The BAMBOO BROOM DIARY/2002

2002/11/13: Tis’ the start of the blog. (Takeuchi)
LET’S BEGIN. Well, I think I’ll update it when I feel like it.
Mostly Nasu, actually.^{[Translator 1]}

2002/11/14: Mostly Takeuchi, actually. (Kinoko)
Start of the blog, huh? Mostly Takeuchi, actually.
Anyways, I’ll be working so I can have tomorrow’s Breath of Contra as a reward.

Gimme the water! Wait, I meant quarter.
I’m somewhat feeling it’s gonna be more like ‘On Your Mark’ than its gonna be like ‘ICO’.
Getting all up in arms against the Artifical Paradise just cuz you let an angel outside.
And then you get to the ending and have to do it all over again.
But before I go down, I say this to my new self who’ll have to start over from the very beginning:

“Ey kid, you got it this time”

Or something like that.
Maaan, stuff like that really gets me going.^{[Translator 2]}

2002/11/15: On Your Mark (Takeuchi)
I got a bit nostalgic so I went straight to watching it. Man, it’s good.
This is like one of those where the same scenes are repeated over and over in the middle.
The failure and success of breaking out.
Is this reused animation? Is about all you can think but it seemed Nasu, who I watched it with, thought differently.
“Assume that the girl conveys her will not through words, but by showing images.
So, she conveys to the two of them that this is what’s going to happen if you save me… yet they still come and try to rescue her. With each passing second, the moments of failure conveyed through the visions draws closer and closer. Isn’t that awesome?"
...That’s awesome, yeah.
So I guess this is what they mean by ‘even though we’re watching the same thing, what we’re seeing is different’, huh. It’s been close to 10 years since I started admiring the world as seen by Nasu.
Makes me reminisce about the old times, still as clear to me as ever.^{[Translator 3]}

2002/11/24: The Chamber of Secrets, theatrical edition (Takeuchi)
I went and watched it, totally hyped.
It’s a movie much like The Philosopher’s Stone, aimed towards people who already love the source material.
There’s all kinds of things I wanna dig in too but, I think I’ll definitely go see it again.
That one Hermione scene was really too much though (tears)

Once more, it made me realize that it’s a great piece of fiction that really stimulates your fantasies.
What excellent Fantasy does is not that it makes you think you wanna be the protagonist, but that you wanna go into its world.
I feel like I’ve read something like that somewhere.
If I had stumbled upon this as a kid I would’ve probably become enraptured by Harry Potter’s world.
Should I look for Harry Potter books at Winter Comiket? I should probably read some of the stuff I’ve got saved up first... But that’s a bit of shame...
…Waddya mean, I’m already totally hooked?

Also, Ron’s totally Popp, right.
And then Harry is Dai and Hermione is Maam.^{[Translator 4]}

2002/11/25: Anonymity requested.
Hagrid is Crocodine.
Professor Snape is Hadlar.

And Dudely is Zaboera.


This is a bit of a digression, but...
In Earthbound there’s that annoying neighbor who does this and that to Giygas and becomes the last boss, yeah?
Going along those lines...
How about if Dudley does this and that to He who must not be named and so comes Striking Back where’s there’s just 1 page left in the final seventh book? Oh, rejected?^{[Translator 5]}

2002/11/28: The weather's great. (Kinoko)
Umm, this is a bit embarrassing, but my birthday was recently.
I’ve received words of congratulation from all kinds of places, thanks. Like from all the people over at the Moon BBS. And from a bunch of acquaintances. From my comrades who nagged me for over an hour going what the hell do you want then huh, right to my face. Yesterday, that is.
In any case, it’s been a whole year huh…
It’s been 1 year since the Fate project started, and 9 months since production began. It’s been a year I don’t recall much of but production is proceeding smoothly. Really damn smoothly.
I mean it took 1 and a half a year from Tsukihime’s announcement to release, so we’re counting on a bit of leeway here.
Wait, wait, actually the announcement was in summer so we’ve still got like a year of leeway right, Yaaay! (bonk) collapse.

....Oh, but this year it feels like I’ve been to the doctor constantly.
But it’s fine now.
I got some major and minor surgeries performed on me, and so now I’ve obtained the body of a machine.
I did some Jackhammer-esque body modification too. I’ve been equipped with some Goku-esque artificial eyeballs as well, so now I’ve just gotta keep silently working on my writing. What's with the... delusions...


