Full-time cartoonist

Yamamura hung up the phone without hesitation.

The next Saturday, Sasaki and Higashino Hibiki communicated about the storyboards for the next episode of "Slam Dunk" and also mentioned this matter. Yamamura had already taken action.

Higashikata thought about this incident and sighed, "He is still so decisive."

The matter of keeping the road in the mountain village has come to an end.

Higashino Hibiki turned to look at Akane Nakajima with doubtful eyes.

"It's been eight days..."

After that day, when Akane Nakajima went to Higashino's house, she spent much less time reading comics. Hibiki could often see her writing and drawing.

When I watched it today, Akane Nakajima had improved a lot compared to eight days ago.

There is a big difference between being a layman and learning to draw with all your heart.

For example, when drawing characters now, Akane Nakajima will draw the head-to-body ratio and outline.

Although it is still a very rough painting, it no longer has the distorted shape of the past.

She also understood shadows when painting landscape objects.

Hibiki Higashikata was shocked inside. She was actually concentrating on learning to paint.

"Why did you suddenly learn to draw?"

Higashino Hibiki walked to Akane Nakajima and asked in a low voice.

During this period of time, Akane Akimiya was teaching Akane Nakajima to draw, and Hibiki Higashino wanted to know Akane Nakajima’s motivation for painting.

Akane Nakajima curled her lips when she heard Higashino Hibiki's question, "It's all because of my teacher."

She told Higashino Hibiki what the teacher had taught her.

"I have to learn to draw hard, and sooner or later I will impress her!"

"You are ambitious," Higashi Hibiki rubbed her head, "but your teacher went too far."

For a moment, he thought of his former teacher.

Why can't he find someone else if he can't slap you with one hand?

Such teachers put their own ideas on the students' heads without asking detailed questions and judge based on their own experience.

In other words, teachers do not see themselves and their students equally.

"Yeah!" Akane Nakajima nodded fiercely.

Hibiki asked her if she wanted to learn to draw comics from him, and Akane Nakajima shook her head.

"Sister Mingmei draws better."

Dongye Xiang: "..."

He looked to the side, Akimiya Akemi raised two fingers and made a "yeah" gesture.

…

At six o'clock in the afternoon, Akane Nakajima went home to study and do homework.

Before leaving, Higashikata stopped her and gave her a picture.

"This is the painting I gave to your teacher."

Akane Nakajima took it and looked at it curiously, and found that the painting was of Kaede Rukawa and Akira Sendō fighting in a wild field.

There is also Tori Akino's signature in the lower right corner.

"Toriakino-sensei, why?" Akane Nakajima was puzzled.

"So be it,"

Higashikata didn't answer her, clapped his hands and went back to work.

…

on Monday.

Teacher Tazawa walked into the office angrily.

"What a mess!"

"What's wrong?" The colleague who was watching Jump looked away and asked with concern.

"Akane Nakajima from our class," she handed the somewhat wrinkled manuscript to her colleague and complained, "I said a few things about her, but she still lied to me."

My colleague slowly understood what happened and comforted me, "Don't be angry, it's not worth it."

But when he saw the original manuscript, he couldn't help but be stunned, "The painting is really good."

In the painting, Rukawa Kaede is holding the ball and trying to figure out how to break through the defensive path.

The character's expression, direction of footsteps, messy clothes, and sweat stains are all clearly drawn.

This is not something that ordinary people can draw, and there is Tori Akino's Mirai style in it.

"Even if the painting is good, it is fake!" Tazawa said angrily.

"Hmm," the colleague nodded. He looked at the manuscript thoughtfully, "Isn't that right?"

He flipped through Jump and pointed to a large painting for Tazawa, "Is this episode about "Slam Dunk"?"

After entering the national competition in Shohoku, Rukawa Kaede wanted to go to the United States.

Coach Anxi retained him.

And said, "You are still...not as good as Sendao-san..."

Because of this sentence, Rukawa Kaede found Xiandao and competed one-on-one with him.

Fighting from day to night, the two of them couldn't decide the outcome.

The colleague looked at the signed painting of Tori Akino in front of him, and the content was the plot of the latest episode.

"It takes at least 40 minutes to draw such a picture, and the ink marks on the drawing have dried." A colleague asked: "Tazawa-san, when did you get it?"

Tazawa opened her mouth. She got it at 8:30. "Weekly Shonen Jump" was released at 8:00, which means...

With a cold face, she snatched the paintings back and was about to stuff them all into her bag, but in the end she paused and put them in the books and kept them well.

She then snorted coldly and walked out of the office.

