Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

Iconic scholarly female character setting

Since Zhao Youyue had finally decided to sacrifice a high popularity character card this time, she was, of course, extremely intent on creating an iconic character. To securely succeed in creating an iconic literary female character, she certainly needed a template to refer to.

This template was the character in another world called "Amano Tooko." She was the heroine of "Book Girl"[1].

However, because no extended anime versions of "Book Girl" had ever been released, and there was only the animated film and OVA available, it was not widely known. The differences between an anime and a novel are really quite vast.

Even so, it was a truly unique piece of work within the field of light novels. Many people have the impression that the plots of light novels were full of nonsense, as they were mostly about how the male protagonist had a very fine harem. This was not the case in "Book Girl." This work stood out from the other light novels, as it was a combination of a light novel and serious literature.

In the year 2009, it also won Five Crowns in "Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi!"[2]: First place for best piece of work, first place for best illustration department (Miho Takeoka), first place for best female character (Amano Tooko; while Kotobuki Nanase placed fourth), male character (Inoue Konoha), and first place for overall best character (Amano Tooko).

Each volume of the light novel "Book Girl" was based on an existing iconic novel, which promoted the progression of the story. This made it quite a big deal. Numerous iconic works were involved in the making of the light novel, and all of them passed through the heroine Amano Tooko. She ate the iconic works and explained each of them through a replication of their individual flavors.

The plot structure of this work was very sophisticated. Generally, there were four levels in each story, which made pondering on it very worthwhile.

It may have lacked in popularity, but its literary nature made up for it. It brainwashed those who took a liking to it into becoming hardcore fans, and even led some of them into grossly overinterpreting its meaning in more ways than one.

Even if it was not particularly popular, it was still a work which was remarkably full of connotations, thus it had some redeeming factors.

Content notwithstanding, the character setting of the heroine "Amano Tooko" already had the flavor of an iconic female character.

She had the iconic three-strand braided hairstyle, which looked just like a cat's tail. Her dark bangs draped over her snow-white forehead. Her long braids fell over her shoulders to her waist. Her skin was extremely fair, which only made her dark hair, eyelashes, and pupils stand out in contrast, glistening prominently.

When she remains silent, she appeared very elegant and as beautiful as a doll. Although she had an elegant literary girl-ish appearance, she had a rather lively and naive personality. Throughout the story, she often built castles in the air. After she has decided on something, she would ignore the opinions of others and directly go for bust. On the other hand, she was particularly sensitive towards strange places, thus she was quite good at taking care of others.

She was beautiful, just like violet petals. Although she had a miserable life, she never once gave up. Instead, she journeyed towards happiness, throughout the novel. Her brisk pace led the unfortunate people around her; it led them to her pace. They started desiring for true happiness as well.

In relation to her appearance and personality, especially personality, she clearly shared some similarities with the iconic female character "Chu Luoxun." Her life was miserable, both her parents were dead. Even so, she was strong, cheerful and gentle. Such female characters would give readers an agonizingly bittersweet impression, as long as they are well-written, or appropriately portrayed by genius writers. They would ultimately rob the readers of their tears, which allowed them to inch closer towards becoming an iconic character.

The most distinctive trait about her that readers remembered most was that she had to eat books to satisfy her hunger. Ordinary food was unsavory and non-nutritious to her. However, when she ate books, she could taste the flavors of the book. Naturally, the better the book was, the better it tasted. Some books were, of course, dark cuisines[3]…

Anyhow, Zhao Youyue felt that the ability to eat books was very interesting. This was because she thought of herself as a gourmet and she had eaten most food that was known to man. She had not been able to try "light-emitting cuisines" in the real world, as she had not found a suitable work that featured food yet. If she could taste the flavor of food by eating books, this ability could surely be a temporary substitute for "light-emitting cuisines," in order to satisfy her cravings.

