Parallel world Manga Artist-Chapter 234: Broadcast- I

During the first three days of January, the entire country took a New Year's holiday.

Whenever the holidays arrived, it was exhibition season for major comic conventions across the country's big cities. Walking into any of the venues, one could see cosplayers of Sai, Saitama, Genos, the Ant King, Komugi, Kurapika... anime characters that had dominated Japan's pop culture landscape for the past three years were absolutely everywhere.

Among the entire crowd of cosplayers, nearly half were dressed as characters from Shirogane's works, a testament to just how deeply his creations had embedded themselves into the culture.

Of course, during those three days, another major hot topic sweeping through the Japanese anime industry was Shirogane himself. He had been making the rounds with frequent press conferences, interviews, and personal appearances at major comic conventions across the country, all in service of promoting the upcoming premiere of his newest work, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.

The series was set to premiere on a Thursday night, and yet, despite the weekday slot, it suffered absolutely no loss in anticipation or buzz. After all, the author was Shirogane. As long as his work wasn't broadcast in the dead of night, it didn't particularly matter whether it aired on a weekday or a weekend, the impact on viewership ratings was negligible either way.

This had been proven time and again by the strong numbers TV stations continued to pull whenever they reran his older works on weekday evenings.

Throughout the promotional push over those few days, one particular comment from Shirogane regarding Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba instantly went viral across Japan and resonated throughout the global anime community.

"I guarantee that Demon Slayer is an anime that is in no way inferior to Hunter x Hunter or One-Punch Man!"

With the author's own endorsement, and the direct comparison being drawn to the two undisputed giants of the global anime industry over the past two years, many fans dismissed it as nothing more than a marketing tactic. But regardless of how it was received, the comment pushed the discourse surrounding Demon Slayer to an absolute fever pitch.

The three-day New Year's holiday ended quickly, and January 4th arrived, the day of the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba anime premiere.

Online, the discussions were already running wild well before eight o'clock.

"Rumors say this anime is a bit of a slow burn. I really don't like slow-burn works."

"Is Hunter not a slow burn? The Nen Ability system didn't even appear until dozens of episodes in. And you still love Hunter, don't you?"

"Fair point. Shirogane-sensei's works are basically all slow burns to some degree. I don't expect Demon Slayer to completely blow me away in the very first episode. As long as the first season's plot and world-building are solid, I'm fine with it."

"Exactly. And judging purely from the title and the promotional posters that have been released, this is clearly a hot-blooded battle anime at its core. That genre alone should put your mind at ease."

"Plus, look at the setting, Taisho-era Japan, samurai aesthetics, demons lurking in the dark. There's something genuinely atmospheric about it. It already feels different from his other works."

"The sword-fighting angle has me curious too. Shirogane-sensei handling a swordsmanship system could be incredible, imagine something as detailed as Nen but built around sword techniques.

"Stop, you're going to get my hopes too high."

"We'll be able to see the finished product tonight at eight o'clock. Don't panic, it's only a few hours away."

"Tonight the first episode of the anime airs, and tomorrow the first chapter of the manga will be serialized on Dream Comic. What a strange serialization method!"

"It can't be helped. The copyright for this work belongs to Shirogane-sensei, and he clearly didn't want the manga to be serialized first and risk pulling attention away from the anime's ratings. So the anime airs first, and the manga follows the next day. Honestly, it's a win-win for everyone involved."

"How is it a win-win? Isn't Hoshimori Group the one losing out here?"

"What are you thinking? If Hoshimori hadn't agreed to those terms, Demon Slayer would have ended up like One-Punch Man, an anime-only release with no serialized manga counterpart at all. But instead, Shirogane-sensei has personally invested five hundred million into the anime production. If the anime becomes a massive hit, that popularity will immediately feed back into the manga sales and readership.

And on the flip side, Dream Comic's enormous user base actively promotes the Demon Slayer anime. How is anyone losing out? Haven't you realized yet? In terms of raw influence over Japan's 2D community, Shirogane-sensei stands on equal footing with the six major manga journals. This isn't a creator being absorbed by a publisher, it's two powerhouses joining forces as equals."

