“Biri Gal” is
a story for certain people.

“The Story of a Gal at the Bottom of Her Class Who Raised Her Academic Performance by 40 Points in One Year and Got Accepted into Keio University” (KADOKAWA)Author: Nobutaka Tsubota

It all started with an email.

This story originally began as a reply to an email from Sayaka-chan’s mother (Aachan).
I had been tutoring Sayaka-chan’s younger sister, who was called a “cheerful truant,” and she had reached the age for university entrance exams.
At that point, Masaki Nakano, who is now the president of Tsubota Juku, took over her tutoring, and she successfully got into her desired school, Sophia University. About a month later, I received a message from her mother thanking me for helping her children enjoy their university life and for raising them well. She said it was all thanks to me.

So I thought, “Indeed, both Sayaka-chan and Mayu-chan had a rough start, but they ended up at Keio and Sophia… People around them must find it unbelievable…”
When I thought about why they achieved such results and what was different from others, I realized that the presence of their mother was truly unique.

So, to convey that “it’s not thanks to me, but because of how their mother interacted with them,” I started writing about my encounters with them.
It all began with my meeting with Sayaka-chan.
From there, the story rapidly progressed.

However, the content became too lengthy, and when I tried to send it, I received an error message saying “too many characters” (due to the limitations of mobile phones at the time).
Nevertheless, I didn’t want to reduce the number of characters because it was such a masterpiece.

It all started with “going viral?”

So, I thought, “If I post it on a blog, her mother can read it too. It might even serve as an advertisement for the cram school. Two birds with one stone.”
So, I sent an email to Sayaka-chan, who was already a working adult but still in touch.

She replied, “I think every mother in the world should read this!” and I immediately uploaded it to STORYS.JP.
After that, I went to bed, only to be woken up by the continuous ringing of my phone.
At that time, STORYS.JP had a system where readers could press a “glad I read it” button, which would send an email to the author.
The emails kept coming to my phone, and even when I tried to enter my passcode to check them, new emails would arrive, causing me to start over.
I thought my phone was broken and left it as it was.

Then, I logged into Facebook on my computer and posted a message saying, “My phone is broken, so I apologize for any inconvenience to those who have appointments with me today.”
A friend replied, “Sensei, you’re going viral.”
I remember searching for “going viral” because the term wasn’t widely used at the time. I realized it was the English word “buzz” and thought, “What does it mean that I’m going viral?”
I wondered, “Could it be the article related to Sayaka-chan from yesterday?”
When I logged into STORYS.JP, I found that tens of thousands of people had already read it, and the number kept increasing with each reload.

When I confirmed that about 650,000 people had read it, I stopped checking.
I went to work and told my tax advisor, Mr. Nagae, “Apparently, I’m going viral. Do you know what ‘going viral’ means?” I said, using the newly learned slang like an excited old man.
Around noon, things took a sudden turn.

Towards book publication.

I received an email from someone claiming to be an editor from Diamond Publishing, asking if I wanted to publish a book.
My first reaction was, “Is this a prank?”
Then I thought, “Publishing a book… I’ve already written everything, so I can’t write any more…”
Finally, I thought, “This was originally a reply to Sayaka-chan’s mother, and she hasn’t read it yet… It doesn’t make sense to publish it as a book.”

In the evening, while working at the cram school, I received another long and passionate message from someone claiming to be an editor from ASCII Media Works (now KADOKAWA), asking if I wanted to publish a book.
I received several other offers for book publication and concluded, “This doesn’t seem to be a prank; it seems serious.”
I called Sayaka-chan’s mother.
“Long time no see. Thank you for the wonderful email the other day. Actually, I wrote a reply right after that… I know this might not make sense, but several publishers have approached me about turning that reply into a book… Can we publish it?”

Reading this now, it sounds “nonsensical,” but it’s true.
Sayaka-chan’s mother replied, “Haha, Sensei, what are you talking about? Congratulations. Is it going to be a book? Amazing. I’ll leave it to you.”

Her response was quite surprising.
Without asking for details, she said, “I’ll leave it to you.”
“Really? For now, I’ll meet with the editors and discuss it. But could you please read the blog first?”
“Understood,” she said, and the book publication process began.
From there, I started “interviewing editors.”

In my mind, “This is not my story; it’s Aachan’s story, Sayaka-chan’s story, and their family’s story. My role is to be the storyteller.”
So, I thought, “I need to be a barrier to prevent it from being misrepresented.”
Therefore, I approached it as an “interview.”
Among the editors I interviewed, I felt the most passion from Editor-in-Chief Kudo from ASCII Media Works (at the time), so I chose him as my first choice.
I then contacted Sayaka-chan, Aachan, and her father.

I was most worried about how her father would be portrayed, as I knew it would be harsh.
Her father said, “Long time no see, Sensei. Our family owes everything to you, so please do as you see fit. It’s true that I was a terrible father! (laughs)”
Everyone said, “We’ll leave it to you, Sensei!” and the book publication project began.
At that point, no one could have imagined the subsequent major movement.
Except for me and Editor-in-Chief Kudo…

That moment led to the present.

Therefore, the story of “Biri Gal” is very interesting, not only for its content but also for the process of it becoming a “content” and spreading to the world, which is also a “Biri Gal” story, making it “fractal.”

Now, Sayaka-chan lives in New York and is studying at Columbia University’s Teachers College, one of the Ivy League schools (expected to graduate in May 2024).
She went to America because she wanted to scientifically prove why she, who hated studying and was a “Biri Gal,” improved. (By the way, she is also very popular in China, with over 100,000 followers on the Chinese version of Instagram, RED.)
It’s an amazing story.
The high school sophomore who called Prince Shotoku “Seitoku Tako” and said, “I feel sorry for him because he was named that because he was fat,” is now sending messages to the world, not just Japan.
When Sayaka-chan was in the news recently, someone commented on social media, “She’s not a ‘Biri Gal,’ she’s a ‘Top Gal.’” I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw that.
“That’s true,” I thought.

Looking at the results, that may be the case, but to achieve any result, steady effort is necessary. While the “results” are visible, the process is not.
Therefore, many people try to attribute it to “talent,” “luck,” “DNA,” or “innate intelligence.”
This is similar to the ancient belief that “thunder” was caused by gods fighting in the sky because its principles were not understood.
People tend to attribute things they don’t understand to “gods” or thank “gods.”
They think, “That person is chosen.”

The story of “Biri Gal” is not for those who give up by blaming something beyond their control, but for everyone who is wondering, “Maybe I can do it too?” and is considering taking a step forward.
Would you like to join us?
The experience of “working hard as if your life depended on it” will become a treasure.