The colleagues looked at her helplessly until she left, and couldn't help but let out a "cut" sound.

"Looking at her attitude, she will definitely not apologize."

"However, that is Tori Akino's signature painting."

…

After school on Monday, Akane Nakajima ran excitedly to Hibiki Hibiki's studio.

She said that Mr. Tazawa seemed to have apologized to her.

"Thank you for the drawing you gave to the teacher."

With such a sentence, she should be apologizing, right?

Akane Nakajima smiled stupidly.

But she still won't give up learning to paint.

It was the first time that she felt so sad and powerless when she was considered to be lying but had no ability to prove it.

"Besides," the little girl raised her head and said to Hibiki Higashino, "drawing is quite interesting, much more interesting than watching Tsuna's football match!"

"You have grown up." Hibiki Higashikata said.

…

"Rukawa Kaede has changed. He is no longer the Rukawa Kaede he was before." Looking at the jump, Takasugi Kazuya sighed.

From the beginning of the Mountain King War, every player in Shobei has his own mental journey.

Rukawa Kaede, who had been keeping an eye on the mountain king's ace Zebei, finally began to lose strength in the last few minutes of the game under this huge pressure and blow.

Rukawa Kaede has extremely strong personal abilities, both offensive and defensive.

This created his lone wolf style of play.

When he breaks through the opponent's defense, he rarely passes the ball to his teammates.

This is a sign that he believes in himself.

This was also confirmed in previous games.

In the duel with Zebei, he was not able to break through Zebei's defense once, nor was he able to defend Zebei's offense once.

Zebei scored frequently with Rukawa Kaede.

This reminded Rukawa Kaede of his one-on-one match with Sendō.

There is no difference between him and Xian Dao.

Before Sendao left, Rukawa Kaede asked: "Will there be anyone more powerful than you in the national competition?"

"There is such a person. When I was in junior high school, I met a guy who even I couldn't defeat. His name was... Kitazawa!"

During the game, Eiji Zebei scored and the score reached 55:73.

"Zebei is right! You idiot!" Rukawa Kaede's eyes widened.

…

Rukawa Kaede's fighting spirit has not wavered.

He is on par with Sendō, but Coach Anzai says he is not as good as Sendō.

Here in Xiandao, Rukawa Kaede got the answer.

"If there is a one-on-one basketball game, I don't think anyone can beat you."

"But in an actual official game, are you really unstoppable?"

The current situation and the guidance of immortality changed the stubborn Rukawa Kaede.

Rukawa Kaede held the ball, and at the last minute, he surprised everyone and passed the basketball to Akagi.

"The most powerful man in the world can actually pass the ball!"

Rukawa Kaede has more offensive methods.

Eiji Sawabita defended Rukawa Kaede from breaking through in front of him, and at the same time he had to distract Rukawa Kaede from passing the ball, which made him no longer have the strong suppressive power he had before.

Rukawa Kaede, who can pass the ball, broke through from the left side of his body!

…

"Why does it feel like the great success of "Slam Dunk"..." Kazuya Takasugi finished reading the manga and roared excitedly for Rukawa Kaede's changes. At the same time, he couldn't help but have such an idea in his mind.

Now Xiangbei has finally become a team through constant competition.

One person's strengths will become the strengths of the team, and his shortcomings will also be made up for by the team.

Xiangbei is stronger than ever.

At the same time, the five main players have overcome their psychological worries and grown up.

"Perfection? How could I think so..."

Takasugi muttered, "'Slam Dunk' has obviously just begun."

He also wants to see the moment when Xiangbei wins the national championship.

He pushed the thought to the back of his mind.

But there is a vague idea that "Slam Dunk" ends here, and there seems to be no problem.

After putting down jump, he began to study further.

When the time reached six o'clock in the afternoon, Takasugi Kazuya turned on the TV. He was pleasantly surprised to find that there was news about the resumption of "Slam Dunk" on the TV.

It’s early October!

"Slam Dunk" went off the air in April, and now it's October, half a year has passed.

Kazuya Takasugi thought about it in his mind. He still knew the animated clips of the 126th episode of "Slam Dunk" as if it was yesterday when he watched them.

"Really been waiting!"

…

“Sure enough, it’s early October!”

“This is the best news I’ve heard in September!”

"It's finally back on air! I feel like a century has passed!"

People on the Internet were cheering and encouraging, as if something great had happened.

Amid the suffering of many people, the time came to early October.

The day after the 127th episode of "Slam Dunk" was broadcast, Director Inoue was surprised to find that this episode broke the ratings record of the previous 126 episodes, reaching 26.7%!

