AME NO HI NO IRIS - Chapter 5: Afterword

Afterword

Nice to meet you, I’m Matsuyama Takeshi.

‘Iris on Rainy Days’ is the fourth selected work in the seventeenth Dengeki Novel Prize, and is also my long-awaited new work.

The main character of the story is a robot. The word ‘robot’ actually originated from the word ‘robota’ in Czeth, and it means ‘forced labor’. From the word ‘robot’, I imagined— robots are an existence that does labor in place of humans, they are emotionless, painless, and wouldn’t complain, so they’re convenient tools. Thus, I felt that it would be interesting if I wrote robots into an ‘existence similar to a human’, and that was why I wrote this book.

Thus, this is a story that started from the point of view of a robot. Though it’s somewhat exaggerated to say this, my aim was to write the story with the theme of ‘destruction and rebirth’. Though there weren’t any grand scenes of giant robots transforming and reforming (The main reason is that I was worried if I could write it well), but if the hopes of the robot to continue to live on could touch everyone’s feelings, I would feel quite happy.

This book could only be published with the help of a lot of people.

Tokuda-sama and Tsuchiya-sama from the editorial department, I gave them a lot of trouble during editing. When I received a phone call from the editorial department last fall, I was really happy. And Hirasato-sama who was the illustrator, thank you for drawing such great illustrations. I’ve kept the first drafts of the drawings on my desk. Besides that, the proofreaders, cover designers and everyone in ASCII Media Works, I express my deepest gratitude.

Besides that, the first readers of Iris the S-couple, the one who gave me information K-senpai, S and Y who took care of me since high school, N and T who celebrated the publishing of the book N and T, my colleagues, junior high, high school and college students and senpais, and my family and relatives who gently took care of me. Thank you so much.

Lastly, to all the readers who picked up the book, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. If people can think ‘This reminds me, I’ve read a book like this before……’ during rainy days, I would be delighted as the author.

Here, I present this book to the person that I’ve known since high school, sometimes shy, but would become active during gatherings, my late friend—Arai Sao(?).

Matsuyama Takeshi.