Chapter Notes

Chapter One: Allegro

Chapter One differs from the context heavy Prologue in that it's much less of a character study of the new faces and rather a drop straight into the action; much like the original OVA did in 1994. Even for those of us that had seen the live action Zeiram film that predated the OVA, one of the best parts of the original anime was how it simply dropped you into the world of Myce with hardly any context and took you along for the ride. That's what a feeling I attempted to echo with this chapter, as the exposition is sure to follow once we open the story up going forward.

This chapter is obviously told from Iria's perspective. One of the things that I hated after reading back TSoS was how awful I made Iria appear to be at her job. Not just that she wasn't good at it, but borderline incompetent. So it goes when a dumb kid tries to make up his own character in a preexisting story. I realize now that I was so laser-focused on trying my best to make Kazon so damn cool, that Iria was effectively lost in the shuffle and misrepresented altogether. So that was my number one goal when I began to reform the story as Silent Sonata: I wanted to make Iria formidable and powerful again. This is the Hunter that defeated Zeiram and overcame so much emotional strife along the way after all.

That being said, there is a difference between being incompetent and being complacent, and that's where I feel this Iria should be with such a long lull and after such a troubling time… and that is also where her growth should blossom from. As the chapter alludes, fighting Zeiramoids is routine now. It's not the same as it used to be after going through what she went through post-Karma. Even Bob has trouble corralling the attention of a young Hunter's who's skills are gradually beginning to overshadow the jobs she takes. In a way, "like brother, like sister."

...which makes the spat between her and that of the 'helmeted man' (tongue and cheek) near the end of the chapter much more jarring. The three of you that might remember from my original story, none of that stuff happened. He came, he saw, he kicked some guys and got in the flying thing and left. While I want to show a new maturation in Iria, as I mildly explored in the prologue: I set out to change him just as much. His complete lack of personality and one-note dialogue in TSoS I feel only extrapolated the problems I had in misrepresenting Iria. While he shouldn't be made to be the main character (which I tried so hard to mess up the first go around) his story is definitively the catalyst of the events that will transpire as we go. However, the point isn't to make sure that story overshadows the titular character, but rather be fuel that helps her mature even farther into something that we haven't seen before. That is the arc of this chapter after all: we can see a complacent Iria just doing her job, to a flash of uncertainty, to resurfacing to that gritty determination she hadn't felt since the final battle with OG Zeiram. My favorite change from this chapter from the original TSoS is that where I originally had 'helmet man' shoot the monster behind a whining, pleading and oblivious Iria; now they are equals. The difference is how they handle their own differences, and the new, tense back and forth scene at the he end is just a taste to come.

As well, in turn there is a juxtaposition in how the OVA began and how Silent Sonata to illustrate that growth. A rookie Iria let Fujikuro steal her bounty and blow green shit all over her face. This is not the same Iria. This Iria has been though too much not to stand up fight back. And, if I pull my weight and finish writing this, it's only going to get cooler from here.

The other big change is Bob's reaction to his realization towards the end. The biggest plothole I originally found myself in is why didn't Bob know of Helmet guy, especially after the events of The Rogue, my TSoS sidestory. This is a new path that I'm planning on exploring that should open the story up in a completely different angle than how it was originally portrayed.

Going forward, my notes will not be this long winded as the story should begin to speak for itself as we go.