Full-time cartoonist.

Chapter 248 Shogakukan Manga Award
"There's only one person who knows Tori Akino Mirai better than I do."

Higashino stood up, put his hips on his hips and said loudly.

Soma Satoru asked incredulously, "Uncle Dongye, who are you?"

Soma Ichiro smiled, pointed to Higashino Hibiki, and said like reciting a poem.

"He's my colleague at Jump."

Higashino went on to boast: "A genius manga artist who started serializing at the age of 17!"

Soma Ichiro: "The Soul of Go, which injects fresh blood into Go, is his work."

Soma Satoru listened in a daze, feeling dizzy all over.

Higashino: "I have also drawn comics about love."

Soma Ichiro lowered his head and recalled: "That was "The Garden of Words" and "[-] Centimeters Per Second". It's really good that you portrayed the parting of love."

Higashino: "Thank you for the compliment. Afterwards, I drew sports inspirational cartoons, which were..."

""Slam Dunk"!" The child came back to his senses, stared fixedly at Higashino Hibiki, and shouted loudly, "So you are the future teacher Akino Akino!"

Seeing his extremely excited appearance, Higashino puffed up his chest, and his vanity was greatly satisfied.

"Yes, it's me." Higashino stroked Soma Satoru's head and said with a smile, "I am Mirai Akino."

It is really a sense of accomplishment to draw works that children like.

There are many people serializing on jump, just for this reason, their works can be seen by more people and publicized more widely.

"Hey." The child laughed happily.

but……

"Uncle actually knows Mr. Akino Tori!" Soma Satoru looked back at Soma Ichiro, "I'm really surprised."

Soma Ichiro rolled up the storyboard and patted Soma Satoru on the head, "You look down on Uncle me too much."

"It hurts." Soma Wu shrank his head.

"Hahaha." Dongye laughed.

Afterwards, Higashino saw Soma Satoru's paintings. At the age of eight, his paintings were immature, but as long as he worked hard, he would definitely be better than his uncle. Higashino looked forward to his future.

He pointed to Soma Satoru and told him how to paint.

Soma Ichiro nodded thoughtfully, as if he had also learned something from the basics.

Higashino Hibiki was speechless, he didn't expect Mr. Soma's foundation to be so poor.

Ichiro Soma smiled wryly, "At the beginning, I didn't know that I needed to use a g-pen to draw manga. When I wanted to modify it, I couldn't correct my bad habits."

What he meant was that he was a monk from Ye Luzi, so there was nothing he could do.

With the paranoia and hard work that even the editors are afraid of, it has come to this day.

"It's really hard work."

……

"Tori Akino-sensei, while drawing manga, you should also pay attention to rest."

"Thank you."

Hibiki Higashino, who is loved by children, did not leave Soma's studio until dusk today.

He originally wanted to comfort Soma Ichiro, but instead got concern in front of his nephew.

What an amazing experience.

Higashino walked towards the parking lot.

When passing by a coffee shop, someone saw him, and as the doorbell rang, that person chased him out.

"Is it Mr. Akino Bird?" He asked nervously.

Higashino nodded, "Hello."

"It's lucky," he clenched his fist, "please sign it for me."

He took out the signature board, Higashino signed his name.

"That," he scratched his head in embarrassment, "can you please write a sentence?" "I wish Shanghe Jun an early serialization." "

Higashino was taken aback, and wrote these words with a smile on his face. He asked, "Are you drawing manga?"

"Well," he nodded and smiled shyly, "The painting is not good, but I'm working hard."

"Come on." Higashino patted him on the shoulder and handed him the signature board.

"Thank you."

Higashino Hibiki turned and left, and he bowed deeply to Higashino Hibiki's back.

……

There are 4 categories in the "Shogakukan Manga Award", which are children's category, juvenile category, girl category, general category, and occasionally special awards from the review committee.

There will be five of the so-called Four Heavenly Kings, and the same is true for the Elementary School.

Every February is the time when the most authoritative award in the Japanese manga industry is announced.

"There will be a manga by Akino Tori this year, right?"

"I think about it every year."

""Soul of Chess" and "Slam Dunk" are both very outstanding works."

"Last year's award winner in the youth department was Ryoji Minagawa's "ARMS Magic Arm". Although it is very interesting, I think it is not as exciting as "Soul of Chess"..."

"Ah."

