Rei spent the vast majority of his day drawing manga. Although he was already drawing very quickly, his drawing speed was actually slowly improving compared to before, especially since he didn't need to conceptualize plotlines and had the original work from his past life as a reference for manga paneling. After all, practice makes perfect.
It was precisely for this reason that Rei had time to take leave and cooperate with the hikaru no go production team to participate in various promotional activities and reporter interviews.
In reality, a manga artist rarely gets much exposure most of the time.
It's usually only during signing events for tankobon releases or promotional activities in cooperation with manga groups.
However, with Rei's promotional activities alongside the hikaru no go production team before the drama aired, the publicity for "manga artist Shirogane" among the general public was far more effective than before.
After all, the production team included various famous celebrities. Although Rei's appearance wasn't as outstanding as the lead actors when standing among them, he wasn't overshadowed too much. Furthermore, in roadshows and promotional interviews, the first person introduced for the work hikaru no go was Director Seiya, and the second was immediately Rei, the original author… Those who followed the actors and the hikaru no go drama naturally couldn't avoid also starting to pay attention to Rei.
"Seventeen years old? Second year of high school, a manga artist? A work adapted into a TV series? Is he that amazing?"
"I don't usually read manga, but I've seen a lot of manga-adapted idol dramas. Why would a Go manga have such high popularity and commercial value to be adapted into a TV series?"
"A Go TV series, sounds a bit interesting."
"I don't understand Go, will I be able to understand this TV series?"
"Absolutely no problem. I don't understand Go either, but I've followed the recent professional Go player examination storyline. To put it bluntly, if you don't understand Go, just watch the plot; even then, it's incredibly good."
"Shirogane… looking at the interview and promotional videos, he seems quite handsome! Why be a manga artist? I think debuting as an actor wouldn't be impossible."
"If Shirogane-sensei becomes an actor, who will update the hikaru no go manga for me?!"
"Anyway, just for Takagi Masato, Kanzaki Ren, and Haruto, I will definitely watch this manga-adapted drama."
"Go… a theme never seen in any TV drama circle, but the manga has such a good reputation, the plot should be good, and I'm really tired of those idol youth dramas. October 3rd, right… I've noted it."
Ever since Capital Television Station began broadcasting the hikaru no go premiere trailer during prime time in the daytime,
The popularity of hikaru no go, Shirogane, and the actors involved in the TV series continued to rise.
The name hikaru no go was no longer confined to the manga circle but began to spread throughout the entire nation.
This is why popular manga works desperately want to be adapted into live-action or animation.
The most famous example is the super popular manga Demon Slayer from Rei's previous life; without animation, the total sales of the Demon Slayer original manga tankobon were only 3.5 million copies.
But a year after animation, this sales figure skyrocketed to 120 million copies.
However, not all manga are like this; many manga, even after animation or live-action adaptation, do not see a significant increase in original sales and popularity.
Currently, because Hoshimori Group is heavily promoting Shirogane, many peers in the manga industry are watching Hoshimori Group, watching Shirogane, watching hikaru no go…
Competitors are rivals.
Hoshimori Group will certainly help promote hikaru no go to a certain extent after the TV series airs, but these competitors will definitely do the opposite…
If hikaru no go performs even slightly poorly in the TV drama market, then under their operation, overwhelming criticism and curses will flood the internet.
In the October autumn season for TV dramas, Japan's seven major mainstream TV stations and more than a dozen medium-sized TV stations collectively launched a pile of mid-to-large investment dramas.
To put it bluntly, every industry is the same.
The manga industry looks at ranking, the TV drama industry looks at viewership ratings, and the film industry looks at box office data.
The investment in the hikaru no go TV series was not too large, ranking eleventh among the dramas premiering in the autumn season.
However, hikaru no go's slot was very good; there were no major investment dramas premiering at the same time to compete for viewership, and it also had the added popularity of its original manga fans.
The market's expectation for the hikaru no go TV series was clear.
If it ranked in the top ten for the quarter, that would be considered acceptable.
Breaking into the top five would count as a genuine success.
And if it failed?
Then the title of "genius manga artist Shirogane," which Hoshimori Group had spent half a year building, would be torn apart mercilessly by every media outlet looking for blood.
By the end of September, just five days before the premiere, some outlets had already begun declaring the hikaru no go TV series a failure that hadn't even aired yet.
Predictably, this ignited a full-blown war online between drama critics and fans of the cast.
The atmosphere felt painfully familiar to Rei.
It was exactly the same tone the market had taken before the hikaru no go manga began serialization.
A Go manga won't last more than three months. It'll be canceled sooner or later.
And now?
Half a year later, hikaru no go sat firmly at fifth place in Dream Comic, with the third tankobon selling over 1.7 million copies in its first week.
Yet the moment the TV series approached its broadcast date, the same voices resurfaced.
Rei closed his computer and looked out at the neon-lit nightscape of the Tokyo beyond the window.
"Before writing your articles," he muttered, "couldn't you at least go downstairs, buy the first volume, and spend two hours actually reading it?"
He didn't know about other works.
But hikaru no go was absolutely a story suited for both live-action and animation.
That much had already been proven once.
September ended. October arrived.
October 1st fell on a Wednesday.
Chapter 36 of hikaru no go was released alongside the latest issue of Dream Comic.
After Hikaru's match against the Korean genius, the story finally returned to its core:
The professional Go dan promotion tournament.
In the manga, Hikaru and the others had spent a month tempering their mindset.
In reality, that arc had also taken nearly a month of serialization.
Now, the results were visible.
With a stabilized mentality, and Go skills sharpened by Sai's relentless training, Hikaru entered a winning streak in the main tournament.
Among the dojo's examinees, only Hikaru, Waya, Isumi, and one other contender remained undefeated.
But no one felt secure.
In a field of hundreds, one loss was enough to erase everything.
The manga shed its earlier lightness completely.
What replaced it was a suffocating tension that pressed down on readers page by page.
Every participant here had once been unbeatable in their hometowns.
Each was a prodigy who rarely tasted defeat, now gathered together, fighting over thirty professional slots.
Even readers who didn't understand Go could feel the cruelty of it.
And those who did understand Go felt it even more sharply.
Because they knew that the players Hikaru defeated so "easily" might already be stronger than the teachers who had taught them the game in real life.
At this point, no one was surprised when Akira returned to center stage.
Whenever the story risked becoming flat, Akira was the antidote.
Knowing that Hikaru had reached this level in just one year, Akira, now a 2-dan professional, could no longer sit still.
He accepted Ochi as his student.
Not out of kindness.
But because he intended to use Ochi to measure Hikaru's current strength.
The narrative focus quietly narrowed.
Ochi.
Hikaru.
Isumi.
The warmth of friendship faded.
What remained was a brutal competition for survival.
A month earlier, Isumi had sincerely helped Hikaru train.
Now, watching Hikaru's growth, that sincerity twisted into fear.
If Hikaru succeeded…
Then Isumi's chances shrank.
He had been the strongest player in the dojo for years, and had still failed, again and again, to cross the line.
The conflict was no longer external.
It was internal.
And for the first time, readers sensed it clearly.
Shirogane was preparing to pit Isumi and Hikaru against each other.
When the chapter ended, hikaru no go fans fell silent.