May 18, 2024

Author's Commentary #29:

Time to talk about Chapter 29: Reminiscence.
Honestly, I kind of struggled to come up with a title for this chapter, but decided to go with "Reminiscence" since the chapter is primarily focused on the characters reminiscing about past events.

This chapter is completely remake original. I originally planned for this to be two chapters and to have all the events be told in flashbacks, but ultimately decided to just merge all my ideas into one chapter. For the part about Mochi, I realized there wouldn't really be much in the flashback since Matcha wasn't really there to witness any of the events, thus it made more sense to just explain what happened from her point of view.

As for the bit about Yuni working part time, I was actually considering making that it's own mini-arc, however, I ultimately decided to just do the small flashback with Rika offering to help Yuni and Yuni quitting after being offered to become a detective. While it may feel rushed, I'm at least happy I was able to put the small flashback with Rika and Yuni into the story. Speaking of Rika, since this will be her last major appearance in the story, I feel now is the time to give her bio.

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.
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).

Her birthday is April 12th, which is also the day Ryokoma first opened.

And with that, we are now one chapter away from the final arc of season 1. In the original, I struggled a lot with writing said arc, due to a certain plot point. That plot point being Nadea and Vanessa. Ultimately, I ended removing them from the arc and rewrote certain parts of it to make it flow better. Of all the arcs from the original, I'd argue this upcoming one received the most editing and revisions. I hope you look forward to it.

That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.

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May 18, 2024

To:SkeletonIdiot

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

Funnily enough, I think Monty Python might be the top non-anime series I reference/parody the most in my novels.

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May 17, 2024

Author's Commentary #28:

Time to talk about Chapter 28: A chat with Rika.
This chapter was largely original to the remake, and as such, I ended up having to write most of it from scratch. However, it was worth it as this chapter helped give more character development to not just Serika and Yuni, but also showcased Rika in the role I originally intended for her to have in this story.

To give a bit more context as to why Rika knew Fubuki was Yuni's mom, on the day Fubuki first stopped by Ryokoma, Rika noticed that she looked and sounded similar to Yuni's aunt, Hitomi. However, what truly made her realize she was Yuni's mother was the meals she ordered. The two meals she ordered were egg rolls and Col Masaru's chicken to go. Since egg rolls were Hitomi's favorite meal and Col Masaru's was Yuni's, Rika was able to piece together that Fubuki was likely Yuni's mother.

Finally, Matcha has properly made her debut in the story, She did cameo back in Chapter 5, however, now she'll have a larger role in the story. She's actually the middle sister of the Myouchi family and tends to be a more serious and no-nonsense type of person.

名智 抹茶 (Myouchi Matcha) is how her name is spelled in kanji. 抹茶 means "to erase" and "tea".
She was obviously named in reference of matcha tea which is why her hair is also green. Funnily enough, pink is her natural hair color, but she decided to dye her hair green.
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).

Her birthday is May 2nd which is is national matcha day, and while she does enjoy drinking matcha tea, her favorite food is actually yakisoba.

Like this chapter, the next chapter will feature remake original content. Content which I have yet to write as of this commentary. While I was able to keep up the daily upload streak, I'm unsure if I'll be able to. Then again, I did say something similar in the previous commentary, so who knows.

That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.

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May 17, 2024

Author's Commentary #36:

Time to talk about Chapter 36: A clash of ideals.
Due to this cook-off now occurring before the catering gig, I ended up changing up the judging panel from the original. As such, Mochi is now the judge that decides the verdict.

Speaking of which, Rika's verdict was actually another reason I felt this arc should take place before the catering gig. I won't elaborate too much on this, but I promise it will become apparent as the story progresses.

As for Rebelle, she has a very specific view on organic produce. She believes only organic produce should be allowed to be used i meals, but also believes organic produce must be expensive in order to be considered elite. While Zuina agrees that organic produce is the healthier option, she's well aware that not everyone can afford to either grow and/or buy organic produce, especially if Rebelle and the gourmet elitists are dead set on making sure the price of organic produce only gets higher.

One final thing I'll mention is that the next chapter will finally delve into the Madagascar incident and what happened to Hinari. I hope you look forward to it.

That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.

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May 16, 2024

Author's Commentary #83:

Time to talk about Chapter 83: Throwing down the gauntlet.
The gauntlet has indeed been thrown. And what better way to illustrate that than by having Mimoko trounce Tenju in a match. Believe it or not, this chapter actually came about due to me wishing to have Mimoko face Tenju before the main event. I'll explain more on why in a future commentary.

As for the match, it was short and sweet. I'd summarize it as Tenju getting completely outplayed. And now, the 4-player chess battle will begin starting next chapter.

That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.

