Full-time cartoonist

When a comic is published in a trade magazine, the work is no longer exclusive to the writer.

Therefore, the direction of the work will be affected by many people, and the ending of the work is not under my control.

Akira Toriyama also suffered from this.

"So, will "Dragon Ball" be completed in 1995?" Hibiki Higashino thought.

Eiichiro Oda once said that after "One Piece" is completed, there will be no long series.

It's really uncomfortable.

…

Friday 5 pm, dinner at Akira Toriyama.

"That guy from Toriyama is a very strict person," Akira Toriyama waved his chopsticks and denounced strongly at the dinner table. "In order to be serialized, I drew 500 original drawings in two years, 500 drawings! He rejected them all!"

"Yeah~" Mrs. Toriyama looked at her husband's rudeness and covered her face in embarrassment.

"500...it sounds painful..." Higashikata nodded.

"Yeah! Pain! It's so painful!"

A grown man has been out of work for two years, sitting at home and drawing comics, and he doesn’t know if it will produce any results.

It's really hard.

"But... thanks to his gift, I can draw "Arale"."

Dong Yexiang recited, "It is said that when heaven assigns a great responsibility to a man, he must first suffer his mind and will, strain his muscles and bones, starve his body and skin, deplete his body, and disturb his actions. Therefore, if he is tempted to endure, he will benefit what he cannot do. .”

Toriyama Akira nodded, "That's the truth."

Akimiya Akemi patted Higashino Hibiki on the shoulder and said boldly: "You memorized it really well! It seems that your study is very effective. Teacher, I am very optimistic about you!"

"Teacher?" Dongye Xiang glanced sideways at her, a teacher who had never taught a class before.

Akimiya Akemi waved her hand, "You will know later."

She covered her mouth and snickered, as if remembering something happy.

Dongye Xiang ignored her. The fool had more happiness in his mind, so let her enjoy herself.

"One thing is for sure, Higashino-kun is really working hard," Akira Toriyama said, "I sometimes get up at night and find that his window is still lit."

Yumi Toriyama looked at Higashino Hibiki and advised, "Even if you have to draw comics and study hard, you should still take a good rest."

"Well, thank you for your concern." Hibiki Higashino said, "I understand, and I don't want to get sick and be hospitalized because of fatigue just after I got the serialization qualification."

Toriyama Yumi nodded, "As long as you have some confidence."

It felt good to be cared about by others. Hibiki didn't think they were nagging and felt warm in his heart.

Yumi Toriyama looked at Akira Toriyama, "It's time to come."

"Ah." Akira Toriyama looked at the time and nodded.

Akimiya Akemi was curious, "What?"

“The ranking that determines the life and death of a work.”

As soon as Toriyama Akira finished her sentence, the home phone rang.

"I'll pick it up." He said to Yumi Toriyama, then stood up and walked to the landline phone at the door of his house.

"Well," Yumi Toriyama nodded, and then explained to the curious Akimiya Akemi: "It should be the editor of "Dragon Ball", Mr. Takeda Fuyume. Every time on Friday afternoon, Xiaomasa's results will be notified."

Dongye Xiang suddenly realized.

He knew something about this. It was also called the ranking of this newspaper. It was a ranking obtained through the reader questionnaire carried in jump.

Because "Weekly Shōnen Jump" was founded later than the other two major shōnen manga magazines, in order to gain readers' support and understand their thoughts.

There is a reader survey mixed in the comic magazine.

The most important one is the ranking of "favorite works".

Most of the time it's 3, sometimes it's 1.

Before every Friday, 1,000 responses from readers will be selected and ranked based on gender, age, class and other aspects. This is Xiao Zheng.

If your performance is not satisfactory for three consecutive weeks, you will be cut in half and the comic will be forcibly ended.

The better the results, for example if Xiaozheng ranks first, then your comics will be placed at the forefront of the magazine.

The capable ones go up, the mediocre ones go down.

This is a very important indicator for cartoonists who serialize on Jump.

Works that were once popular, such as "Shaman King" and "Tutor", were cut in half due to Xiaozheng's poor grades.

So even very popular cartoonists are worried about this.

In addition to exceptional works such as "Dragon Ball", "One Piece" and "Naruto".

But this is also a very realistic thing. If the comic cannot attract readers, then it should be ended.

After a while, Akira Toriyama came back.

He raised a finger and returned to the dining table triumphantly, "Sure enough, we are number one again!"

"That's awesome! Teacher Akira Toriyama!"

Akimiya Akemi, who kept her head tilted up nervously, clapped and cheered excitedly.

First place, many serial cartoonists have won everything from second to twentieth place, but first place is a very difficult achievement to obtain.

"Ah! I really want to serialize it too!"

"There will be a day, as long as you keep working hard."

Higashino Hibiki smiled and said, "Congratulations, Teacher Akira Toriyama."

"Actually, I have won the first place many times," Akira Toriyama sat on his seat. "Sometimes I have even won the first place several times in a row. But when I hear that it is the first place, I will still be very happy. After all, It’s number one in jump.”

Japan's No. 1 comic magazine has an average sales volume of 6.3 million. To be ranked No. 1 is a great achievement.

…

On Monday, "Weekly Shōnen Jump" was released.

Akimiya Akemi borrowed a car and took Hibiki to Nagoya City.

"I want to read the comics I drew!"

She said this.

I want to see the results of my efforts as an assistant.

Unfortunately, the 35th issue of "Weekly Shōnen Jump" released today does not serialize the content they drew as assistants.

"Ah, I forgot!" the idiot roared loudly: "After the manuscript is submitted, the serialization will be delayed for a week!"

Higashikata shook his head, "After all, you have to set aside time for proofreading, printing, and distribution."

He pulled himself over without saying a word, thinking it was something big.

"What a pity..." Akimiya Akemi lowered her head.

"But there is the latest jump!" She became happy again.

Such a person would definitely not be depressed, Hibiki thought to himself.

Really self-regulating.

…

Hibiki Higashino used to think that dating a 24-year-old beautiful lady was a happy thing.

Now I understand that not every eldest lady is called Akimiya Akemi.

“So spicy, so spicy!”

Eating spicy tofu made me burst into tears. I wiped my nose with tears and kept stuffing it into my mouth.

What a funny scene.

"If you can't eat it, don't eat it spicy." Hibiki couldn't bear to look at it. I heard that spicy food is painful, and I really suspected Akimiya Akemi was an SM lover.

Pain and happiness.

He rolled a spoonful of mapo tofu into his mouth and savored it.

"But...but it feels so good, I can't control myself." Akimiya Ningmei took out a tissue, wiped off the sweat, and looked at Higashino Hibiki with no sweat beads and a calm expression with envy, "You...Has Haas, Isn’t it spicy?”

"It's okay." Higashikata replied.