Shin Megami Tensei: Jin in the Ruins (真・女神転生 廃墟の中のジン) is a novel within the Shin Megami Tensei series. The novel received a loose manga adaptation in 2002 due to its success called Shin Megami Tensei EDEN.
It is the first of three novels in the Jin series, the other two being Shin Megami Tensei II: Jin of the Revival and Shin Megami Tensei if…: Jin of the Expanse. Yoru Yoshimura also worked on a Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne (真・女神転生III-NOCTURNE) novel, one of the four short stories in the anthology novel Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne Anthology (真・女神転生III-NOCTURNE アンソロジー) and a short story published in the Monthly Dragon Magazine October 2001 Special Edition called Shin Megami Tensei: Distant Days of the Past (真・女神転生 遠く過ぎ去りし日々よ).
Profile[]
Shin Megami Tensei: Jin in the Ruins is an original novel written by Yoru Yoshimura with illustrations from Eiji Kaneda and a cover illustration from Kazuma Kaneko. It takes place in XXXX, sometime after the Great Cataclysm of the first game.
It begins following a ten year-old boy born after the Cataclysm named Jin. He's enslaved by Manhunters and locked up in a cage with Jack, a boy a year or two younger than Jin who often curses at and is beaten by the Manhunters, Retsu, a tall, thin boy around the same age as Jack, and Ayame, a girl the same age as Jin who is half-human, half-demon, these people are often referred to as mutants and have a third eye on their forehead. They get attacked by demons and are saved by a Devil Summoner named Raishin.
Raishin raises the children, the novel following them as they grow up. He teaches them the basics of Demon Summoning, though after Raishin's disappearance, Jin takes over as leader.
The novel is 373 pages long and is made up of five main chapters called Cthulhu, Daily Food, Raid, Stages of Destruction and Will O'Wisp.
The Hero is featured on the cover, although he has no relation to the story outside of a dozen direct references to him and the Law and Chaos Heroes.
Development[]
There is some information regarding the novel's development on Yoshimura's website, including that one of his favourite things is hamsters. Yoshimura was a big fan of the original Megami Tensei games and Shin Megami Tensei, often referring to himself as a "Megatennist" and putting lots of effort into the novel due to his love for the series.
He began work on the novel as late as June 26th, 2001 (no exact date, but he first mentions working on it that day). He was tasked with creating a novel that takes place in the Shin Megami Tensei world, but with original characters. Throughout development the novel was referred to as the novelisation of Shin Megami Tensei, though it was intended to be an original story from the get go, not a novel adaptation of the SNES game.
The deadline for the novel was at the end of that month. His parents went on a trip to England for ten days and he was tasked with watering the plants at their house, thinking he'd have no issue with his work as he had a computer at his parents house to write. Though the computer kept crashing, meaning he had to return to his home in Tokyo and bring his usual desktop and monitor back to his parents house while he was sweating in 30°C (86°F) heat.
He proofread the novel on July 22nd, 2001. The deadline for returning it to the editorial department was the 23rd, having only got word on the 21st that the novel was good to proceed with proofreading, he only had a couple days to proofread the then 359 page novel (afterword not included). He finished proofreading on the 22nd on the train. He went to Fujimi Shobo with the manuscript but nobody was there, as it was Sunday and he got the date wrong. He pulled himself together and went to see Spirited Away in Shibuya.
On July 27th, the subtitle of the novel was decided to be "Jin in the Ruins (廃墟の中のジン)".
On July 31st, Yoshimura realised that he had mistakenly written Howard Philips Lovecraft's name in the novel as Herbert Philips Lovecraft. He isn't a character in the story, though the orphanage's name "Cthulhu" comes from Lovecraft's novel. The orphanage started off as Raishin's home, named "Cthulhu" after Japan's Anti-Demon Agency, where Raishin worked pre-cataclysm. Yoshimura noticed it around nine pm and tried contacting the editor but was unable to get in touch with him, worried the manuscript had already been sent to the printing shop with this mistake. He apologized to Lovecraft in his blog saying that he hated himself for the mistake, though in the novel it ends up being correctly spelt as Howard Philips Lovecraft.
The novel was published by Fujimi Shobo in the Fujimi Mystery Bunko in August, 2001 for ¥580. It was later featured in a brief article in the Monthly Dragon Magazine's October 2001 Fantasia Battle Royal special issue.
On September 16th, he published the afterword from the novel on his blog (the novel was released earlier but he forgot to post it on his blog). A demon named Maharagion (魔神 マハラギオン) appears in the novel, Yoshimura addresses peoples confusion of this demon as they didn't encounter it in the original game. He gives a step by step guide to fusing the demon in the game, though this demon can be buggy, so he said he takes no responsibility for any corrupted data. He says it can be created after the Great Flood in the neutral route by fusing three demons. Select Itzamna, Ganga and Indra in that order and it will create a demon called Maharagion, which can corrupt your game and wipe your save data.
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