Tōno Kanade had made up his mind: he was going to work hard.
And no, it definitely wasn't because he'd just watched some motivational video online that got him all fired up.Absolutely not.
He sat down and got serious about drawing his name—the rough storyboard every manga artist has to make.This step was critical. Unless you're one of those shameless "copy-paste" types who just rip off existing work, you need a storyboard. Those people? They don't bother with drafts, crank out a whole chapter in a day, and act like it's nothing. Guys like that aren't even in the same league as a small fry like him.
Some of them, honestly, had no clue what it actually takes to draw manga.
Every style demands a different level of polish. The more detailed the art, the longer it takes. Having assistants helps. Having motivation helps. But no matter what, turning out a full chapter every single day is absurd. Even writing a chapter of a novel daily is tough, and these so-called "protagonists" in stories can somehow draw several manga chapters in a day like they're human printers. That's not just unrealistic—that's reality's mom opening the door to "unrealistic" and letting it move in permanently.
"Ugh… I'm burned out."
Ten minutes ago, Kanade was ready to fight for his dreams. Ten minutes later, he quit.
"Well, I worked hard today. I'll just pick it up again tomorrow."
He looked at what he'd done, feeling oddly satisfied. Sure, he hadn't finished even one page of his storyboard. But he had managed to scribble out… three… maybe four? No, five panels. Something like that. Whatever—it was progress. He deserved to rest.
Life, after all, shouldn't be forced. You've got to enjoy each day.
Kanade didn't waste too much time loafing, though. Lying on his bed, he stared at the clock on the wall for almost a full minute.
Time to make dinner.
It was just him and his little sister at home. Their parents ran a Chinese restaurant. They didn't leave early in the day, but they always came home late. At first, he and Suzune used to eat at the restaurant every night. But eventually, he decided the walk was too much trouble and learned to cook. Before he ended up in this world, he already knew his way around a kitchen, so after a bit of pretending to "learn" here, he was fine. These days, he and Suzune never went to the shop to eat.
Being a Chinese family, of course the food at home was real Chinese food. Not that weird "Japanese-Chinese" stuff adjusted for local tastes, but proper home-style dishes. That was the kind of food their restaurant served too, which meant most of their customers were fellow Chinese—students, tourists, immigrants. In Tokyo, business was steady.
Still, it was strange. Why had he ended up in Japan of all places? Sure, anime girls were great, but if he'd landed in China instead…
Kanade froze, holding his head with both hands, trying to think of any cute Chinese "2D girls" he knew.
None came to mind.Well… maybe Luo Tianyi, Yan He, Yuezheng Ling…
And then?
Big Face Girl?
He groaned. "Ughhhh! I can't think of anyone! Nothing!"
If it were mascot-suited characters, sure—tons. But real daily-life anime girls from China? Almost none.
Shaking his head, he went downstairs to cook. No point stressing about it.
While chopping vegetables, another thought struck him. Were there even any good slice-of-life Chinese anime?
"Uh… Non-Human… Take My Brother Away… and then…?"
His brain locked up again.
So depressing. After all these years, the Chinese animation industry still didn't have much in the way of everyday slice-of-life shows. Actually, forget slice-of-life—good anime in general were rare. A few gems existed, sure, but compared to Japan? They were painfully scarce. The art, the music, the writing… few works nailed all three.
Every year, people claimed "Chinese anime is rising!" And every year, it seemed to fall flat again.
"Man, this is tough."
He remembered something an old college friend once joked: 'For artists, the endgame is outsourcing.' Not giving work away, but being the one doing outsourced grunt work for others.
Dreams of creating great works fade fast when you're just another cog in the machine.
Maybe he should give up on manga and chase his old dream of animation again?
The thought barely surfaced before he crushed it. Nope. Animation work was brutal, maybe worse than manga. At least with manga, there was still a chance to make it big. With animation? Unless you were a director or some miracle creator, you were doomed to be just another faceless animator.
Nah. Better to stick with manga.If manga failed, he could try "copying" other works. If that failed, maybe start a little exorcism agency like Reigen in Mob Psycho 100.
Animation? Forget it. Even dogs wouldn't want that job.
But… if he couldn't even succeed as a "copycat," what kind of loser would that make him?
C'mon—anyone could do it.
Sure, it sounded ugly, but the truth was that most "copy-paste" protagonists had cheats—some kind of system or golden finger helping them out. Timing mattered too, but with so many legendary series out there, something had to catch fire eventually. If Naruto didn't work, try Reborn. If not Reborn, then Hunter x Hunter. If not that, then Chainsaw Man. And if not that, then Haikyuu!!.
There was no way all of them would flop.
And if manga didn't work, there was always light novels. If that didn't work, maybe music. If that didn't work, he could stream, or become a Vtuber. Worst case, he'd make a game. Minecraft, Hollow Knight, This War of Mine—he had options.
There was no way he'd fail here like he had in his past life.
"Guess I'll just do tomato and egg stir-fry… and shredded pork with potatoes."
Looking at the fridge, he decided on something simple. Sure, complicated dishes tasted great, but he was a self-declared "energy conservationist." Why waste time cooking when he could save his strength for games, anime, or novels?
He sighed. Too bad he was too young for the, uh… other things he wanted to do.
Stupid books, always lying to him. Stupid shows too—if My Little Pony could team up with Transformers, why couldn't he get his own fantasy harem ending?
Maybe he should just focus on Konata.
…But Shouko was really cute too.And Yuzuru had her charms.
Ugh, this was hard. Modern life was tough—you couldn't just have three wives and four concubines like in the old days.
Maybe hypnosis was the answer? Start early, and by the time they were older—
Kanade froze. He slapped his wet face with both hands, water dripping down his cheeks.
"What the hell am I even thinking?"
He shook his head. Nope. No way. Illegal stuff was off-limits.
Gods and spirits might really be watching. If reincarnation was real enough to drop him in Japan, who was to say hell wasn't real too?
Nope. Better to behave, stack up some good karma, and then one day, dunk on God in heaven. (Just kidding.)