Full-time comic artist

After that, facing Nan Lie's defense, Rukawa made three fake moves and scored with a jump shot.

On the stage of the national tournament, Rukawa Kaede also made his voice heard.

He has made a lot of progress compared to a month ago.

He became the undisputed ace of Shohoku.

Sakuragi Hanamichi finally realized the gap between himself and Rukawa Kaede.

He needs to practice three times as much to catch up with Rukawa Kaede's experience before graduating from high school.

In the subsequent game, Nan Lie earned the nickname "Ace Killer" when he deliberately elbowed Rukawa Kaede in the eye, hoping to force Shohoku's ace out of the game.

In last year's national tournament, facing Fujima who scored 20 points in 10 minutes, Minami did the same thing and won the game in a despicable manner.

After Rukawa suffered a concussion and was forced to leave the field, Toyotama did not restrain itself and repeatedly committed deliberate fouls against Akagi and Miyagi, almost causing a fight between the two sides.

At halftime, Shohoku trailed by 6 points.

……

Toyotama, the football team, has always been disliked by readers.

In Slam Dunk, aside from Shinichi Maki possibly accidentally tripping someone, there has never been such a despicable act.

High school basketball should be for fun and to enjoy the joy of sports.

Therefore, it should be pure and beautiful.

Using underhanded tactics to win a game—isn't that just like South Korean sports?

The most exciting part of "Slam Dunk" is that the players' fighting spirit is evident in their determination to win. They put in their hard work and sweat on the court.

Fengyu is completely out of place in this game, like a flaw in a flawless gem. The stark contrast makes readers dislike the team even more.

From an editor's perspective, Yoshida, through the foreshadowing in "The Battle of Toyotama," vaguely sensed Akino Tori's future ideas from subtle clues.

Why do Toyotama players ignore their coach so much?

Why do they insist on using the run-and-gun tactic?

Is it merely to demonstrate their wickedness and inflexibility?

There must be a reason for all of this.

During halftime, Toyotama's coach Kinpei thought that with the point difference reaching 6 points and Shohoku's ace player unable to play, they should start playing defense.

Despite Coach Jin Ping's objections, Nan Lie insisted on using a run-and-gun offense, aiming to score 60 points in the second half.

"We've lost count of how many years we've only made it to the quarterfinals because of this tactic. Back in Kitano's era, it was proven that this tactic couldn't win a championship!"

After Jinping said this, Nan Lie was furious and grabbed Jinping by the throat.

Kitano was a highly respected former coach by the Toyotama players; he was a very good person.

Because high school only lasts three years, and three years is not enough for players to fully understand basketball, Kitano arranged Toyotama's training to be 80% offense and 20% defense.

Kitano has been criticized for this tactic.

Kitano, however, didn't care; he understood the limitations of the run-and-gun tactic.

But if this tactic can make the players love basketball, that's enough.

This is also the original intention of high school basketball.

But capital doesn't think that way.

Under Kitano's leadership, Toyotama won the Osaka championship and then reached the national quarterfinals, generating enough buzz.

The school administration was greedy; they hoped Kitano could lead the Toyotama basketball team to the national championship.

But the limit of the run-and-gun tactic is the quarterfinals.

Not wanting to affect the players' love for basketball, Kitano was dismissed.

Thus, Toyotama Basketball Team became obsessed with winning the national championship using the run-and-gun tactic to prove that Kitano's tactics were correct.

Driven by this obsession, they became increasingly unscrupulous in their methods.

"That's why I dislike the newly appointed Coach Kim Pyong and ignore the tactics he arranges."

In Nan Lie's and others' minds, Jinping was nothing more than a beneficiary who had usurped the throne.

This team has strayed from its original vision due to its extreme approach, and even if it is very strong, it will not be likable.

Apart from Toyotama's cheerleading squad, the entire audience was cheering for Shohoku.

Having gained an understanding thanks to Coach Anzai and Rukawa's words, Akagi and the others finally broke free from Toyotama's rhythm and began a brilliant display of fast breaks against fast breaks.

Chapter 224 Slam Dunk's Popularity Grows

"It's strange to say."

In the studio, Omori suddenly spoke.

