"Did you guys see the advertisement color page in today's Shonen Jump?"
"Who in their right mind looks at advertisements?"
"Are you talking about that 'Kara no Kyoukai' thing?"
"I saw it too.
Mochizuki-sensei is actually going to write light novels? Is that for real?"
"Since it's already appeared in the ads, it shouldn't be fake.
But is a Manga Artist seriously going to write a light novel?"
"Exactly, those are completely different fields, right? Can he really write it well?"
"And Fsn has only been serialized for a dozen or so chapters.
Isn't running off to do other things a bit too unprofessional?"
"People say that, but surely I'm not the only one who's curious?"
"+1.
I've never seen a Manga Artist write a light novel before.
With something this interesting, I have to take a look no matter what, right?"
"True. And it's a work set in the same world as Fsn—"
Unsurprisingly, this matter sparked a heated discussion on the internet, largely overshadowing the discussions about the Fsn work itself.
It wasn't just on the internet; even the manga world was paying quite a bit of attention to this.
"Mochizuki-sensei wrote a light novel?!"
.
Looking at the news in Shonen Jump, Masashi Kishimoto found it somewhat hard to believe.
"Is it really okay to do other things while serializing?"
"It should be fine."
It was his chief assistant who answered him, rubbing his chin as he spoke: "Since this ad has already been published in Shonen Jump, it proves that the editorial department has known about the situation for a long time."
"They might even have reached some kind of cooperation."
Then, he marveled, "Still, a Manga Artist running off to write a novel—even I am seeing such a reckless author for the first time."
"Should I say, as expected of a genius?"
Hearing his chief assistant say this, Masashi Kishimoto couldn't help but let out a sigh of admiration.
"A genius, huh—"
In fact, the fact that Akira could create a one-shot manga with over 50 pages per chapter and a total of over 200 pages during the serialization of Fsn was already incredible to him.
As for writing light novels—
That was an entirely unfamiliar field he had never touched upon, so he didn't have much of an opinion on it.
Therefore, compared to the fact itself that "Akira actually wrote a light novel," the point he truly cared about and marveled at was—
While maintaining serialization, how on earth did he find so much time to also draw one-shot manga and write light novels?
Even now, he hadn't fully adapted to the rhythm of weekly serialization, often finding himself rushing to meet deadlines.
Now, being able to steal a dozen minutes from his busy schedule each week to read Shonen Jump was one of his few entertainment activities.
In contrast, the other party being able to do so many other things while serializing couldn't help but make him doubt himself a little.
Was the other person abnormal, or was he?
Or was his creative speed really too slow?
"Mochizuki-sensei's light novel is also about to be released."
Hayato marveled: "Serialized manga, one-shot manga, and next is a light novel. I feel like I'm completely surrounded by Mochizuki-sensei's works lately."
"In fact, there's also music."
Shota added with a smile, looking at Akira with an admiring gaze: "I've already heard the latest single, 'snow flower.' It's really beautiful!"
He had heard it on the radio last night.
Although only half the song was played, he felt that the quality of this new song was not at all inferior to 'Marigold.' He even felt that he liked 'snow flower' more now!
.
After all, although it wasn't winter yet, the weather was getting colder and colder. This winter love song did indeed have a great atmosphere.
Hearing this, Akira responded with a smile: "Thank you."
The promotion and publicity for 'snow flower' had indeed begun some time ago. Not only that, Rin would be appearing on her first variety show in the next couple of days.
Come to think of it, many things had been piling up recently. Considering the current timing, it felt strangely like a year-end performance push.
A while later, Hisashi called as usual.
This time, however, he didn't immediately mention the shōsei rankings but instead brought up the matter of 'Kara no Kyoukai' as well.
"The other editors in the department have been talking about you lately, Mochizuki-sensei."
Hisashi said, half-complaining and half-teasing: "I've been pestered to death."
Although the publication details for 'Kara no Kyoukai' had been finalized long ago, the only ones in the editorial department who knew about it before were himself, Kazuhiko, and another Vice Editor-in-Chief.
Therefore, it wasn't until the matter was fully made public that the other editors found out.
And being swamped by the editorial department was something that could have been foreseen long ago.
After all, a serialized Manga Artist running off to write light novels seems to be the first instance in the industry so far, so it's inevitable for people to be curious.
What's more, this was their Shonen Jump Manga Artist, and it was the already high-profile genius Manga Artist Akira. The gossip factors were through the roof.
However, while dealing with his colleagues, Hisashi was even somewhat relieved.
Fortunately, his colleagues didn't know yet that Akira could also write songs, had signed with a record label, and that his music group seemed to be very popular right now.
If this matter were also exposed, it would truly be massive news.
"Well—"
Hearing Hisashi's complaint, Akira scratched his head and smiled apologetically: "I've caused you trouble."
"Alright, let's not talk about that now."
Hisashi smiled dismissively.
After all, after deciding to side with Akira, he had already prepared himself mentally.
Now, he was more looking forward to 'Kara no Kyoukai' achieving good results, so that Akira's position in Shonen Jump would become increasingly stable and higher.
Anyway, after the simple pleasantries, next was the fixed item—
Although this week's manga content didn't have any sensory stimulation and was relatively flat overall, its ranking actually rose back to 3rd place.
Because 'One Piece's' ranking dropped to 4th place.
'One Piece' reached Chapter 112 this week, titled 'Luffy vs. Zoro'.
The content of this chapter was that after Zoro finished off the Baroque Works underlings, a newly awakened Luffy thought Zoro had taken out the kind townspeople who had treated them to a meal, and so he began to fight Zoro.
In the process of their fight, they incidentally finished off Mr. 5 and Ms. Valentine as if they were mere grunts.
Although the entire battle was drawn quite comically without a truly hostile atmosphere, Luffy's behavior of directly fighting Zoro without listening to an explanation indeed felt unpleasant.
In fact, Akira had almost forgotten that Oda had ever drawn such a plot.
Then he thought back carefully and found that Luffy was severely beaten by Nami in the next chapter.
Never mind then.
"Other than that, there's the dialogue session with Oda-sensei."
Hisashi smiled: "After Issue 51 is released next week, Issues 52 and 53 will be a combined issue. After that, Oda-sensei should have some free time."
"And considering the official start date of 『Jump Festa』 is December 17th, we've decided to set the date for the dialogue session on one of the days before December 12th."
"The specific time should be given by the end of this month."
Leaving five days is for the behind-the-scenes staff to produce and edit.
Since neither Akira nor Eiichiro Oda wanted to appear on camera, they might still need to cover their faces.
To this, he naturally had no objection: "I understand."