Walking home, Mochizuki Akira mumbled the girl's name to himself again, feeling it was quite strange.
"Shimizu Rin..."
Unlike the interpersonal relationships inherited from the Original Owner, such as with Sakamoto Kayo, the manager of the manga bookstore, the girl, Shimizu Rin, could be considered the first person he met after transmigrating to this world...
A friend?
It didn't seem quite right to call her that.
She could only be considered someone he could barely manage to talk to.
But that wasn't important, because there were more important things at hand.
He shook his head, casting aside the distracting thoughts in his mind.
Upon returning home, he took off his shoes, changed his clothes, and washed up. He then sat back down at the work desk by his bed, chin resting on one hand while the other unconsciously twirled a pencil, lost in thought.
So—if he were to draw manga, what should he draw?
In the Japanese manga industry of the future, there is no longer a forced pursuit of ultra-long-running series, shifting instead towards long and medium-length series. However, in this current era, it is undoubtedly still the age of ultra-long-running manga.
When it comes to ultra-long-running manga right now, especially those serialized in Shonen Jump, the typical representatives are the future "Big Three" of mainstream manga—one piece, naruto, and Bleach.
one piece began serialization at the end of 1997 and is now a popular new pillar of Shonen Jump. naruto, if all goes as expected, will also begin serialization this year.
As for Bleach, although it won't start serialization until 2001, when he flipped through this issue of the Shonen Jump magazine this morning, he had already noticed a short-run manga titled zombie powder, and the author of zombie powder is none other than Kubo Tite.
Although Kubo Tite has not yet begun creating Bleach, he will also begin serializing a short manga called zombie powder this year, in which many character designs, settings, and art styles already bear the early hallmarks of the future Bleach.
In other words, one piece is naturally out of the question, and trying to copy naruto or Bleach is definitely a no-go.
However, he had never intended to draw an ultra-long-running manga from the very beginning.
Although drawing manga is much easier for him than for the average mangaka, and he likely won't have any pressure to meet deadlines, the serialization time for ultra-long-running manga is simply too long, which is unacceptable for him right now.
After all, he just wants to earn his first pot of gold by drawing manga and incidentally fulfill the Original Owner's dying wish, rather than actually wanting to tie most of his life to drawing manga.
Therefore, his criteria for selection are long or even medium-length manga, preferably popular manga that have already been verified by countless readers in the future and are capable of making money.
Despite having so many constraints, he could still immediately think of quite a few—Death Note, Fullmetal Alchemist, Parasyte, Attack on Titan, Jujutsu Kaisen...
"—Wait, hold on?"
When Jujutsu Kaisen appeared in his mind, he suddenly couldn't hold it together.
'Not a moment of mourning for the conclusion of rurouni kenshin; the next series to hit the Shonen Jump serialization is Jujutsu Kaisen!'
'Will I win?' 'I will win!''Seriously? I'm going to beat the Big Three?''Save me, Golden Finger-sama!' 'I'm sorry I couldn't make the Big Three go all out.'
Thinking of all the memories from following the serialization, he couldn't help but sigh: "I have to admire you, Gege Akutami. I'm afraid I'll never forget you for the rest of my life."
However, putting the memes aside, he thought about it carefully and realized it might actually be viable.
Although some say that the reason Jujutsu Kaisen was able to become a new pillar of Shonen Jump during its serialization was that it benefited from the anime adaptation just like Demon Slayer, this is, of course, an undeniable fact.
But before Gege Akutami pulled the big stunt of "2.5 Gojo", the quality of Jujutsu Kaisen itself was actually quite solid, and the plot was consistently improving.
Even after the plot of Gojo Satoru vs. Ryomen Sukuna, the overall quality of Jujutsu Kaisen was indeed worthy of the title of a new pillar of Shonen Jump among contemporary works.
As for the problem of the plot being clichéd, which was criticized quite a bit in the early stages, it wouldn't even be an issue in this era; after all, hunter x hunter had only just begun serialization, and naruto hadn't even been published yet.
More importantly, Gojo Satoru was indeed a very well-crafted character before he was "cut in half," and the popularity and mainstream reach he possessed even exceeded the work Jujutsu Kaisen itself.
As for the plot after "2.5 Gojo," let's not say much more. What's quite absurd is that after that, the popularity of Jujutsu Kaisen actually rose instead of falling; it truly mastered the concept of "any publicity is good publicity."
Of course, that's just saying, he definitely wouldn't make Jujutsu Kaisen his first choice. After all, there are so many good works to choose from, why go out of his way to touch this unlucky thing?
Back to the main topic.