[Character Book] Vol.6 Alice

I was planning to release this translation for Alice's birthday, but I got hit with a marathon of tough shifts that week, so my plans got delayed... quite a lot. At least I got it done on the same month, I guess? That has to count for something, right?

Anyhoo, with this release, after a... whoa, whole four years or so, I finally finished up the Character Book series... translating interviews is STILL very much a pain in the ass, since people aren't exactly... coherent in live speech all the time.

The final character book features Alice (I'm still sore that Eugeo got left out... :/). This character book came with Dengeki Bunko MAGAZINE Vol.59, which was released on 9 December, 2017. That means the interview came out just as Kawahara released the prologue for V21 on that very same magazine, and a year before the Alicization anime started airing. Which means that quite a lot of stuff mentioned here can be quite outdated (mostly the stuff about Unital Ring, since Kawahara hadn't yet thought over where he was going to take the story, as he had only started working on it), or talked about anime stuff at a time when the (Japanese) dubbing process hadn't yet begun, so Kawahara and the interviewer didn't have much to work with in their talks. So basically, take things said about post-Alicization plotlines with a grain of salt. Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy the read.

I haven't managed to heard from Nguyen in a while and all my finished translations are Progressive manga stuff, so I'm not sure what we're going to release next. Maybe it's time I got around to summarising V25, seeing as Yen Press has just released V24?

P.S. I haven't had the time to proofread this translation, so please let me know if something sounds off, or if you notice an oopsie of mine.

-Gsimenas

Credits

Raws: SAO Scans
Translation: Gsimenas

Liz ＆ Silica

Index

N/A

Translation (choice/nuance) comments:

• I added the original Japanese text in parentheses in certain cases where I believe the Japanese text is either easier to relate to, or easier to look up.
• Since these are transcripts of actual conversations... which tend to not have a well-thought-out sentence structure and are plagued by sidetracking, you'll find quite a few awkward sentences here. I tried to play around with punctuation to bridge the gap between awkward leaps in logic or convoluted sentences.
• "(Note: The original manuscript was titled 『Alice's Adventures Under Ground』)" - this note was present in-text in the original transcript.
• "O*ient Industry" - a not-so-subtle allusion to Orient Industry, the oldest Japanese "love doll" producers.

Reki Kawahara Interview: About Alice

Alice and 《Alicization》

——Well now, well now, I would like to enquire about the character crowning the final booklet: Alice! First of all, please allow me to start by asking the origin of Alice's name.

Kawahara: My idea for the 《Alicization》 arc began with the concept of a world inhabited by AI on the same level as human beings. Alice's name originates from the fact that I decided to turn to 『Alice in Wonderland』 for inspiration when designing this world. Though, I have to say…… I didn't actually use all that many elements from "Alice in Wonderland" in my story (sweatdrop).

——It was basically limited to the exposition in the very first entry to the arc, Volume 9, yes……

Kawahara: There are no bunnies to be found in the story, even (sweatdrop). Back then, I believe I was very fond of the character named Alice as a motif and was hoping to use it somewhere in my own story. Oh, well, to be more accurate, my first wish was to reuse the name "Underworld", rather than Alice herself. Seeing as I was going for an underground world, I thought I'd borrow the motif from 『Alice in Wonderland (Note: The original manuscript was titled 『Alice's Adventures Under Ground』)』. A whole lot of things melded together over time, which resulted in Alice being born, as well as 《Alicization》 getting its title. Though, the English I used for it is made-up. So, I'm not sure what native speakers would think of my neologism.

——This question may be going a bit off-track from our main topic of Alice…… but the title of 《Alicization》 …… is basically supposed to mean 《making into Alice》, right?

Kawahara: Right you are. Just like the English world civilization means 'making a civil society', but with Alice in this case. I basically twisted myself into a pretzel to come up with the phrase 'Artificial Labile Intelligent Cybernated Existence' as a way to turn the name Alice into the acronym A.L.I.C.E.. Since it's AI we're dealing with, it didn't take long to come up with something to use for the 'A', but the 【Labile Intelligent】 bit does feel quite a bit forced (sweatdrop). 『Gundam Sentinel』 had a system with the same name as well. Wonder what was it short for.

——Though, in these kinds of ultra-science-fiction stories, these sort of acronym-y names do get your blood pumping. Now then, now then, back to our Alice; here we have a character who went from a well-accomplished girl, brimming with curiosity, in her early years to a stuffy female knight after becoming an Integrity Knight. What kind of circumstances led to moulding such a personality?