"Exactly. If you're still analyzing their partnership through the old-fashioned lens of 'mangaka subordinate to publisher,' then you're missing the picture entirely."

"Shirogane-sensei basically operates like a one-man media enterprise at this point. The fact that any publisher gets to carry his work is already a privilege."

"Anyway, with Shirogane-sensei's current popularity and influence, as long as Demon Slayer isn't a disaster, the ratings and overall popularity definitely won't disappoint."

"I personally don't believe this Demon Slayer can surpass Hunter. And I say that with no ill will toward Shirogane-sensei whatsoever. But the Chimera Ant arc took Hunter x Hunter to a creative height that very few works in history have ever reached. Even for someone of Shirogane-sensei's talent, clearing that bar a second time feels almost impossible. Hunter is probably his peak."

"I hate to say it, but I agree. The Chimera Ant arc wasn't just good, it was genuine philosophy wrapped in action. That kind of writing doesn't come around twice."

"Heh. He's only twenty years old. Peak? For most people at twenty, they're still asking their parents for allowance money and going on their first dates. A mangaka's physical stamina and creative peak typically land somewhere in their thirties or forties. Don't write Shirogane-sensei off so quickly, he hasn't even hit his stride yet."

"Honestly, if Hunter was his so-called 'peak,' then what does that say about the rest of the industry? Hunter alone would still be considered a generational masterpiece."

On the internet, Rei's devoted fans, his vocal critics, and the wider media all continued to steer the discourse surrounding Demon Slayer in their own directions. Some had unwavering confidence in Rei. Others believed it was simply statistically impossible for him to produce so many consecutive hits, those who subscribed to the theory of creative regression and the inevitable law of averages felt that, after reaching his peak, a decline was not just possible but inevitable, just as it had been for countless geniuses throughout history.

And then there were those who had no particularly strong opinion either way, people who had simply been swept up by the wave of the promotional campaign and were now watching from the sidelines, entertained more by the arguments themselves than by the prospect of the anime.

Whether Demon Slayer would ultimately stand as the defining peak of Rei's career was still entirely undetermined. But one thing was already certain, it was, without question, the most controversial and most eagerly anticipated of all his works before its premiere.

Pulling his attention away from the heated arguments flooding the fan forums on his laptop screen, Sato turned toward the television.

At that moment, Ion Television was broadcasting a recorded interview with the mangaka Shirogane, with brief scenes from the Demon Slayer anime flickering across the screen at intervals, a snow-white landscape, a boy in a checkered haori, a demon dissolving in sunlight.

"An island setting... samurai... demons... Demon Slayers..." Haruki blinked slowly.

Well, to be straightforward about it, as a basic world premise, it didn't particularly grab him. If the author of Demon Slayer had been anyone other than Shirogane, he would not have stayed up waiting for the premiere. He would have simply checked the reviews the following morning and decided from there whether it was worth watching a rerun.

But Shirogane's works had a way of defying first impressions. When it came to initial settings and surface-level premises, Shirogane had frankly never been the strongest out of the gate.

The early world-building of Hunter x Hunter had been even weaker than what Demon Slayer was presenting now. A story about a ten-year-old boy searching for his absent father, it was exactly the kind of synopsis you would scroll past without a second thought. And yet, who could have predicted that it would evolve into something so utterly extraordinary?

That was the lesson Shirogane's body of work kept teaching, over and over again: the quality of a series' conclusion had very little to do with the strength of its initial premise. A compelling setting could attract viewers to the first episode. But if the story lost its footing from the second episode onward, the audience would drop it without hesitation and never look back.

As Sato turned these thoughts over quietly in his mind, the minutes slipped by. Eight o'clock arrived.

The last few seconds of a five-minute mobile phone commercial on Ion Television finally ran out. The screen went still for just a moment, and then it shifted, cutting to a sweeping scene of ice and snow.