In "Book Girl," Amano Tooko initially started off as a reader, but she later became an editor. Now that she was using the template of Amano Tooko to enter "Bakuman," she could grant her a strong creation ability, and give her a wild imagination, while making it so that she liked to eat her own created works. When such a character appears, it would definitely attract the attention of readers!

In "Bakuman," she no longer had to use death to create an iconic character. As long as she successfully builds this literary girl character, she could use her to attack the other creators, and become the most dazzling character in existence.

Of course, she was by no means a despicable creator. She would also help the younger generation. After all, in the literary world, all sorts of severe seniority complexes existed.

The only thing that Zhao Youyue had not yet done was to give this literary girl a name. Of course, the name of this literary girl had to give her the impression of a "Wen Qing[4]". Now that the main body of "Bakuman" was focused on a character created by a domestic writer, she had to give her a Chinese name.

Actually, Zhao Youyue was not very good at giving names. The two words "Wen Qing" just kept echoing in her brain, thus it eventually became —- —- "Wen Qingyu."

Zhao Youyue wrote down the words "Wen Qingyu." Then, she decided that she would stick with her normal routine, which she was familiar with. That is, to pretend as if she desired nothing more than to be a side character. Only after she enters the world of works, would she start tweaking with the settings of this side character…

This time, she could directly insert the exciting ability of eating books. In the beginning, she would remain as a normal reader who hollers "666" in the multiverses of works. Later, she would be given inspiration from others. Why not write your own books to eat?

Thus a new possibility dawned upon Wen Qingyu, and she embarked on the journey of writing to abolish the predecessors of the literary world

Her ability to eat books was similar to Nakiri Erina's "God's Tongue" in "Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma." By tasting her own works, she could make vast improvements.

In fact, this was equivalent to the "modification" part of this ability, which was now a part of reality. When writing books, most traditional writers tended to revise their books constantly. "Dream of the Red Chamber" only became iconic as a result of Cao Xueqin's "ten years of reading, five additions, and deletions."[5]

This was why it was difficult for web novels to become iconic. Web novels were equivalent to rudimentary drafts. For best effects, they should have been uploaded after proper refinement. However, if this was to be done, it would take too long, and the initial excitement would fade away.

Thus, because of this, many criticized web novels and claimed that they were trash. However, it did not make sense. If traditional writers were to write web novels, it would turn out even worse. The time needed to create both types of works were not equal. It was an unfair statement to make.

Zhao Youyue had already begun making plans for Su Li to draw illustrations for "Wen Qingyu." She felt that this wave should be able to wash Su Li's poisonous image away, it was far from tragic.

Translation note :

[1] "Book Girl" is a collection of Japanese light novels by Mizuki Nomura, with illustrations by Miho Takeoka. The series contains 16 volumes: eight covers the original series, four are short story collections, and four are of a side story.

[2] "Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi!" (literally "This Light Novel is Amazing!")is an annual light novel guidebook published by Takarajimasha. The guidebook publishes a list of the top ten most popular light novels according to readers polled on the Internet. An introduction to each of the works comes with each listing, along with an interview of the light novel's author or authors for first place. Many of the light novels that have been listed in this guidebook were later adapted into anime series. Most of the light novels listed contain a series of volumes, but some single-volume light novels also get listed.

[3] "Dark cuisines" are bland foods, usually made by junior chefs or chefs that are not skilled at cooking.

[4] "Wen Qing" () means hipster. The term is not translated here for ease of understanding purposes, so that it can link to the later part of the story, where Zhao Youyue names the literary girl "Wen Qingyu."

[5] "Ten years of reading, five additions, and deletions" (,) is a quote originating from the book "Dream of the Red Chamber" by Cao Xueqin. In writing "Dream of the Red Chamber," Cao Xueqin changed and edited things within the book for more than ten years before it was deemed completed. Simply put, it illustrates an author's genuine passion for writing and refers to the hardships involved in creating or writing a book.