Kawahara: As a matter of fact, Knight Alice was the version of the heroine I had come up with first. The first situation involving the character that came to my mind was Knight Alice and Kirito being driven into an 'oh shit' type of situation and thus having no choice but to cooperate with each other. The part where Kirito and Alice are climbing the outer wall of the 《Central Cathedral》. This scene was the very first story segment for 《Alicization》 that I had come up with in the truest sense of the word. And then I figured I'd make the child Alice we encounter at the beginning of the story into the exact opposite personality of her future self.

——I see, so that's where the story started, huh! Seeing the way those two were doing their best while bickering along the way really made them feel like they were part of a party. So is that the reason why you ended up making her personality a bit too stuffy - or should I say inflexible - so that she wouldn't see eye-to-eye with Kirito?

Kawahara: Hmm, I don't really recall what kind of mental drawer her personality came from……I think I most likely had the impression that a "brainwashed heroine" should be traumatic. Most likely, this stems from 『Combat Mecha Xabungle』, I guess. The works of Tomino (Yoshiyuki: director of 『Mobile Suit Gundam』, among other series)-sensei are full of situations like that. Such as the 'Cyber Newtypes' from 『Ｚ Gundam』, or Quincy Issa from 『Brain Powerd』. In Tomino's works, there are two patterns for what happens with brainwashed heroines: they either die, or their brainwashing is undone, but I wanted to try my hand at a different outcome: a brainwashed character who becomes friends with the cast without undoing the brainwashing. I figured this approach hasn't really been done by anyone else. Sure enough, the drama behind the "back to normal" and "liberated by death" offers a great source of catharsis, after all.

——In the case of『Xabungle』……the brainwashed girl is still alive, if we're being technical……

Kawahara: In a nice little twist, she does pay a major price though

——The two Cyber Newtypes from 『Ｚ』 have both met sad fate too.

Kawahara: Same goes for Puru Two from 『ＺＺ』, huh…… anyway, I believe it all stems from me regarding this whole situation as a source of trauma, and I probably had the urge to depict a situation where "the girl has a happy ending without undoing her brainwashing".

——And as her counterpoint came Little Alice from before the whole brainwashing thing.

Kawahara: If you have graciously read the story, I am sure you would be aware that Alice's original personality meets a rather tragic end. I have spent quite a bit of time thinking over things, but I figured letting both versions of her live would just end up making her a character with a split personality, and I thus arrived at the bitter conclusion that this outcome wouldn't work for Alice.

——So you set up all the drama on the existence of Knight Alice as the basis then.

Kawahara: Yes. My style of writing is to envision a scene I would like to write from the very start, and then pen a story that would lead up to it. In the very first arc, 《Aincrad》, for example, it all started with the scene where Asuna and Kirito are observing Aincrad as it crumbles away. As for 《Fairy Dance》, I wanted to write the scene where Kirito is dancing with Leafa and then wrote the story based on this vision; for 《Phantom Bullet》, it was the scene where Sinon had an outburst of emotion as she declared "Then protect me for life". I first come up with a scene that moulds my impression of the character and then write the story to reach that highpoint. The same applies to 『Accel World』, but as a matter of fact, we have yet to reach "that point" just yet (sweatdrop).

——Whoa! I really want to delve deeper into that!……But it would lead to a load of spoilers, I'm sure (sweatdrop).

Kawahara: I had this scene in mind from the very moment I applied for the Dengeki Novel Prize (電撃小説大賞, Dengeki Shousetsu Taishou) and wrote Vol 1 as the first chapter to get to it, but even finishing up 22 volumes worth of content hasn't allowed me to get any closer to my goalpoint (laughs).

——It sure is a long road……! By the way, you just mentioned that the first scene for Alicization that came to mind was the tower-climbing one, but doesn't it come up as early as the latter half of the 《Human Empire》 saga? How did this idea lead to such a large-scale war story that was 《War of Underworld》?

Kawahara: There's a different concept behind this story. Back when I was playing games online, there was this sour relationship between Japanese players and Korean/Chinese players. This atmosphere was present throughout the Internet as a whole, rather than being limited to just online games. This sort of trend exists even now I believe; it made me think, "maybe someone is inciting this?". I do understand that there are complicated circumstances and issues between our countries at play, but it's just that… if you were to ask each and every person whether their antipathy was stemming from actually having experienced direct harm from people of the other country, there's nothing to guarantee that they would answer 'yes'. I get the sense that media and online commentaries are playing a role in fanning the flames behind this bad air…… This whole idea of "A war breaking out as a result of someone inciting unrest for their own interests" served as the starting point for the story. Ultimately, this concept didn't become the pivotal point of the tale, however.

