Any comments in brackets '[]' belong to Tetris no Miko, who translated these questions for me and you.

Why doesn't Miaka get fat?
What was Miaka's power?
What if Miaka had taken X-item into the book-world?
Doesn't Miaka not chew her food enough?
About people the same age as Miaka and Yui...

Why doesn't Miaka get fat?

Watase Yuu answered this question herself in the original manga. I figured she should give the definitive answer. Tasuki no Miko (the original) translated that question on her site, here. The question is at the very bottom of the page.

What was Miaka's power?

What if Miaka had taken X-item into the book-world?

When Miaka left the book-world, returned to her own world, and then went back into the book-world again, she brought a backpack full of items back with her. This backpack contained a Polaroid camera, a flashlight, the teddy bear she gave to Hotohori, etc., but I like to wonder what would happen if Miaka were to bring other items into the book-world. I am sure there are plenty items which we use without thought in our everyday lives that characters in the book-world would find extremely useful.

Video Camera
The picture taken of Miaka and her Seishi with her Polaroid camera must have made amazing memorabilia for the Seishi, but If Miaka had brought a video camera into the book-world with her, not only would the Seishi be able to see still images of themselves, but moving images of themselves and the people of their world. Too bad the book-world had not discovered electricity yet…

Lighter
With a lighter, they wouldn’t have had to depend on Tasuki’s tessen whenever they wanted fire. And even your average junior high student can afford to buy a lighter, so Miaka could have easily afforded to take some of these one-dollar lighters back with her into the book.

Disposable Hot Patch
This would have come in very handy during their time in Hokkan. If Miaka had bought a few of these cheap items and taken them with her, her Seishi would have been very grateful.

If Miaka had taken these items with her, the Seishi would have thought her world to be one of the most amazing places ever. (Of course, they also thought so just with her Polaroid camera). If Miaka had just taken a little time and collected some of the things she uses in everyday life in her world, her Seishi would have surely seen her as a sort of “Doraemon”. [*”Doraemon” is a little, blue creature in an old anime/manga who helps kids out of all sorts of jams. -TnM]

Miaka’s beeper played an important role in the second half of the series, but if Miaka had tried to use her beeper or cell phone in the first half, it would have been useless. She could have brought her own transceiver with her, but since not many people own their own transceivers, I’m afraid the Yuuki household probably does not own their own either.

Might Miaka not chew her food enough?

I suspect Miaka’s bottomless pit of an appetite comes from the fact that she doesn’t chew her food well enough. Not only does she eat a large quantity of food, but the speed at which she eats it is very fast. This almost makes me think this is her “power” that Taiitsu-kun mentioned…. though I know that’s a silly thought…

But my theory that she can eat a lot of food because she doesn’t chew it much can’t be far off. If you don’t chew your food properly, your brain never receives the signal “I’ve eaten enough” and you end up eating too much. So the less you chew, the longer it takes your stomach to realize it’s full. Which means people who don’t chew their food well never sense the feeling they are “full” and they get hungry faster as well.

Since Miaka tends to inhale her food all in one gulp, her brain must never realize she is full! This causes her cravings for her next meal to come even sooner than needed.

Naturally, chewing is not the only thing behind Miaka’s big appetite, but perhaps it is one of the reasons?

About people the same age as Miaka and Yui...

Miaka was born on May 12, 1977. This book is supposed to be released around February in 1997. (As I write this page, it is December in 1996). Which means, a couple months after this book is published, Miaka will have her twentieth birthday. By the time you read this book, however, Miaka’s twentieth birthday might have already passed…

Miaka’s classmate at the time of the story, Yui, will also have her twentieth birthday within this year (between April 2nd, 1997 and April 1st, 1998). This means that Yui and Miaka will both have their Coming of Age ceremonies on the same day: January 15th, 1998. [*20 is the legal age of adulthood in Japan. People who turn 20 before a certain time that year participate in the Coming of Age Ceremony. -TnM]. But since Miaka will have already been a Mommy by then, it will seem kind of meaningless to her. (Too bad we don’t know what year it was when Miaka was with her son in the last part of the comics…)

So I have compiled a list of celebrities who are around the same age as Miaka. (When I say “the same age”, I mean those born between April 2nd, 1977 and April 1st, 1978 or those in the same year of school.)

Amuro Namie (September 20, 1977)
Kobayashi Megumi (April 24, 1977)
Kanno Miho (August 22, 1977)
Sakai Miki (February 21, 1978)
Satoh Meiko (September 26, 1977)
Matsu Takako (June 10, 1977)
[*Amuro Namie, Kanno Miho, and Matsu Takako are all popular music singers… I don’t know about the others. There were 2 other names I couldn’t read…are you really that curious? ^^; -TnM]

So what do you think? For your information, Kobayashi Megumi played the role of “Eriasu Moru” in a movie in December of ’96 called “Mosura”. In this movie, she was a “Miko” who called on a god in order to save Japan! So that means there is another “Miko” out there who is the same age as Miaka and Yui.