After the twelfth chapter's plot update, a group of Hikaru no go fans in Japan were not so much looking forward to next week's plot as they were subtly afraid.
In fact, as the manga has been updated to this point, Akira's and Sai's fans are definitely the most numerous, while the protagonist Hikaru has been criticized by many fans for his character flaws.
If Hikaru didn't let Sai play in this match, he would definitely lose if he faced Akira himself.
But if the plot really went that way, what would happen to Akira?
", Teacher Shirogane, don't do this."
"Akira has put so much into this game. He transferred schools, joined the Go club and was ridiculed, he humbly asked the Go teacher to let him participate as the third general, and he was supposed to take the professional Go player exam, but because of the rule that professional players cannot participate in amateur competitions, he wasted a year in the middle school Go club. Shirogane, you can't possibly let his year's hard work and effort go to waste at Hikaru's hands, can you?"
"He just wants to play a game with Sai, it's not some heinous crime. You wouldn't even deny him this small request, would you?"
"We also know that the main storyline of this manga is Hikaru's growth, but Hikaru's growth can be put off until later. Right now, we want to see Akira and Sai play Go."
"Please don't let Hikaru play those blundering games again! Please, Shirogane!"
Rei scrolled through the comments from fans online. He couldn't sleep today because tomorrow was the day the first volume of Hikaru no go's single volume sales results would be announced.
Late at night, he browsed the messages fans left for him online, sighing inwardly.
To be honest, when he watched Hikaru no go in his previous life, he also felt that this part of the plot was a bit too much, and the plot direction was a bit too cruel to Akira.
But there was no way around it; this manga actually had two main intertwined storylines, one overt and one subtle.
The confrontation between Hikaru and Akira.
And Sai's pursuit of The Hand of God.
If Sai and Akira had faced off from the beginning, and Akira's knot had been untied, then readers' enthusiasm for this manga would have quickly dissipated.
This is also the most crucial reason why villains in many manga always fight back and forth and never die.
Hikaru no go has no villains; it only has one rival for the protagonist, Akira.
The outcome of the match between Akira and Hikaru is the central theme that runs through the entire work.
Closing his computer, Rei let out a long breath.
A night passed.
In the morning, Rei packed his things and got off the bus early on his way to school, then cleverly walked towards the back gate of the school, where the school security guard was already waiting to help Rei open the back gate that was usually locked.
After all, it goes without saying that the front gate would surely have a large number of Hikaru no go fans waiting for Rei.
This situation would likely not subside until he graduated from this middle school.
"Thank you, Uncle," Rei said to the security guard with an apologetic expression.
After arriving in the classroom, the atmosphere in the class completely changed as soon as Rei walked in.
After all, the manga Hikaru no go was indeed no longer an unknown work in the Japan manga industry.
The first volume of the single volume was released nationwide, and a week ago, Rei also held a fan signing event at a stadium. Moreover, during this week, there was an endless stream of reports about Hikaru no go online. Although specific data had not been released, everyone probably had a general idea in their hearts.
The sales of Hikaru no go's single volume must be very good, otherwise, why would there often be news of shortages reported in various provinces?
In class, gradually, everyone started to feel a bit hesitant to talk to him.
Because Rei was no longer just a High School Student manga enthusiast.
He had truly made a name for himself in the manga industry, more like a campus celebrity.
Sitting in his seat, Rei greeted Hana and Yui, who were not far away, and politely declined to answer their questions about spoilers for Hikaru no go's future plot.
Then Rei nodded to Miyu.
Although class was about to start, both of them were actually not focused on the classroom at all.
Especially Miyu, even though the first week sales of Hikaru no go's single volume had nothing to do with her, she inexplicably became nervous.
"Please, don't let anything go wrong!" Miyu looked at Rei's calm profile again, thinking to herself.
Unlike Rei, Miyu was very clear about the significance of the first week's sales of a manga's first single volume.
There were actually many works in Japan's six major journals that had poor reputations and low popularity poll rankings, but they could continue to be serialized for a long time. The reason was that the sales data of these works' single volumes were good.
