This time, I’m going to spotlight one of the heroines, Lucia!

Hi, I’m Kio, and…it’s so hot! It’s almost the summer festival (comic market) season now, so I imagine you are busy running all over to help preparing for them, just like I am. By the way, aren’t printing companies amazing? I wonder if they have some kind of magical power, since they deliver books and goods on time, even with a crazy, impossible schedule. What would they ever do if they exhausted their magical power?

Enough of this worrisome topic; let’s switch 180 degrees to talk about something so cute in KARAKARA! I’m going to talk about Lucia this time.

As I have mentioned several times previously, this story, KARAKARA, was created because of an illustration p19 drew, featuring a tall girl and a short girl. The short one eventually became Lucia.

At that time, Lucia was a quiet, cool girl who didn’t talk that much and just helped Leon nonstop. (If you are old enough to remember, picture Ruri from Martian Successor Nadesico.) However, once you consider the scenario needed for the story, although it would have been cute (like a tiny animal) if I had written her like that, most of her lines would have been “…………” and I wanted her to talk more since she had such a cute voice. So, with that in mind, I decided to erase everything I wrote including prologue and rewrote it. After that, she became a girl who is much more talkative, and who takes really good care of everyone. She also looks and acts very strong and reliable, but actually easily gets frightened; therefore, when she is alone with Leon, she immediately becomes herself and acts more childlike. That’s how we ended up with this cute creature that makes everyone say ”She is my wife!” I’m so glad that I rewrote it.

This was a good example of modifying a character. Things end up much better this way, and it is worth reevaluating a character when you find out that the scenario doesn’t flow well after you write it. Stories are shaped by characters, so when they aren’t going well, you should suspect the characters that form the stories.

It looks like there is still room where I’m allowed to write more, so let me tell you about another behind-the-scenes thing. On the common route, we left some extra room for Lucia to make up reasons for her to be adorable with Leon between Episode 1 and Episode 2. I actually have a memo of the summary of that scene with me right now… I want to put this out somehow, somewhere, sometime. This is just me showing off, but she is cute. (I’m not even trying to hide how much I love her as a parent.)

Okay, the last time, I started talking about cooking around here, so I’m going to talk about cooking again now. (I’m sorry for this rough transition. I’m this close to the deadline for this column.)
I like clam chowder, so let me tell you about the best clam chowder ever.

This was four years ago, a scenario writer took me with them to Prince Edward island, in the Northeast of Canada, for a work trip. We arrived at the center area of the island, Charlottetown, at night, and the sun was gone. Our guide looked up restaurants reviews on an app that’s like their version of Yelp, and found a bar that served seafood, so we went there. It sounded like people were having a good time in that restaurant, and they served lobster, oyster, etc. I ordered clam chowder without any doubt or hesitation. It didn’t take that long for the food to come, but it was in a tiny fancy grinding-bowl-like dish. I complained that they didn’t serve it in a bigger bowl, and took a bite, and—-I’m sorry that I’m not describing in this in fancier words, but it was so creamy, rich, and fabulous that the complaints I had before melted away. Since then, I haven’t been able to find a better bowl of clam chowder for four years. ～The end～

I apologize for ending this food report without any ending.
In the fourth column, I’m going to talk about Aisia. Thank you for reading this, and see you next time!