“So, what’s it that you want, huh?”
“Let’s see, there’s a video-game coming out tomorrow so I want 3 days off, huhu”

On my ○○○th birthday, thus was my wish.
It was rejected, of course.^{[Translator 6]}

2002/12/1: How I spent my weekend (Takeuchi)
Been a while since I went shopping.

My new vacuum cleaner makes me pretty satisfied.

Also, when I went shopping for Nasu’s birthday present I also found an airgun Mauser that I liked
Spur-of-the-moment purchase.
The sensation of iron and smell of oil is quite novel. Damn cool.



As for books, I bought the art book of Takamichi, and a bunch of GUNSLINGER GIRL ones.
Takamichi’s art book was entirely composed of drawings that were kinda like snapshots, and so gave off a mysterious vibe.
I don’t grow tired of them no matter how many times I look.
GUNSLINGER GIRL was also interesting.
I think you could even say Mr. Aida was born out of Comitia and so I have a one-sided feeling of kinship with him.
It was ages since I had wanted to draw manga and so I thought of some ideas I’ve had since before and started building up a storyboard in my head.
If there’s an opportunity I’d like to try and do BITTER SWEET FOOLS as well.^{[Translator 7]}

2002/12/6: The illusion of a boy's day (Takeuchi)
Every time, I always just worry the most about the title (sweats)

I do the rough sketch on paper and then clean it up on my PC when I’m drawing. It’s been about half a year since I started doing it like this.
Lately I’ve been growing quite used to my tablet, to the point where it’s become part of my equipment that I cannot do without.
On the PC I can really grasp the mistakes I make in terms of balance that I don’t notice when I’m drawing on paper, or even instantly being able to grasp the layouts I couldn’t grasp so well before.
If I say so myself, I’m really drawing pictures by borrowing the power of machines over here.
If ao[sic], what’s buried inside of Pluto might really be the manuscripts of past mangas. I’m gonna tear up at the nostalgia.

By the way, we are having an airgun craze here at TYPE-MOON.
Nasu’s SOCOM is but a mere toy when compared to this Mauser of mine. Uhih..
...Or so I thought, but when he let me shoot with it... Oh my how super rad, boom. Damnit~ I also want a SOCOM~. I mean, Mausers are heavy so I want a light airgun~.^{[Translator 8]}

2002/12/8: It broke. (Kinoko)
My computer’s gamepad broke.
She won’t crouch for me, Akiha that is.

I thought it’d be fun, so: Down A x 2 → Launcher → Piercing the Waxing Moon → Jump follow-up attack → Then while Shiki is vigorously burning I do some stuff and then finally hit him down (Air-throw) ,

It might be through repeating this technique called Sending my Brother Straight to Hell (named by: Kinoko) that it broke.
In any case, it seems the wiring for the down direction has broken down. Gotta go to Akiba and buy a new pad.
All that said, pads are indispensable so hey everyone, if you get one while you still can that’d be good fortune I bet.


Also, N-ta. The Titanic seems a bit fishy. Consider the Mary Celeste instead.

“Huh!? No one’s at the Circle booth!?”^{[Translator 9]}

2002/12/13: Fiscal Year 2002 Moe Character Play-offs (Kinoko)
Right so, my personal Moe-character rankings.

First Place for Year 2001: Rakushun (Right now, from the novel. I haven’t seen the anime so the Moe there is unknown)
First Place for Year 2002: The protagonist of Windwaker

Wow, To think that the most powerful Moe-character would appear with less than 20 days left in the year.
I mean really, that’s amazing.
It’s so wonderful that even rhetorical flourishes like ‘interesting’ and ‘cute’ just get in the way, really.

“The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker”, that is!

Also the protagonist is Moe. Just Moe. I fell in love just 1 minute after starting the game, kya~
Oh damn, I just wanna play Windwaker forever.
But that’s not going to be possible. The winds will have to stay still until winter break. ^{[Translator 10]}

