Post-face of The Arms Peddler

All the post-face written by Kyoichi NANATSUKI at the end of each books.

Postface Volume 1 - Some words came from the moor
Since my early childhood, a landscape is nestled deep in my heart: the one of a desert moor, an arid and reddish land burn by a huge scarlet sun and dotted with ruins and relics of the lost civilization which the shadows extend on the floor. Despite the little morbid aspect of the scene of desolation, I was irresistibly attracted by this moor, I think the picture has inspired by the western cinema, which I loved very much when I was a kid. In this time, post-apocalyptic fictions were trendy and they finished intruding a certain view of the world.

We were completely in the cold war, and the risk of an atomic war was hovering above our heads like a Damocles sword. Moreover, some prophecies announce the end of the world for 1999. It’s crazy how, when we are a child, the idea of a world’s end can be very exciting! But this moor, still stuck in my mind wasn’t a death landscape. And a lovely day, I went in a dream in search of beings that lived in this desert. To survive there, a sacred will was needed… How the inhabitants look like? Which language could they speak? What would they live? When I was asking myself all the questions, the picture of a woman came to me.

She was pretty but covered in a sinister shadow. She was driving a black hitch more funeral than a hearse. She was travelling constantly at the edge of life and death, and she was asking the same question to anyone she met. She was the only one to change their destiny. I called her “Garami”. It has been few decades that I invented this character, and I tried several times to give life to this beauty of the moor in a work, without success. I ended up forgetting her story, half written in my computer. Now that I think again, my story wasn’t enough mature.

Two years ago, Young Gangan magazine’s editorial introduced me an illustrator named Night Owl. When I saw his drawings, my desolated moor immediately came to my mind, while the shape of Garami became clearer than she ever was. The time had come: the young lady would finally be able to come to life and travel this desert moor which was her universe. I hope you will take pleasure to walk with Garami and Sona in their long trip.



October, 20th 2010, on the counter of the pub The Wild Goose’s Nest

Postface Volume 2 - The swallowed world
To invent a story, it’s first of all to create a universe. In my way, there’s nothing more exalting! Usually, we build a world by starting with a base idea then by adding elements little by little. But in my case, the creation process is pretty particular: I have an impression of digging out progressively a buried civilization to bring it to light… It’s almost archeology, I dig the earth in search of ruins and fossils to extract. By places, some remains stands out of the floor, but it’s only the emerged part of the iceberg…And the only way to know what links them to the relics already unearthed, it to dig deeper! Sometimes, I find myself obliged to make a big detour before to reach a place that seemed close to me.

At the beginning, I have only few pieces of images in the head for building the world of The Arms Peddler. I was seeing a mysterious woman and a young boy in a black chariot, travelling a desert moor dotted of ruins… All began with this. Now, Garami and Sona travel trought the world, but only the areas they cross are lighted. I’m only seeing the edges of their course.

This universe is extremely dangerous, even for its own author. Sometimes, I feel I’m playing one of this old RPG of the time where we had to draw a map on a paper if we wanted to locate in the dungeons. (it’s an image that only people who played this kind of games can understand…Now, everything is easier, there’s integrated maps, we can’t be lost in a quest like before! There were a time where losing his way was part of things that gave taste to a RPG. Well, end of the digression…)

Right, the world of The Arms Peddler begins to take shape a little more in this volume. We know now that a north country, Caradia, and a south country, The Balzaar, are at war. We have also discovered the existence of a conspiracy made by the Zora’s cult and its necromancers. Finally, we got to know several beings not human, the Garons and the Shadow’s Inhabitants, as well as the weapon dealer’s guild, which Garami belongs.

However, and it’s an important point, we are still ignoring the king of burden that seems to weight on the beautiful arms peddler’s shoulders. In fact, it’s one of the first elements that appeared to me when I began to work on the story. I give you a clue: there is a link with the great sword she carries since her first appearance and which she has never used yet. Hope she will unsheathe it in the next volumes! I hope one again that you will take pleasure to walk with Garami and Sona in their long trip.

