Apr 24, 2024

Author's Commentary #5:

Time to discuss Chapter 5: Dining at Ryokoma.
This chapter was not in the original initially, but added in retrospectively. In the remake however, it is present at launch. The reason the chapter was retroactively added to the original was due to me adding Escape Witch characters to Spice of life and wanting to do the same in Escape Witch. Most notably, I wanted to reference the fact that Madoka is know as the crepe goddess due to how many crepes she eats.

As previously mentioned, this is the same Rika and Ryokoma from Spice of life. Believe it or not, Rika was actually planned to be a character in Escape Witch long before I wrote Spice of life. However, she would have instead owned an Italian style restaurant and been closer in age to the main cast. Her name was also going to be Rina, which funnily enough, ended up being the name of a character in a completely different novel.

Now if you're also reading my Spice of life remake and author commentaries there, you'll know that I'm listing the favorite food of all the major characters. Since all the Escape Witch characters here appear in Spice of life, the favorite foods they have here are the same there. As for the favorite foods, Madoka's is crepes, Yuni's is fried chicken, notably Col Masaru's fried chicken, Emeri's is unadon, and Serika's is takoyaki. Reika's was also mentioned as being honey pancakes.

As for the bit about Serika and Yuni first meeting at Ryokoma and getting in a fight, that originated from Spice of life, which led me to retroactively reference it in the original. Chapter 98 of the original Spice of life contains the incident. The chapter will also be present in the Spice of life remake as well, but it will likely take months before it's published if I continue with daily updates for that series.

One other interesting thing I'll mention is that both Yuni and Serika worked part-time at Ryokoma back when they were both in school. They weren't working part-time at the same time though due to them not getting along well with each other.

Finally, the other Spice of life characters that cameoed here were Mimi, Zuina, and Matcha. Matcha's the most interesting of the three because of her relationship to some characters that will debut in the next arc.

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

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Apr 24, 2024

Author's Commentary #13:

Time to talk about Chapter 13: Waki's teachings.
In the original, this chapter was titled "When it hits the fan" in reference to the phrase, "When shit hits the fan". Obviously this was done because of Makihara's big shit, but first let's talk about the big change between this chapter and the original that I've been hyping up. That major change being... That Rika no longer infiltrates Tabemono disguised as Hinari.

I ended up changing this for a multitude of reasons, the main one being I didn't want Rika to actually be present there and helping everyone out, as I felt ut cheapened the victory. I still wanted to keep the illusion that Waki was Rika in disguise though, which is why I included the bit of Dastard setting up a camera so Rika could watch events unfold.

Since Rika no longer infiltrates Tabemono gakuin disguised as Hinari, this also means Hinari's character has been rewritten. As such, Hinari won't appear until much later, though her role will fundamentally be similar to what it was in the original.

Now let's go over some of the references before discussing Makihara. The judges are all named in reference to certain characters with the exception of Kiki, Helga, and Sundae. However,Sundae is actually based on the character, Urara Kawashima from Shokugeki no Soma. Kanryusai is a reference to Takeda Kanryu from Rurouni Kenshin, who in turn is based off the historical figure, Takeda Kanryusai. Finally, Etsuya is an obvious reference To Etsuya Eizan from Shokugeki no Soma. Now onto Makihara.

牧原 信志 (Makihara Shinji) is how his name is spelled in kanji.
His name, 信志 means "faith" and "aspiration", while his surname, 牧原 means "pasture" and "origin".
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me.

His birthday is May 10th which he shares with Azami Nakiri from Shokugeki no Soma. This is fitting since Azami was the primary inspiration behind Makihara's character.

His favorite food is gourmet wagyu, as he believes wagyu is the core of gourmet meat dishes.

As for his big shit, the idea stemmed from me wondering what would ave happened in Shokugeki no Soma if someone decided to put laxatives in their dish as a middle finger to the judges. Speaking of which, the mochi surprise dish was originally not named in the original until much later, however, in the remake I felt it was best to establish the dish early, which is why it was first mentioned in Chapter 1.

