I Shaved. Then I Brought a High School Girl Home. Volume 1, Afterword.

Translator: yuNS

Afterword

Nice to meet you all, this is Shimesaba.

This written work was a product of careful efforts piled together on the web, I had been quite fearful when writing this work.

Thinking back, when I first began writing this work on ‘Kakuyomu’, I remember looking at the site’s trends and thinking ‘well this isn’t going to get popular’ and laughing it off in a way. At the time, I had also been enjoying writing a trendy isekai fantasy story, but suddenly (if I remember correctly, it had been when I was sitting on the toilet bowl at home) the idea for the character ‘Sayu’ came into mind and after that I couldn’t stop myself running with it.

I believe myself to have been extremely lucky that a story that had begun with such a whimsical idea had grown to become what it was and be discovered by the managers.

I like to think that the character, the story, and how it turned out was all a product of coincidence, so I can’t help but feel blessed that there are now people out there who coincidentally came to like this work.

Now then, from here on I would say my thanks.

Firstly, to those who had discovered this work on the broad world of the internet, then decided to read it, I would like to thank you from the very depths of my heart for your support.

Next, to my manager W-san, who had discovered the possibilities of this work and pushed it all the way to publication, I would like to express my deepest gratitude. Though, perhaps I should be apologizing instead? I had cause them a lot of trouble throughout the process after all.

Finally, to the illustrator boota-san, who had given substance and breathed life to the characters, to the proofreaders, who had read the scrutinized the work more seriously than I the author did, as well as all those who were involved the process of it’s publishing, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to you all.

Whilst wishing for another coincidental encounter between everyone and my story, I will end the afterword here.

Shimesaba.

Word from the Translator

Hello, yuNS here.

For many of you out there, just know that you weren’t the only one click-baited. I remember seeing this book be number 1 on the Amazon Light Novel Rankings and thinking ‘what in the world has this world come to’, before being mildly surprised by a rather wholesome story with heavy themes instead.

That aside, let’s talk about the cultural background behind this work, since it may not be a topic that English readers are particular with.

The book’s setting is based on the frequent incidents of runaway girls, typically teenagers,  waiting under a lamppost or an electronic billboard for a man to bring them to their home. For this, they have gained the alias of  ‘神待ち少女’ (Kamimachi Shoujo), literally ‘Young Girls Waiting for God’ – derived from the halo effect that occurs when under these sources of light late at night. From what I’ve read on interviews with survivors as well as news articles, the motives of these girls is in no small part due to the combined pressures of coming of age, the systematic abuse, exploitation, and perhaps fetishization of High School Girls in ‘JK Culture’, as well as a Japan’s willingness to turn a blind eye to individual issues due Japan having a one of the most collectivist and conservative cultures on Earth.

Moving on, the act of bringing these girls home are referred to, in the case of a high schooler, ‘女子高生を拾う’ (joshikousei wo hirou), which in the most literal interpretation means ‘Adopting a Stray High School Girl’, in the same sense one would adopt a stray cat or dog. Evidently though, there are other interpretations of this term, so for part of the title of the book that used this term, ‘そして、女子高生を拾う’ (soshite, joshikousei o hirou), I rephrased it to ‘Then I Brought a High School Girl Home’, since in colloquial English, neither ‘adopting a stray’ nor ‘picking up’ would make sense.

With that explained what’s up with ‘I Shaved’ then? When translated literally, that part of the title means ‘I Shaved my Facial Hair’. Some might interpret this part of the title as figuratively meaning ‘being heartbroken’, in the same way Japanese girls cut their hair after being heartbroken, but as for whether that applies to facial hair? I’m not so sure. It may be, in the authors words, a happy ‘coincidence’ perhaps.

Anyway, although there’s still a lot more to unpack, I’ll leave it here for now. I do plan on creating a glossary of culture reference, if not a preface for this work when I have time, so stay tuned to that if you will.

Big thanks to Yuuki and xyi for sticking it out for over a year, and again, thank you all for reading this translation!

yuNS

P.S. There’s still a Side Story for Volume 1.

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