This is not my usual update. But I would like to ask everyone to bear with me for my indulgence as I feel that there are current events unfolding in our real-world reality that are critically linked to the story I have written, "Analog Hack".

As I write this piece, the date is Saturday, December 17th, 2022.

A day before, on Friday, December 16th 2022, the Prime Minister of Japan Kishida Fumio announced a 43 trillion yen plan for Japan's largest-ever military buildup since World War Two due to the ongoing Ukraine-Russian conflict along with existing tensions in the Asia-Pacific region.

In PM Kishida's own words, the buildup is necessary for Japan to tackle the security challenges that the Japanese people are facing, both current and future. The worry is that with Russia invading Ukraine, and with China continuing to pursue its geopolitical goals of reunification with Taiwan, new precedents are being set in the world, specifically the Asia-Pacific region.

The goal is to purchase missiles with the capability and range of striking mainland China, along with rehauling their entire military apparatus to prepare it for a sustained, prolonged conflict.

The plan is estimated to be executed over the course of five years, and it will transform Japan into the 3rd largest military spender in the world. Currently, Japan spends about 1 percent of its national GDP on defense, give or take. This plan will see Japan doubling its defense spending to two percent of its GDP, again, give or take.

At the moment, PM Kishida did not mention anything yet about amending the current constitution, written by the American occupying military government following the conclusion of WW2, which bans Japan from possessing a conventional military. But considering the rapidly developing situation, for readers who come across this in the future, please consider that the things I have written here might be invalid from a real-world standpoint. The future is never set in stone. I would like said readers to take note of this.

The Chinese and South Korean governments have already lodged their diplomatic protests, of course as things usually go in that part of the world. Due to longstanding tensions in the region that date back to World War Two and before.

Now that is all that I have to say about the current events affecting our real-world reality.

Additional background information regarding the world of 'BEATLESS':

Obviously, in the animation, a lot of information was glossed over, like most adapted works of a visual format tend to do. This is understandable, there is only a certain amount of information that can be conveyed within the strict time limits of a TV broadcast. There is a plethora of information regarding the world of Beatless that Hase Satoshi has included in the supplementary materials.

In the world of 'Beatless', which is set in the year 2105, Japan has remilitarized completely and has amended its constitution to allow itself to return to possessing a conventional military with no limits. This occurred due to rising tensions with China and the issues regarding the Korean peninsula in the latter half of the 21st century.

Now we can see for ourselves in our real world that such events are currently occurring right before our eyes. To that, I have to give credit to Hase Satoshi. Beatless was published in 2011, and if one were to consider that some time is also spent conceptualizing the story and world, it logically goes to say that Hase Satoshi has already thought about such things even before the official 2011 publication date.

In that, I can only say I feel amazed that he was able to predict such trends from more than a decade ago. Although, in his vision, the remilitarization of Japan only occurred in the latter half of the 21st century. Although events are moving faster than he had predicted due to the current conflict in Europe, I still applaud his vision.

The world of 'Analog Hack':

The world of this story 'Analog Hack' is what I would call an adaptation of the Beatless universe and lore. While it mostly follows the timeline of the Beatless universe and its events. The idea of 'Analog Hack" is a story that is set as a sequel, although not a direct one, to another franchise. That is to say, it shares the same setting as the Guilty Crown franchise.

I have already covered my inspirations for setting 'Analog Hack' as a sequel to Guilty Crown so I shall not be repeating myself. But in the world of Analog Hack, I had in my mind planned to follow Hase Satoshi's vision of Japan remilitarizing in the latter part of the 21st century. With my change being that due to the events of Guilty Crown set in the year 2039, Japan has remilitarized in response to that. Never again will they allow themselves to be occupied by a foreign power and slaughtered in their own homeland.

How does this affect the production of 'Analog Hack'?

Writing an SF piece of work that takes place in the near future is difficult for a few reasons. One of the main reasons is that I always have to think about the possibility of a reader 10, 20, maybe even 30 years from now coming across this piece of work and then rolling their eyes because the things that I have written are not applicable in said future.

In that I can say, this is one of my key worries that delays my writing when it comes to this work.

The events currently occurring in our real-world reality has already invalidated the timeline of 'Beatless' and 'Analog Hack'. To that end I will have to ask readers to come to an unspoken agreement to let these sort of inconsistencies slide if they feel they encounter such things in the story. After all, there is no such thing as a futuristic or SF fiction that gets everything correct down to the last detail.

As writers all we can do is create a world that readers would be able to relate to. Rather than trying to conform to a rapidly changing environment, I will still be sticking to my initial ideas. And I think Hase Satoshi had the same idea as well when he created 'Beatless', as most of the technology used in the setting is clearly grounded and realistic (self-driving cars, automation, wireless charging, digital currencies, renewable energy, lab-grown meat, so on so forth)

What is the progress of the next chapter? When will it be released?

As of 17/12/2022, 2 out of 3 planned scenes have already been completed. The current word count is around 8.1k words. I will try to release the next chapter before the end of the year.

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this.

Infinity Caliber,
17/12/2022