"Mochizuki-sensei is really so young—and unexpectedly handsome—"
Although he had long known the other party was young, and had long imagined what he looked like, now that he was actually seeing him, he couldn't help but feel surprised.
"Is this the youthful genius I have been watching and looking up to?"
"But anyway—finally, we've met!"
Looking at the figure of Akira before him, the image Masashi Kishimoto had been imagining in his mind finally became clear and concrete. He felt an irrepressible excitement in his heart, and at the same time, he couldn't help but feel emotional.
This sentiment was no exaggeration, because to him, Akira was quite a special person.
Before "Fate/stay night" began serialization in Shonen Jump and became known to the public, he had learned of the other's existence by chance and realized his formidable strength.
Sure enough, "Fate/stay night" quickly gained high popularity as soon as it started serialization.
Soon after, "naruto" began serialization, and they became rivals competing on the same stage.
And after facing the pressure brought by serialization, and then observing Akira's various maneuvers, he realized more deeply what a terrifying existence the other was; he was truly worthy of the name of a genius.
Thus, while treating Akira as his greatest imaginary enemy and competitor, he couldn't help but feel admiration for the undeniable talent and gift the other displayed.
Therefore, he had been looking forward to this New Years Party for a long time, hoping to see the true face of the genius and rival he had been following for so long, and to make friends with him.
But now, the other claimed to be a loyal reader of his, which was something he hadn't expected.
"R-really?" He opened his eyes slightly in surprise, finding it hard to believe.
It wasn't that he was belittling himself, but rather that Akira's situation was somewhat special.
Since Fsn began serialization, in addition to maintaining the manga serialization, Akira had also published the one-shot manga "Weathering with You" and the second half of "Emiya Kiritsugu".
Especially "Weathering with You", which reached a terrifying total of two hundred pages, almost equivalent to the workload of ten chapters of serialized manga!
You have to know, his "naruto" had only been serialized for 14 chapters so far.
More importantly, the detail in the artwork of "Weathering with You" completely exceeded the level that a weekly serialized manga should have; it was more like the level that could only be slowly polished in a monthly manga.
Besides that, the other had even written a light novel.
Although he didn't know how long it took to write a light novel, even just considering the workload of drawing manga, it was already absurdly exaggerated.
In his imagination, Akira should be that kind of reclusive genius who was immersed in his own creation, forgetting to eat and sleep, and unconcerned with worldly affairs; otherwise, it was hard to explain why the other could have such a massive output.
If that were the case, it would be normal for the other not to know his work, or even not to have heard of him.
But looking at reality, the situation seemed to be a bit different from what he had expected.
Akira didn't know what Masashi Kishimoto had imagined; he just smiled and said, "Of course, the teamwork between naruto and Sasuke in the latest chapter was displayed very well. The shōsei ranking this time should also have good results, right?"
"Naruto" was now updated to the 14th chapter. After Kakashi was trapped by Zabuza's Water Prison Jutsu, Naruto and Sasuke used tactical coordination and finally successfully rescued Kakashi.
This was a chapter with a very good viewing experience among the recent ones, and it was also one of the few highlights for naruto recently.
Then he smiled again and said, "And more importantly, judging from the plot development, the next chapter should be the official showdown between Kakashi and Zabuza, right? My curiosity has already been piqued."
Of course, this part was purely polite talk. After all, he was the person who understood "naruto" better than the current Masashi Kishimoto. The content of the entire manga was in his head, so how could he be looking forward to it?
But for Masashi Kishimoto, these words were quite encouraging.
So, the other is also paying attention to me?! At least judging from the other's statement, the fact that he was a "loyal reader of 'naruto'" was indeed true, which made him feel very pleasantly surprised.
As for the content of the next chapter—as if he had been encouraged, mentioning this matter, Masashi Kishimoto's head heated up, and he pledged to Akira, "Please rest assured, the content of the next chapter will definitely not disappoint you!"