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May 16, 2024

Author's Commentary #35:

Time to talk about Chapter 35: Zuina's older sister.
Rebelle Milverton Adler, blackmailer extraordinaire, has made her debut. There's actually a funny story as to how she came to be. Believe it or not, the reason she became a character in the story was simply due to the fact that I liked her character design, mainly how her hair turned out.

To give some better context, I was fiddling around with some character designs and after drawing her hair in a unique and creative way, I decided that she would be a character in one of my novels. After deciding said novel would be Spice of life, I then settled on making her an antagonist as well as Zuina's sister. In case you're curious about what she looks like, I actually uploaded a collage of all the character portraits to the gallery of the original Spice of life. Feel free to check that out if you want. Now let's talk more about Rebelle.

レベル・ミルヴァートン・アドラー (Rebelle Milverton Adler) is how her name is spelled in katakana. Obviously, she is heavily inspired by both Charles Augustus Milverton and Irene Adler from the Sherlock Holmes series. Speaking of which, Zuina's middle name, Morsten, is a reference to Mary Morsten, another character from Sherlock Holmes. Speaking of which, Rebelle actually changed her name, however, I won't talk about that until it's touched on in the story. All I'll say for now is that her original middle name was Watson, which is obviously a reference to Watson from Sherlock Holmes.

Her birthday is March 26th, which is the day The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton was first published.

Her favorite food is rainbow quinoa salad. Like Zuina, she is a vegetarian. She also enjoys skateboarding.

While the chapter ended with a bit of a cliff hanger, it does seem like another cook-off is inevitable. In fact, I'll happily confirm a cook-off will occur next chapter.

That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoy it.

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May 16, 2024

Author's Commentary #27:

Time to talk about Chapter 27: Natural hair color.
This chapter is actually very similar to the original, aside from the bit with Serika. I won't dive into that plot point in this commentary, but feel free to speculate on what it means for the story.

One other thing I'll mention is that this was originally going to be the final chapter before the next arc begins, however, I decided to add a few more chapters to better give some background on some of the side characters. Since I actually haven't written them out completely as of this commentary, the daily upload streak for this series might be broken. However, I imagine it will resume as soon as those chapters are written.

As for Jester, he didn't even get to do his themesong. He also dresses up as a leprechaun whenever he tries to kidnap Madoka on St. Patricks day.

That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.

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May 15, 2024

Author's Commentary #82:

Time to talk about Chapter 82: The secret revealed.
Before we talk about the big reveal of this chapter, I first want to talk about 4-player chess. This is the first chapter where 4-player chess, whch is referred to as 4-way chess in the story, is properly explained. Believe it or not, notation is possible for 4-player chess games, though as stated in the chapter, some squares don't exist due to the board's layout. While there will be a few 4-player chess games, they won't be very long in terms of number of turns, though keep in mind this is largely due to the fact that 4 different moves are played in each turn. Nonetheless, I had lots of fun making those games and I hope you enjoy them when they eventually debut in the story. Now onto the big reveal of the chapter.

First off, massive spoiler warning! I don't normally put these in the commentaries, but I decided to for this one since this commentary will largely focus on discussing a major plot point in the arc. With that out of the way, let's discuss the big secret.

The big reveal of the chapter is that Ai Kamuro is not the real Maestro Himitsu. There were actually lots of hints both in the context of the story and my commentaries hinting at this. In my commentaries, not once do I refer to Ai as Maetro Himitsu nor Maestro Himitsu as Ai. Obviously, this is because they are two different people. Even Ai's character bio art hints that she's not the real maestro as the background for her bio is the same turquoise color as the standard WWCF card rather than black like the maestro's. In fact, the entire reason I decided to give Xiao Lin and Ai character bio art was to offer a hint that Ai was not truly a maestro as if she was, the background color for her bio would be black instead of turquoise like Xiao Lin's.

In the story, the biggest hint that Ai was not truly the maestro was how Taira reacted to her back in Chapter 72. This was why converting her was such a high priority as she was close with the real Maestro Himitsu.

Of course, that naturally raises the question; if Ai isn't the real maestro, then who is she really and what is her true rating? It obviously isn't 3200, though that is Maestro Himitsu's rating. Speaking of which, Xiao Lin actually minimized her WWCF card and focused in on the number 3200 in order to trick everyone into thinking it was Ai's true rating back in Chapter 79. All I will say regarding Ai's rating is that it will be revealed when a member of the chess club plays her in a match.

That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.

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May 15, 2024

Author's Commentary #26:

Time to talk about Chapter 26: The Ginkawa hot springs.
This was pretty much a wholesome hot springs chapter. In terms of differences between this and the original draft, the only notable difference is that Mimi is now present in the chapter. Speaking of Mimi, I feel like I need to give a bit more context as to what she's referring to, but first, I'll give a quick bio on Gnoreville.

