Ar tonelico – The Girl Who Continues to Sing at the End of the World afterwords

Author's Postscript
Kei Tanaka
First, I want to give my apologies to everyone involved in the creation of this novel for having turned so abstruse. You always dared to get close to me even at the very end. Maybe it's that the more abstruse we are, the better our works turn out to be?
And with the apologies out of the way, on to the postscript... As I received a lot of difficult notes from Mr. Tsuchiya, I paid as much attention as I could to them in order to make this novel a suitable product for the game's world.

The point about which I felt the strongest in the original game, [Ar tonelico]... though that's something common to this kind of computer RPGs (please, don't forget that there are also a.n.a.log RPGs, okay?) to me... was "how would the infrastructure of its society be?" And it isn't limited to its infrastructure either: While within the game we can only see the world through the eyes of its main character, there should be many other people aside of him that also support the existence of that world itself. For some reason, that's the point I kept in mind the most.
That's why I tried to put in the spotlight the society that supports the existence of the [Ar tonelico] world for this light novel.
There should be manufacturers that supply to the shops the item they sell, as well as there should be conflicts over the opinions in the factions that compose the main organizations that gather the people of the world. That's what I wanted to try grasping. Thinking about the finer details that could also exist there is also something I consider as extremely important.
Whenever we go to a convenience store, we pick and buy a lot of things as if we were living in an RPG-ish world, but what supports it is an infrastructure so subtle and enormous we can't even believe it ourselves. If something like that also existed in the game world and we could seriously grasp it, we would be able to even fabricate our own view for the fundamental reality of the characters that appear on it. That was the kind of feelings that allowed me to keep on writing this novel.
Now you've finished reading it, if this allowed you to feel Aurica and Misha (and other characters such as Radolf) as much closer existences to your own, it means this novel has fulfilled its purpose.
Now, my role in the [Ar tonelico] world has come to an end for the time being, but this doesn't mean at all that the world itself has ended. The original creator of this world, Mr. Tsuchiya, still has a lot of things he wants to talk about it, so it also means that Aurica's and Misha's journey is not going just to end like this.

I also received a tremendous amount of cooperation for the plot of this novel from Mr. Kaori Igusa, who became a sworn friend of mine after "The Second Police Squad". Therefore, beginning with him and going through everyone who supported me in all sorts of ways, I'd like to express my grat.i.tude to them all.

Supervisor's Postscript
Akira Tsuchiya (GUST)
When I created the work we know as Ar tonelico, there were a few things I decided. Among them, I think the most important one would be preserving the level of its world building. That's why all of the Ar tonelico-related products that have been released so far have been made under my full supervision.

In fact, I personally reviewed the writing of this novel a total of three times, which also caused us several problems due to the publis.h.i.+ng deadlines. However, given that people buying it would have dedicated that same amount of time to reading it in full, making a compromise on this matter was something we couldn't bring ourselves to do.
That's why I believe that these kinds of feelings are directly related to the further deepening of Ar tonelico's world setting.

As I love so much expanding this world further, I want to release as many products for it as possible, even if it reaches the point of ridiculousness (*laughs*). To give some examples, that's why I've made new experiments with the language of the Ar tonelico world: the [Hymmnos Language], outside of the game, going as far as using it in the Drama CDs and the Hymmnos Musicals. After all, if we're going to release new products, I want them all to exist as pieces of this world, so I can continue giving new surprises to the fans that always buy them... That's the kind of feelings that all of the Ar tonelico-related products contain within themselves.
And for this light novel, the "new experiment" we decided to attempt was discussing more in-depth the nature of the Binary Field and the Souls.p.a.ces of the Reyvateils, as well as trying to depict in a more detailed way the feelings, ways of thinking and relations.h.i.+ps of the party members.

