Kishin Taidou Afterword

Afterword

“Would you like to write an exposition for the novelization of the PC game [Deus Machina Demonbane]?”

It was around October of last year, I believe, when I received this request from an editor at Sneaker Bunko.

I went, “Ah, I’ve heard of something about that. I see, it’s a thing about robots with a Cthulhu theme. That seems quite interesting.” With that said, I tried playing the given software, and you could say that was actually pretty fun; it made me want to go write about giant robots too!!

——And so, the robot engine in my heart was ignited.

However, since I was being requested to write an “exposition for the novelization”, obviously there’s someone else who has novelized it before me (three volumes of Ryo Suzukaze’s take on [Deus Machina Demonbane] from Sneaker Bunko had already been published, and they are now on sale). Well, it’s true! I figured: Then, why not a side story!? That’s what I came up with! Thus, without being prompted, I secretly wrote my proposal and sent it to them; from there, I went with the flow of the main game being ported to PlayStation 2——or perhaps, the original author himself, Mr. Jin Haganeya, said out loud, “Oh, I’d love to read that!”——and it got approved right away. That’s quite a way of putting it there.

In a sense, this book, which came into existence partially by chance for everyone, can be said to be a very lucky work. The original [Demonbane] itself is a work with lots of momentum; hence, I felt quite drawn to it. No, I’m serious.

This book, having been written diligently under such circumstances, is a prequel that ties in with the past of Hadou Kouzou, an important character in the original game and the birth of the protagonist mecha, Demonbane.

The era in the main story of [Demonbane] has been expressed as “some fictional time” in the work, but there’s a theory claiming that its original image was “around 1930?”. On the other hand, things such as electric guitars and nuclear missiles do exist, but that aside, in the world of [Demonbane] where history is likely to have been altered everywhere, anything is possible if you assume “Nyarlathotep brought them in”.

So, supposing the period of the main story takes place in the “fictional year of 1930”——where Kouzou Hadou would have been quite old at the time (though he has since passed away), but was still young…… Um, perhaps it would be the 1800s? Yes, the 19^th century. It was the era of Sherlock Holmes, Jules Verne, and the legendary vampire Dracula. 

Now, being set in the 19^th century, I wanted to depict the exploits of Deus Machina Aeon and Prototype Demonbane to the utmost while also involving Kouzou Hadou and the “Master of Necronomicon” from several generations ago——oh yeah, this will work! ——Then, I was able to come up with the basic idea almost on the spot, but in reality, what came after was difficult.

“[Demonbane] + ‘19^th Century’”. In other words, that means “‘Giant Robots’ + ‘Cthulhu’ + ‘19^th Century’”.

I got carried away a little with this overly attractive idea and started thinking of something audacious like, “If anything, I’d love to add some flavors of [Cthulhu ≈ monster stuff] or [Steampunk ≈ alternate history thing]”. 

However, the truth is, these fields that were called “expressing subtle deviations from ‘reality’ by accurately depicting that area” are quite simple yet backbreaking genres. ……In the end, I spent a considerable portion of my writing time doing stupid things like searching for reference materials such as “Did they have ice cream back in the 19^th century?”.

But yeah, this maybe didn’t mean much. To start off, the funny thing about this motif, simply put, lies in the dull sections like “NUOOOOH, EAT THIS, YOU EVIL GOD! THE POWER OF SCIENCE, STEAM PUNCH!!”, and whether it was historically “correct” or anything Cthulhu-wise is not entirely relevant. Rather, it’d be better for me to proactively make mistakes as far as it goes. Besides, I fell into such a situation and had the original manuscript delayed…… my deepest apologies.

I would like to express my gratitude to the original scenario writer, Sir Jin Haganeya, for saying, “It’s perfect!” enthusiastically at each stage of initial planning and development. In regard to planning something, getting the so-called “OK of the original author” is like having a Mito Koumon’s seal case and how reassuring it was. I also thank you for the passionate commentary given at the end of this book. Even so, I feel embarrassed at being praised so highly.

I am extremely grateful to our official illustrator, Mr. Niθ, for creating new designs for this magnificent book, despite the time constraints on his schedule. Thank you so much. Just between the two of us, during the drastically delayed writing process, settings for original characters and mechas for the spin-off started to come up at a mad pace that I was thinking, “……Oh crap, Nitro is getting serious,” and I was pretty excited for them~.

Other than that, I would also like to apologize for various inconveniences I’ve caused to Nitroplus, Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko editorial department, and everyone involved. There is no excuse for what I did.

And lastly, this story will be completed should all [Demonbane] fans read it——however, it doesn’t necessarily have to end here. If you’re still feeling motivated, you can replay the PS2 game [Deus Machina Demonbane: Roar of the Machine God] or reread the already published novelization by Ryo Suzukaze from the first volume. It would be fun to repeat the cycle of time until you reach a satisfying conclusion as well.

——Well then, I hope that we will meet again someday.

Hideyuki Furuhashi

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