——In the sense of "a war breaking out as a result of someone inciting unrest for their own interests", the 《War of Underworld》 fits the description to a T. The story is basically about Vecta……Gabriel Miller fanning the flames among the people of the Dark Territory to cause a major war, after all……

Kawahara: Well, you do have a point there…… Man, although it isn't actually confirmed just yet, I wonder how things would turn out if the anime were to tackle the war segment (sweatdrop).

——The challenge would be beyond our wildest imagination (sweatdrop). For one thing, the fans would likely have their hopes up high; it also seems it would be freaking tough to work on from an animation perspective as well……

Kawahara: Things being tough on the animation front is of course a factor, and if we're going to be taking this to the whole quartet of Japan, US, China, and South Korea…… I do have to admit that a part of me doesn't want to take it this far.

——It does require ample consideration. This part of the story touches upon what are sensitive topics nowadays. By the way, did you have to make quite a lot of changes to this part of the story when you transition from the version initially released on your personal site to Dengeki Bunko format? If I'm not mistaken, I recall you mentioning during some sort of meeting at some point in the past that you inserted the scene with the Korean player noticing that something was off about the whole situation.

Kawahara: Ah yeah, that was a newly-written scene. Be that as it may, I generally didn't change much of anything in other parts of the story. Though, if the anime ends up requiring cuts made to the story no matter what, I'm afraid we may not get to see that Korean player, depending on how short on screen-time we end up……

——He really was a nice guy despite the situation he was in, so I sure hope he makes the cut on screen!

Kawahara: I would like bring up what became of him in the 『New Chapter in SAO』 that I am currently working on, but the anime-onlies wouldn't know who he is, so I would have to ensure his "presentation" would come together properly, or else the viewers would just go, 'Where did this guy come from?', in confusion, so if I were to bring him up, I would have to put some thought into how to present him……

——Anime really is complicated……



The character named Alice

——Now then, turning the conversation back to Alice, is there any part of the story where she exceeded your expectations, or made you think, 'Wow, this happened!', when you finished writing the story?

Kawahara: The size of the story turned out far longer than I had been anticipating, but her character turned out just the way I had envisioned her. Hundreds of years elapsing within Underworld at the end of the story, and finishing it up in space were all stuff I was hoping to do from the very start.

——If you had to sum up Alice as a person, with all her experiences from the long battle, in one word, what would it be?

Kawahara: She herself would say "knight", so if I had to sum her up in one word, I'll go with "knight" (laughs). Oh no, I'm not joking here (sweatdrop); Kirito and Asuna see themselves as "swordsmen". In terms of being the core of one's being, the concept of "knight" that Alice has in mind is different from the concept of a "swordsman". If the concept of "swordsman" that Kirito and Asuna have in mind refers to the desire for developing their own strength, then wouldn't Alice's concept of "knight" refer to the strength of her desire to protect something? That description fits her to a T, I believe.

——This may be a game thing, but when thinking of knights, you envision someone with high Defence "shielding" someone.

Kawahara: Indeed. Knight classes are more VIT (vitality)-focused, than STR (strength)-focused.

——Is Alice a person who's always "trying to protect something"?

Kawahara: Back when she was an Integrity Knight, she was trying to protect the 《Axiom Church》; when she met Kirito and opposed Administrator, she was trying to protect the 《Human Empire》 this time; ultimately, her desire grew to protecting 《Underworld》 as a whole.

——At the very, very end of the story, she comes to the real world, in which case, do you think she moved away from "protecting" and developed some other trait?

Kawahara: I still think that her core trait of devoting herself to protecting Underworld remains unchanged even in this situation, ultimately. Nevertheless, I think she will have her hands full with adapting to the Real World for a time. In the New Chapter, I would like to write about a different side of her, starting with the troubles involved in having a robot body. I've touched upon this subject a bit in a prior interview for these booklets, but I believe the maintenance involved would be deadly tough.

