In late June, another issue of Sakura Weekly was about to hit the shelves.
After a week of buzz, 5 Centimeters Per Second had spread from Sakura Weekly's online fan base to offline readers through word-of-mouth.
No marketing strategy could rival the power of organic fan enthusiasm.
This was especially true as Sakura Weekly's two most popular manga, Tale of Sorrow and High Score Romance, were both nearing their conclusions.
Among the top ten ranked series, 5 Centimeters Per Second stood out for its exceptional storytelling and artwork.
Fueled by the online buzz, even readers who had previously bought Sakura Weekly but deliberately skipped 5 Centimeters Per Second began digging out old issues to catch up.
Of course, the internet wasn't all praise for 5 Centimeters Per Second. Haters were just as vocal.
For example, fans of Love Blooms Like Fireworks were particularly aggressive in their criticism of 5 Centimeters.
Normally, the eighteen serialized manga in a single magazine would be considered rivals, but fans of Love wouldn't typically target 5 Centimeters so relentlessly.
The problem was that both series were serialized in the same issue, creating a natural sense of competition and comparison.
By the second week of serialization, Love had already lost its popularity ranking to 5 Centimeters Per Second. Many Love fans were understandably disgruntled.
Of course, any publicity—positive or negative—was better than none at all.
As a result, the manga adaptation of 5 Centimeters Per Second began to gain traction in the Tokyo area.
On Wednesday morning, as soon as bookstores opened, many customers rushed to the manga section to find copies of Sakura Weekly featuring the series.
The Hoshimori Publishing Group wasn't foolish. Recognizing the rising popularity of 5 Centimeters Per Second, they prioritized promotional resources for the series in their collaborations with bookstores.
In many bookstores, promotional posters for the series were displayed next to the Sakura Weekly sales racks.
The poster featured a manga panel of Akari and Takaki kissing beneath a cherry blossom tree. In their minds, the bare tree behind them bloomed into vibrant spring, its branches bursting with blossoms. The snow around them transformed into a shower of petals, as if the cherry blossoms themselves were falling.
Rei Kirishima had colored this panel in advance, giving it an overall pink hue, and submitted it to the Hoshimori Publishing Group's Editorial Department, who then repurposed it as the promotional poster.
The poster featured a simple tagline:
A masterpiece by the genius high school manga artist "Shirogane"!
Realizing the potential of 5 Centimeters, Hoshimori Publishing Group began promoting author Shirogane with hype and publicity stunts.
The results were, naturally, excellent.
Meanwhile, many in the manga industry started paying attention to this promising talent discovered by Hoshimori Publishing Group.
After all, no one could predict whether another group of extraordinary young manga artists would emerge from Japan's ranks.
In recent years, rising stars like Seki, Kentō, and Chin Rakuraku had achieved astonishing success. Some had even surpassed established veteran artists, securing spots in Japan's top ten annual manga sales charts, amassing fortunes exceeding a hundred million yen, and gaining fame and wealth. They appeared on variety shows, their public recognition rivaling that of many celebrities.
For now, however, everyone was merely observing.
In a bookstore, a hand reached out and picked up the latest issue of Sakura Weekly.
Reo Wakaba quickly approached the counter to pay.
Though he was a man in his thirties, running his own independent company in Tokyo and enjoying a modest fortune, that didn't stop him from enjoying manga—especially shōjo manga.
Just as many women followed male-oriented works, the male audience for shōjo manga, while smaller in proportion, still represented a significant absolute number within Japan's population of over a billion.
Of course, Reo Wakaba's focus on the manga in Sakura Weekly was very clear:
5 Centimeters Per Second.
For ordinary students, 5 Centimeters Per Second might just seem like a typical romance manga. They wouldn't be able to grasp the delicate emotions conveyed within the work.
But Reo Wakaba could feel it.
Having experienced both professional success and marital failure, his reaction to the manga was entirely different.
This was especially true when he saw the story of Akari and Takaki in the manga.
The reason his marriage failed was, of course, because he couldn't forget his first love from high school. The reason they couldn't stay together was simple: they went to different universities and eventually drifted apart.
Since his dream couldn't be realized in reality, he naturally hoped someone in the manga could fulfill it for him.
After Akari and Takaki parted ways in the second chapter, what would happen next?
Carrying the manga to work, Reo Wakaba tore open the plastic seal in his office and quickly flipped to the latest chapter.
The first thing he saw were large, floating characters:
5 Centimeters Per Second: Part 2 - Cosmonaut
?
Part 2?
This is already Part 2?
Flipping to the next page, Reo Wakaba's eyes widened.
In a desolate and lonely wilderness, a young girl sat on the grass, hugging her knees.
The sky was dominated by a high-hanging moon, white clouds visible in the night, and a starry sky with constellations completely different from those of Blue Star.
A breathtakingly beautiful depiction of a fantastical starry sky unfolded before him.
Beneath this celestial panorama, a man and a woman stood side by side, yet they seemed utterly alone and forlorn.
The scene shifted.
The perspective switched to Kanae, a young girl from a small rural town.
Every day, she rode her electric scooter to a school far from home.
After parking in the school lot, she nervously straightened her hair before approaching the boy as casually as possible.
The boy's name was Takaki.
She greeted him, chatted briefly, and then casually walked away.
She liked Takaki.
Absolutely.
Reo Wakaba understood this after just two pages.
Because that's exactly how he had approached his first love back in the day.
It was only through the narration that Reo Wakaba realized Takaki and the girl named Kanae were third-year high school students at this rural high school.
High school already!
That meant...
Six years had passed since Takaki and Akari's farewell at the train station in the second episode.
Six years?
Reo clenched his fist.
He and his high school sweetheart had broken up just three months after starting college.
If Takaki had stayed in this small rural town for six years, what about Akari?
Had they met again during those six years?
Had they still been writing to each other?
Reo now understood that this second chapter was told from the perspective of Kanae, a girl who secretly loved Takaki.
Is this really a shōjo manga?
Reo didn't want to know the answer, and he was even a little afraid—afraid of seeing something he didn't want to see.
He took a deep breath but still flipped to the next page.
The following panels began to introduce Takaki from Kanae's perspective.
I would deliberately stay late in the parking lot after school, pretending to leave at the same time as Takaki so we could ride our bikes home together, since we lived in the same direction.
The girl's inner monologue delicately revealed her thoughts.
I think I fell for him back in middle school. It was love at first sight.
I studied desperately to get into the same high school as Takaki-kun.
I even tried drinking the same brand of soda he did.
Then came the crucial moment.
From the girl's perspective, Takaki-kun was always alone, texting someone.
?
Reo Wakaba's heart raced with excitement.
A phone? Text messages?
Right, it's been six years. By that timeline, personal cell phones were starting to become popular, though they were still expensive. But Takaki-kun's family was wealthy enough; getting a phone for a high school student like him wouldn't be a problem.
So who was he texting?
Was it Akari?
Did they communicate through text messages instead of letters during high school?
I always wished those texts were for me.
In the manga, Kanae's next inner monologue made Reo Wakaba's heart ache.
He understood perfectly.
Ah...
Too bad, Kanae. You were too late.
Takaki likely no longer has a place for you in his heart.
From a reader's perspective, the manga's portrayal of Takaki's high school life through Kanae's eyes is devoid of any sweetness.
All that remains is his affection for Kanae, this gentle girl, and the heartache of knowing her unrequited love will never be reciprocated.