Tokyo: Earth Online Manga Artist

Some people saw Eri Aragaki, a beautiful girl, striking a chuunibyou (delusional) pose on a forum, found the author interesting, and placed an order.

Someone in the discussion thread asked, "The photos look great, but what about the manga itself?" Several people immediately replied, "The manga itself is very good," and "You'll know once you read it."

It's not that everyone is that curious, but it's enough if just a few people are.

This proportion is not large, but it will become a considerable amount when the base number is large.

After all, the individual volumes aren't expensive; a single volume costs less than 500 yen.

At this time, Japan was able to catch its breath and its economy was gradually recovering from the period after the last century.

At that time, the yen was still valuable, and prices in Japan are not as high as they were back then, but more importantly, salaries are higher.

The minimum wage in Tokyo is around 700 yen per hour.

You can earn that money in just one hour working at a convenience store. For most people, the price is so low that they won't hesitate to buy it.

So for many people, it's really not expensive. Except for students who have limited pocket money and need to live frugally, most office workers and young people just pick one up if they're really curious.

So the sales figures for Attack on Titan's first week are not yet available, but it's clear that the results are definitely in line with expectations.

Sakurai Masaya stood in the bookstore for a while before leaving, and then bought a book at the cashier.

Although the editorial department would give the responsible editor a sample copy, he still wanted to buy one himself as a way of supporting Eri Aragaki.

He put the single volume into his briefcase and walked out of the bookstore as the streetlights came on, and the streets of Jimbocho were filled with people who had just finished get off work.

In Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture, Ueno Takuya went to his usual bookstore on the same day and received the pre-ordered Attack on Titan volume from the old man.

On the other side, in Akita Prefecture, Fujimoto Itsuki also went to a bookstore and bought three volumes in one go. He naturally gave the excuse that he would "collect one, read one, and use one for missionary work."

This is the kind of fanatical behavior only die-hard fans of this era would exhibit.

Meanwhile, in Tokyo, Ayane Takeda had just returned from university and then went to a bookstore to buy three volumes of Attack on Titan.

She looked at the three individual volumes without feeling any heartache.

After all... her senior had taken such good care of her during this time.

She plans to recommend Attack on Titan to her classmates or upperclassmen at school, since... it seems that many of the talented students and upperclassmen in her department actually enjoy anime and manga.

Similarly, Natsume Akane also contributed to the sales of the manga volumes, even buying ten copies of "Attack on Titan" in one go.

then……

"Boss, is this...a gift from you to us?"

Yosuke Murayama looked at the manga volume in his hand in disbelief, pointed to himself, and asked.

"Yes, it's very beautiful!"

Natsume Akane said helplessly, "Just accept the gifts I told you to, stop with the nonsense, and don't call me 'Big Sister'!"

"Yes!"

……

As time went on, the sales of Attack on Titan manga volumes gradually increased.

Eri Aragaki also received a sample copy of the collected volume from Shueisha that day, along with a note that read, "Congratulations on the first volume of the collected volume."

When Eri Aragaki opened the package and saw the collected volume, she knew in her heart that this was only the first volume and there was still a long way to go.

But as she stood by the entrance, holding the book in her hand, looking at the image of Allen standing on the city wall on the cover, she couldn't help but laugh for a while.

She placed the manga on the coffee table in the living room, waiting for Erina to come home from school to read it.

After a while, I felt that simply placing the book on the coffee table wasn't conspicuous enough, so I propped it up and leaned it against the TV remote.

He took two more steps back to check the effect, and felt it wasn't enough, so he moved the sofa cushion where Erina usually sat and placed the manga directly in front of where she ate.

After doing all this, she felt like a primary school student who had just received an award for the first time, but who cares!

"But I can get a bookshelf then, at least to collect all the manga volumes I release later."

Eri Aragaki thought to herself, "This is a very meaningful thing."

Chapter Seventy-Nine: Shocking!

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Republic, the first volume of Attack on Titan had already gone on sale.

In the Orange Cat Translation Group's group, it was evening at this time, which is usually the most active time for the group.

The group member list was filled with a row of various anime avatars, including Luffy, Naruto, Gintoki, Lelouch, and a few characters from unknown bishoujo games.

At this point, the group members were completely free to speak their minds, and they weren't just talking about comics and anime anymore, but about all sorts of other things.

From discussing how strong Whitebeard was in One Piece, the discussion veered off-topic to the fact that the food in their school cafeteria was spoiled; from questioning whether Itachi Uchiha was a good person in Naruto, the discussion drifted to whether there was any way to cure a roommate's snoring.

After all, that's how group chats are; group members dare to talk about anything, from what to eat today to witnessing the grandest events in history—there's no topic they can't discuss.

And just then, someone with the title of administrator suddenly appeared.

[Orange Cat Translation Team - Big Shot: Holy crap, that guy in the group was right.]

[Orange Cat Translation Team - Da Niu: Images]

[Orange Cat Translation Team - Da Niu: Shocking! The manga artist of "Attack on Titan" and "Wu Song" is actually a cute girl!]

The photo he sent was, of course, Eri Aragaki's headshot published in the magazine.