February, 27th 2011, on the count of the pub The Wild Goose’s Nest

Postface Volume 3 - About a certain library
I’m in the middle of a library. Some wide white shelving extends in front of me. They are huge and rise until the ceiling, but, as the aisles are wide, this is nothing oppressing. I stop and check a shelf nearby, it is full of books that I haven’t ever read yet. According to their titles, they seem pretty seductive. I walk furthermore a little moment along these huge bookcases and, without noticing it, I begin to take a book, then another one, as is so that I finish with an enormous pile in my arms. It’s for the greatest happiness!

As you must guessed, I’m describing you an imaginary library, the kind of you see it only in your dreams. One day, I talked about it to Akara ARISATO, a mangaka coworker, and he blamed me a little: “It’s not fair! You could bring me there!” Sadly, it’s impossible… Well, for a library amateur like me, this dream is a pure moment of ecstasy, on the other hand: I couldn’t read anything of the books I chose! I had no memories going to the cashier… This book can’t be taken away in the real world. So, I took a decision: if I come back one day, I will read the books there!

Here I am again, in my imaginary library, I rush toward a huge foreign book that I noticed a long time ago, so big that I’m oblige to carry it with both of my hands. It is entirely black, from its massive and rigid cover to his interior pages, and decorated with magnificent illustrations colorful. Certainly, a fantasy literacy book, a luxurious limited edition made in few copies only… So here I am in possession of the object. I open it and, at this moment, something strange happens: I’m sucked between its pages, projected in the middle of the story! To resume, I was dreaming in another dream. It was a droste effect dream… I was perfectly conscious that it’s not possible to be snatched by a book, and consequently I was necessarily in the middle of a dream. A dream very clear, after all!

So, I lived an adventure in a dreaming universe, and then I came back in the real world, a bit like The Neverending Story of Michael Ende. Once awakened, I tried to write the content of this crazy dream, but only some bits of incoherent memories came back in my head… Nevertheless, these few confused images served as base to fill the universe of The Arms Peddler. If I told you that some of the most important keys of the story come of a dream, will you believe me? Well, know that it’s the case for the book that will appear in the next volume.

July, 21th 2011, on the count of the pub The Wild Goose’s Nest

Postface Volume 4 - The vampire's sadness
The vampires are fascinating creatures, there are always described as handsome, terrifying and with a lot of sensuality… That’s why, in all time, they were invited in a lot of novels, mangas, movies or videogames, the humans have always been irresistibly attracted by them. According to me, I think the main characteristic is this great sadness that seems to go with their destiny. I didn’t highlight this characteristic in my screenplay, but, in my opinion, it’s the weakest creature of all.

I will explain. They have a superhuman power, they suck human blood to multiply themselves, they can transform in wolves or in bats, even sometimes in mist, and we cannot kill them unless to plant a stack in the heart or cutting off their head. Well, in theory, they seem invincible and, however, they are terribly weak: the simple view of a cross makes them suffer, they can’t enter for the first time in a house without being invited and they are destroyed by the sunlight… For me, when we create a character, we don’t have to focus only on its qualities but also on its weaknesses… That’s why I find particularly interesting to staging vampires.

I am very moved by their sinister destiny. Put yourselves in their place: in the order established by the humans, they are nothing less than corpses that came back to life. It’s not surprising that they tried to turn away from this world that doesn’t accept them! It is told that in growth economic phases, the Frankenstein’s myth come back in fashion, meanwhile during crisis time, it’s rather Dracula’s myth. I ignore if it’s true, but if we consider that the sadness which spread out of vampires is a reflection of our own gloom, so there is in this saying a part of truth. It’s the reflection that I thought yesterday evening, writing the last chapter of the black forest story arc.

At the end of this volume, there is “Mist Mansion”, a special chapter which has been published in an extra of Young Gangan magazine. It’s a short story that does not insert in the chronology of The Arms Peddler; we can consider it as a special issue. I have drawn 3 in whole; maybe the others will be published in the next volumes. For the moment, they are available freely on the Young Gangan website; you can take a look if you are interested: http://www.square-enix.co.jp/magazine/yg.