After all, the six major journals were priced around 200-300 yen, but they contained hundreds of pages of manga manuscript content, so the profit was basically very thin. If it weren't for such large sales to spread out the printing and transportation channel costs, such a pricing would be impossible.
The real profit point for manga groups was in manga copyrights and the development of peripheral derivatives.
And manga single volume sales were the most important of the derivatives.
Manga is a commercial reading material. No matter how high the popularity poll, if readers are unwilling to pay for the work, it's all in vain, and the manga group will immediately put the work on the chopping block.
And the chopping line on the six major manga journals is no secret in the industry. The average sales per volume of long-running works start to fall below one million, or after the latest volume of a manga is released, its first week sales are below 200,000 copies.
Miyu certainly didn't think that the first week sales of Hikaru no go's manga single volume would be below 200,000.
After all, it was still a top ten manga on Dream Comic, with such a large fan base and such a good reputation, it was impossible for the proportion of people buying the single volume to be so low.
But how high could it be?
Was it the passing line of 600,000 first week sales for a top ten journal ranking?
Or the good line of 700,000 first week sales?
Or the excellent line of 900,000 first week sales?
Currently, Hikaru no go manga was clearly at a critical period for a work.
News about Hikaru no go manga being animated and adapted into live-action films was rampant online, but Hoshimori Group had not issued any announcements.
Miyu, whose mother was a manga artist like Rei, knew all too well that Hoshimori Group was also observing.
They were deciding how to ultimately operate and promote the Hikaru no go IP based on the first week sales of its single volume.
Including decisions like animation and live-action adaptations, rough plans were probably already in place.
But those were not absolute; if the sales of the first volume of Hikaru no go were not good enough, it could be canceled with just a meeting.
Amidst Miyu's agitation, noon finally arrived.
She was too lazy to go to the cafeteria to eat. As soon as class was over, she headed to the school rooftop, and walking beside her was Rei.
After climbing four flights of stairs to the top floor, Rei and Miyu both turned on their phones, which they had kept off at school.
At 12:30 PM, Rei's phone rang.
Miyu looked at Rei with a serious expression.
After a few seconds of hesitation, Rei answered the phone.
"Hello, Editor Misaki, how are things?"
"Hikaru no go's twelfth chapter's popularity ranking has advanced further; this week it's ninth in the journal!" Misaki's usually calm voice carried a hint of uncontrollable excitement.
But clearly, her excitement wasn't solely due to Hikaru no go's popularity ranking advancing.
It was... "The first week's single volume sales results for Hikaru no go Volume 1 have been tallied."
"How much?" Rei asked.
At this moment, Miyu also walked over, leaning her cheek close to Rei's, her ear listening to her sister's voice from Rei's phone.
"970,000 copies.." Misaki's voice was trembling at this point.
After all, her mother had serialized manga on Dream Comic for many years. Her mother's famous work, the best-performing seventeenth volume of the single volume, achieved 1.89 million copies in its first week.
The average single volume sales per volume after that work concluded were 6.52 million copies.
Based solely on current data, Hikaru no go was far from her mother's famous work back then.
But in reality, that work achieved such sales results because it had been serialized for nearly four years, accumulating over a long period of time.
Hikaru no go had achieved these results with just its first manga volume.
What about the second volume, and the third volume?
First-week sales exceeding 970,000 copies meant that the first volume of the manga single volume breaking 3 million copies was basically a foregone conclusion.
"970,000!" Rei's tone carried a hint of regret.
"You're not happy?" Misaki asked from the other end of the phone.
"I'm happy, it's just a pity that it was only 30,000 copies short of breaking one million in first-week sales."
"..." Misaki.
Are you serious? You're still feeling regretful?
You know, the industry initially predicted that if Hikaru no go's first-week sales could break 700,000, it would be considered exceeding expectations, and 800,000 copies would be a huge hit.
How could a work that has only been serialized for two or three months possibly have the support of a large number of fans like those works that have been serialized for several years, achieving first-week single volume sales of over a million?
After hanging up the phone, Misaki looked at her colleagues in the editorial department. These colleagues were naturally well aware of the news Misaki had received.
At this moment, everyone looked at her with complex emotions.
Everyone in the entire department knew.
