Afterword

Out of the entire series, the one scene I like most is when Naota ran through the town at night to meet up with Mamimi; also, I really like the atmosphere when those two were playing by the riverbank.

And if that's the case, then when I think about it, I realize that I'm already an adult.

Why's this? Because I find amusement in the feeling of sorrow.

Originally I mean, when I was much younger sorrow was no more than a negative feeling to me. That feeling now is very distant in my memories, so the picture I've painted of my childhood years has turned out a little differently from how my life really was then.

One's set of values changes as the years pile on. Only adults are really able to efficiently put the negative emotions to good use, right?

That being said, we must not overlook the fact that even when we become adults, we are still limited beings.

For everything you gain, there will be something lost and for everything you lose, there will be something gained. I thought the person who first made me realize this was amazing.

For example, when you lose a precious treasure, you gain the feeling of having lost a treasure. Or when you finally realize a dream after many years, you lose that passion of wanting to make that dream a reality.

You might think it no more than simple rhetoric, but if you could have a sense of value like from the point of view of an objective god, you would have access to an extremely simple yet profound truth.

But in reality, this thesis is pretty impractical, because there aren't any humans who can peer out from a god's point of view. Humans always will have individual desires, making them unable to see that what's lost and what's gained are equal, that there's usually a relationship between supply and demand.

I apologize to all my future descendents for this example, but people who collect trading cards value those they have multiple copies of differently than those they don't have. From a god's point of view, they are all equal cards, but for humans who are limited by circumstance, that is not the case. The special value of each individual card is determined by the current status of the owner's collection.

Value comes from purpose. Therefore, in reality, when people lose something important, they may not realize they also have the good fortune of making a profit.

Because of this, the words "for everything you lose, there will be something gained" take on a sharp meaning. When considering the concept of a god's point of

view, we can think of purpose and value not as absolutes, but as things that will change to some degree, such as when you've suffered a massive disappointment, or maybe when you've gained the power to save yourself.

Indeed, according to your purpose, the value of all things that surround humans all the rabble will change. If you lose all interest in collecting trading cards, the things that had been treasure up until that day will suddenly turn to waste paper.

This has become a bit of a lecture on the value in economics, but this is a very important element of my own interpretation of the heroine that is Haruko Haruhara.

As you know, this book is a novelization of an anime screenplay. The story was basically created with the combined efforts of Director Tsurumaki and myself. And the ideas of everyone at Gainax can be found scattered throughout.

I would like to give my deepest thanks to character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto; animation director Tadashi Hiramatsu; Hiroyuki Imaishi and Yusuke Yoshigaki, who illustrated the novel for me; my editor, TakahiroYamazaki; producer Hiroki Sato; all the other staff; all the people who sent fan letters; and of course, all of you who are reading this right now.

When we become adults, we lose what it is to be a kid. Even as adults, we are limited beings but I feel it is because we are limited that we can walk tall.

Being a limited being is not an obstacle to filling your hands abundantly.

Haruko, who is greedy and free from anyone's restraint, shows us it's quite the opposite. After all, she is no more than a limited being, yet she's able to live a wild life.

"It's like eating bad ramen; it's part of the richness of life." Anyone who can say that with a laugh seems to be a cool adult to me.

To a new century of full hearts.

Yoji Enokido (12/14/2000)