May 14, 2024

[Note]: I ended up completely rewriting this chapter. The reason I did was because I felt the game was incredibly lackluster especially considering it's meant to be the big climatic match of the season. Thus, the game is now completely different, but much more entertaining. In fact, I dare say this new game is easily one of my top 5 favorite games in the series. If you read the original, I hope you come back to read the revision.

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

0

May 14, 2024

To:Taylor J

This is why Okisato's so adamant about killing his foes in matches. Though on the other hand, this now gives Yuusuke the chance to improve and hopefully win in a rematch against Zanni. Assuming of course, Gyro doesn't challenge him to a DESPER match. If that happens, he'd get destroyed. Hopefully someone will arrive to save Yuusuke.

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

1

May 13, 2024

Author's Commentary #32:

Time to talk about Chapter 32: A late night snack for Mocha, Hina, and Mochi.
In the original, only Hina showed up to fight the cultists, however, this time, Mocha also accompanies her while Mochi hides in the car. The original chapter also didn't see Hina going to Ryokoma for a meal, nor did it feature Helga being introduced to Izuhana.

One of the major reasons I actually hated the plot-point of Mocha getting arrested in the original was the fact that she had never been to Ryokoma. Rectifying that was a top priority in the remake which is why Mocha now goes to eat at Ryokoma with Hina and Mochi.

In the original, Mochi and Hina didn't go to Ryokoma until much later in the story. Though Mochi did still critique Matcha's dish. Mochi is truly an elite food critic and talented chef, however, she decided to turn her back on the culinary world after what happened with Purin.

名智 望哉 (Myouchi Mochika) is how her name is spelled in kanji.
望哉 means "hope" and "contradiction".
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).

Her birthday is August 21st which she shares with Momo Akanegakubo from Shokugeki no Soma. The reason for that is because her character was actually inspired by Momo.

As for her favorite food, she actually does not have a preference. A healthy sand nutritious balanced meal would likely be how she would respond to the question.

One final thing I'll mention is the infamous Fujiko has made her appearance in the story. She won't have a major role, in fact, the next chapter will probably be her last appearance in this novel, but her cameo here shows that even back in middle school, she was still just as messed up as she ended up becoming in Escape Witch.

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

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

0

May 13, 2024

Author's Commentary #24:

Time to talk about Chapter 24: The Ginkawa mansion.
First off, the "mansion" more or less resembles the island that houses the advanced nurturing high school from Classroom of the elite, except the whole island is considered to be the mansion. In fact, the advanced nurturing high school was the biggest inspiration for the Ginkawa mansion.

Now that Harumi is back in the story, I'll talk more about her along with some of the other members of the family. First up is Harumi.

銀川 花瑠美 (Ginkawa Harumi) is how her name is written in kanji. 花瑠美 means "flower", "lapis lazuli", and "beautiful".

Her birthday is July 11th which is also the day the first chapter of the original Escape Witch was released.

Harumi is actually the second oldest of Gozaemon Ginkawa's 4 children. Each child is named after a season, with Harumi's being Spring. Speaking of Gozaemon Ginkawa, he ended up semi-retiring as head of the family back in 2007. While he was still officially considered the head until his death, Harumi was essentially the de-facto head.

銀川 五左衛門 (Ginkawa Gozaemon) is how Gozaemon's name is written in kanji. 五左衛門 means "five", "left", "protect", and "door".

His birthday is May 5th. I chose this date for him mainly due to his affinity for the number 5. In fact, 5 is his lucky number.

As for the twins, 銀川 織美亜 (Ginkawa Oribia) and
銀川 織世 (Ginkawa Orise) are how their names are written in kanji. 織世 means "weave" and "generation" while 織美亜 means "weave", "beautiful", and "second".

Their birthday is April 4th. The reason I chose the date was because 2 squared is 4, and because 4 is considered an unlucky number in Japanese culture. This is fitting since the twins tend to embody the dark side of the Ginkawa family. Orise is the older one and therefore would have been the one to be the next head of the family had Harumi not decided to make Madoka her successor.

As for Harumi's third child, her name is Tetsuka Ginkawa. She did appear in the original Escape Witch as well as Spice of Life, however, I'm not sure what her role will be in the remake. She won't appear in part 1 of it, but none the less, I'll give some basic facts about her.

銀川 鉄花 (Ginkawa Tetsuka) is how her name is written in kanji. 鉄花 means "iron" and "flower".
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).

Her birthday is October 16th. I chose the date at random so there isn't any significance behind why I made it Tetsuka's birthday.

