Free Talks --------------------------------- COVER FLAP: Watsuki (laughing and crying nervously): I've heard from a former assistant that in the Internet people say that "Watsuki Nobuhiro is a neurotic cat-killer"!!! I want to see that pic! (I kill cockroaches, but not vertebrate living beings!) Oibore (.....'s ......): Info are info. You need wisdom to judge them correctly. (and you don't deny the neurotic part?) INTERNET. Finally I'm surfing the Net once in a while. All I do is see the homepages of friends and acquaintances and search the Web about the things I'm interested, but I see that this is quite cool and useful. I've got to take care with situations like the above mentioned one. If I get enough time, I'll try those subscription things and e-commerce, but before that I've got to master this keyboard. But what's this "Esc" key? And this "Alt"? --------------------------------- FREE TALK - So, Kaoru was alive, after all. This course of events, Kaoru's death->Kenshin breaks down-> Kaoru was alive in fact, caused many kinds of feedback, like "good and bad altogether", "scolding and encouragement" and "vituperation and ill spoken". Obviously, I had expected every kind of reaction, but indeed I was quite afraid of it. It was when I was most afraid of the reader's reaction. - To tell the truth, I should have killed Kaoru if I were to prioritize the theme of the Revenge Arc. The theme would emerge more clearly, the story would be simpler and the "Ruroken", as a work, would have been better organized. In fact, until the beginning of the Revenge Arc, I was in serious doubts about killing Kaoru or letting her live. It made me feverish. - But in the end of the Kyoto Arc, I looked back and realized that the basis of a manga for young boys are the smiling faces and a happy ending. So, I thought that Kaoru's death would never achieve such things and so I chose this course of events. - I tried to hint Kaoru's survival as much as possible, by foreshadowing many times and hinting it in the author's comments in the Shonen Jump that showed Kaoru's death. But putting aside the more mature and witful readers, I think Kaoru's death was really hard to the little and pure readers. I'm really sorry. - I heard that there were people who stopped reading "Ruroken" due to this course of events. I've finally destroyed whatever remained of a historical story I tried to create. But this episode of Kaoru's being alive had more popularity than the episode of Kaoru's death. - The basis of the manga for young boys are smiling faces and a hppy ending. From now on, I'll keep that in mind and go for the Revenge Arc climax. If possible, I'd like you to bear with me. --------------------------------- FREE TALK - Hi, it's Watsuki again, it's been a long time. I'm now in a "mattari" state. It was the first time people said I was in a "mattari" mood and so I'm a bit embarrassed. But what the heck is "mattari"? - If you don't understand the text above you can go on without a problem. Nevermind, nevermind. And, as usual, let's talk about figures, games and something more! About the figures, I have no suggestions this time! Not that the quality is heading downwards or I've had enough of it, just that there were no releases that caught my eye. It's a bit different from figures, but about toys, I'm not afraid to get deeply involved with HG Gachapon. Now I stay only with SD Gundam, but you never know what comes next. If they release seres like "Ganba no Bouken" ("The Adventures of Ganba") or "Pooru no Mirakuru Daisakusen" ("The Miraculous Great Strategy of Paul"), you bet I'll be nuts! (all right, they can think about Ganba, but NOT about Paul...) And the other interesting stuff is the toy "Tokima Steamhead", a kind of Transformers wristwatch from Bandai. The Word Talk is very fun, so I'm carrying it up and down. - About the games, the local game center didn't get the "Samurai Spirits: Ashra Zanmaden", from SNK. The second one they didn't get! I want to play Samurai Spirits! Please, I mean, I want to! The game "Gekka no Kenshi ~ Tsuki ni Saku Hana, Chiriyuku Hana" ("Last Blade 2"), also from SNK, made it to the center so I'm playing now and then. The sword attribute "Strength" that allows a sudden reaction is good, as usual. But there are now too many handsome characters. About the arcade, I'm playing also the "Jojo no Kimyou na Bouken" ("The Bizarre Adventures of Jojo"), from Capcom. The acting is quite funny and if you're a fan of the original series, the entertainment is for sure. The continue scene made me laugh hard. Good! About the videogames, there are some games I'm interested in, but as I don't have time as usual, looks like I have to postpone them. And so Final Fantasy VIII (Squaresoft) was released and I haven't even played FF VII... feeling a bit depressed. - The "something more" is about OVA. I, a lover of Getter, about the series "True Getter Robot". The story is a mess and while I think "if they can give such taste of Ishikawa Kendai sensei, I'd like they'd done it with the original Getter", but I still am overwhelmed with awe of the grooviness of the original Getter. And the other OVA is "Samurai Spirits: Ashra Zanmaden". There aren't many cases of success in animating games, so I didn't expect much of it. But the character designer is Nanase Aoi sensei, a person I admire a lot, so now I expect much of it. Obviously, design isn't everything, so as a Samurai Spirits lover, I'd like they put quite an effort in making this one. In fact, I don't see much OVA (methinks a man like me can't cope anymore with screens full of cute girls). But these two are something to be seen. - Each day is fullfilled by the piling up of small amounts of happiness. This lifestyle is good once in a while, but for now I prefer a great amount of happiness named "manga drawing". And with that I want to fullfill my day. And this is how now I'm entering the climax of the Revenge Arc. So, let's meet again in the next volume.