Feb 19, 2025
Author's Commentary #330:
Time to talk about Chapter 330: Everybody's fighting.
A bunch of new characters make their debut here, some were just inserted in as I just wanted to introduce some of the many characters in the team art that have yet to be introduced, but there was one character I've been wanting to introduce much earlier, but just now got the chance. But first, let's go over everyone else.
スラヴィツァ・マンチッチ (Slavica Mančić) is how Slavica's name would be spelled in katakana. Славица Манчић (Slavica Mančić) is how it would be spelled in Serbian (Cyrillic).
Her birthday is November 12th, which she shares with Serbian women's grandmaster, Anđelija Stojanović.
Her favorite piece is the queen, as she views herself as the queen of Serbia in a sense, due to being Serbia's first lady.
The Serbian women's team as a whole holds the record for having their team artwork revised the most out of all the teams. Sometimes it's just filling in a white patch to make the background look nicer, or other times it's actually redesigning characters. Slavica ended up being subjected to the later as her original design was far more punk-like, with her sporting piercings and a Chelsea cut. Perhaps the old design will play a role in her character though. One thing I will confirm about her is that she and Ognjen are siblings.
ヴラトカ・ユルコヴィッチ (Vlatka Jurkovič) is how Vlatka's name would be spelled in katakana.
Her birthday is March 22nd, which she shares with controversial Croatian jet setter, Vlataka Pokos.
Her favorite piece is the queen, for obvious reasons.
Vlatka was loosely inspired by Vlatka Pokos, though aside from sharing the same name, and both being controversial figures, the similarities end there. This Vlatka is far worse, and far more egotistical, not to mention she's now president of Croatia, which is now the most powerful office in the country thanks to her. Before I originally settled on the storyline for the Balkan nations, the plotlines for said nations were much different, and far more fashion industry oriented. Both Serbia's team and Croatia's team were to be comprised of models, with the Serbian team being more punk-inspired.
Croatia did have a bit more development though as Vlatka was originally set to be a jerkish fashion designer, who had control of the Croatian president from the shadows. Said plotline has obviously been revised, as now Vlatka is Croatia's head of state, and the fashion industry plotline is completely abandoned, but even back then, Vlatka was always meant to be more of an antagonistic character, unlike Slavica who at the time was just a glorified background character.
アナスタシア・オリニク (Anastasia Oliynyk) is how Anastasia's name would be spelled in katakana. Анастасія Олійник (Anastasia Oliynyk) is how her name would be spelled in Ukrainian.
Her birthday is August 30th, which she shares with Ukrainian grandmaster, Anna Ushenina.
Her favorite piece is the knight, because she likes horses.
Anastasia actually debuted back in Chapter 282: Chess' worldwide importance. I didn't choose to spotlight her back then though, as I felt she didn't quite stand out enough, and I thought I'd be giving her a moment with Alya soon anyway. Well, obviously that didn't happen for a while, but better late than never.
アリア・マザイエワ (Alya Mazayeva) is how Alya's name would be spelled in katakana. Аля Мазаева (Alya Mazayeva) is how her name would be spelled in Russian.
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).
Her birthday is May 6th, which was when the first novel of Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian was released.
Her favorite piece is the knight, because she likes horses.
Alya is a character I wanted to introduce much earlier. Her name is obviously inspired by Alya from Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian, but I feel that and the fact that she's Russian are all the similarities she has with that Alya. This Alya's storyline is a bit heavy as it deals with some touchy subjects. Essentially, when the war between Russia and Ukraine first broke out in this world, she remained silent as she felt voicing an opinion would upset both her Ukrainian and Russian friends. But the irony is, that caused a rift to form between her and her closest friend, Anastasia. And when the war ended the way it did in the story, things only got worse, as when Alya tried to reconcile with Anastasia, Anastasia took it as her trying to sweep all the atrocities that had taken place under the rug. And now, no matter what she says, Anastasia doesn't believe her, as from her point of view, Alya is insincere and just apologizing to try and get the channel back together. In her mind, Alya made her views clear by remaining silent on the matter.
It isn't like Alya didn't want to voice her support for Ukraine though. But Tsar Grigori's predecessor was quite relentless on dissenters, which led to Alya remaining silent, in hopes that things would end quickly and everything could return to normal. I guess "naive" is the best word to describe Alya, as she failed to realize how her remaining silent would be perceived by Anastasia. There is more to this plotline, but this chapter only gives a small glimpse into it, so I won't talk much more in depth about it again until more on it is revealed in the story. Alya and Anastasia won't become major side characters, but their storyline will definitely get more focus compared to some of the others within the story.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
