Apr 24, 2025
Author's Commentary #411:
Time to talk about Chapter 411: Team Japan vs team France again.
And of course, there's more new characters to introduce. So without further ado, let's get started.
サワー・モン (Sour Monn) is how Sour Monn's name would be spelled in katakana. His name is an obvious parody of Saruman from The Lord of the Rings.
His birthday is December 5th, which is the day The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was released.
His favorite piece is the bishop.
ガンドルフ・パソ (Gandulf Paso) is how Gandulf's name would be spelled in katakana. He is an obvious parody of Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings.
His birthday is July 29th, which is the day The Fellowship of the Ring was first published.
His favorite piece is the rook.
ゾラム・スニアグル (Zollum Sneargle) is how Zollum's name would be written in katakana. He is an obvious parody of Gollum from The Lord of the Rings.
His birthday is May 25th, which is the day The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was released.
His favorite piece is the queen.
ネコラス・エルフヴァルト (Nekolas Ælfwald) is how Nekolas' name would be spelled in katakana. He's meant to be a parody of Legolas from The Lord of the Rings.
His birthday is December 10th, which is the day The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was released.
His favorite piece is the knight.
シャーウッド・エルフドルフ (Sherwood Ælfdorf) is how Sherwood's name would be spelled in katakana.
His birthday is December 1st, which is the day The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was released.
His favorite piece is the pawn.
With the exception of Sherwood, all these characters are parodies of prominent Lord of the Rings characters. Nekolas and Zollum though actually first debuted in the Yowie Hunt series, particularly Yowie Hunt Season 3.
ラザール・ヴァリュイ・ムーテ (Lazare Valluy-Moutet) is how Lazare Valluy-Moutet's name would be spelled in katakana.
His birthday is October 21st, which he shares with French grandmaster, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
His favorite piece is the king.
アルセーヌ・ファルキ (Arsène Farrukhi) is how Arsène's name would be spelled in katakana.
His birthday is June 18th, which he shares with Iranian-French grandmaster, Alireza Firouzja.
His favorite piece is the knight.
As for the game, some of you might recognize it as the joke game from the original draft of Season 2 between Okisato and Mimoko. While I decided to ultimately cut said game as part of the revisions, I decided that this match was a good time to bring it back as Le Mime would be one to try and play something like this. Of course, that's only because he's up against Ginji.
The true relationship between the two will remain a mystery for now, but unlike many of the other mysteries surrounding Le Mime, this one will end up being solved before the end of the arc. In fact, I think it will likely be solved before the final round of the tournament.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