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

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Apr 24, 2024

Author's Commentary #61:

The time has come to talk about Chapter 61: Proxy.
This is the big twist of the arc. All of the piece of shit's goons are nothing but soulless proxies for him, meaning he's essentially fighting everyone through them. This actually was hinted at in the last chapter if you paid close attention to the stakes of the match. I can also confirm that the question Okisato asked Peter back in Chapter 53 was regarding if the piece of shit could assume full control over his goons.

I originally did plan for the goons not to be proxies, but opted against it, since I wanted all the hate and anger the readers would feel reading this arc to be directed at the piece of shit. This statement will become a bit clearer in the next chapter, though. As such, I will elaborate more in the commentary for that chapter.

Now I'll talk a bit about the two proxies, Rudolph Kristof and Igor Abdulov.
First off, ルドルフ・クリストフ (Rudolph Kristof) is how his name is spelled in katakana. As stated in the chapter, Rudolph used to be a humble tour guide before the piece of shit found him and beat him in a DESPER match and had him murder his family. His birthday is December 24th, which is Christmas eve and fitting considering he shares his name with Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer.

Igor on the other hand was a scientist working under Tsar Grigori. Since he failed to produce results, the tsar ordered him to become a guinea pig instead which led to him getting buffed up and turned into a proxy for the piece of shit.
И́горь Абдулов (Igor Abdulov) is how his name would be spelled in Russian while イゴール・アブドゥロフ (Igor Abdulov) is how his name would be written in katakana.
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).

His birthday is January 3rd. Since I chose the date at random, there's no real significance behind it.

As for both Rudolph and Igor's favorite chess pieces, it is the king, since that's the piece of shit's favorite piece and the piece of shit is in full control of all his proxies. However, the piece of shit would claim that the favorite piece of all his proxies is the pawn, since that's all they are to him.

One final thing I'll mention is that Numakawa's an idiot. In fact, this chapter will truly mark the beginning of the "Numakawa's an idiot" era, so look forward to facepalming more when Numakawa's on screen.

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

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Apr 23, 2024

Author's Commentary #12:

Time to talk about Chapter 12: The remedial course.
Funnily enough, aside from Mimi being present, this chapter is largely the same as the original, at least word-wise. That big change I hyped up in the last commentary is actually in effect, though it won't be properly revealed until the next chapter, so feel free to speculate on what it is.

Now that Itsuki's part of the main cast, let's discuss more about her.
牧原 五生 (Makihara Itsuki) is how her name is spelled in kanji.
五生 means "five" and "raw". I chose this name both to reference the character Itsuki draws her name from, Itsuki Nakano from the Quintessential Quintuplets, and Gordon Ramsay who is know for shouting "RAW".
牧原 means "pasture" and "origin".

Her birthday is February 9th which is actually National pizza day. The reason for being that Itsuki's favorite food is Pizza. She just can't resist the flavor of it and believes it to be a true culinary masterpiece.

Finally, let's end things off by talking about Matcha, who first appeared back in Chapter 1. 名智 抹茶 (Myouchi Matcha) is how her name is spelled in kanji.
抹茶 means "to erase" and "tea", while 名智 means "reputation" and "wise".
She was obviously named in reference of matcha tea which is why her hair is also green. As for her surname, it's actually the same as Mochi's and Purin's from Escape Witch. Perhaps there's a connection between them.
(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.

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

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Apr 23, 2024

Author's Commentary #4:

Buwahahaha! The time has come to discuss Chapter 4: Jester's explosive crepe factory.
Believe it or not, the whole reason this chapter came to be was because I wanted to introduce Emeri in it before the next major arc began. Originally, Emeri was going to be introduced in the third major arc, but I wanted her to be introduced before the second arc so she could be a part of it, and thus, I created this chapter. Now let's talk more about Emeri herself.