December, 21th 2011, on the count of the pub The Wild Goose’s Nest



Postface Volume 5 - Some pleasant nightmares
When we ask me if I love fantasy, I often have difficulty to give a precise answer. Indeed, I have practically read any of famous fantasy books and to be honest, I don’t feel the desire. To resume, I will say I’m not a big reader of fantasy literacy. Of course, among the large books that influenced me when I was young, some can be considered (I think) as fantasy: Guin Saga of Kaoru KURIMOTO, Vampire Hunter D of Hideyuki KIKUCHI, Elric’s book of Michael MOORCOCK… These books attracted me a lot and I took a huge pleasure to dive in them. When I think about it, it’s true I was passionate by heroic fantasy, swords and magic universes…

By the way, I was really marked by Inu no Teikoku, the third volume of Shin Megami Taisen series (even if some people will be choked to see me classifying this novels in “fantasy” type). Kazumasa HIRAI had impressed me both by his boundless imagination and by the way he structured his story. I’m also very attracted by all the Cthulhu’s mythology of H. P. LOVECRAFT. I have fun sometimes taking certain names of his universe as a tribute! In this series, for instance, the underground galleries of the volume 2 are a reference to one of his works, and we find also his influence in ‘Night of the sword”, a short story that hasn’t been published in volume yet.

To quote other authors, I love the universe of Clark Ashton Smith: Zothique, the last earth continent, or the ancient continent of Hyperborea, all shadier and stranger than the others… I had also moments where I was absorbed by the readings of the novels of Stephen King: The Dark Tower, The Talisman, Black House (the two last were written in collaboration with Peter Straub). When I enumerate all these titles, I realize I’m less an amateur of fantasy than horror: I love only dark stories.

What I like in these stories, it’s the dim light, the twilight. Since my early age, I’ve always been threatened and attracted by the dark, and I took pleasure to travel the territory of my nightmares. The Arms Peddler is born in this dark area that grew up in me during years, and if my series could become a patchwork composed of nightmares of a lot of different people, nothing could make me pleasure than this…

May, 26th 2012, on the count of the pub The Wild Goose’s Nest

Postface Volume 6 - The nightmares slip by the opened doors
I will tell you one of my childhood memories. When I was a child, I caught a European mantis in my garden. She wasn’t bigger than my finger, but she bravely move forward toward my index by showing its forelegs like two threatening scythes. I captured a second one and I kept them both in a bug’s cage. I fed them, and then I went in search of other insects to give them to eat for the mantises. One hour later, coming back with what I found, I saw one of my two protégés being eaten by the other. Even if I have already heard that the female ate the male after having sex, being witness of a cannibalism scene with my child eyes was for me a big shock!; This day, I learnt that the appetite of European mantis didn’t bound to their ex-partner, but they ate everything at their reach…

Here another memory: by taking a look at the notebook I had when I was young, I noticed that I drew several monsters that I saw in movies: Mothra enveloping the Tokyo tower in a cocoon, Kumonga throwing its spider threads, Kamacuras rising her forelegs and Meganulons covered o spikes with their pincer-shaped forelegs. Meganulons are prehistoric dragonfly larvae and, in the movie where they appear, Rodan, they have no other role than to be eaten by the flying monster. Nevertheless, when I was a child, I found them threatening. Indeed, when Godzilla or Rodan were fighting, they could destroy entire cities. The scale was too enormous to impress me but Meganulons were different.

They measured only 8 meters long, and it sufficed that someone forgets to close the terrace door that they slip inside the living room for eating human flesh… The night when I saw Rodan in the TV, I made nightmares all the night: I dreamt that these prehistoric insects came in my home to devour me! These childhood memories reappeared years later in a lot of my creations, for example, in one of them, Bugs: Predator’s Summer (illustrations by Yoshihide FUJIWARA), the earth is invaded by giant bugs and the special forces have to fight against a terrifying European Mantis, I just begin the continuation of this story, Bugsland: Hakobune no Triton (“Bugsland: The Ark’s triton) on the cellphone website “Mobi-Man” of Shôgakukan. If you are curious, don’t hesitate to take a look!

Well, advertising for a manga published by another editor is over… By reading this volume, you have noticed how much bugs influenced my imaginary. In the original screenplay, I have called the monster of the chapter 43 “The demonic insect”, even if in the end, I didn’t have the occasion to recall its name in the series. I have one more time taken the European mantis as model, although this time it’s got a human conscious. This evil creature comes out directly from my bad dreams of my childhood: she came in my house by an opened door and rushed on me with her legs covered with spikes while I was hiding in a corner of my bedroom… Decidedly, there is nothing headier than a good nightmare!

October, 28th 2012, on the count of the pub The Wild Goose’s Nest