Dec 02, 2025
Author;s Commentary #641:
It's time to talk about the finale of Side Story 9, Chapter 641: The secretive conspirator.
Yeah, this one was pretty much a rush job, and there's a few reasons for it. First, I couldn't really think of anything else to do with the Side Story. Second, I just wanted to get done with this one. Though I had the idea of Daria confronting her family as far back as July, I honestly couldn't foresee much of the plot of a potential arc aside from them reaching the mansion and playing everyone in racing kings.
Speaking of which, the original sister that was going to show up this arc instead of Ota was to be named, Tae, and be a famous race car driver. This would have been the main drive for why racing kings would have been suggested. Tae was also planned to have a daughter named, Yae, though I didn't really develop her character much. With me deciding to have Oma appear in Season 8 by herself, the Inashiki family plot quickly got pushed to the wayside. And speaking of Oma, with the volume revisions of the series, I'm having her appear much earlier on in the story, like Season 2 early. That also had an effect on me as I was writing this as I had to consider both the canon here and the new canon I'm slowly crafting with the volumes.
Finally, let me touch on something I'm fine with. That being Ota's game against Okisato being off-screened. Obviously, Okisato won, which is exactly why I felt it was better not to show it as Ota pretty much lost when Mimoko outwitted her with the draw. Considering I focused on showing her confession, I feel that settled things better.
I did consider showing a flashback of her time with Kana, but I feel like that would work better in an arc actually delving into the conspiracy to off Kana, as Ota's interactions with her were pretty minimal.
As for the thing with Skaberghast, I'll leave it to you to theorize if he's really part of the sinful seven. Though regardless if he is or isn't, he's still a sadistic and messed up dude.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
