“Biri-Gal” is, without a doubt,
my greatest memory.

People who are Biri-Gal talk about Biri-Gal Looking back on my long publishing life, I have many memories, but “Biri-Gal” is undoubtedly my greatest memory.

Sayaka-chan’s efforts at the time, the love of her family who watched over her, Mr. Tsubota’s leadership and the power of his writing that put together an inspiring story. All of these were wonderful, but no matter how wonderful a story is, it is difficult to be accepted by the world on its own.

From a publisher’s perspective, not only editing but also sales and publicity must work together with all their might and love, otherwise it will not reach the readers easily. On top of that, if something like the luck that a work has does not join in, it will not lead to a big hit. When all of these miraculously come together, a surprising wind begins to blow and a big wave is born. The prime example of this was “Biri-Gal”.

At the planning stage, I was the president of the publishing company ASCII Media Works, which was the publisher of “Biri-Gal”. However, in October 2013, our company and seven other publishers came together to be reborn as a large company called KADOKAWA. “Biri-Gal” was published right after that, so it was the first publication that prominently pushed out the name KADOKAWA.

As a result, we were able to permeate “Biri-Gal” into society using both the agile sales and publicity team of ASCII Media Works, which was a small publishing company, and the powerful driving force of KADOKAWA as a large publishing company. I think that being blessed with such a once-in-a-lifetime timing is one of the mysterious powers that this work has.

The moment my motivation switch was completely turned on was a little before that, when the editor, Mr. Kudo, showed me the cover photo of Ms. Koi Ishikawa. When I was in charge of magazine covers, I was always conscious of the strength of the model’s eyes when choosing photos. In addition, the experience of having seen bookstores all over Japan as a bookstore sales representative added to this, and I was convinced that Ms. Koi’s powerful eye strength and high message expression would show a strong presence in the store and many people would pick it up.

Our job was to properly line up the books on the bookstore shelves and keep fanning from behind to keep the driving force from dying out. All the hands we could think of hit the mark, the goodness of the work was properly conveyed, and the number of copies increased in a fun way. We were featured in many media and even got to talk about a movie. I think that the fact that some headwinds also occurred and naturally resolved and disappeared is one of the mysterious powers that the work has.

Mr. Tsubota, Sayaka-chan, editor Kudo-kun, movie lead actress Kasumi Arimura, Atsushi Ito, director Doi, and everyone involved in the work brought together the strongest luck to create a miraculous blockbuster. Being able to be involved in such a wonderful and big work is the greatest medal of my life. Thank you! I hope it will continue to grow bigger towards the 20th year.

MASAAKI TSUKADA

Editor in charge of Biri-Gal Former KADOKAWA ASCII Media Works BC Chief Editor,
2nd Book Editing Department, 7th Editorial Bureau