After the announcement that the hikaru no go TV series had officially entered production, complete with a broadcast date, the enthusiasm of fans practically exploded overnight.
But as always, questions surfaced along with the excitement.
"Only a little over twenty chapters have been serialized so far, can that really support an entire first season?"
"What are you worried about? Twenty chapters of this manga equals fifty chapters of many other works. And TV dramas are filmed in real time. While the show airs, the manga keeps updating, it'll be fine."
"I still can't believe how fast things are moving."
"Shirogane-sensei really hit the jackpot. Hoshimori Group wants to mold a genius, the Go Association is pushing like crazy, and now even big Go-league investors are involved. No wonder things are moving like this."
"The animation side hasn't said anything yet, though."
"If they want to air in January, they're already deep in production. We'll hear something soon enough."
"My only concern is that hikaru no go's magazine ranking hasn't climbed recently. It kind of breaks my heart."
"Bro… the top works have been animated for ages and even have games. Their fanbases are insane. Wait until the TV series airs, that's when things will change."
While those discussions continued, something else was heating up even faster: The audition roster.
"Forget everything else, WHO is going to play everyone?!"
"Same! But above all, Sai. How on earth are they casting Sai?"
"Sai's presence is too ethereal. A normal actor won't have that aura."
"I don't need 100% accuracy, but at least give me 70–80%."
By evening, Rei's account comment section transformed into a battlefield of fans recommending actors.
Some were sincere.
Others were clearly actor stans invading the conversation.
But everyone was reacting to one key line in the official announcement:
Rei is an official creative consultant, and his name appears very high in the staff list.
Which meant he had real influence, not decorative influence.
So when Rei arrived at school the next morning; Chaos.
"Rei! Is it true Shiro might play Akira?! My mom was obsessed with him ten years ago! She made me ask you!"
"Is Minato shortlisted for Akira? Don't you know who he is?! He's everywhere right now!"
"Who's playing Sai? I saw rumors about Atsuki! If it's true, PLEASE take me to the set. I need a photo with him."
"Rei, help me get an autograph! We were so close in first year! Remember during midterms when I let you copy that huge math problem so you wouldn't fail? That one! You owe me!"
"Someone online claims Hikaru's actor is already confirmed, is it true?!"
From the first bell to lunch break, he was relentlessly surrounded, peppered with questions, and emotionally drained.
By noon he escaped, half-dead, and collapsed on the rooftop.
A few seconds later, footsteps approached, light, smug, unmistakably amused.
Miyu.
She leaned against the railing, smiling like a cat who found cream.
"So? Being a genius manga artist isn't easy, is it?"
"The greatest mistake of my life," Rei muttered, face buried in his arms, "was going on stage to accept that award."
"Dealing with them is more exhausting than drawing manga."
She laughed softly.
"What did you expect? Hoshimori Group wants to market you as a star creator. This was inevitable."
Rei groaned.
Miyu continued, her voice softer now:
"But still, it's surreal. I remember this time last year, five centimeters per second had just finished serialization. One year later, hikaru no go is about to have an anime and a live-action drama."
She gazed at him, half admiring, half teasing.
"Rei, I wonder how many people in the entire manga industry are jealousy right now."
"I don't care about the opinions of people I don't even know." Rei stood by the wall, looking down at the scattered high-school students on the playground.
"Right now, they still have the energy to envy me and throw insults online. But in a few more years, they won't have the time or confidence to think that way."
Miyu was stunned for a moment, then slowly understood what Rei meant.
Envy only exists when the gap looks small, when someone feels they still have a chance to catch up.
But if the distance becomes overwhelmingly large, the idea of envy doesn't even appear.
"You're quite confident," Miyu said with a wry smile. "Alright, let's talk about what I actually came here for. My sister told me that during summer vacation, you'll be pouring a ton of energy into the Hikaru no Go animation and TV series production. Since you took the position of consultant, it's part of your job anyway."
"But I also heard you're planning to submit some original songs you composed to both production companies, hoping they'll use them as the opening and background tracks for the TV drama and anime… Is that actually true?"
"That's right." Rei nodded casually.
"Huh?" Miyu's eyes widened. "Wait, you're serious?"
"You heard it from your sister and still didn't believe it?"
"You...writing music?! I admit your manga talent, but music talent? Don't go embarrassing yourself by handing over terrible songs that you think are masterpieces!"
Rei shrugged. "There are very few manga artists who get famous at seventeen, but plenty of musicians debut young. It's not that unbelievable, is it?"
"And why do you care whether I embarrass myself in front of collaborators?"
"Because that's unacceptable!" Miyu shot back. "You're the manga artist Hoshimori Group is promoting with everything they've got. My goal used to be to become someone like you. If you get ridiculed, I'd feel second-hand humiliation!"