In February, the air is still cold, and the cherry trees are withered and black.

Oda tightened his clothes and heard the discussions of the students around him.

He also didn't understand why those people in the organizing committee hadn't announced the "Shogakukan Manga Award" to Mirai Akino?
"Shogakukan Manga Award" is the icing on the cake for Mirai Tori Akino, and has no real value.

But for their organizers, it is an indispensable act to prove their authority.

No one in the serialized juvenile manga can compare to Tori Akino Mirai.

"It's strange."

He shook his head and was going to work, anyway, he was just a small employee.

……

Sports comics come down in one continuous line, from "Giant Star" to "Tomorrow's Master", from "Slam Dunk" to "The Prince of Tennis".

A steady stream of excellent works were born.

Higashino is reading a manga, which is also a sports-themed manga, and the topic selection is very rare.

It is "Riding the Wind!King of Yachting".

The content is about the high-speed water rowing race.

Also depicted is the main character's paranoia as well as his love for rowing.

This manga in "Weekly Shonen Sunday" gave Hibiki Hibiki a lot of inspiration.

While he was watching, Omori yelled and ran over, "The "Shogakukan Manga Award" has been announced! Mr. Akino, come and see it!"

"Which teachers' works are there?" Higashino put down the booklet and asked.

"The work for the children's department is "Alien Tanaka Taro" by Yasushi Nagaju."

This is a funny sand sculpture cartoon with a unique style of painting, which is very popular among children, and it deserves the award.

In terms of painters, Mr. Yongju is no different from Soma Ichiro.

However, he digs deep into children's subjects and minimizes this shortcoming.

Soma Ichiro's "Space Railway Hero" is also a manga that is popular with children, but he serialized it in Shonen Jump, so the audience is much smaller.

He has been unable to pass the serialization for a long time, and there is also a reason for this.

Omori went on to say: "The most important manga for the youth department is "Riding the Wind! The King of Boat Racing" by Mr. Katsumi Kawai."

This is the manga Higashino was reading just now, and he thinks it is very good.It's just that the painting style is too old-fashioned, the characters are single, and the character settings are a bit thin.

"The winner of the Girls' category is Aya Ikue's "Rosy Tomorrow""

Higashino Higashino did not understand, he just nodded.

Omori was discouraged, "The teacher still didn't win the prize this year."

"Don't worry about it," Higashino waved his hand, "I didn't draw manga for winning prizes."

He felt that he was lucky enough to win an award, and it was nothing important.

……

He didn't mind, the readers were already disgruntled.

"Weekly Shonen Sunday" editorial department.

The phone rang one after another.

"Ask me why "Slam Dunk" didn't win an award..." Editor Ogawa hung up the phone and said with a wry smile, "The "Shogakukan Manga Award" has nothing to do with us, really. "

"I can't help it." Colleague Kobayashi leaned back and sighed, "After all, it's "Slam Dunk" that everyone likes."

While they were talking, the phone at the work desk rang again.

Ogawa quickly picked it up, "Yes, sorry, "Shogakukan Manga Award" and our Sunday..."

Seeing this scene, the team leader said loudly: "You answer what they are doing, just hang up!"

"Yes!"

Xiao Chuan hung up the phone.

The group leader added: "Be short."

"Yes." Xiao Chuan nodded.

Even so, he was still busy for a while.

"Really! Misfortune!"

The declining "Sunday" has once again experienced the "eagerness" of readers.

……

"Why not award 'Slam Dunk'?"

When awarding the award, Mr. Katsumi Kawai was puzzled and said to the organizer, "I think "Slam Dunk" is more interesting."

He was born in 64, and he is the type who speaks directly when he has something to say.

The person in charge of the organizer had an ugly expression, and he couldn't say that it was a temporary delay because of lazy administration.

The recent announcement of the "Shogakukan Manga Award" is quite different from the past, and has been widely questioned by readers and the industry.

Colleagues made insinuations and told Don that because he affected the work of his department, he was embarrassed for a while.

It's just a trivial matter, and it will be no problem to send it to Akino Tori next year, so why all the fuss?
Originally, because Bird Akino was still a student in the future, he was worried that there would be adverse effects, so he was not awarded the award.In terms of qualifications, "Soul of Chess" is completely sufficient.

After he graduated, the Manga Award Organizing Committee didn't react for a while, and still missed Akino Tori, and his subordinates couldn't check the omissions and fill in the vacancies, which led to the embarrassing situation today.