In the photo, Eri Aragaki is wearing a yellow denim jacket and a white shirt. After all, Attack on Titan hasn't been animated yet, so naturally, there aren't any related merchandise items available.

She just used a few clothes she bought to do a rough cosplay, but fans of Attack on Titan will definitely recognize it at a glance.

At this time, Xiao Nanliang was also chatting happily with his friends in the group.

He had just finished his homework; he hadn't solved the last big problem on his math test, so he handed it in blank. Now he needed something light to distract himself.

He was originally chatting with two other group members about whether Luffy's Gum-Gum Fruit was more powerful or Buggy's Chop-Chop Fruit was more powerful.

He said Luffy's Gum-Gum Fruit is one of the most practical Paramecia-type fruits, while Buggy insisted that the Chop-Chop Fruit is the underrated god-level fruit, and that even if someone were cut into a hundred pieces, they wouldn't die. The two argued back and forth for a long time, and neither of them could convince the other.

Suddenly, I saw Da Niu post a photo, saying that this is the manga artist of "Attack on Titan" and "Wu Song".

Xiao Nanliang clicked on the photo and enlarged it to view it.

The girl in the photo is standing in front of a white background wall. Her fair skin is very striking, and her features are so delicate that she looks like she stepped out of a comic book.

Soon, the group members all changed the subject and started paying attention to the photos posted by the administrator, Da Niu.

"Huh? Is it true or not?"

"Is he really the author of Attack on Titan?"

Are there really female cartoonists in this world?

"That's a stereotype. First of all, there's the category of shoujo manga, which is aimed at women, and there are also quite a few female manga artists who draw shonen manga. Haven't you read 'Katekyo Hitman Reborn!'? Isn't Akira Amano a female manga artist?"

"That's true. There are quite a few female manga artists in Japan who draw shonen manga. Inuyasha was also drawn by a female manga artist, right?"

"Okay, I guess I'm really ignorant."

"But is this really the author of 'Attack on Titan' and 'Wu Song'? It doesn't seem like it. How could a girl draw such brutal scenes?"

"Exactly, Da Niu, you didn't just blindly believe some information that was leaked from somewhere in Japan, did you?"

……

There were many dissenting voices, after all, people's awareness of "women being able to draw hardcore and passionate comics" was not as high in this era as it is now.

In this respect, many people in the Republic have very serious stereotypes.

After all, it must be said that most comic book fans during the Republic of China era were readers of pirated copies. As for who the comic book authors were, apart from the more famous comic book artists, most people probably only knew one name.

The key point is that many female manga artists have rather gender-neutral names, such as a certain cow and Akira Amano, the author of "Katekyo Hitman Reborn!".

Without careful research, one might easily mistake them for male cartoonists.

However, some people quickly corrected these stereotypes.

Soon after, Da Niu replied, clearly anticipating that some people wouldn't believe him, and had already prepared a second screenshot.

[Orange Cat Translation Team - Da Niu: Images]

[Orange Cat Translation Team - Da Niu: This is a text interview from last week's Weekly Shonen Jump, a promotional piece for the Attack on Titan manga. This is the photo that I, the author of "Don't Eat Pears," used as my profile picture!]

[Orange Cat Translation Team - Da Niu: As they said, "First of all, everyone is probably surprised that the teacher is a beautiful girl, she's really pretty." But you probably can't read Japanese, but the words "beautiful girl" are in Chinese characters, you can understand that, right?]

The second picture he posted was a full-page photo of the interview, with the text Q&A below the photo, containing a few Chinese characters interspersed among the Japanese questions.

The words "beautiful girl" were circled in red by the expert, providing conclusive evidence: an official interview, her own photo, and even the magazine's stamp.

This immediately caused an uproar among the group members.

"Wow! By the way, what about that guy who made the prediction last time? He actually guessed it correctly?"

"That guy isn't entirely right either. Even though he's a bishoujo manga artist, his other claims might not be accurate!"

"She looks really good without eating pears, and this pose, this action, this outfit... it must be Mikasa, right?"

"Maybe she drew herself as the prototype for Mikasa? The hairstyle is quite similar."

"I love it even more now! From this day forward, I will be a die-hard fan of Attack on Titan!"

"Beautiful female comic artists...that's amazing!"

……

Seeing the flood of messages, Xiao Nanliang also posted a comment saying "It's really good," but then felt that his comment was too superficial, so he deleted it and retyped, "It's quite common for authors to project their own image onto the characters."

After posting it, I felt that this sentence was more appropriate and wouldn't be seen as a superficial fan who only cares about looks.

However, Da Niu continued typing immediately afterward...

[Orange Cat Translation Team - Da Niu: To be honest, people who don't eat pears might actually quite like our Republic's culture.]

[Orange Cat Translation Team - Da Niu: Images]

[Orange Cat Translation Team - Da Niu: In a text interview, Bu Chi Li Zi expressed that he really likes to eat dishes that resemble Chinese cuisine, and his favorites are Yu Xiang Rou Si (shredded pork with garlic sauce), San Bei Ji (three-cup chicken), and Gan Chao Niu He (stir-fried beef noodles).]

The third picture he posted was a screenshot from the interview regarding the question, "What do teachers usually like to eat?"