倉守 英芽里 (Kuramori Emeri) is how her name is spalled in kanji.
英芽里 means "excellence", "sprout", and "village" , but can also mean "beautiful" which Emeri certainly is. 倉守 means "warehouse" and "protect". Originally, Emeri was going to be a hikkikomori living in a heavily fortified house, but I decided to make her Madoka's cousin and have her live in the Ginkawa mansion instead. She is incredibly shy though which is why she wears a helmet and prefers to go by the alias, Rolly Polly (ローリー・ポリー in Japanese) in public. The Rolly Polly name is actually in reference to pill bugs which roll up into a ball.
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).

Her birthday is July 25th and she is 21 years old. There was no significance behind it, I just chose it at random. Though since Emeri is older than Madoka, she tends to act as an older sister to her, and is often the voice of reason in the Ginkawa household.

As for Emeri's love of motorcycles, it actually came to be after she visited the arcade at Ryokoma back when she was in school and played a motorcycle arcade game against one of Ryokoma's owners. This was also the start of her wearing the helmet in public. Speaking of Ryokoma, it is the very same Ryokoma from Spice of life, meaning this story takes place after the events of Spice of life as Spice of life took place in 2016 while this story takes place in 2023. This means that some Spice of life characters will cameo in the next chapter, so look forward to that.

Now before we end, let's talk about Edo's greatest evil daimyo, JESTER! Obviously, he's a comedic villain and embodies the spirit of Team Rocket from Pokemon. ジェスター is how his name would be spelled in Japanese, and speaking of which, I attempted to do a Japanese translation of Jester's themesong. Fair warning, since I used Google translate, there's probably a bunch of errors, but here's the Japanese version of Jester's themesong.
ヨヨイ！ 俺は江戸の奥から来た最大の犯罪者です。俺は組織犯罪界の大物です。誰もが私の名を恐れています！ 俺が成し遂げた残虐行為はすべて！ 殺人！ 誘拐！暴行! 麻薬密輸！ 誰もできません 我が力に匹敵せよ！ 盗難！戦争犯罪! さあ、皆、我が怒りを恐れよ！彼らはピエロは愚か者だと言います。さて、今誰が笑ってるの、バカ？ララララ。俺は悪で、卑劣で、邪悪で、非人道的で、暗黒忍術大名-おおおおおおおおおお。よおお！
[Yoyoi! Ore wa Edo no oku kara kita saidai no hanzai-shadesu. Ore wa soshiki hanzai-kai no ōmonodesu. Daremoga watashi no na o osorete imasu! Ore ga nashitogeta zangyaku kōi wa subete! Satsujin! Yūkai! Bōkō! Mayaku mitsuyu! Dare mo dekimasen waga chikara ni hitteki seyo! Tōnan! Sensō hanzai! Sā, kai, waga ikari o osoreyo! Karera wa piero wa orokamonoda to iimasu. Sate, ima dare ga waratteru no, baka? Rararara Ore-sama wa aku de, hiretsude, jaaku de, hijindōteki de, ankoku ninjutsu daimyō ōo ō ōo ō. Yo ō]

As for how his themesong actually sounds, it sounds similar to Master Kohgha's theme from The Legend of Zelda series. Speaking of which, Master Kohga was the biggest influence behind his character along with Don Kanoji from Bleach and Captain Buggy from One piece.

As for his birthday, its April 1st, April Fool's Day. Iori from En Passant Grandmaster also shares this birthday with him, but the two have no relationship to each other whatsoever.

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

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Apr 23, 2024

Author's Commentary #60:

Time to discuss Chapter 60: Gameplan.
First off, there wasn't a lot shown on what everyone discussed in the hotel room. That was a deliberate decision, though I plan to reveal what was discussed as the chess boxing match progresses.

