Dec 06, 2025
Author's Commentary #20:
Time to talk about Chapter 20: The bullet demon of Kyoto.
Originally, this chapter was part of Season 3 in the original, but here, it's been moved up as has the introduction of the remaining Japanese SPCMs. Let's talk about them.
坊寺 早史 (Bouzi Safumi) is how her name is written in kanji. Her first name, 早史, means "fast" and "chronicle" which is fitting since speed is her game. Her surname, 坊寺, means "monk" and "temple".
Her birthday is December 27th which she shares with three-time women's world blitz chess champion, Kateryna Lagno.
Her favorite piece is the queen, due to how much freedom of movement it has.
Speaking of freedom, Safumi is a strong advocate of everyone having personal freedom to live life as they please. This might seem ironic given her delinquent-like personality, but she truly believes everyone should have the freedom to live their life as they please.
黒代 白羽 (Kuroshiro Tenju) is how Tenju's name is spelled in kanji, while 黒代 黛羅 (Kuroshiro Taira) is how Taira's name is spelled in kanji. 白羽 means "white" and "feather", while 黛羅 means "black veil" and "net". The twin's surname, 黒代, means "black" and "substitute". As you can tell, the twins are based off the theme of black and white. Taira tends to favor the color black, while Tenju the color white. Her hair is naturally black, however she dyed it white.
Their birthday is January 24th. I chose this day because it was apparently regarded as the most depressing day of the year. The twins have a very harsh backstory. All I'll reveal for now about it is that both were born prematurely and were abandoned by their birth mother. Many believed Taira in particular wouldn't make it, and the twin's mother even requested Taira be euthanized, however, despite being just a premature newborn, Tenju protected her sister as best she could. Luckily, the doctors refused to go along with the twin's mother's request and did all they could to keep the twins alive.
This incident is what originally led Tenju to develop a sister complex as she felt she was the only one that could stand by Taira's side since everyone else seemed to shun her. As for why Taira was shunned, that will be revealed later in the story.
Tenju's favorite piece is the rook, mainly because she views them as essential companions to the king, and compares the relationship to her and Taira.
Taira's favorite piece is also the rook, however, she likes them mainly for the fact that they tend to be an essential piece in the endgame.
祖堅 道空 (Soken Doraaki) is how Doraaki's name is written in kanji. 道空 means "road" and "sky" while 祖堅 means "ancestor" and "hard".
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me.
Her birthday is November 4th. I chose the date at random so there's no significance behind it.
Her favorite piece is the pawn, mainly because she thinks they look cute.
As for the game, I had a lot of fun writing and playing it. Funnily enough, the game was played out with normal time control against the Chess.com bot. Since the game was being played at a rapid pace in the story though, there wasn't much bantering between the players compared to other matches, though that didn't stop Safumi from losing her cool.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