"You don't need to worry," Rei said, smiling. "I'm only providing demo tracks, but I'm confident they'll be chosen."
Miyu folded her arms. "And what makes you so sure?"
"You'll understand once the Hikaru no Go TV series airs," Rei said.
He remembered vividly the classic music tracks from the anime of his previous life, "I'll Be the One," "Hitomi no Chikara," "Kimi no Bouken," "Get Over."
Even though Rei himself wasn't a trained musician, the body's original owner was. With eight or nine years of childhood music education, drafting sheet music wasn't a problem.
Naturally, the animation and drama production teams reacted politely but dismissively to his initial proposal. Rei could tell they didn't take his involvement in the music department seriously.
But that didn't matter.
Music, cast selection, character designs, these would all be decided at big production meetings. As a consultant, Rei would sit in on every one. Once they heard the tracks he planned to submit, their opinions would definitely change.
After all… the Hikaru no Go anime soundtrack in his memory was iconic.
He doubted either team could produce anything superior.
June ended, and July arrived.
Final exams were over. Rei stepped into what would be the last summer vacation of his high-school life.
Besides drawing the manga daily, he now had an additional routine, attending the actor auditions for the Hikaru no Go live-action drama, as requested by the production team.
The director of the drama was Seiya, age 44.
Across more than a decade of directing, he had completed seven or eight TV series, well-known, reliable, and experienced.
Although Rei was given a high degree of respect in the casting process, he understood very well that the final choices weren't determined by him alone, budget, scheduling, and the director's preferences always played a role.
But the production team for the Hikaru no Go TV drama clearly wasn't interested in parachuting in random big-name actors. The entire casting process was decided directly by the director's judgment.
And the middle-aged director never once looked down on Rei because of his age. If anything, he respected Rei's opinion far more than Rei expected.
A live-action adaptation can never perfectly reproduce the expressiveness of manga panels, since animation allows for imaginative liberties that live-action simply cannot achieve.
Still, within the constraints of real actors, Rei made sure that every chosen cast member, whether in looks or performance, was someone he could approve of.
To Rei's relief, every candidate he supported ended up being well above the level of the live-action actors from the adaptation in his previous life. Far above.
Of course, Rei also participated directly in the script discussions.
A manga cannot be copied panel-for-panel into a TV drama. Scenes must be restructured, pacing must change, and side-stories have to be added to make the live-action cast feel alive.
But Rei had one non-negotiable demand:
The main plot lines cannot be altered. Ever.
The disastrous version from his past life committed the unforgivable sin of altering central character arcs. Rei would never allow that.
Adding side romances for institute students? Fine.
Changing the emotional core of the story? Absolutely not.
Fortunately, having seen a full live-action version in his previous life, Rei could instantly recognize bad ideas before they were even spoken. He blocked many "creative liberties" long before they could slip into the script.
The animation team required much less intervention.
The animation quality standards in this Japan was already high, far beyond the outdated style of the original Japanese anime Rei remembered.
The only thing Rei firmly insisted on was: Character designs must not drift away from the manga's appearance.
No "modern reinterpretations," no redesigns that ignored personality, and absolutely no "stylish realism."
While all of this was unfolding, Hikaru no Go reached its 26th chapter.
And during Rei's summer vacation, the third volume of the tankōbon was released.
Volume 1 first-week sales: 970,000
Volume 2 first-week sales: 1.23 million
Volume 3 first-week sales: 1.77 million
The industry was shaken.
Even the most conservative estimates meant Hikaru no Go now had the potential to break 5 million copies per volume, a level only reached by top-tier manga artists.
More importantly, this was achieved by a 17-year-old student.
At first, when Rei debuted, people in the industry called him a genius.
But privately, many scoffed.
A seventeen-year-old maintaining consistency? Keeping pressure control? Impossible.
He'll lose steam. He'll collapse.
But when Volume 3's sales numbers dropped, professionals in the manga world all thought the same thing: Among geniuses… there are levels.
Maybe Hikaru no Go would collapse one day. No one could predict the future.
But right now, Rei had clearly demonstrated the qualities of a true top-tier manga artist.
Some critics claimed Rei was just benefiting from: Hoshimori Group's desire to promote a genius, the Go Association's nationwide push, the "Go boom" created by the manga itself
But anyone who believed it was that simple was welcome to try drawing a manga about an unpopular sport, like ice hockey, and see whether it could break even a fraction of Hikaru no Go's success.
Rei was now only one step away from breaking out of the manga world entirely, from becoming a nationally recognized name.
And that final push would come with the Hikaru no Go TV drama in October, and the anime in January next year.
Just one step.
...
Read 50 chapters ahead @[email protected]/Ashnoir
Bonus@ 1200 PS