Our Last Crusade Or The Rise Of A New World Author Kei Sazane Interview:

Kimisen or Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World (Kimi to Boku no Saigo no Senjō or Aruiwa Sekai ga Hajimaru Seisen) is a night novel with an anime adaptation back in 2020. The anime was 12 episodes long, providing us with some magical fantasy romance scenes. Kei Sazane, the light novel author, was recently interviewed about his involvement in the anime production.

Our Last Crusade or The end of a New World Plot:

The story takes place in a fantasy world where a war has been going on for ages. It’s between the technologically advanced Heavenly Empire and the country of influential magic users known as the Nebulis Sovereignty. The main characters of Our Last Crusade or The end of a New World are Iska and Aliceliese. They both hold a position in the opposite ends of the war. Though they are enemies, they have a single goal, i.e., to stop this war and the bloodshed that’s been happening for many years. Iska is a master swordsman from the Empire. On the other hand, Aliceliese is the “Ice Calamity Witch” from Nebulis’ ruling family. They both conspire together to stop the war and achieve peace for both parties.

iska-and-aliceliese
Iska And Aliceliese (Image: Animex Wallpapers)

Questions Asked to Our Last Crusade or The end of a New World’s Author:

Kei Sazane had a recent interview about his involvement in the anime adaptation. The author revealed many things like the changes, his views, and many more. Let’s see what the questions were and how he replied.

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Could you explain what makes the series special? How do you make it stand out from other magical fantasy stories?

Kei Sazane beautifully replied to this question. He said that in the Magical Fantasy genre, Our Last Crusade or The end of a New World is like a Magic Battle story. He speaks about the relationship between the two main characters more like affection rather than romance. When Kei started writing the novel, he emphasized the interpersonal and romantic side of the story while ensuring that the action and thrill don’t get left behind.

The anime performed well during the fall 2020 anime season. In your opinion, what is the reason for its success? Are there any fascinating scenes or aspects of the story that helped it become popular?

To this question, Kei replied gratefully. He conveys his words about how he felt so good regarding the anime adaptation of Our Last Crusade or The end of a New World. Since this was his first work to get a television series, he speaks about how different light novels and manga could be from anime. According to Kei, one cannot show the transition of body language and expressions through Novels or Manga. Thus, seeing his creation performing those made him glad.

For example, in episode 2 or episode 7, when Alice gets embarrassed, you can see the transition as her face gradually becomes redder and redder. Or in episode 6, when Mismis finds out, she now has an astral crest. She’s distraught and sobbing until Iska manages to comfort her and get her to smile. The anime staff did a great job creating that fluid transition from crying to calm.

our-last-crusade

If one of the directors wanted to make some changes to the story for the anime adaptation, would they discuss it with you first?

Kei directly replied to this question by mentioning how it was pre-decided that the anime would be as faithful to the novel as possible. There were no significant changes in Our Last Crusade or The end of a New World. The only exception was the climax fight of the last episode. Kei created the final boss for the anime-only, which wasn’t taken from the novel. He was thankful that the staff allowed him to do so and that they followed the anime storyline.

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For the anime adaptation, how deeply are you involved with that?

He was happy since Our Last Crusade or The World’s End was Kei’s first anime adapted novel. He left most of the decisions to the director, the voice actors, or the additional staff. The author trusted them, and it was worth it. Sometimes the directors used to ask questions like “Sazane-sensei, what do you think about this?” or “Would it be okay if we tried that?” and so on. Kei mostly gave his opinions about the characters, the scenes, or how they could rearrange scenes to stay on track.

Sources:
The interview was conducted by Mipon, and the full interview can be seen here.
The second part of the interview is yet to be released.