Gate - Thus the JSDF Fought There! Volume 4 Afterword

Translator: Nigel

Editor: PervySageChuck, Nate

Firstly, thank you very much, to all my readers -- whether you have finished “Gate: Thus The JSDF Fought Here Vol. 2 Flame Dragon Arc (second part)”, or if you are just about to begin. In any case, this afterword will pertain to the events in this book.

What did you think of the Flame Dragon Arc? In truth, this was the part of the work that I most wanted to write.

I wanted to envision a clash in a fantasy world, of “Dragons”, the strongest creatures, against modern weaponry. I would fill it with my imagination and fantasy. Mm, it turned out as I hoped..

Of course, when fighting a giant creature or a tank, and when war machines do battle, the one defining feature of these conflicts is that you need to use big weapons to smash them to bits. That is a rule for military operations, but events like that won’t show how the protagonist struggles for his victory. I believe movies like Godzilla adequately show how organizations do battle against monsters.

Therefore, I created a scenario where Itami used his personal abilities and the help of his friends to face off against the Flame Dragon.

To me, since one is doing battle with a Flame Dragon, then the smaller the weapon, the better.

Therefore, the “Rod of Steel” made its appearance, the 110mm anti-tank rocket launcher.

In this light novel series, all sorts of weapons used by the JSDF have made their appearance, but because “It’s okay to throw them away in times of emergency”, I have only showcased the older weapons in this series. Some of them are even museum pieces that aren’t even in use any more. Some of my readers with professional knowledge gave me a lot of useful advice, and although the LAM is a newer weapon, I wrote it into the story. The reason is because the JGSDF treats it as a one-shot weapon -- it is discarded after use.

The LAM as described in the text is an incredibly powerful man-portable weapon, being able to penetrate 70cm of steel plate. The superbattleship Yamato had 41cm of belt armor, and the thickest armor plating on it was 85cm thick, so you can see the weapon’s power from there.

The Flame Dragon in the work was written as a “flying tank” or “flying battleship”, yet the LAM had the power to kill it.

I imagined a scene where I could shoulder-carry a LAM, and fire a rocket at a Flame Dragon. The idea “Awesome, now I can become a Dragon Slayer in a fantasy world” refused to leave my head.

Being able to use modern weapons in the game “Monster Hunter” would be great, wouldn’t it?

Yanai Takumi

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