I'll try to clarify step by step why the update was done this way and breakdown all my decissions.
First of all, I'm perfectly aware of how polarizing this changes are. For some people, this is a deal breaker, and for some others a the set is now a must have. I've been always interested in sublegends and I like them a lot as they make sets very appealing, and as some of you already know, Serika's name is a reference to a manga (Space Brothers). So there has always been a thematic pretext to have those Hiragana legends added to the set since the very first moment. In fact, some of my early sketches for this set back in 2016 when the set was unnamed, had either Hiragana or Hangul sublegends. However, back in 2016 having those sublegends on a GMK set wasn't possible, and that's why I initially sticked to the more "standard" look.
Soon after update #2 was released, which added Hiragana and Micons, I started to become more and more uncomfortable with the set and its kits. For every single set, and specially for the GMK ones, the base kit is the core of the set, and everyone should get it. All base kits should be as affordable as possible, which can be achieved by having the right amount of keycaps and also reaching higher order quantities. By adding those two kits I was achieving the exact opposite of what I wanted, splitting the orders between 2 options in detriment of the core kit.
Replacing the standard set with a hiragana one? Ok still looks good. Still think the first version looked better since, to me, all those legends in the same keys looks a bit too crowded. But, again, still looks good. However, correct me if I'm wrong but the Core kit no longer supports UK-ISO, right? If so, is there any kit that does? I can't seem to find one that does.
Kits have been updated, you can check them out here: https://www.massdrop.com/talk/3488/gmk-serika
I'll try to post a long entry on my blog detailing why kits have been updated this way and why the set only has now Latin+Hiragana legends.
Going just with Hiragana means that for Colemak or NORDE Hiragana sub legends would be needed, and that is completely unviable. Even if I kept the kits as they were previous to this update, my prognostics were that NORDE wouldn't have reached MOQ.
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