Full-time cartoonist.

Chapter 224 Slam Dunk's popularity grows
"It's weird to say."

In the studio, Omori suddenly spoke.

Higashino is reading the manga, which is "Detective Conan" by Gosho Aoyama. This work has been serialized since 1994. It is a unit type work, but there are also main lines interspersed in it.

I really don't know what the author thinks, there are so many murder schemes?
He also found it strange.

Hearing Omori's exclamation, Higashino raised his head and asked, "Please tell me?"

Omori turned his chair and faced Higashino, he asked very seriously: ""Soul of Go" was finished in 1996, why hasn't it won the "Shogakukan Manga Award" yet? "

"There is also "Slam Dunk", which has been serialized for three years."

Since its establishment in 1955, the Shogakukan Manga Award has gradually established an authoritative position. It has always been an annual event in the Japanese manga industry. The prize money is 100 million yen, which is a great honor.

For cartoonists, it is the embodiment of recognition.

Hibiki Higashino, who is currently the most popular in jump, has not won the "Shogakukan Manga Award" for his works, which is really very strange.

Higashino Hibiki didn't care about this, he always had an attitude of getting what he had and forgetting what he didn't have.

When Omori mentioned this, he couldn't help but wonder.

"I don't know." Higashino shook his head.

"Hiss~ Could it be the suppression from the industry?" Omori breathed a sigh of relief.

Shogakukan has "Weekly Shonen Sunday", one of the three major comics in Japan. Mitsuru Adachi and Rumiko Takahashi are both contracted cartoonists of Sunday.

The era when "Baseball Heroes" and "Ranma 1/2" were serialized was the era of Sunday.

However, Sunday is now the lowest-selling among the three major comic magazines.

The circulation counted on Sunday in 1998 was 170 million copies, far less than the 425 million copies of "Weekly Shonen Magazine", let alone the 512 million copies of "Weekly Shonen Jump".

Higashino glanced at him, "Don't think wildly."

Many of the excellent works on jump have won the "Shogakukan Manga Award", such as "Yu Yu Hakusho" by Yoshihiro Togashi.

There is no need for Shogakukan to trouble Higashi Higashino.

Maybe it has something to do with your age.

After all, I was still a student before, and after winning the award, it would arouse public opinion and lead to bad influence.

"Let's draw manga seriously." Higashino said to Omori.

"Yes." Da Sen nodded.

……

It has been three months since the serialization of "Slam Dunk" National Contest.

The novelty of the national competition makes readers very excited, and there are many wonderful interpretations in the serialized content, which keep readers talking about it.

For example, Rukawa Kaede played sick.

His left eye was swollen from being elbowed by Lord Feng Yu Nan Lie and couldn't be opened.

Can only play with one eye.

It had a big impact on him, and he almost missed the catch.

Rukawa Feng walked into a predicament.

When Rukawa Kaede made a free throw, he believed in his millions of shooting training experience, closed his eyes, let his muscles exert strength, and hit the basket.

There was something sacred in this scene, and Rukawa Kaede and basketball's sense of fate gushed out. After that, Rukawa Kaede's popularity quickly surpassed Mito Yohei and rose to No.3.

His personality is cold and unrevealed, and he focuses on playing basketball. Although he has a lot of ink and wonderful shots, he is one of the best in "Slam Dunk", but his popularity has been hovering at No. 6.

Rukawa Kaede's characterization in the national competition is better.

He constantly showed his strengths, and made up for his shortcomings little by little.

Not only Rukawa Kaede, Sakuragi Hanamichi also scored a jump shot.

This is a very common technique in the national competition, but it can be said to be a miracle for a novice like Yingmu Huadao.

He's improving and becoming a real player.

There was a tacit cooperation between the flashy Miyagi and the three-point pitcher Mitsui Hisashi. Mitsui continued to shoot three-pointers, and the score was approaching.

Feng Yu's scorer, Nan Lie, fell into confusion and made repeated mistakes.

Seeing that Rukawa Feng, who was severely injured by himself, continued to play, guilt engulfed his heart.

As a result, in the last 5 minutes of the game, the two sides tied 81:81.

……

Torishima Kazuhiko sat in the cafe with his head held high and waited. After a short wait, someone walked into the cafe.

At this moment, Torishima Kazuhiko seemed to feel a sense of familiarity.

That was in [-], when he made an appointment with Mirai Akino.