Gnoreville actually originates from one of my Shiruka sensei short stories, Four very bloody sentences to be precise. He's actually based off of the Vinesauce character, Gnorts.

ノールビル (Gnoreville) is how his name is spelled in katakana.

His birthday is May 12th which is also Vinny Vinesauce's birthday.

He won't really have much of a role in Escape Witch, though he does have more screen time in Spice of life. Now onto Mimi.

Mimi actually first encountered Ruchi Ookuma back in 2007 and ended up taking a nasty slash to the stomach in order to protect a 10-year old Rika. She was then cryogenically frozen for 9 years before being thawed out and having her life saved in 2016 by a skilled physician.

However, Mimi is also a member of the Ginkawa family from a parallel world that was merged with this one. Not to mention, Harumi's niece Reiju, the main protagonist of Mystery ghost foresight, ended up being the one to pay the cryogenics company for Mimi's refreezing back in 2007.

Since Mimi is an official member of the Ginkawa family, she lives in the mansion. Since Ryokoma is literally a boat ride away from the mansion, she usually takes a boat to and from work and home.

銀川 心美 (Ginkawa Mimi) is how her name is written in kanji. 心美 means "heart" and "beauty".
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).

Her birthday is January 20th which is national cheese lovers day. This is fitting considering her favorite food is Danablu cheese.

As for the Ginkawa milk, it is based off of the Chateau Romani milk from The Legend of Zelda Majora's mask. This was what actually led me to decide to make Gnoreville and his buddies servants working for the Ginkawa family, as I thought it would be a neat to have the aliens raising the cows unlike in the game where the aliens are trying to abduct the cows. Ginkawa milk is not commercially available like Chateau Romani is in in the game.

That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.

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May 15, 2024

Author's Commentary #34:

Time to talk about Chapter 34: Pool party.
The gang has finally arrived at the Tall tower hotel. In the original, this chapter actually took place towards the end of the arc, rather than at the start like it is here. The reason for that is because I felt the story flowed better if the arc started out with the pool chapter.

Speaking of the arc, it will largely be the same as the original, though now characters that weren't originally present in it like Mocha and Azuki will be. One important thing to note is that in the original, Azuki was originally called Azami, however, I decided to change her name to Azuki. Other than that, her character remains the same.

Speaking of characters, this chapter features a good chunk of all the female characters in the series. This is also a pool chapter, so naturally everyone's in swimsuits. I originally intended for this to simply be a fanservice chapter, however, this chapter actually ended up serving as the prelude for a mini-arc centered around Zuina. As such, I felt it was best to have this mini-arc take place before the catering arc in order to give more character development to Zuina, as well as properly introduce the series' newest antagonist, Rebelle. I'll talk more about her in the next commentary.

One final thing I'll mention is that while Nino is capable of hypnotizing Ichika, she's still far less skilled at hypnotism than her. She does have higher poison resistance though which is actually second only to Yuugen within the family.

That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.

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May 14, 2024

Author's Commentary #25:

Time to talk about Chapter 25: Training at the Ginkawa mansion.
There is a lot to talk about, but first I want to talk more about Fubuki since her real name has finally been revealed. First off, a little backstory.

Fubuki and her older twin sister Hitomi both hail from the Kirikawa clan, a ninja clan most known for having numerous multiple births throughout the family's history. In fact, it is considered abnormal if a woman from the clan bears any thing less than twins. Speaking of which, Fubuki and Hitomi's mother is a quintuplet, while Hitomi's children are triplets. Fubuki is the first woman from the clan in decades to give birth to only a single child, though she could have given birth to two children, albeit, they wouldn't have been twins.

二川 一心 (Futagawa Hitomi) is how Hitomi's name is written in kanji. 一心 means "one" and "heart".

As for Fubuki, 切川 二見 (Kirikawa Futami) is how her real name is spelled in kanji. 二見 means "two" and "to see" while 切川 means "to cut" and "river"
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).

Both Hitomi and Fubuki were born on February 2nd. This date is fitting because they are twins. It is also the day after Yuni's birthday.

Now to talk more about the chapter. In the original draft for Escape Witch, I intended for the girls to go to a gym where they would end up getting captured and bound with zip ties. Originally, that arc would occur right before the Ginkawa mansion was shown. Once I finalized the plans for the story, I decided to instead convert that arc into a training arc at the mansion. That way, Yuni and Serika would remain at the mansion and the idea would be preserved.

The Ginkawa mansion arc as a whole is easily one of the more lighthearted arcs in the story, which is needed considering the previous arc was pretty dark. And speaking of lighthearted, the next chapter is a hot springs chapter, so expect some hot springs antics next chapter.