Now facing Katsumi Kawai's doubts, the person in charge can only say stiffly, "We have considered everything. There is a deeper reason why Mr. Akino Tori's manga did not win the award."

"It's really perfunctory." Kawai Katsumin shook his head.

……

On Monday, "Weekly Shonen Jump" was released as scheduled.

"Everyone who watched the game in the stadium agreed that Xiangbei had lost."

Coach Anzai responded to Sanno's formation, but in the contest between the two centers, Akagi was not Kawada Masashi's opponent.

Even in college, Akagi is a good player, but his opponent is Wada Masashi, the number one center in the country.

He has super defensive skills and rebounding ability, he is big, quick to move, very skilled in dribbling, and his shooting level is also very good, pushing Takenori Akagi into a desperate situation.

Soon after, the difference between Xiangbei and Shanwang had exceeded [-] points.

Xiangbei has no power to recover. After all, his opponent is the king of the mountain. With such a big difference, how can he catch up?

What's more, now, Akagi Takenori, the pillar of Xiangbei, has been completely suppressed by Wada Masashi, and has become confused.

Without Akagi's performance, the other players in Xiangbei would not be able to display their strength.

The game is over.

Even readers who read think so.

Shanwang's sense of oppression was too strong, and Xiangbei had no chance to make a move.

At this time, Sakuragi Hanamichi is like a novice, Akagi Takenori has lost his fighting spirit, Rukawa Kaede is stared at by Sawakita Eiji, Mitsui Shoulan is not enough and has no strength.

Even if Ryota Miyagi has the ball, he doesn't know who to pass it to.

"It's the first time that Xiangbei was beaten so badly." Yoshida Koji was speechless.

He was thinking, if he were the editor of "Slam Dunk", how should he guide Akino to draw in the future.

Change this scenario.

For a moment, he couldn't make up his mind.

"It's really difficult to do a good job as an editor."

As an editor, you have to communicate with the manga artist in charge of the plot. Even someone with top plot ability like Oda has to discuss with the editor for several hours every week.

What's more, Yahagi is like this, which can be called the editor type of the second author of "Naruto".

"Can't think of a breakthrough!"

Yoshida Koji scratched his head.

In the jump editorial department, he told Sasaki that his dream is to become a member of the jump editorial department, and he has been working hard for it.

But now it seems that "it's really hard to do."

"You can't just do things with passion."

……

Higashino accompanied Akemi Akimiya to meet the editor of "RIBON" at the end of February.

Even for female manga, there are many editors who are men.

However, Akemi Akimi's editor is a beautiful woman, just like in many novels, the beautiful editor who belongs to the author alone will spark the spark of love during work.

"It's a pity," Higashino shook his head, "Our editor is a rough guy."

Outside the coffee shop where we met, Higashino sighed.

"Huh?" Akemi Akimiya looked at Higashino with an unkind expression.

"I was just joking." Higashino raised his hands in surrender.

In order not to keep the editor waiting, they walked in.

……

"Hi, I'm Akemi Akimiya, please wait a little longer."

"I've only just arrived, too."

Ms. Tsuda looked at Akemi Akimiya, thinking about the "Sakura Mission" sent by the jump editorial department.

"This is a manga that is very suitable for girls' magazines. It would be a pity that it cannot be serialized."

She was very satisfied after reading it. It is a very interesting inspirational cartoon.

And the artist is very good. In the storyboard, you can feel the author's understanding of drawing comics.

Spatial perspective, blank space, character design, and the use of frames are all very mature, and they are first-class excellent in girl comics.

It can be used as a selling point.

Maybe it will be possible to get "RIBON" rolled up.

In short, Miss Fukatsu picked it right away.

Not serializing such comics is simply a dereliction of duty at work.

So not long after, she contacted Sasaki and made an appointment to meet today.

Miss Fukatsu thought for a long time before suddenly realizing that there was another person beside Akemi Akimiya.

She looked at it carefully, and said in a trance, "Are you Mr. Akino Bird?"

Higashino nodded, "Hi, I'm Mirai Akino."

But he didn't know the editor in front of him.

"I have to attend jump's New Year's party every year," said Ms. Fukatsu, "Ms. Akino Bird is the focus of the New Year's party. I am naturally impressed."

"Who are you and Teacher Akimiya?"

(End of this chapter)