——Such as requiring her to go to the laboratory once a week for recalibrations, or something……

Kawahara: Yes, she would probably be unable to move around unless she switched out parts pretty frequently. After all, unlike human bodies, robot bodies don't fix themselves if you leave them to their own devices. Focusing too much on the details in my writing would take me more and more into Sci-Fi territory, so I would like to keep things in moderation…… but I would like to write about it! (laughs)

——We will be waiting with bated breath. Now then, turning to the next question, what could you say about Alice charms in abec-san's illustrations of her?

Kawahara: abec-san has had quite a lot of hardship on that front, I believe. After all, her theme colour is blue and she's a knight in armour with golden hair; how are you going to make her stand out from "a certain character"" (laughs). Overcoming this sort of obstacle, I believe abec-san has succeeded in turning Alice's long hair into her own brand of beauty.

——The roster of golden-haired characters also includes Leafa, but she has a darker shade of gold. There's a well-defined difference between them: Leafa's gives off the image of a high-spirited blonde, while Alice is the well-refined blonde.

Kawahara: There's also quite a difference in the sense of volume. After all, even Alice's armour and sword are golden, so she's all sparkly; I think she received a lot of love in her design.

——It sure is amazing that the golden palette in abec-san's version of Alice doesn't come off as "garish". Now then, while she has already made her appearance as Alice in the games, it has been confirmed that the anime version of Alice will also be performed by Kayano Ai-san. If there is anything you'd wish to share about your impressions on her voice, or scenes you're eager to hear her play, the floor is yours!

Kawahara: I have heard her performance for the PVs and such; I believe she really fits the role! I'm very eager to hear her Child Alice voice. I'm already salivating at the chance to hear how should would perform a mischievous character full of spirit. Also, in the games and other venues, gives off a rather composed aura with her performance, but the novel actually has quite a lot of scenes with emotional outbursts; for example, when she's shouting at Kirito, so I'm really looking forward to see how she handles those (laughs).

——We always get her in her knight form in the games, so I do hope we get to see other sides of her in the anime! Now then, now then, as the author, if you'd happen to have the chance to say something to her after all her time fighting on in the spotlight…… what would you say to her?

Kawahara: I believe broached the topic a bit in Asuna's interview, but with Alice in the picture…… I believe that she has the best odds of duking it out with Asuna without budging an inch. Furthermore, I presume that in the New Chapter, Alice will be taken in by the Kirgaya Household and live together with them…… though I say they're going to live together, she's not limited to one body. I'm thinking of having one body for the lab and another at the Kirigaya Household that she could occasionally switch between…… either way, it's more than enough reason for Asuna not to let her guard down. On that note, what I would say to Alice: "I wish you the best of luck!"

——So Alice's going to throw a monkey wrench into Kirito's female relationship circle that had so far settled down with Asuna on top…… how will this all turn out!? I'm excited!



Alice's Best Scenes,
Chosen by Kawahara

——Next up, please tell us of your best scenes featuring Alice.

Kawahara: Sure enough, I'll go with the scene I had first envisioned with Alice and Kirito climbing the tower together and eating meatbuns (肉まん, nikuman). The one where Kirito shares the meatbuns he had been keeping in his pocket and they eat them together. That part was probably the very first scene I wanted to write. It didn't get an illustration, but it is an important scene to the two of them.

——By the way, why are they eating meatbuns, of all things, in that scene? Was it an intentional deviation from her knightly image——or something?

Kawahara: Oh, I just went with my gut on what kind of food wouldn't come off as all that odd to have stashed away in your pocket. Since they were climbing up the 《Cathedral》 after being apprehended once, it had to be something that Kirito could have kept hidden away on his person; a piece of cake or something of the sort would have ended up a mess by then (laughs). Nevertheless, Kirito procured his meatbuns from the 《Great Library》 and went through a whole lot of fights since then, so I do think the meatbuns were squashed quite a lot by the time they were eaten (sweatdrop).

——(Laughs) Well then, moving on, which of abec-san's illustrations would you pick as the best?

Kawahara: There's loads of illustrations of her in her knight gear and they are all stellar in their own right, but I would like to take the liberty to boldly go with the last illustration from 《Alicization》, the scene with her in naught but a T-shirt, instead!

^ The preciously-rare scene of Alice in roughwear. Her chest sticking out a bit is yet another high-point (?), huh!

——Ooh! Certainly, it's a fresh look for her; the outfit doesn't really look like her usual style, in a good way!

Kawahara: And at this point in time Alice is already in her mecha body, which only adds to it.

