Feb 05, 2025
Author's Commentary #332:
Time to talk about Chapter 332: Opening act.
After over 300 long chapters, Maida finally has played a proper chess match on-screen. It didn't result in a win for her, but I'll explain a bit more on that in a second. First we need to do Gojko and Lucie's bios.
ゴイコ・ゴイコヴィッチ (Gojko Gojković) is how Gojko's name would be spelled in katakana.
His birthday is January 22nd, which he shares with American restaurateur, Guy Fieri.
His favorite piece is the king, because he thinks it's the toughest piece on the board.
Gojko is a character I thought up on the fly, mainly because I wanted to have a new character be introduced. In terms of design, it's inspired by American restaurateur, Guy Fieri. At this point, I don't really have much down on his character, aside from a few minor character traits, but I imagine that will change when he shows up again in the story, which he most certainly will.
ルーシー・チェチョヴァ (Lucie Čechová) is how Lucie's name would be spelled in katakana.
Her birthday is October 28th, which is Independent Czechoslovak State Day.
Her favorite piece is the queen, because she's the self-proclaimed checkmating queen.
Lucie is a Ewetuber and chess commentator, famous for her catchphrase, "Czech me out." Funnily enough, I ended up forgetting about her, and having to add her bio into an updated post. It just goes to show that when you're juggling so many characters, it's easy to forget about a few. But perhaps I could use this to make her a memorable character.
Getting back to Maida, the game was something I decided I waned to use, but struggled to find a place to use it as the bot I played for the game wasn't rated very highly. But with Maida, it made sense for her not to be too skilled at the game as she's not always getting the chance to practice. Not to mention, her losing to Ichiko allows for a plotline where she trains up to try and beat Ichiko.
One final thing I'll touch on is Maida's nickname of "Mañana". Mañana is the Spanish word for "tomorrow", but it also sounds similar to Maida's first name, Mayana. That's actually something I've been wanting to highlight ever since Maida's character was first finalized. And speaking of Maida, she lost the game, meaning she's stuck being part of the comedy act. That means said act will dominate the next chapter, but after that, round 6 will begin. All of Japan's games are completed, and I can say they most certainly are thrilling. I hope you're looking forward to it.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
