Nov 03, 2024
Author's Commentary #179:
Time to talk about Chapter 179: Dinner in Tokyo.
Originally, I planned to show the game between Mimoko and Daria. However, the games I ended up playing against the Chess.com engine bots were just too long. Not to mention, I was lacking the motivation to write the game out. Guess the Sodium attack opening just doesn't get my creative juices flowing as much, though to be fair, the games were REALLY long, like over 70 moves long. Not to mention, I wanted to progress the story more.
Speaking of which, this marks the first crossover appearance of Rika from Spice of life as well as the restaurant, Ryokoma, appearing in the story. This does mean there are going to be some end of series spoilers for Spice of life in this Side Story, so fair warning. However, there's no need to worry if you've never read the series, so feel free to enjoy the Side Story. Now let's do a quick bio on Rika, Togarashi, Cyril, and Ginji.
稜之 俐佳 (Ryono Rika) is how her name is spelled in kanji. 俐佳 means "sharp" and "beautiful" while 稜之 means "peak" and "to reach".
As for Ryokoma, りょうこま is how it is it is written in Japanese, though it might be written in katakana instead as リョーコマ. Since Ryokoma is actually a combination of the names Ryono and Komachi, I'm assuming hiragana would be used, but since I'm not 100% sure, I included the name in katakana.
Her birthday is April 12th, which is also the day Ryokoma first opened.
稜之 唐辛子 (Ryono Togarashi) is how Togarashi's name is spelled in kanji. 唐辛子 means "chili pepper".
His birthday is December 17th. The lore reason for this is because he started life 9 months prior to this date. In this series, he's 6 years old.
Both him and Rika don't play chess, so they don't have a favorite piece. Though if they did, it would likely be the knight.
シリル・ミルヴァートン (Cyril Milverton) is how Cyril's name is spelled in katakana. His name is inspired by both Cyril's from Fire Emblem Three Houses and Charles Augustus Milverton's from Sherlock Holmes.
His birthday is October 30th. The reason I chose this is because it is a day that World lemur day could be celebrated on. Since the day is celebrated on the last Friday of October, I decided to choose this date to be his birthday.
As for his favorite piece, it's likely the knight due to it's ability to leap over pieces.
One other fun fact about him is that due to him losing pigmentation in his face, he now looks kind of like a Japanese macaque. Pigmentation loss is actually common for silky sifakas as they age, with some even having their entire faces turn pink. Now onto Ginji.
猪原 銀仁 (Inohara Ginji) is how his name is written in kanji. 銀仁 means "silver" and "compassion", while 猪原 means "boar" and "origin".
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).
His name and character were mainly inspired by Ginji Kiyomizu from Tying the knot with an Amagami sister. However, he is also related to some characters from some of my aforementioned works. For those who want to know, he's Kaori Inohara's father.
His birthday is January 27th. The reason for that is because Ginji Kiyomizu debuted in chapter 127 of the Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister manga.
His favorite piece is the pawn, mainly because of how much it can control the board.
As for the game, the Monkey's bum is a real chess opening. I decided I wanted at least one game to be played using it, and felt now was a good time to showcase it.
The game along with Ginji and Cyril's introductions originally served as the intro for Season 5. Following the revisions, however, I decided to port the game along with their introductions to this Side Story as I felt it made more narrative sense to do so.
And with this chapter, the goal of the Side Story is clear; setting up a new secret puzzle cafe in Tokyo. If you remember correctly, there were actually only 6 physical secret puzzle cafes as Taira stayed with Tenju in Kyushu. However, since Taira's no longer around, Daria's moving forward with her plan to set up a secret puzzle cafe in Tokyo. This was actually the original plan, but as you know, it was changed because of Taira. Though it ended up working out as Ryokoma wasn't around back when the original secret puzzle cafes were first built. Now, it can house perhaps the best secret puzzle cafe of all time.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