The sales performance of Hikaru no go's first volume was not to reassure the author Shirogane, but to reassure the higher-ups of Hoshimori Group.
On that day, Hoshimori Group officially announced the sales data related to Hikaru no go's single volume.
And practitioners and media in the manga industry went wild with promotion.
The 970,000 first-week sales of Hikaru no go's first single volume quickly spread among the Hikaru no go fan base.
Thursday and Friday passed quickly.
On Saturday, Misaki, who was originally resting at home, was suddenly called to the Hoshimori Group headquarters.
The next day, she brought Rei to the company office building again, where Han, the Editor-in-Chief of Hoshimori Group's editorial department, and several well-dressed middle-aged men in suits and ties were chatting and laughing.
Rei didn't recognize these people, but Misaki immediately realized something when she saw them, and her breathing quickly became rapid.
Subsequently, a conversation in the meeting room lasted for a full two hours.
It was Monday, The Hoshimori Group official website quietly announced a major event in the early hours of the morning.
The popular manga "Hikaru no go" serialized on Dream Comic is about to be animated, and the work will be fully handled by "Shadow Realm Animation," which has previously produced many popular animations.
As soon as this news was announced, it directly caused a huge stir.
Not to mention that a group of manga industry professionals didn't believe it, even Rei's fans didn't believe it!
Late at night, the entire Hoshimori Group official website forum was occupied by a large number of Hikaru no go fans.
"Hikaru no go's manga has only been serialized for three months, right? How come it's already announced for animation? Is there any manga adaptation that gets confirmed so quickly?"
"No choice, the six major journals all have initiatives to cultivate young talented manga artists now. For ordinary manga works, the group definitely needs to observe for a longer period. But Shirogane... Hoshimori Group is making an exception here."
"You can't say that either. Each chapter of Shirogane's manga has at least 1.5 to 2 times the manuscript volume of other works in the same journal. Whether it's animation or single volume release, it's simply because the work has enough content. What's so strange about it?"
"Shadow Realm Animation.., impressive..."
"How come so many works from Hoshimori Group are handled by Shadow Realm Animation Studio?"
"Because Hoshimori Group itself is a major shareholder of Shadow Realm Animation Studio! Honestly, it's likely that these matters were already decided by the Hoshimori Group's higher-ups during meetings, and they were just waiting for Hikaru no go's single volume results to be announced before making the final decision on the animation."
"But this is still too fast..."
"Why wouldn't it be? If you look at Hoshimori Group's estimated first broadcast time for the Hikaru no go anime adaptation, set for January next year, you'll understand. Time waits for no one, and Hoshimori Group still wants to use Teacher Shirogane's work, this young genius, to promote the company."
"Yay, if everything goes smoothly, wouldn't we be able to watch the Hikaru no go anime in next year's winter anime season?"
...
In the early morning, Rei was woken up by the sunlight streaming through the window as usual.
He subconsciously picked up his phone to check the online public opinion.
The news about Hikaru no go being prepared for animation had completely spread.
Honestly, yesterday, when Rei was taken to the Hoshimori Group headquarters by Misaki, he was also stunned when he learned that the hikaru no go manga had been chosen by Shadow Realm Animation Studio for an anime adaptation.
It was too fast.
Beyond his imagination.
After much thought, Rei roughly understood that it was probably because the sales of Hikaru no go's single volume exceeded the group's expectations, which led to such rapid development plans for the work.
The sales data of Hikaru no go's single volume could break all doubts from company executives regarding the work and its theme.
Why consider so much for a manga that sold 970,000 copies in its first week of release?
This manga only needs its future plot not to collapse, and by the time it concludes, average single volume sales of three or four million copies per volume will be a piece of cake, won't they?
It was only natural for such a work to be animated.
Over the next two days, discussion threads about Hikaru no go's animation appeared endlessly on the Dream Comic journal's official website.
Hikaru no go fans were only shocked for about half an hour by this news. After accepting the news of Hikaru no go's animation, their attention completely shifted to issues such as character voice actor selection after the animation...
And in this situation, the thirteenth chapter of Hikaru no go manga, amidst the work's significant market attention, was serialized and released with the latest issue of Dream Comic...