He has a strong sense of foresight, and the future jump era seems to start with this person.

He will be the pillar of the jump.

The future belongs to Tori Akino Mirai, belongs to Eiichiro Oda, and also belongs to him.

For a comic magazine to be recognized by readers, pillars are essential.

Jump's previous "Fist of the North Dipper" and "Dragon Ball", and now "Slam Dunk" and "One Piece" all belong to the pillars.

In the future, paper magazines will be more challenged, with an aging population and more and more entertainment methods. The desolation of jump is right in front of Kazuhiko Torishima.

Therefore, it is essential to dig out pillar-level works. Jump has more and more awards for new comics, and there are big awards every month, just for this.

In 1997, "One Piece" began serialization.

If it weren't for the appearance of "Slam Dunk", "One Piece" must be the first pillar of jump, and Eiichiro Oda will also become the savior of jump.

And the person in front of him is the same age as Oda, and he started serialization at about the same time. He is also considered a genius and has the same talent as Oda.

Torishima Kazuhiko has high hopes for him.

He is Konichi Shimabukuro, the author of "Biography of the Leader at the End of the Century".

Last year, jump specially arranged for "One Piece", "Hunter x Hunter" and "Leader of the End of the Century" to be released on "Jump Festa", which shows the recognition of Shimabukuro.

He is a cartoonist who is valued by jump just like Eiichiro Oda and Yoshihiro Togashi.

"Editor-in-Chief Torishima, I'm sorry I'm late." Konen Shimabukuro lowered his head and sat down, "Because I was working hard to draw manga, I forgot the time."

He grinned and continued.

"It's okay, I didn't wait too long." Torishima Kazuhiko said.

He was always tolerant of genius.

The "Leader at the End of the Century" serialized by Shimabukuro is a funny cartoon with a rough and powerful style of painting, known as "Tarzan comics".

In short, his drawing skills are much better than Oda's.

And he's only 24 now.

It would have been hard to do this if it wasn't for the love of manga.

Kazuhiko Torishima met with Konichi Shimabukuro today to discuss funny comics with him.

On jump, funny comics are limited.It can be serialized for a long time, such as "Oolong Police Station", but it is impossible to get the first place.

It must be Wang Dao comics that can arouse readers' emotions.

The gap between Shimabukuro and Oda is now due to the selection of materials for the works.

In "Leader at the End of the Century", you can see the talent of Shimabukuro, Kazuhiko Torishima decided to discuss this with him.

I hope that his next manga serialization can create works of the same level as "One Piece".

"Ah, when I came here today, I heard a lot of people discussing "Slam Dunk". This is really a manga at the national level. It's amazing, Mr. Akino Tori."

Konen Shimabukuro just recovered from the hot summer, and he was full of emotion.

Although his grades are very good, there is still a big gap between him and Bird Akino's future.

"The national competition is really good."

Torishima Kazuhiko nodded triumphantly when he said that, this is the person who dug it by himself.

Today, jump's circulation can remain at 510 million, mostly thanks to "Slam Dunk".

"The results are already very strong, but when it comes to the national competition, the popularity is even higher, which is unexpected to me." Torishima Kazuhiko said.

He originally thought that this was the limit, but he didn't expect that Bird Akino would make a move in the future, and he would see a higher sky.

"Because the drawing is very interesting. Mr. Akino Niao has nothing to say about the character creation. I hated Nan Lie very much at first, but after watching the latest plot, I fell in love with Nan Lie's story."

The game between Xiangbei and Fengyu was different from the past. The story of Xiangbei was not excavated, and the main description was the Fengyu basketball team.

Nan Lie finally recalled his original intention in Rukawa Feng who never backed down. He started playing because he likes basketball.

But because in order to win, he planned to scare the opponent from the beginning, but now he is playing tricks, and he is getting more and more extreme.

To win more than anything else.

Nan Lie thought so.

Just as Mitsui met Coach Anxi, Nan Lie, who began to reflect on himself, met Kitano teacher again.

He was still the same as before, with a gentle smile on the corner of his mouth.

Kitano did not reprimand Nanlie.

Instead, he talked about that he is now a teenager basketball training, and he brought the children to watch the basketball game.

only……

"Kids frowning while watching the game..."

The children came to see Fengyu after hearing that Fengyu was Kitano's former team, but what they saw was Fengyu's unscrupulous behavior.

He finally showed a reproachful expression and turned to leave.

