This is my sixth general mini-post. A few days ago I added episode 37 of Innocence Seekers: April Light to the site, and I’ve begun episode 38. Additionally, I’ve looked into plans for the fourth chapter, as well as plans for New World Revolution.
So far, for April Light, I have eight chapters planned. You may have noticed on the wiki that I’ve given names for all eight chapters, and they give a bit of a clue as to what will happen in each chapter. However, chapter 4 is so far the only chapter for which I have significant plans. It will be set on Elrodom, and involve the Gerudo Empire breaking a truce enacted in 2008 to steal the fire-elemental World Orb and invade Bernim. That said, I still haven’t determined how many episodes chapter 3 will comprise. And I’ve realised that a bit of the direction I’ve planned is more suited for a JRPG than an actual story (and yes, fetch quests in RPGs annoy me as well). However, even in chapter 2, I’ve made the quest for the World Orbs such that things happen besides the protagonists actually retrieving the orbs themselves (in chapter 2, only the earth-elemental World Orb was reached without incident; although retrieving all four occurred without incident, the details were of so little importance that they were glanced over in the space of a few lines and sentences).
Just recently, I’ve made a word count of the published episodes of April Light, based on the files on my computer. Up to episode 37, and including the two published special episodes, I’ve written around 130,000 words, give or take. While this pales in comparison to some of the behemoths on the Internet (although, for comparison, Harry Potter has just over one million words in total), if and when I complete Innocence Seekers: The Black Rose, the entirety of the stories may run into the millions of words. From my reckoning, I’m around a third of the way through April Light, which could mean a final word count of around 400,000, and should I publish all my stories on the site, the total word count could reach five or six million.
The following is a list of the word counts obtained from my files:
- Chapter 1: 40,153 + 2,119 (12 episodes, 3,346 words per episode)
- Chapter 2: 41,353 + 2,463 (12 episodes, 3,446 words per episode)
- Chapter 3: 44,390 so far (13 episodes so far, 3,415 words per episode)
- Total: 125,896 + 4,582 so far (37 episodes so far, 3,403 words per episode)
These figures may not be completely accurate; they include boilerplate segments such as the title and end markers, and exclude commentary.
A bit of trivia: Mihara Elementary School was often attacked in Akari of the Light. The attack on the same school in episodes 36-37 of April Light is meant to be a throwback to those incidents.
Anyway, this is a general post, so I’ll talk about other things now. For this season, I’ve picked up five anime to watch as they air. I’ve considered as many as eight, but I’ve failed to pick up one (due to my boycott of a service, and I’m not really interested in hoisting the Jolly Roger right now), pruned one (as I wanted to limit the number of anime I watch to six), and dropped one (as I found it a bit uncomfortable). However, I won’t mention all of them in this post.
One of the anime I’m watching this season is Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood. Based on the manga by Amatou and serialised in Comic Cune, it follows two girls. One, Sophie Twilight, is a vampire who has lived for around 360 years (and was around when Marie Antoinette was executed), and who has since settled in Japan. The other, Akari Amano, is a self-described ordinary high school student (when she is anything but ordinary; even her classmates see her as weird), and who develops an obsession with Sophie when they first meet. Akari moves in with Sophie, with her parents allowing it despite being told by Akari herself that Sophie is a vampire, and introduces her friends and Sophie to each other.
This is one of the yuri or yuri-themed anime I mentioned I was planning to watch in a previous post. That said, this is the fifth manga from Comic Cune to receive an anime adaptation, and only the second to have full length episodes (the first was Hinako Note). And from what I’ve seen, I’m actually enjoying the anime.
One thing I’ve noticed is that vampires in the setting seem to be even more vulnerable to UV light than in many modern works that feature vampires. Sophie herself says that the UV blockers she tried didn’t work as well, and she is even uncomfortable with light from light bulbs (which, I should mention, do emit a bit of UV), which is why she opted for dimmer bulbs.
Another thing I noticed is that Akari and her friend Hinata somewhat resemble Shinobu and Yōko of Kiniro Mosaic (and to further the similarity, Akari is as obsessed with Sophie as Shinobu is with Alice; incidentally, Yui Hara did draw the front cover of the official anthology comic volume that was released last month, and another Manga Time Kirara MAX regular in Utau Aizaki contributed a chapter for the anthology). I’m not sure if this is a coincidence or not; the manga began in 2013, which happens to be the year when the first season of Kiniro Mosaic aired.
On to manga. I often noticed that when anime adaptations of certain manga aired in the late-night slots, ads for other manga in the same magazine are often shown. Being a fan of Manga Time Kirara, I’m aware of at least some of these cases, more often than not from the artists themselves. In the broadcast of Anima Yell! (which, by the way, I am watching), the first episode’s commercial break featured an ad for Quro’s Koisuru Asteroid, while the third episode’s commercial break had an ad for Tomekichi’s Swap⇔Swap (and acknowledged with an illustration).
Obviously, this isn’t the first time such ads have been shown in the commercial breaks. I know from Wikipedia that an ad for Dropout Idol Fruit Tart aired in the broadcast of Anne Happy. The Autumn/Fall 2016 season had an ad for Comic Girls, which I presume was shown during the broadcast of Magic of Stella. The broadcast of Comic Girls featured an ad for Why Did I Enter the Art Course!?.
Anyway, taking a look at some of the newest manga from the Manga Time Kirara magazines, there isn’t much that stands out to me, except one. From Manga Time Kirara MAX, Yūnon Nagayama’s newest manga First Love Railtrip has just begun serialisation. This isn’t Nagayama’s first manga published in the magazine; I mentioned their earlier manga Myu~Con! in an earlier post. Anyway, it revolves around the members of the Railway Club, namely Sora Tenman, Towa Hoshimatsuri, Mikage Miyazawa, and the club advisor and Mikage’s older sister Mahiro.
Quro, who has become friends with Nagayama in the last couple of years, has congratulated them on the manga’s serialisation with an illustration.
Anyway, I’ve gone on for quite a bit. That will be all for now.
P.S. Yes, I’ve referred to Nagayama as “them”. While it seems to be a use of the “singular they”, in actuality, Nagayama is the joint pen name of two artists, which explains my choice of pronoun.
Edit (2018-10-23): Just some things:
- I may not continue the special episodes after chapter 4.
- Chapter 3 of April Light will be 24 episodes long.
- They’re still making that joke about Oriko wearing a bucket… (if you’re wondering, this is about Oriko Mikuni of Puella Magi Oriko Magica and a related event in Magia Record; the official parody comic actually has buckets)
- Riko Chiaki, the newest playable character in Magia Record, as drawn by the artist who did her character design. And I’m a bit dismayed at how a fair proportion of the more recent fanart of her seems to be hentai; I mean, she’s an elementary school girl.
- I’m still waiting for a new anime adaptation announcement for a Manga Time Kirara manga.