In fact, he was indeed full of confidence regarding the content of chapter 15. He could even bluntly say that chapter 15 was, since the serialization of "naruto", the chapter he personally thought he had drawn the best, with the most effort, and was most satisfied with.
But as soon as the words left his mouth, Masashi Kishimoto, having calmed down, felt some regret, fearing that Akira would think his statement was too arrogant.
Fortunately, Akira did not have such a reaction, but just nodded and smiled, "Okay, then I will look forward to it."
Although saying he was looking forward to it was a bit exaggerated for him, he had no doubts about Masashi Kishimoto's claim. Because if there were no accidents, chapter 15 was the first high-spec battle in naruto, and it was also the first appearance of the Sharingan, which had left a very deep impression on him when he first watched the anime.
At the same time, Masashi Kishimoto breathed a sigh of relief, but vaguely felt that the other's reaction was a bit subtle. Because the other's reaction didn't seem like he was really looking forward to it, but it wasn't the kind of polite talk that didn't care at all, but rather inexplicably gave people a kind of—feeling of being confident and in control?
Well, perhaps it was an illusion. In short, this first meeting and conversation with Akira was unexpectedly smooth, and Masashi Kishimoto was satisfied with it.
It was a pity that their greeting work had not ended yet, and the conversation between the two could only end here for the time being. However, what surprised Masashi Kishimoto was that when they temporarily said goodbye, Akira took the initiative to propose exchanging contact information, which could be said to be his biggest gain from attending this New Years Party.
On the other side, Akira looked at Masashi Kishimoto's private number he had just saved in his phone, and also showed a satisfied smile.
After Masashi Kishimoto left with Yahagi Kosuke, Hisashi stood by his side again, looking curiously at Masashi Kishimoto's back and asked, "Do you think highly of him?"
"Yeah." Akira nodded frankly, then smiled somewhat mysteriously, "I have a hunch that "naruto" might become one of the pillar-level manga of Shonen Jump in the future."
"Pillar-level manga—?!" Hisashi was very surprised to hear this, not expecting Akira to give such a high evaluation.
In fact, he was also paying attention to this manga, but so far, he could only give it an evaluation of "quite interesting".
As one of the most famous cultural elements in Japan, creations with ninja themes have been emerging one after another in various fields, and this is no exception in the manga world.
However, so far, although there have been some popular works with ninja themes, no work's popularity has reached the standard of Shonen Jump's "pillar-level".
Perhaps it was because the element of "ninja" was too familiar to readers, so it was harder to create a work that satisfied everyone? As for whether "naruto" could achieve this feat—it was hard to say.
After all, the story of "naruto" had just unfolded so far. However, since Akira could give such a high evaluation, he felt that after he went back, he might need to carefully study this work again.
But before that, he still had to finish the work at hand. Thus, Akira also re-entered his work mode.
Fortunately, it would be much easier from now on. One reason was that the number of new Manga Artists of the same period was not large, and the second was that when facing peers, the attitude could be more relaxed.
"—Yeah." After finishing greeting another new Manga Artist of the same period, Hisashi, who was on the side, finished confirming by writing and drawing on his small notebook, and finally looked up and announced with a smile, "Okay, all the Manga Artists at the scene should have been greeted. Thank you for your hard work."
"It's finally over." Hearing that the work was declared finished, Akira couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief, and then stretched a long, long stretch.
Although this wasn't very hard work, it had to be said that going around greeting everyone was quite tiring, fortunately, it was only this once.
Hisashi could understand this, so he smiled and said, "Anyway, please feel free to move around for now, I won't disturb you anymore. Also, after it ends later, the Shonen Jump group has a second party—no, just pretend I didn't say anything."
"Huh? What's wrong?" Akira asked curiously.
"Nothing. It's just that the second party usually implies drinking, so—" Halfway through his sentence, Hisashi smiled without saying anything, everything was self-evident.
"..." Fine, pretend he didn't ask. Then he and Hisashi temporarily parted ways. He looked around the hall, touched his empty stomach, and decided to go find some food first.
