The four girls and a man are in this panel. Chika is to the far right in a shirt with sets of three stripes running horizontally, and a little bow right under the neck hole. He pigtail holder this time is the type with the decorative balls. Nobue is next, with Matsuri in front of her. She's wearing a dark... hoodie, I guess. Matsuri has on a light turtleneck with something sleeveless and striped over the top. Miu has a white sleeveless shirt with an arrow below the neck hole pointing to her left shoulder.
The girls give a bow. The man, wearing a headband, glasses, sweatshirt, and sweat pants, is sitting in an office chair with his head down, but not because he's bowing. Nobue thanks those of us who did so for buying the first volume. (So, buy volume 1 and she'll thank you, too! And no, I don't mean "that" way.) Her hands are on Matsuri's shoulders. Chika and Miu join in the thanks.
Chika asks if this is Barasui's first book, and Nobue confirms it. Miu notes that he looks pretty wiped out.
Nobue says they put together a short story called "How Strawberry Marshmallow was born." Chika was unaware of this. Miu calls it boring, and advises skipping it.
The gist is that Barasui started sending his work to a magazine on the advice of a friend. After a while, some man named Mr. Bentsu (if you know who that is, go ahead and chime in) invited him to draw some manga. Barasui was unsure, never having drawn one before, but accepted.
Chika notes both that it was a short story and that it "made it sound like Barasui lacks initiative." Nobue says he just did what he was told. Miu asks him if he can comment on that.
He just says that he can draw kids.
Nobue points out, however, that he can't draw kids consistently. The first episode with done nearly two years before the publication of... the volume, I guess. Unless this strip ran in a magazine or something. She apologizes on his behalf for all the differences throughout. Chika points out that he didn't know it was going to be a series. Miu figures that explains why he's so tired. Barasui silences visibly.
Nobue goes on to express their appreciate for our readership, and invites our support so they can keep it up. Chika gives us a "Please take care of us," which I guess is "Yuroshiku" originally...? Barasui apologizes and gives a "Please take care of me."
Next page is one of those "next volume" things. It uses the image from episode 15's episode page, which I'll describe when I get there. It tells you that there's going to be a new character: "Anna". (Which is a valid way of spelling how it's pronounced. Just inconsistent with how it's spelled elsewhere.)
Next set of pages is the ads for other series.
First up is a manga mash-up: Beck Mongolian Chop Squad vs. Beck Guerolito featuring a download: "Go It Alone".
Next: Grenadier.
Then: Afterlife.
Following that: Hoshi No Koe (Voices Of A Distant Star).
After that: Seikai (Crest Of The Stars: Princess of the Empire).
Then comes: Peach Girl: Sae's Story, Spin-Off to, well, Peach Girl.
And finally, Re: Play.
And now to showcase three particular volumes of manga: Chibi Vampire volume 2; Devil May Cry 3 volume 2; and Keiko Suenobu's Life volume 2.
And finally, an instruction manual page for people who are new to manga. I could make a snarky comment about it being for people who ignored the blatant clues that the front of the book is on the other side (I mean, seriously, the front looks like the front of a book, and the back looks like the back of a book; they shouldn't be confused), but actually, it's more useful than that, as it teaches you panel-and-speech-bubble reading order, as well. It's not a yonkoma, so it's all the more needed.
And that's the end of volume 1!
Next time: volume 2 begins with the preliminary stuff!