"Teacher Kitano! Do elementary schools also use this running and bombing tactic!" Nan Lie couldn't help asking.

"It's still [-]% offensive and [-]% defensive, but it's not running and bombing anymore."

"All in all, it's enough to make them have fun."

This sentence deeply shocked Nan Lie, and he was awakened.

"have a good time……"

When he was a teenager, he simply liked basketball, watched games, and trained, all because he liked basketball.

His eyes became more and more clear.

Because of Nanlie, Fengyu's players finally regained their original dream. In the last 2 minutes, they tore off the shackles and played [-]% focused.

In the end, they recovered 6 points and lost to Xiangbei by 4 points.

"In terms of character analysis, Mr. Akino Tori is the strongest manga artist." Konen Shimabukuro said with emotion, his inspiration suddenly appeared, and he was a little too weak in front of such a plot.

Kazuhiko Torishima nodded, "The original intention of basketball is to enjoy the joy of playing basketball because you like it. At the beginning, the bad-quality team was finally baptized, and the works were sublimated. Tori Akino's paintings are very good."

Another Mitsui Shou, the story of the prodigal son's return is always popular.

"The "Slam Dunk" has gradually reached its peak because of Mitsui Hisashi, and now it has reached a new level because of Fengyu," said Kazuhiko Torishima: "This is the charm of hot-blooded comics."

Funny comics never compare.

The plot that people talk about is always like this.

This is also the reason he wants to tell Shimabukuro.

"I understand." Konichi Shimabukuro was taught humbly.

"I admire Oda very much. His talent is extraordinary. And he always thinks that Tori Akino is ten times as talented as him. I still have a lot to learn from Mr. Tori Akino."

"Before I serialized the manga, I should have worked as an assistant with Mr. Akino Tori and studied for a while longer."

Eiichiro Oda once told him that when he was working as an assistant at the Bird Akino studio, he could learn as much as a mountain, and he was enriching himself every day.

He has not served as an assistant, but has become a disadvantage now.

Sometimes too much talent is not good.

Torishima Kazuhiko is very satisfied, which is one of the reasons why he came to see Shimabukuro.

I started a small business in private, hoping that Konen Shimabukuro can make up for the shortcomings.

……

Higashino sneezed several times in a row, and he was used to it.

I've worked so hard recently, my body's immunity has weakened, and I might catch a cold.

Fortunately, Da Sen came, his workload dropped a bit, and he could finally sleep four hours a day.

"The 16th volume of "Slam Dunk" has started to be released."

Unknowingly, three and a half years have passed, and "Slam Dunk" has also been serialized to chapter 178. Time flies too fast.

Akemi Akimiya said to him: "The first edition of the first volume is 50 volumes."

"That's right," Higashino was deeply impressed by this, which is an honor that "Soul of Chess" cannot get.

Although the results of "Soul of Chess" are also very good, it has almost reached the achievement of one million volumes.But the first edition of 50 is still too difficult.

"What is the first edition of Volume 16?" Akimiya asked curiously.

Omori also looked over, this number must be legendary.

"230 million volumes," Dongye Hibiki held the phone, opening his mouth wider and wider.

The first edition of 200 million copies has already broken the record, but I didn't expect Jump to have the courage to reach the first edition of 230 million copies.

This is confidence that the 16th volume of "Slam Dunk" can sell more than 200 million copies in a short period of time.

"Bravo……"

Omori exclaimed.

This number is unimaginable to him, it is simply a miracle.Only today's "Slam Dunk" can achieve.

"Dragon Ball" is impossible.

"Why is it so tall?" Akemi asked.

"Mr. Sasaki said," Higashino said, "Jump wants to push the average sales volume of "Slam Dunk" to exceed 400 million copies..."

The current "One Piece" has an average sales volume of only more than 100 million single volumes.

"Dragon Ball", once the number one, sold about 350 million copies in a single volume.

400 million volumes is a data that has never appeared before.

Because of the chapter of the national competition, the popularity of "Slam Dunk" has increased, and the average sales of single volumes have increased from 380 million copies to 388 million copies, but there is still a long way to go before it reaches 400 million copies.

Higashino remembers that Mr. Inoue Takehiko's "Slam Dunk" booklet did not reach 400 million copies in the end.

"You really dare to think about it." Higashino was stunned.

"It's really possible," Akemi Qiugong nodded earnestly, "Now is not what it used to be."

(End of this chapter)