Full-time comic artist

Naoko Takeuchi rolled her eyes at him. She was so engrossed in the story that she was influenced by Yoshihiro Togashi.

Naoko Takeuchi hurriedly waved and pushed Togashi away, and while she was still in a good mood, she continued watching.

After a long and arduous journey, Takaki Tono finally reunited with Akari.

She sat by the fireplace, head bowed, motionless.

Takaki Tono went up to greet her, and the girl looked incredulous.

Then, clutching the hem of Takaki's trench coat, she sobbed softly, tears streaming down her face.

……

“Phew, no need for a grand farewell, a simple narration is enough.” Naoko Takeuchi breathed a sigh of relief.

The two drank the tea that Akari had brought and ate their bento boxes.

Once she arrived here, she finally felt relieved.

The plot, which had been building up over time, has finally come to fruition.

"That's really good."

The comic is not over yet.

There are five pages left out of the fifty pages.

Naoko Takeuchi stood up and looked at the cherry blossoms outside the window.

The cherry blossoms are still there, fluttering in the wind, everywhere.

However, in the manga, Takaki and Akari arrive at a cherry blossom tree, which in winter is just bare branches.

In the darkness, only the light reflected off the snow could be seen.

"Spring hasn't arrived yet," Naoko Takeuchi thought.

These two people need to get away from each other.

Even if we meet again, we will eventually drift further apart.

In Kagoshima, it wouldn't be as easy to say goodbye as it is now.

So what will happen in the end?

Is it a tragedy or a comedy?

Chapter 201: The Winner and Loser of the Short Comic Contest

"5 Centimeters Per Second" and "Cherry Blossom" are about to end.

Under the cherry blossoms in the snow, Takaki Tono and Akari Shinohara shared a light kiss.

"In that instant, I felt as if I understood the existence of things like eternity, mind, and soul. I felt that we understood everything about each other over the past thirteen years."

Takaki Tono and Akari Shinohara were deeply in love, but then Takaki Tono was overcome with unbearable sadness.

He understood the girl's warmth and soul; her happiness at this moment only highlighted the sadness of a future without her.

"I know very well that we can't be together forever."

The vastness of life and the fleeting nature of time are both unavoidable obstacles.

At that moment, feeling the girl's lips, he gradually fell into tranquility.

Before they parted, Takaki did not tell Akari about the letter he was going to give her, and Akari did not give Takaki her own letter either.

The two said goodbye and walked further and further away as the tram drove off.

Naoko Takeuchi remained silent, pursing her lips to stop herself from crying.

"So this means...the two broke up without saying a word?"

Since they didn't exchange letters, did that mean they didn't express what was on their minds?

First love is both innocent and beautiful. It would be a tragedy if this relationship faded away with time due to the inability to see each other for a long period of time.

She felt empty inside, and her hands limply put down the comic magazine.

Naoko Takeuchi is somewhat of a romantic.

In Sailor Moon, Queen Neo Serenity marries a prince, and the story is as beautiful as a fairy tale.

Naoko Takeuchi's dream was to live happily with her loved ones and children in a small house surrounded by a garden.

Therefore, the shattered beauty of the "5 Centimeters Per Second" manga caused her uncontrollable sadness.

Togashi glanced at her and sighed for his girlfriend who had such a strong sense of empathy.

"Please show me."

He took the manga magazine from Naoko Takeuchi and stared blankly at "Cherry Blossom Manga".

After a moment, he pointed to the comic and said, "Look here."

Naoko Takeuchi leaned closer, and Takaki Tono murmured to himself, "I long to have the power to protect her."

Togashi said, "So Takaki Tono didn't let go of this relationship. He hoped that after he grew up, he could be with Akari."

At this stage, Takaki is still a child and cannot say things like "Please wait for me".

This is far too heavy a burden.

Naoko Takeuchi seemed to be deep in thought, and her eyes suddenly lit up.

"So..."

"This is a manga with an open ending," Togashi concluded.

In the future, when Takaki Tono grows up, he will definitely go looking for Akari.