Speaking of which, Chess boxing was actually one of the big things I wanted to be in the story along with the bughouse match. For those who don't know, Chess boxing is a sport where combatants alternate between boxing and playing chess each round. Victory is achieved via a KO or checkmate. In the event of a draw in chess, the decision goes to boxing. If there's still a tie when the round's over, whomever has the most points over both rounds is the winner. However, if there's still a tie there, black wins.

The main reason I'm pointing this out is because the piece of shit and his team are all playing as black while the chess club team is playing as white. Speaking of the piece of shit's henchmen, I'll discuss them more in detail once the fighting begins. Though I will say that one of the goons, is actually a clever reference to one of my other works. See if you can guess it before it's revealed.

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

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Apr 23, 2024

I definitely did not expect and Ekko backstory immediately after the speech. I'm interested to learn more about her and how she got off her pills.

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Apr 22, 2024

Author's Commentary #11:

Time to talk about Chapter 11: On the fly cook-off.
Originally, this was the 7th chapter in the original Spice of life and took place right after Rika rescued Mimi from the cryogenics lab. Aside from Mimi now being a part of the cast at this point in the story and working at Ryokoma, there isn't much difference between this and the original.

In the original, Dastard mainly helped Rika due to it solely giving him the opportunity to infiltrate Tabemono gakuin. While that is his primary motive for doing it here as well, he's more willing to do it as a favor due to him already being reunited with Mimi here.

As for the chapter itself, I had a lot of fun writing it and having Makihara get sabotaged by Dastard. Speaking of which, I guess I'll clarify that the reason the turkey was salty was because Dastard pissed on it. As for the bread, he simply swapped it out with old bread.

Finally, before I give a brief bio on Masaru, I'll mention that while the next few chapters will be similar to their original counterparts, there will be a major change in the story from the original that will shake things up a bit. Now let's talk about Masaru.

稜之 優 (Ryono Masaru) is how his name is spelled in kanji.
優 means "superiority", while 稜之 means "peak" and "to reach".
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).

As I'm sure you already know, his birthday is April 12th and he shares it with Rika. The two were actually born at the same time as well.

His favorite food is funnel cake. Originally, he had no favorite preference for food, but after trying the funnel cake, he just couldn't stop eating it despite being initially repulsed by its sight. As such, Rika frequently makes them for him, much to her pleasure.

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

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Apr 22, 2024

Author's Commentary #3:

Time to talk about Chapter 3: The unbeatable escape room Part 3.
When I first wrote the chapter, I was surprised at how quickly Madoka and Yuni ended up escaping. Thus I decided to use the opportunity to introduce some other characters before the chapter ended.

First up is Serika Midoriya. She's 21 years old and has hated Yuni ever since they first got in a fight with each other at a restaurant back when they were both in school. Serika is also indebted to Reika, which also led to her hostility towards Yuni growing worse when Reika took her on as a partner instead of her.
緑谷 芹佳 (Midoriya Serika) is how her name is spelled in kanji.
Her first name, 芹佳, means "celery" and "beautiful". This is why Madoka called her an "oversized twig of celery". 緑谷 means "green" and "valley", which is fitting since Serika has green hair.

Speaking of Serika's hair, she now has natural magenta highlights, whereas in the original, she did not.

Her birthday is August 31st. I actually chose this date at random, so there isn't much significance behind why that's her birthday.

I'll also go over Nakajima as well. Mutsumi Nakajima is 27-years old and desperately searching for a boyfriend. In the original draft, I made this trait about her more upfront, but decided to tone it back in rewrites.
中嶋 六実 (Nakajima Mutsumi) is how her nae is spelled in kanji.
六実 means "six" and "sincerity" while 中嶋 means "inside" and "island".
(If I made any mistakes with the translation, feel free to correct me).

Her birthday is June 27th. Like Serika's, there isn't much meaning behind the date, though the date 6/27 could reference the fact that Mutsumi's name means "six" and that she's 27 years old.

As for Bianka, I'll talk about her more in a future commentary.