Hibiki Higashino is reading a manga, Gosho Aoyama's "Detective Conan". This work started serialization in 1994 and is an episodic work, but there is also a main storyline interspersed in it.

I really don't know what the author was thinking, coming up with so many murder plots?

He found it strange as well.

Hearing Omori's exclamation, Higashino Hibiki looked up and asked, "Please tell me?"

Omori spun his chair to face Hibiki Higashino and asked very seriously, "Hikaru no Go ended in 1996, so why hasn't it won the Shogakukan Manga Award yet?"

"And Slam Dunk is another one, it's been serialized for three years now."

Since its inception in 1955, the Shogakukan Manga Award has gradually established its authoritative status and has always been the annual grand event in the Japanese manga industry. The prize money of 100 million yen is a great honor.

For cartoonists, it's a sign of recognition.

It's really strange that Hibiki Higashino, currently the most popular character in Jump, has never had a work win the Shogakukan Manga Award.

Higashino Hibiki never cared about this; he always had the attitude that if he had it, great, if not, so be it.

When Omori mentioned this, it made him wonder as well.

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

"Hiss~ Could it be industry suppression?" Omori gasped.

Shogakukan owns Weekly Shonen Sunday, one of Japan's three major manga magazines, and Mitsuru Adachi and Rumiko Takahashi are both contracted manga artists with Sunday.

The era when Touch and Ranma 1/2 were serialized was the era of Sunday.

However, Sunday currently has the lowest sales among the three major comic book magazines.

According to Sunday's statistics in 1998, the circulation was 170 million copies, far less than the 425 million copies of Weekly Shonen Magazine, and even less than the 512 million copies of Weekly Shonen Jump.

Higashino glanced at him and said, "Don't overthink it."

Many of the excellent works on Jump have won the Shogakukan Manga Award, such as Yoshihiro Togashi's Yu Yu Hakusho.

Shogakukan has no reason to cause trouble for Hibiki Higashino.

Perhaps it has something to do with my age.

After all, I was a student before, and winning an award would attract public attention and have a negative impact.

"Let's focus on drawing manga," Hibiki Higashino said to Omori.

"Yes." Omori nodded.

……

Three months have passed since the start of the Slam Dunk National Tournament serialization.

The novelty of the national competition excited readers, and the serialized content also featured many wonderful interpretations that readers enjoyed discussing.

For example, Rukawa Kaede played while ill.

His left eye was swollen from an elbow strike by Feng Yu's commander, Nan Lie, making it impossible for him to open it.

He can only play ball with one eye.

This had a significant impact on him; he almost missed catching the ball.

Rukawa Kaede has entered a predicament.

When Rukawa Kaede took the free throw, he trusted his experience from millions of shooting drills, closed his eyes, and let his muscles work their magic to sink the shot.

This scene had a sacred quality, and the sense of destiny between Rukawa and basketball burst forth. Afterwards, Rukawa's popularity quickly surpassed Mito Yohei's, rising to third place.

He has a cool and reserved personality and is single-minded about playing basketball. As a result, although he is featured extensively and his spectacular shooting is among the best in "Slam Dunk", his popularity has always hovered around fifth or sixth place.

The character of Rukawa Kaede in the National Tournament is even better.

He constantly showcased his strengths, while gradually making up for his weaknesses.

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

This is a very common technique in the national tournament, but for a novice like Sakuragi Hanamichi, it can be described as a miracle.

He continued to improve and became a true player.

In a flash, Miyagi and three-point shooter Mitsui Hisashi worked together seamlessly, with Mitsui continuously throwing down three-pointers, and the score kept closing in.

Fengyu's scorer, Nanlie, was confused and made repeated mistakes.

Seeing Rukawa Kaede, whom he had severely injured, continue the match, guilt overwhelmed him.

Thus, with five minutes remaining in the game, the score was tied at 81-81.

……

Torishima Kazuhiko sat in the coffee shop with his head held high, waiting. Not long after, someone walked into the coffee shop.

In that instant, Kazuhiko Torishima felt a sense of familiarity.

That was in 1993, when he met with Tori Akino Mirai.

He had a strong sense of foresight that the future of Jump seemed to begin with this person.

He will become a pillar of Jump.

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