Tokyo: Earth Online Manga Artist

……

It's fair to say that the online comments are currently overwhelmingly positive, praising Eri Aragaki and her short comic strip, "Wu Song."

While online comments were praising Eri Aragaki...

In fact, Eri Aragaki had already seen these praises online at that moment.

She sat cross-legged in the computer chair, holding the mouse in one hand.

The discussion thread on the screen kept refreshing. She clicked on a post and scrolled down, highlighting the comments praising her with her mouse and reading them repeatedly before scrolling down again.

She couldn't help but smile, and even let out silly giggles without caring about her image.

"hey-hey."

It's okay, since she's the only one living in the apartment right now.

Erina still had to attend classes, and Natsume Akane and Takeda Ayane didn't come to Aragaki Eri's apartment every day. They only came when they wanted to go out or when they needed help with drawing.

After watching it, Eri Aragaki put down her mouse, leaned back in her chair, and covered her face with her hands.

His silly grin showed again.

"click"

Just then, the sound of a lock being opened came from outside the door.

The key turned twice in the lock, the doorknob was pressed down, and then the door opened.

The sound of plastic bags rubbing together and a schoolbag being placed on the floor came from the entryway.

"Sister, I'm back."

Erina came in carrying the groceries and schoolbag she had just bought on her way home from school.

She put her schoolbag next to the shoe cabinet in the entryway, changed into slippers and went into the living room. Then, seeing Eri Aragaki grinning foolishly in front of the computer, she knew that her sister was surfing the internet and reading comments again.

She placed the ingredients on the kitchen counter, wiped her hands with a towel, then walked behind Eri Aragaki, rested her hands on the back of the chair, and craned her neck to look at the content on the screen.

Chapter Sixty-Two: Orange Bro

The comments above are almost entirely praises of "Wu Song," along with various fan art pieces.

Just like her previous work, Eri Aragaki's short manga this week is showing signs of breaking into the mainstream.

The most obvious sign that this is about to break out of its niche is that... all kinds of derivative works are starting to emerge one after another.

In this era, the internet wasn't as developed, and video production wasn't as easy, but this is Japan.

This is Japan, a country with a thriving ACG culture and many people who aspire to become manga artists.

As for becoming a comic artist, doesn't one need to have amazing drawing skills?

You need to have the skills to become a comic artist, right?

It can only be said that people who have such doubts underestimate Japan's influence by manga culture.

Judging from the fact that even artists with such drawing skills as Crocodile Teacher and ONE Teacher can aspire to become manga artists, it's clear that in Japan, regardless of drawing skills or talent, there are quite a few people who want to become manga artists.

Moreover, they are unlikely to give up on the idea just because their drawing skills are poor at the beginning.

They would start as readers, copying or creating various fan art pieces that they liked.

Therefore, a major characteristic of comics breaking out of their niche is that... there is a significant increase in fan-created content.

Nowadays, there are more and more imitations and derivative works of "Wu Song" online.

"Huh? Is 'Wu Song' really that popular?"

This surprised Erina, who asked in confusion.

"Of course!"

Eri Aragaki chuckled and said, "After all, it was drawn by your older sister! What? Erina, do you think your sister's drawing is bad?"

"By the way, I haven't read the short story you drew yet, sister..."

Erina blinked and said, "But it's a short story after all... I know you draw very well, I've never doubted that, but I didn't expect a short manga to be so popular..."

She was genuinely surprised by the string of praises on the computer screen.

To be honest... it seems that even Eri Aragaki's long-running manga series "Attack on Titan" didn't garner such enthusiastic praise.

After all, Attack on Titan has yet to reach its explosive plot point, and the manga only truly took off after being adapted into an anime.

Before this, Attack on Titan could be said to have at most tried to compete with Hunter x Hunter during its hiatus, based on the sales, popularity and reviews of its collected volumes.

But after it was adapted into an anime and aired, you could even see fans comparing it to Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece.

This is the sensation caused after it was adapted into an animation.

As it stands... the manga's storyline is progressing smoothly. While the plot is exciting, it mainly focuses on the early short story about the recapture of Trost District.