Tetsuka is actually traveling the world on her own. She mainly left the mansion after being ostracized by the twins.

One final thing I'll mention is that Emeri moved into the mansion after graduating highschool. Even though Madoka's the official successor, Harumi has divulged lots of secrets to Emeri. Her main reason for doing this is so that Emeri can help Madoka when she eventually becomes head of the family.

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

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

0

May 13, 2024

Author's Commentary #80:

Time to talk about Chapter 80: A questionable move.
Originally, this was going to be two separate chapters, but I felt they worked better as a single chapter which is why I merged them together.

The title of the chapter also has double meaning. It could refer to the fact that the new policy changes are questionable and/or that Okisato's opening move was questionable.

Speaking of which, I really enjoyed writing the game for this chapter. It was once again a me vs the chess.com bots game, but over 90% of the games featured in this series are.

As for the Anderssen opening, it was famously played by Adolf Anderssen in the three consecutive games against Paul Morphy that he played as white. He ended up losing the first, drawing the second, and winning the third. While it is classified as an irregular opening, there is some debate regarding it's viability.

Since Okisato shares his birthday with Anderssen, I felt he needed to play the Anderssen opening at least once in the story. He was originally going to face Taira, however as I was writing the chapter, I realized that Taira's dialogue sounded more like Mizuse's so I decided to have her be Okisato's opponent instead. The decision actually worked out well as it also allowed me to feature a proper 1v1 chess game with her. Even though it's heavily hinted that 4-player chess will be how the the chess club chooses to combat the corrupted SPCMs, I intend for each SPCM to have a proper 1v1 chess match before the chess club faces them in 4-player chess.

As for the match against Taira, don't worry, it will happen next chapter, but Okisato won't be her opponent. As for who it will be, it will be revealed in the next chapter.

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

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

0

May 12, 2024

Author's Commentary #79:

Time to talk about Chapter 79: A bald declaration.
The chapter title is an obvious pun on the phrase, "a bold declaration". To her credit, Ai did do a good job with the PR at the start, but quickly let her libido consume her.

One thing this chapter also confirms is that some DESPER punishments can be reversed. In order to do this however, one must beat the one who originally inflicted the punishment on someone. For example, if Nyoan beat Yuusuke and requested that the punishment he inflicted on Zanni was reversed, Zanni would be freed from his punishment.

Minor or non-permanent punishments like what happened to Nyoan could also not be reversed, though could easily be nullified simply by playing a new DESPER match. For example, Nyoan would be able to get her hair back if she challenged Okisato and made having all her hair grow back be a winning condition.

However, the punishment cannot always be reversed. The DESPERs can't bring the dead back to life, so anyone that was killed in a DESPER match can't be brought back to life, even by beating the one that beat them. The death of the one who originally inflicted a major punishment on someone would also prevent a punishment from being reversed. However, the big thing that truly prevents a punishment from being reversed is the "irreversible clause". So long as someone says the punishment shall be "irreversible", the punishment will become irreversible. However, the DESPER may choose not to enforce the clause if it believes an irreversible punishment is being unfairly placed on someone. For example, if an irreversible clause was placed on the match where Daria was forced to be a spectator, the DESPER would refuse to enforce the irreversible clause as Daria was unfairly roped into the match. The clause would still be enforced for Xiao Lin though, meaning she truly is bald for life.

As for the chess club, they're off to Lagoon pathways meaning a fight with a corrupted SPCM is looming. And I will confirm, the next match will be amazing.

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

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

0

May 12, 2024

Author's Commentary #23:

Time to talk about Chapter 23: Bad medicine.
Buwahahaha! Dr. Jester is in! That's right, Jester's back again and this time he's brought his brother from another mother, Vincenzo, with him.

ヴィンチェンツォ・ディルイージ (Vincenzo DiLuigi) is how Vincenzo's name would be spelled in katakana.

His birthday is September 4th, which is the day the first episode of the Super Mario bros Super show aired. He also says all his lines in English and sounds exactly like Vinny Vinesauce when he does his Luigi voice. Funnily enough, Vinny's Luigi voice was the primary inspiration for Vincenzo. He does also draw inspiration from Luigi from not just the super show, but also the Super Mario bros 3 and Super Mario world cartoons. In fact, his "Hyelp" line is a reference to what Luigi screams in the "Mama Luigi" episode of the Super Mario world cartoon.