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

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Apr 22, 2024

To:Taylor J

Pretty much. It's also fitting considering hunger is a characteristic of the zanni character from Commedia dell'arte (Italian comedy).

When I originally wrote Zanni's character, I only named him after the zanni because of the mask he wore. After doing some retrospective research, however, I found he bore more similarities to the zanni than I thought. As such, his entire character can be considered a reference to the zanni of Commedia dell'arte rather than just the mask.

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Apr 21, 2024

To:lolitroy

Sure, I'd really appreciate that.
Thanks to the judges feedback, I'm already aware that the story's way too dialogue heavy and rushes into things a bit, but if you notice any other critiques, feel free to point them out.

This story is probably going to be filled with more issues than Life Stream mainly because I was both rushing to get this in before the deadline, and because I was trying not to go over the maximum word count. As such, only the first 57 chapters of the remake ended up being submitted to the contest.

Once again, thanks for offering to critique my novel. I really appreciate it.

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Apr 21, 2024

Author's Commentary #10:

Time to talk about Chapter 10: The girl who was frozen.
Believe it or not, this was also the 10th chapter in the original, however, instead of the flashback chapters taking place before it, a different arc which introduced some of the other main cast members took place.

As such, I truly felt that for the remake, Mimi's past with Rika needed to be shown off early. That way, this chapter would have a much greater impact than the original since now everyone would know of Rika's history with Mimi.

Now onto Mimi. She's now thawed out and ready to work. Not to mention Dastard turned out to be on of her old comrades. As for why she glomped Helga, Helga looks exactly like her old teammate and lover, Hylda. I'll explain a bit more about that relationship in a future commentary.

Finally, I know it's 10 chapters in, but I want to discuss some facts about Rika as well as Mimi. Rika's name in kanji is 小町 俐佳 (Komachi Rika).
Her last name, 小町, means "small town" while 俐佳 means "sharp" and "beautiful". However, while her birthname was also Rika, it was spelled with the kanji, 凜嘩 and meant "coldness" and quarrel". Her original surname, ころせかい (Korosekai) is also a pun on the Japanese word, "korose" which means "to kill", however "sekai" means "the world", thus the pun was that her old surname meant "kill the world"

And as previously mentioned in the story, Rika's birthday is April 12th which she shares with Masaru, Ryokoma, and this remake since the first chapter of it was published on April 12th.

Now onto Mimi. Before she got her new ID, her name was Mimi Gravlax. Gravlax is a nordic salmon dish which is fitting since Mimi's codename was lax.
ミミ・グラヴラックス (Mimi Gravlax) was how her name would have been written. Now that she has a new ID her name is now Mimi Hanazawa.
花沢 心美 (Hanazawa Mimi) is how her name is written in kanji.
花沢 means "flower" and "wetland" while 心美 means "heart" and "beauty".
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).

As previously mentioned, Mimi's birthday is January 20th which is National Cheese lovers day, which is fitting since Danablu cheese is her favorite food.

Now that the Mimi recruitment arc is over, it's on to the arc that originally took place right before this chapter in the original Spice of life. Even though the arc is largely the same, there is a major change so look forward to that.

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

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Apr 21, 2024

Author's Commentary #2:

Time to discus Chapter 2: The unbeatable escape room Part 2.
Madoka has now properly introduced herself, even though we already knew who she was. Originally, I wanted this series to focus more on having everyone escape through more logical means, but since I had no idea howto write that, I decided to just give Madoka the locktouch ability and make her OP in regards to escapology.

Originally I planned to have the two escape and go their separate ways before running into each other the next day and being kidnapped and thrown in the trunk of a car. However, I felt things would flow better if they got caught again which is why the chapter ended with them getting thrown in the trunk of a car.

I guess now is a good time to talk about our two main heroines, Yuni and Madoka.

