Sep 12, 2024
Author's Commentary #175:
Time to talk about the intro to Side Story 1, Chapter 175: The cheating Jester.
Buwahaha! The infamous Jester finally makes his debut in this story. And with that, comes his infamous theme song. But first, I want to talk about Grampy Harold.
ハロルド・クック (Harold Cooke) is how his name is spelled in katakana.
His birthday is October 18th. I chose the date at random so there's no greater significance behind why this day is his birthday.
He doesn't really play chess, but his favorite piece is most likely the rook, since to him they're the most rough n' tough looking piece on the board.
Now time to talk about Jester. First off, we'll start with his theme song. I attempted to do a Japanese translation of his theme song and provided it below.
Fair warning, since I used Google translate, there's probably a bunch of errors, but here's the Japanese version of Jester's theme song.
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。誰もが俺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！麻薬密輸！ 誰もできません 我が力に匹敵せよ！ 盗難！暴行! 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 ore no na o osorete imasu! Ore ga nashitogeta zangyaku kōi wa subete! Satsujin! Yūkai! Mayaku mitsuyu! Dare mo dekimasen waga chikara ni hitteki seyo! Tōnan! Bōkō! 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. Though there's also some Team Rocket in there too considering he always ends up getting blasted into the sky whenever his schemes fail. Needless to say, he's a comedic villain.
ジェスター is how his name would be spelled in Japanese.
His birthday is April 1st, which is also April Fool's Day. Iori also shares this birthday with him, but the two have no relationship to each other whatsoever.
As for his favorite piece, it's the king, because when he plays chess, the king isn't the most vulnerable piece, since he cheats.
Jester is pretty much a staple villain in the Jouzu-verse and one of my favorite characters so it's nice to finally be able to have him debut in this series.
Speaking of cheating, I thought it would be a good idea to have Jester cheat in his chess game. The idea of him using a JESPER was actually an idea I thought up back when I was writing Season 1. The biggest challenge with the game though was determining how and where he'd cheat as I didn't want him to get an overwhelming advantage against Mimoko. Luckily, his skill at chess is pretty bad, and his elo would likely be 0 if he didn't manipulate his rating points.
Believe it or not, he actually doesn't have a WWCF card, nor is he a WWCF member, but the WWCF has in fact banned him from all official tournaments due to his cheating. Even a majority of the underground leagues ban him from play.
However, he is powerful enough to not die when he loses a DESPER match. At worst, he usually ends up getting blasted away. Guess you could say he's on a whole different plane of existence, but nonetheless, is still a comedic villain.
One final thing I'll briefly touch on is the Kirikawa clan. Like Jester, the Kirikawa clan is another staple of the Jouzu-verse with various major characters hailing from it. And as confirmed in this chapter, Harold, Carol, and Iori are all Kirikawas by blood. The Kirikawa family tree in the gallery showcases the exact relationship, but it will also be touched on more in the story as well. And I will confirm that Jester will return and he will meet Nyoan. Of course, I still have to write that chapter so it may not happen for a while.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