It looks like the results are not as good as "Soul of Chess".

But today is different from the past. Today’s children are busy attending various training classes and have no time to watch TV during workdays.

The average ratings of the previous episodes were 17.7%, and the highest ratings were 24.4%. Kaede Inoue did not expect that the show would resume broadcasting after the suspension, and the ratings would reach a new record.

"What a great news!"

…

66:74, in the last 2 minutes and 50 seconds, Xiangbei was still 8 points behind.

Still have to chase.

Rukawa Kaede began to organize, and with the wonderful performance of Sakuragi Hanamichi, Shohoku began to counterattack again.

This is the plot of "Slam Dunk" in early December 2000.

…

In Shogakukan, the jury for the 2001 "Shogakukan Manga Award" began to be formed.

Under Shogakukan, the editors of "Weekly Shonen Sunday", "Girls' COMIC", "YOUNGSUNDAY", "Dragon Comics CORO-CORO", "BIG COMIC ORIGINAL" and other magazines sat together and began to discuss the quota of works for the next session.

"I will first nominate the work of the Shounen Department," said the editor-in-chief of Shonen Sunday: "It is "Detective Conan" by Mr. Gosho Aoyama of our magazine."

"Detective Conan" was an unexpected success. It was so popular among readers that even Gosho Aoyama didn't expect it.

It seems that in "Detective Conan", readers have become detective fans.

And comics like "Detective Conan" that require you to imagine how to commit crimes every week test the accumulation and creativity of the cartoonist.

If "Detective Conan" had not been released as a movie, Gosho Aoyama would have almost given up on serializing this work.

Even for Detective Comics, this work has become a national hit.

"Detective Conan" has had a theatrical version released every year since 1997, and by 2000 there were already three.

The fourth part is also in production.

Visible reader support.

"Yeah." The editors of other comic magazines nodded.

There was no chance that this work would not be selected, and it was passed quickly.

During their ongoing discussions, the winning work in the children's department was determined to be "The Biography of the Leader at the End of the Century" by Shimabukuro Mitsunen.

The girl-oriented department is "Phantom of the Dark River" by Chie Shinohara.

In the general department is "MONSTER" by Naoki Urasawa.

"Hiroyuki Nishimori-sensei's "Reckless Angel" is also very good," someone suggested.

Hiroyuki Nishimori is also a cartoonist active in "Weekly Shōnen Sunday". In 1993, he became famous when he serialized "I Am Big Brother".

"Reckless Angel" is similar to the style of "I Am Big Brother". It is also a funny and contrasting comic and has a large audience.

"There will be two works in the Young Man Division of this year's Comic Awards." Sunday's editor-in-chief agreed.

Among all comic categories, shounen comics are of course the most popular.

Shoujo comics are famous such as "Sailor Moon", with a total of 18 volumes and an overall sales volume of 12 million copies.

The average sales volume is less than 1 million.

There is a huge gap between shojo manga and shounen manga.

Among all the awards, the youth department is the most valuable.

Now, when dividing the works, the editors of Shogakukan prefer their own comics.

The meeting ended, some people stood up, and some chatted about family matters.

Everything is in special harmony.

"Wait! Did we leave someone behind? A particularly important one?"

…

At the end of December, Akimiya Akemi was very excited. She stood in front of the mirror and looked at her clothes from different angles.

"How was it?" she asked Higashikata excitedly.

"It's very nice." Dongye Xiang glanced at it and gave a thumbs up.

"Seriously." Akimiya Akemi pouted.

"I'm serious," Hibiki Higashi said helplessly.

At first glance, he thought it looked good, but when he told the truth, the women didn't accept it.

Men must be allowed to organize their language and talk about the advantages and disadvantages of the clothes they wear from a professional perspective.

Higashino Hibiki had to look carefully and saw Akimiya Akemi's small square-toed leather shoes from her chest.

"Do you want to wear leather shoes?" Dongye Xiang was startled.

Wearing leather shoes is uncomfortable. Akimiya Akemi always wears slippers when drawing comics at home, and wears sneakers or boots when going out.

Even high-heeled shoes, Hibiki Higashi had never seen Akimiya Akemi wearing them.

"Well," Akimiya Akemi nodded slightly, "Doesn't it look very professional this way?"

"No need," Higashino Hibiki waved his hand, "You can come however you feel comfortable. Shueisha's New Year's party is just to make everyone happy in the New Year, not to give a report."

That's right, in a few days, Akimiya Akemi will participate in the Shueisha New Year's Party as a manga artist!