads on the fly, with no foreshadowing (however, I won’t introduce solutions on the fly, as that is bad writing). This is the case with Tamaki and Miho, as I never even conceived of their existence by the time I finished Chapter 1.
The April Light plot thread was also a somewhat late addition during Chapter 1. Before then, I was thinking along the lines of chaos due to misplaced World Orbs. However, this wouldn’t have created a long story, I needed something to supplement the main story, and thought about creating a chosen one (or two, or five). The Yamamoto plot thread, however, was planned from the beginning (as this won’t be resolved until a chronologically later entry).
Another thing I thought up on the fly was the way to activate and deactivate the World Orbs’ defence systems. An attack of the same or a similar element to the orb itself will deactivate it, while all other attacks activate it.
Innocence Seekers: April Light is the entry of Innocence Seekers: The Black Rose which marks the transition of the saga from an urban fantasy with science fiction elements to a science fantasy space opera (although early hints of this transition can be seen in the final chapters of Akari of the Light and Mimori Flower Club). While the space opera elements were introduced in Akari of the Light, April Light is chronologically the first entry that is space opera (note that Mimori Flower Club is primarily slice-of-life which focuses on petty issues, rather than being a “grand adventure”).
Every saga of Innocence Seekers is split into a number of generations. Innocence Seekers: The Black Rose has three generations, and the second generation is currently the most developed of the three generations (the first and third generations each have only two entries planned as of writing). April Light is meant to be the conclusion of the second generation, and as such will be marked by a showdown against someone or something extremely important to the entire saga.
As of now I have yet to decide on the exact significance of the Black Rose. All I have decided is that it is related to the “chosen ones”, whoever they may be (again, I still haven’t decided on who they are and what they are “chosen” for).
Secret Skills were actually a late addition to the setting as well; initially, they were meant to be gameplay-exclusive (and I had yet to decide on a name). After I added them in Episode 14 of April Light, I looked through my Akari of the Light plans and changed some of the characters’ powerful spells (such as Michiru’s Nox Frigida and Yayoi’s Sagitta Aurorae) into Secret Skills. Full Burst Skills, on the other hand, were in the setting for a lot longer.
That’ll be all for now.