This chapter also featured another cameo by Izumi and Hanabi. This will also be their last cameo in the story for the time being. In the original draft, the two were going to be hired by the Ginkawa family and aid Madoka and co as they went adventuring throughout the world. However, I felt it was best to keep the story focused on the main 4 heroines, which led to Izuhana's role in Escape Witch being reduced to cameos.

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

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

0

May 12, 2024

Author's Commentary #31:

Time to talk about Chapter 31: Matcha's family problems.
This chapter completely deviates from the original chapter. In the original, Kiji was not present and Mocha ended up getting arrested by Purin. Originally, intended for Mocha's arrest to become a major plot point in the story, but nothing really came of it, and by the time I decided that the plot point was bad, the original was already over 50 chapters long. Thus, I opted to just implement the new story line where Mocha doesn't get arrested into the remake since it was easier than editing everything.

As for Kiji, he actually did appear in the original and was killed off by Purin there as well, but in Chapter 60, which occurred well after Mocha's arrest in that story.. The reason I kept that in the remake was mainly to showcase both how corrupt Purin is and how bad her relationship is with her family.

Mochi, however, is the one Purin hates the most. Purin actually was slated to graduate Tabemono gakuin just fine, but her envy got the better of her and she challenged Mochi to high-stakes cook-off which led to her being expelled and blacklisted from the culinary world. Kiji deciding to ignore her existence following the loss only worsened her attitude.

As for why she's close with Himawari, the two knew each other from Tabemono gakuin. While they were initially from different factions, Purin being from the Makihara faction and Himawari being from the anti-Makihara faction, the two ended up bonding after their expulsions, and after seeing how far Himawari had come, Purin opted to join the police and become her subordinate. She then quickly befriended Makoto, Yumeko, and Inoka. Now let's give some bios on Purin and Kiji.

名智 符凜 (Myouchi Purin) is how her name is spelled in kanji. 符凜 means "token" and "coldness". Purin is also the Japanese word for pudding.

Her birthday is January 23rd which is international sticky toffee pudding day. This is fitting since sticky toffee pudding, along with regular custard pudding, is her favorite food.

名智 稀慈 (Myouchi Kiji) is how Kiji's name is spelled in kanji. 稀慈 means "rare" and "compassion".
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).

His birthday is September 4th which is also eat an extra dessert day.
His favorite food is mochi, however, he absolutely despises Rika's mochi surprise, though mainly because Rika made it as he begrudgingly devoured the whole meal when it was presented to him.

As for the story, now that Mocha won't be getting arrested, she'll have a greater presence in the story. I'm actually glad about this change as Mocha is easily one of my top 15 characters in the series, and now there will be more slice of life moments with her.

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

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

0

May 11, 2024

Author's Commentary #30:

Time to talk about Chapter 30: Matcha's mother.
There really is a lot to talk about Matcha's mother, Mocha. First off, she actually originated in Mystery ghost foresight. The double murder she mentions is actually the second arc, Chapters 7-11 to be precise, of Mystery ghost foresight. I won't spoil the mystery, though I guess based off this chapter it's obvious that Mocha and Hina were not the culprits or victims in the case.

Speaking of Hina, I actually intended for her to get her own spin-off, but abandoned the idea once I finalized my plans for the rewrite of Spice of life. The demon queen cult was actually slated to be the main antagonists of the novel as well. As for why I abandoned it, lack of motivation along with being preoccupied with the Spice of life remake and editing Life Stream for a contest, were the two big reasons. And no, I doubt I'll ever resurrect that idea. Now onto the bios for Hina and Mocha.

名智 モカ (Myouchi Mocha) is how Mocha's name is spelled in Japanese. Her name is an obvious reference to the Caffè mocha beverage.

Her birthday is April 25th which is national hairstylist appreciation day.

Her favorite food is hamburgers.

I actually have much more to discuss about Mocha, but I'll wait until the next chapter's commentary to do so. Now onto Hina.

禿末 暖 (Tokusue Hina) is how Hina's name is written in kanji. 暖 means "warm" while 禿末 means "bald" and "end".
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).
Her birthday is July 7th which is also the day Tanabata is celebrated.

Her favorite food is udon.

In the original Spice of life, Hina had a much different role, mainly due to events I'll properly elaborate more on in the next commentary. Here, she'll have a much more minor role. Like Mocha, she originated in Mystery ghost foresight and used to have short shoulder-length black hair before she decided to go bald. Initially, she was simply going to paint herself each day, but after figuring it would be too much of a hassle, she just decided to get tattoos. Despite her cute personality and demeanor, she can be quite extreme when it comes to her style and beauty.