"—Akira!" A familiar voice called out again. He turned his head to look, and Oda Eiichiro trotted over, grinning, "How is it? You've already greeted all the senseis, right? Thank you for your hard work."
"Well—" Akira sighed, but after realizing something, he found it somewhat funny and said, "By the way, you didn't wait specifically until Mr. Sasaki left before daring to come over, did you?"
"Of course!" Oda Eiichiro said confidently, "If Mr. Sasaki were here, chatting or whatever would be too uncomfortable."
Akira couldn't help but laugh and cry at hearing this; he could only say that he really found it hard to understand Oda's psychological shadow regarding Hisashi.
That said, upon learning that he was planning to eat first, Oda Eiichiro enthusiastically led him to the buffet area. He had already eaten a round in the buffet area just now, and it was just right to recommend the dishes he thought were delicious to Akira.
Naturally, they couldn't avoid talking about the greeting session just now. And at this time, Akira heard a name from Oda Eiichiro's mouth that surprised him—
"Do you know? Konomi-sensei, the author of the manga "The Prince of Tennis" which was published along with you this year, is my contemporary."
"...Konomi Takeshi-sensei?" Akira was a bit surprised.
In fact, just now when visiting the seniors, because Konomi Takeshi was also classified as a senior, he learned that the other had already drawn a serialized manga before "The Prince of Tennis".
But because he didn't know much about the other, and perhaps because that work's performance wasn't outstanding, he didn't know the details of that work either.
And during the greeting just now, he and the other had only exchanged a few polite words, and the conversation was quite shallow.
"I remember it was called "COOL Rental Bodyguard", right? It was a serialized manga that was published a few issues later than my "One Piece", and it ended in the middle of '98."
After a brief explanation, Oda Eiichiro continued with a smile, "How to say it, when I saw the "The Prince of Tennis" he drew this year, I was also taken aback; there was a huge change."
"But compared to the previous manga, the "The Prince of Tennis" he serialized this year feels much more exciting."
"Especially the scenes when both sides are competing; although I don't know much about tennis, it feels very passionate and realistic while watching."
"Indeed." He nodded and smiled, "After all, the other has been in contact with and practicing tennis since childhood."
However, Oda Eiichiro was a bit surprised at this, "You know this too?"
"Huh? Mr. Sasaki told me this." He was slightly stunned, first explained, and then asked somewhat strangely, "Since you are contemporaries, why don't you know about this kind of thing?"
"Er—" Oda Eiichiro scratched his cheek awkwardly and said, "Although we are contemporaries, actually I am not very close to him."
They had only met twice in total; once was the New Years Party at the beginning of 1998, and the other time was now. Moreover, when he first started serializing "One Piece", his performance wasn't as relaxed as it was now, so he hadn't had a deep conversation with the other at the New Years Party.
Although they met again now, the atmosphere felt a bit subtle, so there was no conversation. As he spoke, Oda Eiichiro scratched his head and said, "Anyway, it's just a feeling of "having missed out"."
"I see." Although it was a bit hard to describe, Akira could understand this feeling.
Thus, Oda Eiichiro quickly changed the subject and chatted back to a point he had been concerned about before—
"Speaking of which, you just said that the planned length of "Fate/stay night" is the length of a medium-length manga, right?"
"Yeah." Akira nodded, thinking that the other seemed to be concerned about this just now, so he asked, "Is there any problem?"
"It's not really a problem, I just suddenly thought of one thing—" Oda Eiichiro said, "Have you heard about the things during the serialization of "Dragon Ball"?"
"It is said that Toriyama Akira-sensei originally planned to end it after the King Piccolo arc, but because the manga's popularity was too high, he was constantly asked by editor-in-Chief Torishima to continue serialization, and it finally became what it is now."
"You mean—" Akira understood what Oda Eiichiro meant.
Although "Fate/stay night" could not be compared with "Dragon Ball", at least so far, Fsn's ranking on Shonen Jump had always been among the top, and its popularity was very hot. So, could Shonen Jump really agree to him finishing it smoothly at medium length according to the original plan?