That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.

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May 14, 2024

Author's Commentary #33:

Time to talk about Chapter 33: The prisoner.
Well, we finally know what happened to Itsuki after she ran off. To make matters worse, she was even going to head back and apologize to Rika before bumping into Fujiko. Sundae also got caught and it appears as though both her and Itsuki will be shipped off to the Demon queen cult. The only good news is that this will be Fujiko's last major appearance in the story. As such, I'll give a quick bio on her.

山口 富姫子 (Yamaguchi Fujiko) is how her name is spelled in kanji.
富姫子 means "wealthy", "princess", and "young".
Her surname, 山口 means "mountains" and "opening".
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).

Her birthday is March 15th, which is known as the Ides of March and the day Julius Caesar was assassinated. The biggest inspiration behind her character was Otoya Takechi from Akuma no Riddle.

Her favorite food is whip cream.

As for Yoriko Sakaguro, she's actually a character from Mystery ghost foresight. However, she's incredibly underdeveloped here, mainly because I planned to properly flesh out her character in Mystery ghost, but decided to abandon that series. I'll elaborate more on her though in a future commentary.

That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.

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May 14, 2024

Author's Commentary #81:

Time to talk about Chapter 81: Taira vs Mimoko.
As promised, someone ended up challenging Taira, and that someone just happened to be Mimoko. Mimoko doesn't play as crazily as Okisato, but she is by far one of the most skilled chess players in the series.

As for the game, it was a pretty simple match. Taira put up a good fight, but was nothing compared to Mimoko. Now Mimoko has bested a total of 3 SPCMs, Himitsudono, Himitsuchan, and now Himitsuue. Okisato has now bested 5 and only has to beat Himitsuue and Himitsuchan. Funnily enough, they're the only two members of the chess club that have beaten any SPCMs. Yuusuke has challenged Himitsuchan, but lost.

Now that Taira has been bested and Mizuse is angry, things are sure to heat up next chapter. I won't say, how, but I will say the next chapter will shine some light on why Ai did all this, so you won't want to miss it.

One final thing I'll mention is that Taira and Tenju's ratings are actually mirrored from one another. Tenju's is 1362, while Taira's is 2631. I meant to mention this in an earlier commentary, but forgot, so I'm mentioning it here.

That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.

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May 14, 2024

[Note]: I ended up rewriting the game featured in Chapter 34: Desperado. There's no significant change to the overall story, however, the game is now far more entertaining and epic compared to the original. Feel free to reread the chapter if you like. All I'll say here is that the game now starts off with a Barnes opening: Hammerschlag variation.

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May 14, 2024

Author's Commentary #34:

Time to discuss Chapter 34: Desperado.
We've finally reached the climax of season 1. First off, some background on the match. Originally, the match I used for this chapter was a match I won against a 1800 rated chess.com bot on my own. However, I felt the match itself was incredibly lackluster and decided to rewrite the game. This time, I challenged a 2500 rated chess.com bot and played with all the tools available in order to bring you the game that is now featured in this chapter.

A big reason the revision came about was because I ended up writing games with crazier moves in season 2, and when looking back on the original game for this chapter, I felt the game needed to be changed as it didn't feel like an Okisato game.

This worked out really well as the revised game not only features a Barnes opening: Hammerschlag variation, but also an en passant that ends up sealing Gyro's fate. I couldn't ask for a more fitting game for the climax of season 1. In fact, I enjoy this new game so much, that it's now one of my top 5 games in the series.

I will also confirm that Gyro is dead and won't be coming back. Though he'll likely reappear in flashbacks. As for his portrait in the Desperado collage, the purple "fire" is actually purple lightning, which references how he dies by electrocution. Originally, it was just purple fire, but I changed it to lightning.

One final thing I'll mention is that each major arc villain from here on out will largely embody one of the 7 deadly sins. Gyro, the main antagonist of season 1, embodied the sin of Tristitia (Sorrow/despair/despondency/melancholy). The reason for that is due to him constantly being in a state of despair after meeting Mimoko.

Funnily enough, the DESPERs themselves are a pun on the word "despair" which is fitting since they can cause despair, and because Gyro, one of the minds behind them, embodies the sin of despair. Have fun guessing the sins of future arc villains. I'll make sure to reveal the sins they embody as soon as their arc is over.

One final thing I'll mention is that desperado is also the term used to describe a piece determined to give itself up in order to bring about a stalemate. This is why it's fitting that many of the Desperado league members hope to bring about a draw when they see they are losing. I will also confirm that Gyro was one of the founders of the league and is second in command behind the Ultima-master despite there being other members more skilled than him.

That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.

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