2002/12/19: The tedium of drawing (Takeuchi)
Let's see here...
As I’m sure everyone knows, as far as drawing goes, I’m about just below the middle of the pack. Maybe you could stretch it to just middle of the pack. I’m an exceedingly mediocre artist.
So that being who I am, lately I’ve endeavoured to keep in mind physique, muscles, balance and what not while I’m drawing.
I wrote this in my previous entry but the tablet is perfect for these kinds of corrective procedures.
It’s become a daily routine for me to think ‘oh I’ll just fix it on the PC’ now when I’m doing rough sketches on paper.
Working digitally makes it extremely easy to make corrections to your images but this also presents an unexpected pitfall.
Well, basically, there’s no end to the amount of corrections you can make so if you intently just fix this there and that here then all of a sudden 1-2 hours will have passed and though you’ve fixed all the awkward spots it’s turned the drawing kinda featureless.
So what I basically want to say is that, as my quality and work efficiency hasn’t improved as much as I thought, the work on Fate is most certainly going to be delayed.
Sorry (tears)

That being as it may, let’s talk Melty Blood.
I can finally reveal some details.
All things put together, I think I drew about 130 images, including some minor ones.
These too, as I am known to do, have been subject to corrections into the bitter end. Still, thanks to that I feel like I’ve been able to complete them to my own level of satisfaction.
If you’d look forward to that kind of stuff too, even if just a little bit, then I’d be happy I guess.^{[Translator 11]}

2002/12/20: Sorry for making you wait~ (Takeuchi)
There’s an advertisement printed primarily for the DVD of the masterpiece anime AKIRA in today’s Asahi Shimbun evening issue but in the corner you can faintly make out an advertisement for Tsukihime as well (laughs)

That said it’s not a drawing from the anime, but a cut down version of something I drew myself. For those who’ll pick up Asahi Shimbun, please check it out.^{[Translator 12]}

2002/12/20: The name's Toujima Takeshi (Kinoko)
Considering the occasion, I do want to talk about Melty but... I’ll veer off course instead.

At night, due to some minor business I went to office and ate dinner with everyone.
So, I thought hey what are you watching and wouldn’t you know it: “Ashita no Joe 2 the Movie”
That seemed fun I thought but went to the room right over to create a minidisk for listening to in the car.
Afterwards I watched an episode of “Apachee Baseball Army”, so often the center of controversy.

So, thoughts.
More interesting than Kobayashi Soccer, my man! (In so many ways!)
Though packed with Alcohol, all of us watching laughed like crazy, dude.
You really gotta watch the episode previews.
Just thinking that there’s 25 episodes left its like I got way too much to do during winter break now.
There’s Zelda. There’s Scryed. There’s Angel Tales. There’s Dead to Rights. There’s Harry Potter. There’s Maria-sama ga Miteiru. There’s Imouto de Ikou.
...Wait? I think something in there that's a bit out of place, oh well.

That’s this year’s likely winner


Let’s meet again next time at "Stab all outsiders!”^{[Translator 13]}

2002/12/27: Last business day of the year, and our agreement (Kinoko)
To me half a year from now.
Today at 8:10 PM, this year's work (quota) ended.
Good job.
I have concluded what in Tsukihime terms would be Arc, Ciel and Akiha route. The same in terms of volume too.
Well then, I’m thinking of turning over a new leaf for next year and trying even harder.

...As if! I don’t give a hoot about such ceremonious phrases!
I did it, now I can finally start Windwaker!
I can also watch Scryed, and I can read the Summit of the Gods too! Close your eyes and grit your teeth too!




And also our agreement.
These are things I’d like you to uphold before doing the story mode of Melty Blood.

1, Before the story mode, get used to the controls of Shiki and Sion in VS mode.
　If you can, spar a bit with every character
　Story mode is about difficulty 4 or 5 so LET’S TRY.

2, The flowchart shown in-game.
　The story blocks that intersect are because they are different stories, oh how bizarre.
　Even if you’ve cleared the E-Block, you can end up in a different E-Block by going through a different route.

4, You should save the bottom-most route for last.

5, To Kohaku and Akiha, I’m gonna apologize while I still can.

6, When the secret characters appear, they come all at once.

7, Skipping already-read text is done through the shield button. Saving is the config button.

That’s all.
Now then, I’ll be waiting for you in the Town of Shadow Play at the close of the year.^{[Translator 14]}

2002/12/31: Just barely within this year (Takeuchi)
4 days later than Nasu. I’ve somehow finally completed my work for this year.
Hahhh.... I’m so relieved it's not next year yet.

Good work at Comiket everyone.
For Melty, keep Nasu’s above-mentioned disclaimers in mind and enjoy yourselves.

Anyways.
Looking back on this year, lots of things happened but, I think it was also a year in which I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to get to know a lot of people.
I hope to announce the things we’ve got piled up from this whole year all at once next year.

Well then everyone. Happy new year.^{[Translator 15]}