Vol. 2 Afterword

Hello everyone, Astral here!

I’ve recently started fostering two kittens. They’re the polar opposite of me- both in the good ways and the bad. On the one hand, I wish I could get the amount of sleep they do. I’m always stressed and overworked- they just chill. But on the flip side, I take pride in knowing that I’ve never scratched up a leather sofa in my life.

I’m reaching for a preacher-like way to connect this topic to the theme of this book, so my analysis might be complete crap…but I feel like I have to say something profound in this end cap. So bear with me. I am writing this extremely tired and stressed.

A lot of OtaFujo deals with the magic of childhood and what happens when you get older and that magic starts to fade. As children, you don’t need to worry about grades, and then job applications, and then bills. Your goal is to have fun. That’s what Haru and his friends did as grade schoolers. They had all kinds of fun then, before they were old enough to have to worry about societal expectations, both in terms of work and school and what’s considered “normal”. Ayame didn’t need to worry about her family’s relationships being rocky, Shunsuke didn’t feel so much pressure to find his own purpose in his life, and Haruto didn’t have to bear the pain of being the “only sane man in a house full of lunatics”. Children are simple creatures. Just like cats. See, I tied these themes together.

In a way, being an otaku, diving into media, is trying to recapture those same feelings that you had as a child, when everything was magical. Art and stories capture those daydreams that we used to have, maybe not perfectly, but I believe that most creators create out of a desire to have others experience and enjoy the products of their own imaginations. That, at its core, is escapism.

I think I’ve said my peace. I need another drink.

See you later.

Astral 3/29/23