For the afterword I gave the scanned page to DeepSeek. It OCRd it as I'll include below, which I can see is not 100% perfect: at a glance I've noticed that the sentence in the last paragraph that starts with 死にたい goes like 死にたい人々がためたく死ぬ話になっています in DeepSeek's reading, but actually says 死にたい人がめでたく死ぬ話になっています. But there's too much text for me to check it all.

解説

もともと「他殺志願1」はComicStudioという、デジタル漫画作成ソフトの練習をかねて描いてみた物です。それ以前にも4P程度の短編はいくつか描いていたのですが、まともに使えるようになるには、16P位の作品を一通り仕上げないといかんだろうと思って取り組みました。とはいえ、あくまで練習で、発表する予定もなかったので、脳みそを酷使するギャグや、難しい絡みのあるエロはパス。背景も面倒のないようにコンクリの何も無い部屋。ってな感じで出来上がったのがアレです。とはいえ、描いちゃうと発表したくなるもので、とりあえずインターネット上の掲示板に上げたりしたわけです。これを描いた時点で、続編の構想もできちゃったんですが、続編の「他殺志願2」は32P程度要りそうだったんで、すぐには取り掛かれませんでした。その後、ギロチン台にかかりながらオナニーして、イク瞬間に自分で手を離して斬首、というネタを思いついて、イラストを描こうと思ったんですが、一枚絵で描くにはシチュエーションが複雑だったので漫画の形にしてみたのが「ギロチンオナニー」です。漫画にするにあたって、弟を導入した結果、当初考えていた「他殺志願2」とネタがかぶってしまいましたが、まあいいやと、これもネットで公開しました。

で、これらの漫画の反響に僕はちょっと驚きました。「他殺志願」もふたば☆ちゃんねるでそこそこ受けたのですが、「ギロチンオナニー」は2chやらあちこちのblogでも取り上げられ、妙に盛り上がってしまいました。評価も賛否両論入り乱れていましたね。「こんな物描くやつは頭がどうかしてる」「タイホしろ」なんてまでありました。この二作品は、海外の画像掲示板などでも取り上げられて、いつの間にか英語版が作られていたりします。ちなみに「他殺志願」の英語タイトルは「Applicant for death」だそうです。

「他殺志願2」は、前述したような理由で、なかなか手をつけられずにいましたが、今回ようやく描く事ができました。当初お姉ちゃんが先生にスカウトされるまでの下りとか、お姉ちゃんが手伝った他の殺人とかも描こうかと思ったのですが、あまり長くなるのでカットしました。そのため、なおさら「ギロチンオナニー」に近くなってしまいましたが(汗)。

今回描きましたが、やっぱり先生も「死にたい人」なんですね。ただ、この人は自分が死んでしまったら、世の中の「死にたい人」を殺してあげられなくなるので死なないわけです。綾香ちゃんは自分を殺して、跡を継いでくれる人材としてスカウトしたのですが、こういうことになってしまいました。もうしばらく先生には頑張ってもらいましょう。

僕は葛藤が嫌いです。漫画家としてそれはどうかと思いますが、葛藤や後悔を描くのは好きではありません。そのため、この本に収録した漫画でも葛藤をなくして、死にたい人々がためたく死ぬ話になっています。そこには風刺も皮肉も含めてられていません。作品中では安易な死を否定も非難もせず、むしろ快楽や愛のための死を推奨しているようにすら見えるでしょう。しかし、人間として当たり前のことですが、僕はこのような死を賛美しているわけでも推奨しているわけでもありません。作品はあくまでフィクションであり、その作品世界の中でのみ、彼らは幸福なのです。決してこの本から何か意味のあることを読み取ろうとしないでください。これは純然たる非現実なのです。

Translation of that also by DeepSeek:

Afterword/Commentary

Originally, "Applicant for Death 1" was something I drew as practice for ComicStudio, a digital manga creation software. I had drawn a few short pieces of about 4 pages before that, but I thought that to really be able to use the software properly, I should complete a work of around 16 pages from start to finish, so I tackled it. That said, it was just practice, and I had no plans to publish it, so I skipped the brain-taxing gags and the difficult, intricate erotic scenes. For the background, I used a concrete room with nothing in it, so I wouldn't have to bother. That's how that thing came together. But once you draw something, you want to show it, so I uploaded it to an internet message board for the time being. By the time I finished drawing it, I already had an idea for a sequel, but "Applicant for Death 2" was going to need about 32 pages, so I couldn't start on it right away. After that, I came up with the idea of masturbating while positioned on a guillotine, and at the moment of orgasm, letting go with one's own hand to be decapitated. I thought about drawing it as an illustration, but the situation was too complex for a single picture, so I turned it into a manga — that's "Guillotine Masturbation." In turning it into a manga, I introduced a little brother, and as a result, the material overlapped with what I had originally planned for "Applicant for Death 2," but I figured it was fine and published it online as well.

Well, I was a bit surprised by the reaction to these manga. "Applicant for Death" did reasonably well on Futaba Channel, but "Guillotine Masturbation" got picked up on 2ch and various blogs, and caused a strangely big stir. The evaluations were a mix of pros and cons. Things like "Anyone who draws this kind of thing is messed up in the head" and "Arrest them" were scattered among the comments. These two works were also picked up on overseas image boards, and before I knew it, English versions had been made. By the way, the English title for "他殺志願" is apparently "Applicant for Death."

For "Applicant for Death 2", for the reasons I mentioned earlier, I couldn't bring myself to start it for quite a while, but this time I was finally able to draw it. At first, I thought about drawing the part before the older sister is scouted by the teacher, or the other murders the older sister helped with, but it would have gotten too long, so I cut it. Because of that, it ended up even closer to "Guillotine Masturbation" (😅).

I drew it this time, and sure enough, the teacher is also a "person who wants to die." However, if this person were to die, she wouldn't be able to kill the "people who want to die" in the world anymore, so she doesn't die. Ayaka was scouted as someone who would kill her and carry on her legacy, but it ended up like this. Let's have the teacher keep doing her best for a while longer.

I hate conflict. As a manga artist, I suppose that's questionable, but I don't like depicting conflict or regret. For that reason, even in the manga collected in this book, I removed conflict, and the stories are about people who want to die, dying as they wish. There is no satire or irony included in them. In the works, easy death is neither denied nor condemned — rather, it may even appear as though death for the sake of pleasure or love is being recommended. However, as a matter of course as a human being, I am neither praising nor recommending this kind of death. The works are strictly fiction, and only within that fictional world are they happy. Please never try to read any meaningful message from this book. This is pure unreality.

***

Note: when I first noticed the English phrase "Applicant for Death" appear in the afterword, I though it migth be the author's intended English translation, so I kept it, but apparently it's them noting that this is how the fans translated it. 他殺志願 consists of 他殺 meaning "murder, homicide or manslaughter", more specifially killing of another person (as opposed to, say, killing of oneself), and "志願" which can mean eithe "volunteering" or "wishing for". So it could be "volunteering for murder", or even "murder wish". It's different from just a death with, because it specifies being killed by another person, rathen than killing oneself.

Note 2: I so can relate to the last paragraph. I'm portraying death as good fun in my works not because I want anyone to suffer, but because I DON"T. Unfortunately, it's not possible to remove the suffering from the real world, but with the power of fiction I can create my own world so fundamentally kind and cozy that even the worst things become something good. But somehow wanting to create a world without suffering at least in fiction makes me seen as a monster who himself deserves all the possible sufferings in the world...