Full-time comic artist

This manga in Weekly Shonen Sunday provided Hibiki Higashino with a lot of inspiration.

Just as he was watching, Omori ran over shouting, "The Shogakukan Manga Award has been announced! Tori Akino-sensei, come and see!"

"Which authors' works are included?" Hibiki Higashino put down his book and asked.

"The work in the children's section is Yasunari Eiju's 'Tani Taro the Alien'."

This is a quirky and hilarious comic with a unique art style, which is very popular with children. It deserves the award.

In terms of painting skills, Master Yongju is about the same as Ichiro Soma.

However, he delved into children's themes, minimizing this drawback.

Soma Ichiro's "Space Railway Heroes" is also a manga that is popular with children, but since it was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump, its audience is much smaller.

This is one of the reasons why he has been unable to publish the series for so long.

Omori continued, "The most important shonen manga is Katsutoshi Kawai's 'Kyuu! King of Racing'."

This is the manga Higashino Hibiki was just reading; he thought it was pretty good. It's just that the art style is too old-fashioned, the characters are simplistic, and the character development is somewhat thin.

"The winner in the 'Girls' category is Aya Ikue's 'The Rose-Colored Tomorrow'."

Hibiki Higashino, who was into shoujo manga, didn't understand; he simply nodded.

"The teacher still didn't win an award this year," Omori said dejectedly.

“Don’t worry about it,” Higashino waved his hand. “I don’t draw manga to win awards.”

He felt he was already lucky enough, and winning the award was insignificant.

……

He doesn't mind, but the readers are already very dissatisfied.

Editorial Department of Weekly Shonen Sunday.

The telephone rang incessantly.

"Asking me why 'Slam Dunk' didn't win an award..." Editor Ogawa hung up the phone, smiling wryly, and said, "What does the 'Shogakukan Manga Award' have to do with us? Honestly."

"There's nothing we can do about it," my colleague Kobayashi said, leaning back. "After all, it's Slam Dunk, which everyone loves."

Just as they were talking, the phone at their workstation rang again.

Ogawa quickly answered, "Yes, I'm sorry, the Shogakukan Manga Award and our Sunday..."

Seeing this, the team leader shouted, "Why are you answering them? Just hang up!"

"Yes!"

Ogawa hung up the phone.

The team leader added, "Keep your answers brief."

"Yes." Ogawa nodded.

Even so, he was still busy for quite a while.

"What a pity! What a misfortune!"

The once-declining Sunday magazine has once again experienced the "enthusiasm" of its readers.

……

Why not give an award to "Slam Dunk"?

During the award presentation, the award-winning teacher, Katsutoshi Kawai, was puzzled and said to the organizers, "I think Slam Dunk is more interesting."

He was born in 64 and is the type to speak his mind directly.

The organizer looked grim, but he couldn't say it was due to laziness or a temporary delay.

The recent announcement of the Shogakukan Manga Award is quite different from previous ones and has been met with widespread skepticism from readers and the industry.

His colleagues subtly hinted that he shouldn't let his actions affect their department's work, which made him feel very awkward.

It's just a small matter. There won't be any problem sending it to Tori Akino Mirai next year. Why make such a fuss?

Originally, the award was withheld because Akino Miki was still a student, and there were concerns about potential negative influences. However, in terms of qualifications, *Hikaru no Go* is perfectly qualified.

After he graduated, the manga award committee didn't realize it immediately and overlooked Tori Akino. His subordinates also failed to fill the gap, leading to the embarrassing situation we have today.

Faced with Katsutoshi Kawai's questioning, the person in charge could only stiffly say, "We have considered everything. There are deeper reasons why Akino-sensei's manga did not win the award."

"That's really perfunctory." Katsutoshi Kawai shook his head.

……

On Monday, Weekly Shonen Jump was released as scheduled.

"Everyone watching the game in the stadium unanimously believed that Shohoku had already lost."

Coach Anzai countered Sannoh's formation, but in the battle of the two centers, Akagi was no match for Kawata Masashi.