For the former, we explained further some things about the Binary Field and the Souls.p.a.ces we couldn't in the game proper, and we used the destruction of the Singing Angel world as the pivotal point for making it easier to understand. And based from that, we arrived at the conclusion that the feelings of all the Reyvateils are connected in a very deep level, so if a lot of people wish for happiness, that world will overflow with happiness too... that's what I wanted to convey. This was one of the themes we conveyed in the Ar tonelico game too, but for this light novel, I think we went even deeper into it than we managed to in the game. Additionally, for those that read in the game's setting encyclopedia book should be familiar with the "Reyvateil Rebellion that Caused the End of the Second Era". You might know already which were the causes, but we decided to try exploring the reality of what happened back then with the events of this light novel too.
As for the relations.h.i.+ps between the characters, that was other point that we couldn't depict in the game as much as we would have liked. This was especially true for the relations.h.i.+p between Aurica and Misha, between Jack and Krusche, and between Radolf and Fayma, the latter only appearing in the OVA, so we decided to pick up and depict more in-depth the relations.h.i.+ps you all were the most interested in.
For both points, I think that by using the light novel media and having an expert on them use their talents for writing it; we could be able to give an extra layer of depth to the Ar tonelico world.
As I could call the Ar tonelico world the work of my life, I still hold the ambition to continue expanding it in even more different types of media.
If you can still continue looking at the new things in the Ar tonelico world as they are released and you continued lending me your hands in support, nothing could ever make me any happier. I also intend to continue putting in more surprises that will pull your heartstrings in all of these products we put out for sale, so I wish for us to continue being related through this world and continue having adventures in it, because if we can continue making the world of Ar tonelico even deeper and greater together, nothing else could make me happier than it.

Atsunori Kawachi (Banpresto)
This was a game that began as a conversation between the staff members of GUST and Banpresto.
Banpresto Co., Ltd. is the company that makes the jewel of the crown in character crossover games: the "Super Robot Wars series".
GUST Co. Ltd.'s main product should be known to everyone even if no one says it: it's the "Atelier series".
These two companies, so different from each other, collaborated for the release of a game, and once this deed was done, they began thinking about what other kinds of projects they could work in together. This was how the story of "Ar tonelico", which has become such a large-scale project now, began.

GUST... or better said, GUST's Mr. Tsuchiya had during a long time this story about a "wondrous Tower" swirling and coiling inside his head until he was allowed to let it out in what seemed an explosive blast in front of all of us.
Upon seeing his pa.s.sionate proposal, I decided I wanted to work alongside him to make this game a reality. That's how I think that I ended becoming part of this project.
During my career as a developer, I proposed up to that point that we’d only borrow previously existing characters from all sorts of publishers and added my own kind of flavor to them, so we could bring out their own "charm as characters" in a way that would only work out in the specific game in which they appeared. However, I was quite troubled about what kind of flavor I would add to the characters this time around.
In the end, I had to admit with a humble expression that they were "too charming" and I decided to press on too with the theme of making this fantastical world into an even larger and deeper place that felt like somewhere in which all of these characters could actually live.

I think this theme is also that caused a great deal of worry to both Mr. Tsuchiya and to our character designer, Mr. Nagi Ryou. It's possible that our lack of preparation was embodied in the "Is this an eroge?" comments, but as these delicate themes went through the hands of several of the people that collaborated with us, it's possible that the balance we had established changed into a completely different thing somewhere along the way.

The characters that were born at that moment, as well as the unique world setting we've created, both undoubtedly have a body, blood and heart of their own, and they also have become existences that even display beautiful singing voices capable of even purifying the hearts of anyone.
Because of the several desires we had, we caused a lot of trouble to all the people that helped us with structuring several points of the Ar tonelico world.
This is also is especially true for Mr. Tanaka, the creator of this light novel, who did his best at writing this new entry in the Ar tonelico world while trying to keep himself loyal to the feelings Mr. Tsuchiya wanted to express on it, understanding the complex world setting, and making sure to pull out the charm each of the characters had without having to make them break.

I think that all of the developers that have partic.i.p.ated in the creation of the products related to Ar tonelico, including this light novel, have allowed us to structure an incredibly wide world that won't end with just one game.
With every piece of work we release, all of the characters, beginning with Lyner and then Aurica and Misha, begin feeling more and more real.
Looks like this world of Ar tonelico is going to be expanding even more and more.
And as long as it continues expanding, I wish we can continue always counting on each other forever, both users and developers.