Great Mangaka

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Two days later, at noon, Alice arrived at Takumi's house with a huge bag: "Look, these are all your photos. The pastry shop voluntarily handed them over."

Takumi leafed through them and found that the bag was full of thousands of his photos. He quickly asked Alice to keep them.

"Take these photos and burn them. Don't let Aika see them."

If Aika saw them, she would misunderstand that Takumi had offended someone. Alice nodded, turned around, put the bag in the car, and hid it. Lately, she rarely visited Takumi's house, so she stayed for dinner.

"The pastry shop owner has promised not to do this business again. Speaking of which, I didn't expect your photos, Takumi, to still generate income." Alice smiled and said: "Her photos were clipped from newspapers and news. If I had known they could make money, I would have regularly taken some photos of you."

"Don't be ridiculous."

Takumi knew Alice was joking, but he didn't want to laugh at the joke.

Shortly after, Aika prepared the meal.

"Recently, Kanto Manga Company launched a new forum." While eating, Alice suddenly asked: "Takumi, do you know about this?"

"New forum?" Takumi shook his head: "I don't know."

The game was over and he didn't need to pay much attention to it afterwards, so he didn't go online. In his previous life, he loved playing video games, but perhaps he was tired of playing, and his interest in computers has diminished in this life. He didn't know what to play when he turned on the computer. There were private messages in his personal space and forums, and he was too lazy to read them. "Well, you're a good boy who doesn't like to go online." Alice nodded with satisfaction. Although the internet isn't bad, young people get addicted easily. Takumi considers computers as tools. And that's a good point. Alice began to explain Kanto Manga Company's forum creation: "Their new forum is similar to Mirai-sensei's home forum; both are forums for readers to discuss and post fan works. The forum's name is Kanto, and the number of registered people already exceeds 200,000...".

"200,000!"

Takumi asked in disbelief: "Why are there so many people?"

The Kanto Forum was recently launched, and little time has passed, so how has the number of registered people increased so quickly? Mirai-sensei's home forum already had tens of thousands of members before Takumi took control. Later, they launched games and organized events, and the number of members gradually increased.

But Kanto Manga Company hasn't had any activity lately. Although he didn't go online, Takumi had been keeping an eye on newspapers and news. He hadn't noticed any major moves by Kanto.

"Two hundred thousand isn't much... Kanto has done a lot of online advertising." Alice replied with a smile: "We didn't advertise, but their ads are all over the internet. With Rina's high popularity, there will be many more readers in the future."

"Rina?"

Takumi felt strange. Why did her name appear?

"Yes, Rina, she has always been a youth idol and has many followers on the internet. Your total popularity in Japan may not be comparable to hers."

During this time, Weekly Shōjo Manga has also been suppressed by Diario Kanto. Rina's "Star" is Kanto Manga Company's most popular female manga. Although Takumi has never paid attention to her, Rina's popularity has increased a lot.

"This time she is the advertising spokesperson for the Kanto Forum. To be honest, the figure of 200,000 registered people is not exaggerated at all,"

Alice explained. This is a disadvantage compared to women. The proportion of men and women in Japan is imbalanced. Seven out of ten ads feature female presenters. In addition, for many public figures, the easiest fans to acquire are those of the opposite sex. For example, Takumi has more female fans and more passionate ones than men.

The same goes for Rina. Her manga attract female readers, and her beauty drives men crazy. She has a unique advantage: she is a novelist. The novel industry is much more mature than the manga industry. Novelists usually appear on television and enjoy great public recognition. Many people still look down on mangaka and think that manga are not conventional.

Rina went from novelist to mangaka. But she's quite smart. Although she focuses on manga, her current work, "Star," has also published a novel version. The same person uses two copyrights. Rina's popularity in the novel industry has been maintained, and she has even attracted many novel readers to read manga.

Kanto Manga Company is her best platform. Before, Rina didn't focus on training, but now the situation is different.

"Although I don't want to say it, Rina has received many more resources than you." Alice's tone was clearly apologetic. Hinotori Publishing couldn't help Takumi much. Kanto chose her as their advertising spokesperson this time, which was obviously a repositioning.

Rina will receive high-priced training and promotion from Kanto in the future, and no one can predict her future.

It's a matter of luck. No matter how good someone's skills are, without promotion, everything will be in vain. Alice is very clear about this. Every star needs a lot of budget and promotion to maintain their popularity. This happens in the entertainment industry, and manga sold to the market are even more ruthless.

"Rina... I don't think she's a threat." Takumi smiled: "Rina's thoughts are limited by romance and male and female emotions. If she doesn't break this barrier, no matter how many resources are promoted, she won't be a threat to me."

A person who only draws girls' manga will never threaten Takumi's future. His manga are accepted by the public, and there is a natural gap between him and Rina.

"I hope so...",

Alice agreed with Takumi. She also felt that Rina couldn't get out of the niche, but for some reason, she still felt a little uncomfortable.

After carefully exploring the source of this unease, Alice felt a little disappointed. Her unease came from Takumi, or rather, from his shackles. If Takumi received the same promotion as Kanto Manga Company and his manga sales channels were expanded, he could top the Japanese manga rankings.

All mangaka must admire him, but unfortunately, now... he faces Kanto Manga Company. Takumi is like a real dragon crushed by a huge mountain. The dragon rises with the wind, but this real dragon has to climb step by step against the rain falling from the sky.

He could have flown higher than any dragon, but he, who has no capital and is tied down by external things, may not be able to surpass Rina now.

Even so, Takumi should know best, but he still stayed there, next to those who helped him when he was young.

"Takumi...", Alice thought, and put down her chopsticks: "One more thing...".

"Kanto Manga Company will publish a new magazine next week, and the sequel to 'The Detective Sherlock' will be published in it."

The change Takumi had been waiting for so long arrived.