Even in college, Akagi was a good player, but his opponent was Masashi Wada, the number one center in the country.

He possesses exceptional defensive skills and rebounding ability. He is large, agile, dribbles skillfully, and has a decent shooting ability, which puts Takenori Akagi in a desperate situation.

Soon after, the point difference between Shohoku and Sannoh exceeded twenty points.

Shohoku has no chance of turning the tide. After all, their opponent is Sannoh. How can they catch up with such a large point difference?

Moreover, now, Akagi Takenori, the pillar of Shohoku, has been completely suppressed by Wada Masashi and has become confused.

Without Akagi's performance, the other players on Shohoku were also unable to unleash their full potential.

The match is over.

Even readers might think the same way.

Sannoh's pressure was too great; Shohoku had no chance to make a move.

At this moment, Sakuragi Hanamichi was like a novice, Akagi Takenori had lost his fighting spirit, Rukawa Kaede was being watched by Sawakita Eiji, and Mitsui Hisashi was out of energy due to insufficient blue bars.

Even when Ryota Miyagi has the ball, he doesn't know who to pass it to.

"This is the first time Shohoku has been beaten so badly." Yoshida Koji exclaimed in astonishment.

He was thinking about how he would guide Akino Mirai to continue drawing if he were the editor of "Slam Dunk".

Change this situation.

For a moment, he was undecided.

"It's really difficult to do a good job as an editor."

As an editor, you have to communicate with the manga artist in charge about the plot. Even someone like Oda, who has top-notch plot abilities, still needs to discuss the plot with the editor for several hours every week.

Moreover, Yahagi is the kind of editor who can be considered the second author of "Naruto".

"I can't think of a breakthrough!"

Yoshida Koji scratched his head.

He told Sasaki at the Jump editorial department that his dream was to become a member of the Jump editorial department, and he had been working hard towards that goal.

But now it seems, "it's really difficult to handle."

"You can't do things just because you're full of enthusiasm."

……

At the end of February, Hibiki Higashino accompanied Akemi Akimiya to meet with the editor of "RIBON".

Even in female-oriented comics, many editors are male.

However, Akemi Akimiya's editor is a beautiful woman, and like many novels where the author has a beautiful editor, sparks of love will fly between them during their work.

“What a pity,” Higashino shook his head, “Our editor is a rough guy.”

Outside the café where they met, Higashino sighed.

"Hmm?" Akemi Akimiya looked at Hibiki Higashino with an unfriendly expression.

"I was just joking." Hibiki Higashino raised his hands in surrender.

To avoid keeping the editors waiting, they went inside.

……

"Hello, I'm Akemi Akemi. Sorry to keep you waiting."

"I just arrived too."

Ms. Tsuda looked at Akemi Akimiya, thinking about the article "Sakura Mission" sent by the Jump editorial department.

"This is a manga that would be perfect for a girls' magazine, it would be a shame if it weren't serialized."

She was very satisfied after reading it; it was a very interesting and inspirational comic.

Moreover, the drawing skills are excellent; you can feel the author's understanding of drawing comics just from the storyboard.

The use of spatial perspective, negative space, character design, and framing is very mature, making it one of the best in shoujo manga.

It can be used as a selling point.

Perhaps it's possible to make "RIBON" a hit.

In short, Ms. Fukatsu chose it at first glance.

Not serializing a comic like this would be a dereliction of duty.

So not long after, she contacted Sasaki and arranged to meet today.

Ms. Fukatsu thought for a long time before suddenly realizing that there was another person next to Akemi Akemi.

She looked her over carefully, and said in a daze, "Are you Mr. Toriakino?"

Higashino Hibiki nodded. "Hello, I'm Toriakino Mirai."

However, he did not recognize the editor in front of him.

“I attend Jump’s New Year’s party every year,” Ms. Fukatsu said. “Tori Akino-sensei is the focus of the New Year’s party, so I am naturally impressed by him.”

"Who are you and Professor Akimiya?"