Whether they will end up together by then depends on the readers' opinions.

“Just like ‘The Garden of Words’,” Naoko Takeuchi suddenly felt energized.

At the end of "The Garden of Words," Takao made shoes for Yukino and left them in "The Garden of Words."

As for their future, that's for the readers to decide.

After asking Hibiki Higashino, Naoko Takeuchi learned that on the cover of the last chapter of "The Garden of Words," she saw a pair of women's feet stepping into a shoe made by Takao, which meant that the two of them finally came together.

The real ending is hidden in the Easter egg.

Thinking of this, Naoko Takeuchi snatched the comic book and excitedly began flipping through it.

On the cover, besides the faces of Takaki Tono and Akari Shinohara, there is only a moving train.

"Could it be that Takaki, riding the train, eventually found Akari again?"

Her eyes lit up, and she felt much happier!

……

Naoko Takeuchi was deeply moved by the entire "5 Centimeters Per Second" manga, which is undoubtedly an excellent work.

Many people felt sad and upset after reading it, or it reminded them of their own past.

"This short story tells only a brief tale, with most of the content devoted to depicting the protagonist's inner world: Takaki's anticipation and eagerness when he thinks about meeting Akari; his unease and worry when the train is delayed; and his disbelief and tears of joy when he finally meets Akari."

"Teacher Akino described this point very well with his strong skills. My heart was drawn in, and I smiled and then felt sad."

"The artwork in '5 Centimeters Per Second' is so good, full of details. It doesn't feel like a Jump manga at all; it's more like a movie. Tori Akino-sensei must have worked so hard. After reading the manga, you can understand how amazing the workload is."

"The artist is Akemi Akimiya, the assistant to Professor Tori Akino. Her drawing is absolutely amazing!"

Both the storyline and the artwork received high praise.

In the eyes of some readers, this is simply the perfect comic.

Akemi Akemi smiled happily as she read the comments online.

She would stay up late every night, repeatedly drawing the background, and she even actually took the train from Shinjuku to Tochigi station.

I took photos inside the tram, contemplating the scenery when it snows.

She also noted the expressions on the faces of pedestrians hurrying by.

If it weren't for the four months of drawing time, the weekly manga wouldn't have had time to be serialized.

She really works very hard.

Hibiki Higashino could only stay up all night as an assistant to relieve Akemi Akemi's pressure.

Every time she discarded a perfectly good manuscript, Higashino Hibiki was heartbroken, but he couldn't bear to let her work on it all by herself.

"That's how it is for new manga artists," Hibiki Higashino remarked.

Akira Toriyama, Togashi, and Oda all have this history. In their early days, they only slept two or three hours a day, spending most of their time drawing manga.

"Besides not being familiar with the rhythm of the weekly magazine at the beginning, the most important thing is to demand perfection of myself."

If there's even a small problem in the original draft, I force myself to revise it until it's 100% perfect.

It's as if I have obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Hibiki Higashino was like that before, and Akemi Akemi is like that now.

Even things that Higashino Hibiki didn't care about, she would keep changing.

In the end, they delivered a perfect answer.

Reviews of "5 Centimeters Per Second" were published in newspapers and magazines.

"This is a work with a personal touch, and readers who like that style will really enjoy it."

"The manga is full of narration, which may annoy some readers, but this is also the strength of '5 Centimeters Per Second'. The poetic narration is touching, and without these narrations, the beauty of the work would be greatly diminished."

"The artwork in this piece is also quite captivating. I was immediately amazed when I saw the background. Ah, those trees, ah, that water. It's a level of artistry I haven't seen in Jump in a long time."

"Although it's a black and white comic, it seems to be sparkling. I really hope to see what the original manuscript looked like."

"I hope '5 Centimeters Per Second' can win first place in this comic contest."

After reading the reviews in the newspaper, Akemi Akimiya chuckled to herself and kept looking at the book.

"My name isn't on this," she said, pointing to the newspaper with a wronged expression after looking at it for a while.