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

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

0

May 11, 2024

Author's Commentary #22:

Time to talk about Chapter 22: The life of Serika Midoriya.
This part of Serika's backstory was actually in the initial release of the original Escape Witch. I did edit it from the original draft, but it is mostly the same.

One thing I feel I need to clarify is when I.L.U. began to be referred to as Illumous. In Chapter 3, Mutsumi briefly mentioned that Illumous is the codename given to I.L.U. by Reika. She gave them this codename back when she and Mutsumi first joined the force. Naturally, she only told Serika and Yuni that Illumous was the codename for I.L.U. once they joined the police.

Funilly enough, Illumous would be spelled as イルマス (Illumous) in katakana and sounds identical to "irumasu" which I believe is a Japanese verb.
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).

And with that, Serika's backstory has concluded and now she is friends with Madoka. Believe it or not, the next phase of the story will actually get a bit more lighthearted. I hope you look forward to it.

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

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

0

May 10, 2024

Author's Commentary #29:

Time to talk about Chapter 29: A close shave.
Mimi came to the rescue in the nick of time. However, she's actually not the only character with hypnosis immunity. Nino, Yuugen, Nero, and Dastard are all unaffected by hypnosis.

As for Ichika, she's bald. Not to mention both her and Nino got their clothes shredded to bits by Rika in front of all those customers. As for Shiori, she managed to avoid getting hypnotized by taking precautions and hiding in the back. She also instructed Mimi on what to do if she did get hypnotized and was unable to save the poisoned judges, as a backup. Speaking of Shiori, let's talk more about her as well as Dastard. First up is Dastard.

Dastard, aka Eluf Kammerjunker. He was heavily inspired by Gentle criminal from My Hero Academia, and was originally going to be a recurring comedic antagonist, but I decided to make him more of an enemy turned ally type of character.

エルフ・カンマーユンカー (Eluf Kammerjunker) is how his name is written in katakana, while ダスタード (Dastard) is how his codename is written in katakana.

His birthday is January 1st, which is New Year's day.

His favorite food is Buttermilk koldskål, which is a Danish dessert that is often served with kammerjunker, which are Danish biscuits. Now onto Shiori.

西訪 史織 (Saihou Shiori) is how Shiori's name is written in kanji. Her first name, 史織, means "chronicle" and "weaving", while 西訪 means "West" and "to visit".
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).

Her birthday is June 13th, which is national sewing machine day.

Her favorite food is ice cream pudding. Eating it also causes her girly personality to bubble to the surface.

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

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

0

May 10, 2024

Author's Commentary #21:

Time to talk about Chapter 21: The life of Serika Midoriya Part 1.
This is a long one, and was originally two separate chapters, but I felt merging the two made the story flow better.

In the initial release of the original Escape Witch, Serika simply just gave a long run-down of her backstory. This was because I simply hadn't written it out properly, and didn't until I began writing Spice of life. Once I wrote out Serika's backstory there, I simply edited it into the original. Since this is the only time Ruchi Ookuma will properly be showcased in this novel, I'll talk a bit more about her.

大熊 瑠智 (Ookuma Ruchi) is how her name is spelled in kanji. Her first name, 瑠智, means "lapis lazuli" and "intelligent", while 大熊 means "big" and "bear". The reason I chose the surname Ookuma was because it sounds similar to the Japanese word for demon, Akuma. Funnily enough, the head of the Ookuma family is named Akuma.
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).

Her birthday is September 1st, which is actually the day after Serika's birthday. Funnily enough, Fubuki's birthday is February 2nd, which is a day after Yuni's birthday.

As for the SD cards Serika took with her, those actually led to the downfall of Ookuma's party after they found their way to Reika. The story surrounding that is actually told in Spice of life and its remake, but won't be talked about in this story, mainly because Ookuma's party is now a thing of the past. Without Ookuma, the party was unable to function and ended up losing all their seats in the diet in what was supposed to be the election that would make Ookuma prime minister. While this story doesn't fully show how vile Ookuma truly was, trust me when I say she is easily one of the most evil characters in all my works.

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

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

0

May 09, 2024

Author's Commentary #76:

Time to talk about Chapter 76: Queen, pawn, and move odds.
Nyoan's at it again with the odds matches, though this time the punishment isn't as severe for Mimoko due to the odds, and no one's trapped in a piece. Ironically, this whole ordeal could have been much darker if Nyoan opted to trap Kotora in a pawn, but then again, it's Nyoan. Even if she did that, Mimoko would effortlessly mate her and without letting Kotora's piece get caught.

