分类： 前线来信·Mail call

Looks like things are going well. I’ll ask Zero for more pictures, but this particular convention’s apparently inside a … stadium?

Here’s pictures of set-up. That’s Aeronautica. 🙂

and one photo from the convention itself.

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“Okay, something’s been bugging me. Some shipgirls don’t seem to have personal weapons. Why doesn’t STEC arm them all with the proper melee/ranged weapons if it’d be useful?”

For routine operations, shipgirl will carry proper equipment, defined as that of which is designated for the particular mission in which said shipgirl is assigned to. Requests for alternative or supplementation should be made as early as possible to the shipgirl currently overseeing mission logistics with clear reasoning. 

Speak to the commander if the situation is urgent.

memo specific to Chester: “but but Mike lets me sword things sometimes!” is not valid reasoning. 

A reminder that the general operational doctrine is still that the shipgirls should use their primary armaments rather than anything personal. Much like how you wouldn’t ask a soldier to drop his Garand for his 1911, short of very specific circumstances, it’s generally better to engage the Abyssals with the stuff that’s, well, meant to kill them.

This is more of an issue of logistics. Given all the other things materials need to go towards, creating additional personal weapons isn’t exactly very high on the priority list when again, doctrine dictates that shipgirls only use those as a last resort.

Thus, when STEC does have materials to spare, they tend to create things that are more useful towards the fulfillment of STEC’s objectives. For instance, given the role of personal weapons (and lessons learned from both triumphs and tragedies), a sizable portion of resources are devoted to the development of life-preserving or “bug-out” type equipment that would allow a shipgirl to retreat safely.

We’ll show a few of these in the future.

(Try to get in the head of STEC. In the same way as we will not throw away say, our F-22s willy-nilly, STEC recognizes that each shipgirl is in effect a non-replaceable “unit.” They’re definitely going to optimize their equipment and loadout towards the goal of preservation. With many years of covert operations on their resume, I’d say that most missions have the dual objective of eradicating the Abyssal and ensuring that the shipgirl returns home.

Also, at the end of the day, it really varies from shipgirl to shipgirl. If Chester wants a claymore (the sword not the mine) of course Lexington (above) wouldn’t give it to her. But, if you have someone like Phoenix manning the logistics depot for the day…

See you next time. 🙂 )

“Is Morgane an expat or something? How come Mail Calls are almost always in the dead of the night?”

I’m operating on US time. Sometimes it’s the only time I have after doing everything else in the day. Other times, well, it’s tradition. In either case, it’s a good reminder to myself to keep things moving along.

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Just to sort of explain, I do try to answer questions in order (generally in the order in which I receive them), but sometimes, whims or interest might take me to other questions.

For instance, this is one from about a few months ago, but I’ve never gotten around to answering.

“Do shipgirls use magic?”

The question itself is a bit vague, but it’s an interesting one to consider. For starters, what is magic?

Is magic simply defined as something that an ordinary human can’t do? In that case, then, sure. The shipgirls can routinely perform superhuman feats. Lifting a car to them is as easy as opening a door for us.

Is magic something that, well, channels supernatural forces using incantations or rituals or whatnots? Sort of. Certainly some shipgirls think they’re magic. Certainly some of the things certain shipgirls can do would quantifiable as magic. However, I again answer the question with that it is a matter of perspective.

For instance, STEC isn’t quite sure how fairies are able to do a lot of the things they do, and what fairies can do might as well be magic. Take their ability to “pop” in and out of reality, for instance. That definitely sounds like magic, doesn’t it?

Well, maybe the prevailing theory is that they open up miniature wormholes to some alternative dimension to travel – i.e. literally walk between worlds. Maybe another theory says that they simply convert their own “matter” into energy, and achieve instant travel through higher dimensional physics. Maybe a third theory says that fairies aren’t living at all, but are simply some sort of projected “memory” or “images” that happens to be able to interact with the world.

What’s magic? You tell me.

You’ll notice that I sometimes take great pains to suggest plausible ways to explain phenomena within Pacific. Part of my preference for storytelling is to allow for the readers to explore this particular world. I, of course, have a clear idea in mind about how I want the world to function. But, that’s the joy of being the creator, I think. I may control how and when I water my garden and what I plant, but I want to see the garden bloom on its own. 🙂

Zero is currently headed to Taipei, and so he sends greetings to everyone. The Chinese New Year celebrations are winding down, and our artists’ll soon be resuming their work again…

… not that they’ve stopped much, to be honest. Hobbies are hobbies, after all. This stuff IS fun.

Here’s an example of a character that we’ll probably have you meet soon. She’s a part of another upcoming book, to be release for summer comiket. At this point, after sitting down and taking stock of what we’ve done, it’s clear that AR3 is going to be more than just AR3.

Now, you might be wondering, how does a subgirl wear glasses under water?

Well, why don’t you ask Ha-chan, heh. 

Yeah. Plenty to do, plenty to sort out. I’ll probably have pictures from Zero soon.  See you next time. 🙂

“Are the Pacific books sold out at this point? I can’t find it anywhere in any of the places you’ve linked.”

To the best of my knowledge, the Japanese copies are all sold out. (They’ve been sold out for the last month or so and no current plans for reprints)

The Chinese copies are also all sold out. What is available for purchase are on our site’s side bar, and we’ll be selling physical copies of volume 1 (in English) at Boston in a few months.

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Usually I take this time to round up sketches from the team and to update everyone on what’s going on. As we’re switching out image hosts, however, we’ll have a lot of administrative shuffling.

There’s a lot of stuff that I’ve never posted publicly. For instance…

You can see that something like this was made and uploaded more than a year ago. Sometimes I hold stuff back because I want to write a bigger post. Other stuff will be shown when it’s time for them to be shown.

Now, why Tennsy? I think that’s because from our own internal polling, there are certain shipgirls of ours that are a lot more popular (within the team) than others. Cal, for instance, is frequently used as a companion for Jer or Flora or Norknork. Tennsy, on the other hand…

Oh. That Tennsy. She’s, like, got her head up in the clouds half the time. Don’t get me wrong! She knows how to have a good time. Buuuuut, you know which gal God gave the fun parts? Like, the really fun parts?

Me, of course! Haha!

I’m learning how to create characters, and the way I’ve envisioned Tennsy is that I think she’d be a gentle and quiet girl. Now, would she really be the type to be talking about herself…

Probably not. So, here, rather than having her talk about herself, I wrote a simple line from the perspective of Cal. Now the reader learned two new things. Tennsy’s got her head “up in the clouds” (well, we did say that she’s a daydreamer in vol. 2 so that’s just confirming something you’d have already known), but, perhaps more than anything else, Cal’s bragging about herself again.

That’s a part of Cal’s personality, too. 🙂

See you guys next time.