How did you like âMahouka Koukou no Rettouseiâ Volume 15 âAncient City Insurrection Arc (II)â. Although the subtitle âAncient City Insurrection Attempt Arcâ might suit the content better, but the title would been a spoiler for you. Thatâs why, I ask for your understanding and forgiveness that I didnât put âattemptâ in the subtitle.
Now, we finally see the Yotsubaâs branch families. Although they were only in supporting roles in this installment, for me this is something memorable as â...finally these guys can come outâ. Well, I can say that they will be in supporting roles in the future as well, since they are an essential part to producing the climax of âMahouka Koukou no Rettouseiâ, they were always waiting for their turn. The installment where they will make a major appearance will be one of the climaxes of this series.
The appearance of the branch families itself had been decided from the beginning, although their structures and family names were only decided recently. The various NG42, I was quite troubled by them. Shiiba, Mashiba, Shibata, Kuroba, Mugura, Tsukuba, Shizuka. Among those, Shiiba, Mashiba, Shibata are the easiest to understand. Each of them carry âfour-leafâ, which is a variation of âYotsubaâ.
Maybe youâve already noticed about Kuroba, it was taken from âYotsuba no Kurobaâ (four-leaf clover).
Mugura was derived from a plant called âYostsubamugura43â.
Tsukuba was taken from âTsukubanesou44â. Tsukubanesou is a perennial plant of the Lily family with four leaves.
Shizuka was inspired from a plant called âHitorishizukaâ. It is also a perennial four leaf.
During the process of choosing their surnames, I had a hard time in attempting to follow the naming law, thank goodness I could find good names.
Lastly, a little background story of the creation for the setting of âZhou Gongjin mixed up with Qi Men Dun Jiaâ (in the end Iâm going with this setting), in âYokohama Disturbance Arcâ and this âAncient City Insurrection Arcâ came from the âThe Romance of the Three Kingdomsâ (to be exact, the play which was written by Yoshikawa Eiji-sensei) with some improvisation in the episode where Zhou is coming out. In other words, rather than using the story of Kongming and Qi Men Dun Jia, I only used his Qi Men Dun Jia as a part of the setting. It doesnât mean that
42A surname of Asian origin
Zhuge Liang wasnât depicted in âThe Romance of the Three Kingdomsâ, in the end, I was just using the setting of Qi Men Dun Jia in this story.
Iâm heart fully thankful to you for having read this series up to here. If it suits you, please look forward to the next installment Volume 16 âYotsuba Succession Arcâ.
(Satou Tsutomu)
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