——Though, I can't say that naught but a T-shirt works that well…… I feel like you'd definitely see the seams……

Kawahara: Let's say we're using O*ient Industry-like technology to hide the seams from view and leave it at that! (laughs)

——(Laughs). Right, how boorish of me! A stuffy girl who's usually all decked out in armour now being dressed lightly; that's plain justice at work! Now then, now then, we talked about throwing a monkey wrench into female relationship circles just moments ago, but is there any other kind of story that you would like to write about Alice in the future?

Kawahara: Aside from the "what only robots go through" stuff, let's see——I would like to write a story of Alice returning to the "present-state" Underworld. Her little sister Selka is waiting for her in a frozen state at the 《Cathedral》, so I would like to write a reunion scene for the two of them.

——If my memory serves me right, hundreds of years have passed in terms of Underworld time, right? Aren't all her acquaintances……

Kawahara: Her father and mother will have passed away, huh. The Integrity Knights, on the other hand, have their lifespans frozen, if nothing else, so she might just get to see Fanatio and co.

——Oh, I see. The lifespan of the knights is…… huh, so wait, doesn't that mean that the child Fanatio gave birth to would reach their deathbed before Fanatio herself……?

Kawahara: If the lifespan-freezing art were to be analysed from within Underworld, they could have possibly made use of it——but I'm thinking they probably didn't.

——Envisioning it, that does sound awfully tragic…… what about the Dark Territory side?

Kawahara: Since they don't have their lifespans frozen, only their offspring should remain by now.

——So the only acquaintance around would be Scheta and that's about it?

Kawahara: Since she is an Integrity Knight, she is still alive, but she might have gone back to the Human Empire if Iskahn's already dead…… Oh but wait, there is the concept of the lifespan of a soul in this world that's separate from Life, and the lore has it that souls eventually experience breakdowns if nothing is done about it, thus it is also possible that even all of the Integrity Knights have been completely frozen up.

——What about Ronye and Tiese?

Kawahara: The two girls have become Integrity Knights, but that doesn't mean their lifespans have been frozen, so they should have borne offspring of their own before meeting their own deaths somewhere.

——I see, so it all leads up to the final scene from Vol 18…… Oof! Some part of me feels sad about this, but an even greater part is eager to see what happens "next"! We've got space stuff in the mix too, after all.

Kawahara: Though it takes quite a bit of prepwork…… (sweatdrop). I'm the kind of person who doesn't know how the story will end up until I start writing it, thus all the stuff I said about Underworld are just assumptions on my part at this current point in time. I also have to think up a "new game" for Kirito and co to go at, after all——

——A new game!? We also broached the topic a bit a while ago, but you're referring to the 『New Chapter』, right! How intriguing! Will it be a VR game on 《The Seed》? Or will it be based on the 《Soul Translator》?

Kawahara: It's unreasonable to make a machine on the scale of the Soul Translator for every household, so I believe I'll go with making it a game for the AmuSphere. The concept for the 《Alicization》 arc was to have the 《ultimate virtual world》 and I've already done that, so I think I'll strive for an 《ultimate game》 next. I'm thinking of writing a story of a game that actually feels like a game, with character stats, skills and stuff like that. And, err, I do think I should try my hand at MMOs once again, but I feel like I wouldn't be able to go back to real world society if I do (sweatdrop)

——Are you thinking of the most recent MMOs?

Kawahara: Domestically, it would definitely be 『FF14』. For abroad…… I would categorise 『Black Desert』 and stuff as most-recent. Lately, there's been a large number of titles out on the market; though certain games released way back when like "EVE ONLINE" are still quite popular abroad even these days. Nevertheless, if I base it on an actual game, I would surely end up having to go through issues like budget and server stuff no matter what, thus I've been thinking: if I'm going to write a New Chapter, I would prefer to offer up to my readers an ultra-large-scale game without any regard the limitations of development resources and server resources, which can only be made possible in the works of fiction.

——And will it be long…… till we have the honour of seeing it……?

Kawahara: 'Sometime next year' would be the phrasing I'd have to resort to; I will strive to deliver a definite experience to the best of my ability!

——Thank you very much! From Alice talk to the behind-the-scenes on 《Alicization》 to future prospects of the story, I believe this interview was filled with interesting talking points! We ask all of our esteemed readers to eagerly await for the Alicization anime and future 『SAO』 plots!

(A certain day in October 2017: In the editorial department)

Liz ＆ Silica

Index

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