People's motivation toward a certain endeavor is never static.
Most employees at Illumination initially treated one-punch man as just another job. But when the anime's performance began to climb steadily, becoming the second most-watched and highest-rated animation of the season within just two weeks of airing, everyone's passion was ignited.
At present, one-punch man has only aired its second episode.
In reality, the fourth episode is already fully completed.
The fifth episode is undergoing final subtitle and post-production adjustments.
The sixth episode has finished voice recording.
The seventh episode is in photography and compositing.
Pushing further ahead, among the episodes scheduled to air this season, episodes eleven and twelve are still in the early stages of animation production. The storyboards are complete, animators are working day and night, and producers are urging all parties to adhere strictly to the schedule. These final episodes will not be fully completed until more than two months later.
Everyone has been working extremely hard.
Over the past two weeks, many staff members were visibly exhausted from staying up late night after night.
But now, having confirmed the success of the earlier episodes, everyone felt invigorated, as if injected with a powerful stimulant.
Originally, the final two episodes of the first season involved the battle against the cosmic overlord Boros. These battle-heavy storyboards demanded a higher animation frame rate and exceptionally strict drawing standards. Rei had been uncompromising in his requirements, causing no small amount of suffering for the production team.
Now, however, people were proactively reviewing their own work, looking for flaws and areas of improvement.
After all, who among those who entered the animation industry didn't once harbor an animation dream?
It was just that too many poorly made projects they had participated in over the years had gradually extinguished that passion.
But the success of one-punch man reignited it, across the entire company, from top to bottom.
Following the strong performance of the anime, cooperating merchandise manufacturers also began to treat one-punch man with renewed seriousness.
High-definition BD discs entered production.
Custom figurine prototypes began design.
At the same time, media outlets across Japan started to intensify their coverage.
It was true that one-punch man currently ranked only second in viewership this season.
But judging by its explosive reputation…
How long could burning sin truly hold onto its number-one spot?
Naturally, the surge in popularity of one-punch man also drew intense attention to one particular individual within the anime industry.
That person was Shirogane, a freshman in the animation department at Vocational University.
Historically speaking, most so-called genius manga artists or creators are remembered for only a single masterpiece. Once that breakthrough work concludes, their subsequent projects often fail to reach the same heights.
But Shirogane…
His two early manga, five centimeters per second and tonight, brought him into the field of vision of Hoshimori Group.
Hikaru no go made him famous overnight.
Before hunter x hunter began serialization, the industry widely believed that Shirogane's shift toward battle shonen manga would result in a mediocre performance at best.
Yet now, hunter x hunter stood only a hair's breadth away from topping Dream Comic.
Most outrageous of all was one-punch man.
Written by Shirogane. Funded by Shirogane.
An animation industry novice finding a production company, rushing out an anime in a few short months, and still achieving such popularity.
A young manga artist and anime screenwriter with an apparently extraordinarily long creative lifespan.
That was what truly made professionals throughout the industry feel pressure.
They couldn't quite articulate what felt wrong.
But more and more people were beginning to sense that there was something abnormal about Shirogane.
It was simply too outrageous.
This feeling intensified even further when Sunday arrived and the first-week sales figures for hunter x hunter Volume One, released the previous week, were announced.
The volume directly topped Japan's single-volume manga sales chart, with first-week sales reaching 4.57 million copies.
At that point, Japan's media completely lost its restraint, launching an all-out wave of reports centered on Rei.
Since entering university, instances of Rei being observed had already become rare.
But now, he felt exactly as he had back in high school.
Even some upperclassmen from the same major began contacting him through classmates and instructors, hoping to leverage Rei's "investor connections" to intern at Illumination, participate in one-punch man's production, and use the experience to complete their graduation theses.
Rei rejected them all without hesitation.
He had no interest in building such connections.
He had known from the beginning that fame would attract all kinds of people, but actually dealing with these matters still drained a great deal of his energy.
That evening, after finishing the day's manga work at home, Rei chatted with Miyu via text.
She found the situation rather amusing.
But Rei's purpose for contacting her was not to discuss any of that.
He had received news from Miyu's older sister.
Just yesterday, at the Hoshimori Comic serialization meeting, Miyu's fantasy battle manga, Touch of Glass, narrowly passed the review by a margin of one vote.
It was officially scheduled to begin serialization in mid-November.
"Congratulations to you, last time my work was serialized alongside yours was three years ago, during the serialization of five centimeters per second!" Rei typed.
"You remember that clearly. Back then, five centimeters per second surpassed my work in performance after just three weeks. This time, I want you to experience that same sense of unwillingness."
Rei smiled as he read Miyu's swift reply.
Miyu was simply the type of person who would never admit defeat, at least not verbally, no matter the circumstances.
"That's perfect. It's been a long time since I've read a Japanese fantasy manga that could truly immerse me.
If you can create a manga that surpasses hunter x hunter, then the top spot in Dream Comic rightfully belongs to you!"
"But since you're already serializing in Dream Comic, your real identity won't be something you can hide for much longer!"
"If I can't hide it, then I won't. With a great manga artist like you at school to take the spotlight, do you really think I'd be afraid?"
Over the next few days, Rei threw himself fully into his various responsibilities.
Meanwhile, the latest chapter of hunter x hunter was released on Wednesday alongside the newest issue of Dream Comic Journal.
The Hunter Exam, an arc that had been unfolding for four months, finally reached its climax in this week's installment.
In the fourth phase of the exam, each candidate was assigned a number tag, and the organizers then designated a target number tag for them to seize.
The rules were simple: protect your own number tag and obtain your target's.
Those who succeeded would pass.
Unfortunately for the protagonist, Gon, his target was Hisoka, the most terrifying, powerful, and perverted candidate in the exam, whose popularity had consistently remained within the top three since the manga's debut.
In this week's chapter, Gon, fully aware that he could not defeat Hisoka head-on, chose instead to hide and observe him from the shadows.
Under the moonlight, while Hisoka was preparing to kill his own target, Gon used his fishing rod to snatch the number tag from Hisoka's chest.
After succeeding, Gon fled, but failed to realize that while he had been watching Hisoka, he himself had become someone else's prey.
At the moment his guard dropped, a poisoned needle struck him, paralyzing his body.
Both his own number tag and Hisoka's were taken.
Once the chapter was released, it triggered a massive reaction online.
Many hunter x hunter fans were heartbroken.
But at the same time, they were completely captivated.
After finishing the chapter, countless readers couldn't hold back. Even fans who were usually too lazy to vote logged onto the official website to cast their ballots.
They weren't voting for Shirogane.
They were voting for hunter x hunter.
By Wednesday morning alone, an enormous wave of hunter x hunter fans had become active on the official site.
Before this week, source war chronicle fans could still spar with hunter x hunter fans.
But this time, hunter x hunter's popularity completely overwhelmed every other work in the same issue.
The next day, Misaki arrived at the office early.
Yet someone had arrived even earlier, the editor in charge of source war chronicle.
When the two met, they exchanged only a brief nod.
Neither of them had their mind on work.
Judging from the explosive fan activity the night before, hunter x hunter's vote count this week would undoubtedly surpass last week's.
Which meant…
It was very likely to happen this week.
Misaki glanced at the time on her computer.
In an hour and a half, the rankings for this week's Dream Comic Journal would be announced.
...
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