Speaking of which, Kotora was never really kidnapped at all. Since Nyoan was ordered to distract Mimoko and make sure she didn't head back to Triple cedar, she devised the plan to trick Mimoko into allowing herself to be kidnapped by pretending that she kidnapped Kotora. There were two big flaws, however. First, the door at the hideout could be unlocked from the inside, and second, it's Nyoan. She's a comedic villain and an easy opponent to best, even with odds in place.

However, from this point onward, the story truly will get dark. This Nyoan mini-arc was initially unplanned, but I'm glad I decided to add it, both to lighten up the mood of the story a bit, and to have Nyoan return with another odds match.

Speaking of which, I had lots of fun crafting the game. I still think the first Nyoan game was better, but this one was fun as well.

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

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

0

May 09, 2024

Author's Commentary #20:

Time to talk about Chapter 20: Fujiko's downfall.
Fujiko is dead. And ironically enough, she ended up being killed by someone close to her, much like Julius Caesar was. Believe it or not, Fujiko being killed off here for good here was actually something I decided to do last-minute for the remake.

In the original, Fujiko actually survives and becomes even crazier, however, I didn't like that plot-point and felt it was better to kill off Fujiko. The behind the scenes story for this is also quite intriguing. In the first draft after deciding that Fujiko would be an irredeemable villain, she was set to simply spend the rest of her life in an asylum. However, a new character known as Nadea would then appear and use her imitation acting to essentially become Fujiko 2.0. I didn't like that plot-point since it felt a little cheap to me to have some unknown character appear and suddenly role-play as one of the biggest antagonists in the series.

Thus, for plan 2, Fujiko survived, and killed Nadea, and pretended to be Nadea pretending to be Fujiko. That's what I ended up settling on for the edited version of the original Escape Witch.

Here however, I wanted to finally settle the matter and ultimately chose to rewrite Yumeko's character to make her even worse than Fujiko. It actually made lots of sense, considering Yumeko was actually the one that warped Fujiko into a yandere bald fetishist. I actually like this choice, because now it allows me to make Yumeko a proper villain.

Funnily enough, Yumeko might actually be the character that has undergone the most rewrites in this series. Originally, she was simply going to be a minor character back when the series was planned to be more episodic and lighthearted. Then, she was going to be an antagonist, but be a bit more redeemable, then she became a siscon, then she ended up getting a criminal record like Fujiko.

Since this is the last we'll see of Fujiko, I also decided to throw in the flashback of the incident she caused at her high school, but from her point of view. The flashback was actually edited into the original Escape Witch, and since the flashback doesn't mess with the new direction I want to take the remake, I decided to add it it. The flashback also reveals that it was thanks to Purin that Fujiko was even able to pull off her plan.

One final thing I'll mention is that Nadea and her partner are still in the remake, however, their role is reduced to just that of the arc they make their debut in. This is mainly because I honestly don't know what to do with them, but felt Nadea's initial role in a future arc needed to stay, thus she and her partner were spared from being removed from the series. I'll talk more in depth about that in a future commentary.

And with that, the Ides of March arc has come to a close. The next arc will focus primarily on Serika, so I hope you look forward to it.

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

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

0

May 09, 2024

Author's Commentary #28:

Time to talk about Chapter 28: A devilish pair.
Whelp, Ichika botched her dish in hilarious fashion. Unfortunately, the poor judge that was forced to eat the meal isn't doing so great, heck Masaru and Helga aren't doing so great either.

While Nino is skilled with hypnosis, poison is her preferred method to take down targets. This is also a reference to the fact that Nino from Quintessential Quintuplets is infamous for drugging the series MC, Fuutaro, not once, but twice with sleeping pills. It could also be seen as a reference to the fact that Miku's cooking in Quintessential Quintuplets was initially so bad, it was portrayed as dubious and poisonous cooking, though ironically Miku's worst meal in her series was likely better than Ichika's meal in this series.

I'll also mention that Ichika has essentially had the entire restaurant under her control the moment she first whipped out her medallion. It was why Rika found herself unable to properly warn everyone before the cook-off began, though intriguingly enough, Helga was actually not under any hypnosis since she walked in just as Ichika was about to put everyone under her hypnosis. She did later end up under Ichika's hypnosis unknowingly though, as Ichika did a second round of hypnosis in order to ensnare anyone that might have walked in later.

At this point, Rika's only hope will be that there's someone out there immune to hypnosis. Funnily enough, I can actually think of someone that fits the bill.

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

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

0