However, the story, which has been officially serialized, has not yet fully taken off, and readers have only given it a "fairly good" rating.

However, "Wu Song" is a short comic strip, and the whole story is full of ups and downs and the plot is already complete.

The good or bad can be seen at a glance.

That's why readers' praise for "Wu Song" came so fiercely.

"It's because the story is so exciting."

Eri Aragaki also stated frankly, "Stories of revenge being fulfilled are always stories that people love to see, just like 'The Count of Monte Cristo.' Stories of revenge always resonate with people..."

I think everyone feels this way, which is why they love this short comic so much.

"Alright, alright, I'm not going to chat with you anymore, I'm going to cook."

Erina nodded thoughtfully, but then she remembered something and said...

"go Go."

Eri Aragaki said, "Thank you for your hard work, Erina..."

……

But what Eri Aragaki didn't know was that, also in Tokyo, a student from the Republic had just finished an experiment and returned to his apartment. He then took out the manga magazines and some newly published volumes that he had bought on his way back to his rented apartment.

Lin Beimiao turned on the desktop computer in his apartment, logged into the software, and clicked on the pinned group.

The group is called "Orange Cat Translation Team Core Group". There are about twenty members, and most of them have profile pictures of various anime characters.

The latest message was from two hours ago, when someone asked, "Boss, did you buy this week's JUMP?"

Lin Beimiao pulled the keyboard over and replied in the group chat.

[SOS Brigade - Orange: I've bought the new magazine. I'll send it to everyone tomorrow afternoon.]

That's right, he is the leader and founder of the Orange Cat Translation Group. Because his online name is Orange, everyone calls him Brother Orange.

Immediately, someone popped up in the group. A member with a Haruhi Suzumiya profile picture replied, "Received, thanks for your hard work, boss." Someone else sent a cat saluting emoji, and someone else sent a picture saying, "Checking back for the boss..."

In short, it's all kinds of flattering emojis.

Lin Beimiao immediately smiled, and only then did he feel his fatigue subside somewhat.

He then decided to check out this week's Weekly Shonen Jump first, but when he casually flipped to the table of contents and intended to read the latest chapters of Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece...

But then I saw two familiar Chinese characters...

"Wu Song?"

He was taken aback. Of course, he was familiar with the name; it was a famous character from "Water Margin," one of the Four Great Classical Novels.

But why would a manga in a Japanese manga magazine have this name?

Driven by intense curiosity, he decided to go and take a look.

Then, once he started watching, he became completely engrossed in the story, especially when he saw the climax, where Wu Song drew his sword to avenge his brother and angrily killed Wang Po, the steward, Ximen Qing, and Pan Jinlian.

He was filled with excitement and shouted, "Awesome!"

He felt like he was sweating profusely on a hot summer day and then suddenly had an ice-cold Coca-Cola, it was incredibly refreshing.

The contrast between extreme frustration and ultimate catharsis after revenge is the most exhilarating.

Especially the art style... it's simply unbeatable. If Eri Aragaki's Chinese-style manga style is just a refreshing sight for Japanese people, something that they find novel and appealing...

That would be exactly what the Chinese people wanted.

Lin Beimiao looked at the comic artist's name again, and he began to wonder if the comic artist was a citizen of the People's Republic of China like him, or a compatriot from Taiwan.

Otherwise, how could they have created such an art style and be so familiar with the plot of "Water Margin"?

But then he saw a familiar name...

"Not eating pears?"

His eyes widened. "Isn't this the author of the Attack on Titan manga? But it's clearly a pen name. Could he really be..."

He felt this was very likely, and even if they weren't fellow countrymen, it was rare to see a story about the Republic depicted in a Japanese manga magazine, so he felt he should give it his full support.

Especially since this painting of Wu Song is so well done!

So he quickly went online, first opened the scanner, uploaded the manuscript of "Wu Song", then compressed it into a zip file, and then sent it to the group.

He typed again

[SOS Brigade - Orange: You guys should check out this short comic, it's really good! Why don't we translate it into Chinese first?]

Chapter Sixty-Three (Single Volume)

But at the same time, on Shueisha's side...

The results of this week's reader survey are also in.