First up, the Escape Witch herself, Madoka Ginkawa. In kanji, her name is spelled
銀川 窓嘉 (Ginkawa Madoka). 銀川 means "silver river" while 窓嘉 means "window" and "excellent" as well as "opening in the wall".

Her birthday is March 24th which she actually shares with magician, Harry Houdini.

Now onto Yuni. 二川 優似 (Futagawa Yuni) is how her name is spelled in kanji.
二川 means "two rivers" while 優似 means "skilled" and "resembling".
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).

Her birthday is February 1st. I'll elaborate a bit more on why I chose this date for her as the story progresses. Funnily enough, even though Yuni is older than Madoka, it's only by a month and a half.

One final thing I'll mention is the cup sizes. Yuni is indeed a D-cup while Madoka is a G-cup. Just thought I'd clarify that in case anyone wanted to know.

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

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Apr 20, 2024

Author's Commentary #1:

Welcome to the Author's Commentary for the Escape:Witch remake. Let's start things off by discussing Chapter 1: The unbeatable escape room part 1.
So first off, this will be a full remake of Escape Witch. The plot will largely remain the same, however there are some notable changes.

Now let's discuss the chapter. Originally, the first chapter of Escape Witch was not going to have Madoka and Yuni get kidnapped by a gang and trapped in an abandoned warehouse. They still would have met in an escape room, but would have gotten kidnapped after leaving it. I ended up abandoning the idea though in favor of the fake escape room since I felt Yuni and Madoka meeting at the escape room and getting kidnapped there would make a better story.

One final thing I'll discus is the title. The only reason I put a colon in the title was because I thought it made it look cooler. As such, I might refer to the title as either "Escape:Witch" or "Escape Witch" in these commentaries.

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

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Apr 20, 2024

Author's Commentary #9:

Time to talk about Chapter 9: A fateful day.
Like the other chapters in the Mimi flashback arc, this was originally written for an arc in Mystery ghost foresight. However, this chapter ended up also getting adapted into the original Spice of life where it was the 40th chapter. At that point in the original story, Mimi had already been thawed out, and I mainly included the chapter both to show Mimi's backstory and to properly introduce one of the main antagonists for the series, the one who slashed Mimi.

As you might have guessed, the woman who slashed Mimi is none other than Madam Ookuma, the one Rika hates more than anyone. Her real name is Ruchi Ookuma and she's currently the Opposition leader in the National Diet and is seeking to become the next prime minister. She is also the daughter of one of I.L.U.'s head honchos, Akuma Ookuma.

Believe it or not, Ookuma actually originated from my very first novel, Escape Witch, however, she had long since passed by the events of that story. Thus the original idea was to have her be the main antagonist of both Mystery ghost foresight and Spice of life in order to show how much of a villain she was since I couldn't do that in Escape Witch. Ookuma won't reappear in the story for a while though, however, there will be plenty of other menacing villains to fill the gap until then.

Now I want to touch on something I mentioned in a previous commentary. Before I mentioned the Mimi flashback arc was also going to serve as buildup for something else. That plot point is actually... The one who betrayed Mimi's team. I originally planned to have that reveal be in Mystery ghost foresight, but ended up writing the reveal into an arc of the Spice of life remake. As such, when that chapter ends up being posted in a few months, the traitor will be revealed. Feel free to speculate though if you want.

Another thing I'll mention is that the characters in the car were two of the main characters of Mystery ghost foresight. The silver-haired girl was Reiju Ginkawa, the main heroine of the series, while the middle school girl was Reika Yuzume, whom like Ookuma, originated in Escape Witch, but was dead before the story began. As such, Reika also ended up being added to Spice of life to show what her character was like before the events in Escape Witch.

For clarity's sake, Mystery Ghost foresight takes place in 2007, Spice of life in 2016, and Escape Witch in 2023.

The final thing I'll mention is that Mimi has been saved. Now all that's left is to recruit her, so look forward to that. As such, the next chapter will be the true finale of the Mimi recruitment arc.

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

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