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Over the following several days, Prime Manga went into full offensive mode.
Although Initial D was a title that had not even begun its serialization yet, the publisher's promotional resources were tilted heavily in its favor.
In the major metropolitan areas across Japan, promotional posters for Initial D seemed to appear everywhere, bookstores, subway stations, bus wraps, airports, train stations, major anime conventions, and television commercials.
In various television segments, Prime Manga specifically arranged for several well-known manga critics to drop hints and details about the upcoming series.
Across social media, the promotional posters featuring the strikingly attractive duo of Haruto and Shizuru were spreading like wildfire. To the rest of the industry, Prime's intentions were transparent: they were determined to push these two young creators into the limelight.
Naturally, the other three of the Big Four manga publishers began to take the opposite stance.
In a cutthroat industry where rivals are natural enemies, the news outlets and magazines allied with these publishers began reporting on the situation with a skeptical tone.
[A Novelist Crossing Over into Manga? The Market Will Soon Prove How Unreliable This Is.]
[Manga and Novels Are Fundamentally Different Creatures. Do Not Assume Success in One Medium Can Be Easily Replicated in the Other.]
[Veteran Artist Criticizes Prime: Creating a Gimmicky Duo Out of a Novelist and an Unknown Girl? This Is Precisely Why the Standards of the Manga Industry Are Declining.]
[Industry Insiders Remain Skeptical of Initial D's Quality. Many Predict the Genius Author Shiori Takahashi May Fall from Grace with This Work.]
While Prime Manga was busy hyping Haruto and his work, a chorus of mockery and opposition arose from within the industry. However, Haruto paid very little attention to any of it. Since Initial D was just entering its launch phase, the creative pressure on Shizuru's end was relatively manageable, especially since they had already submitted three chapters.
Instead, it was the business side of Haru-Yuki Animation that was leaving Haruto utterly overwhelmed. Although Puella Magi Madoka Magica had finished its broadcast, the surge in its popularity was only just beginning. Every single day, a massive wave of fans flooded the internet, recommending this "heartwarming and healing" masterpiece to newcomers.
On the Haru-Yuki Animation official website, millions of fans were hounding the company for an immediate Blu-ray release. Tokyo TV's Channel 1 was being even more aggressive, shamelessly applying for a license to rebroadcast the series during the July summer season. The popularity of the show was so immense that even a rerun was guaranteed to pull higher ratings than most new summer releases. Naturally, Tokyo TV wanted to use the Madoka hype to bolster their viewership in less popular time slots.
Haruto, however, was done with them. Given the meager amount of money Tokyo TV was offering for the rights, he didn't even give them a second look. Consequently, a very interesting situation developed in the anime world. While millions of fans across the internet were praising Madoka Magica as a god-tier masterpiece, new fans found it impossible to actually watch the show anywhere on television or in stores. This led to a daily influx of comments on the company's website, with fans practically begging for the Blu-ray sets to go on sale.
Meanwhile, after helping Haruto secure his manga serialization, Ms. Hime was back to pressuring him to start a new light novel.
Haruto could only offer her an awkward response, explaining that the new story was still in the beginning stage and that she needed to be patient.
As the calendar turned to July, the fervor for Madoka remained in its peak period. Even though several days had passed since the start of the month, the majority of threads on mainstream anime forums and communities were still dominated by discussions about the series. The sheer momentum and staying power of the show were terrifying.
Between production on the Madoka movie, writing the scripts and storyboards for Initial D, studying for his university final exams, and his daily strategy meetings with Shizuru, the end of Haruto's first year of university was packed to the brim. Still, from a certain perspective, it was a deeply meaningful time.
The only slight shadow was the fact that he failed one of his final exams, which left him feeling a bit on edge. When he contacted Reina Fujimoto and learned that she had once again secured the highest scores in their entire major, he couldn't help but sigh. A monster is a monster. The fact that she could juggle a hit light novel serialization while maintaining perfect grades was truly impressive.
As the first week of July concluded, the highest viewership rating for the new summer anime season sat at a modest 3.01%. Compared to the premiere of Mechanical Metropolis from the previous season, this was a significant decline. The reason was simple: most works were still living in the shadow of Madoka Magica.
The audience had witnessed the birth of a masterpiece just a month ago, and now, looking at the supposed "big budget" productions of the new season, many found them to be boring and uninspired.
During the second week of July, summer vacation finally arrived, liberating Haruto from academic life.
During the final week before the Initial D launch, Haruto and Shizuru spent every day participating in promotional events arranged by Prime Manga. They didn't even need to leave the Tokyo area, yet every day was filled with video shoots, photo sessions, and interviews with industry influencers.
In the past, Haruto lacked popularity, and publishers wouldn't even give his novels a basic recommendation slot. Now, he had so much promotional resources that he was struggling to keep up. But at the very least, Prime Manga had stayed true to their word regarding the initial marketing for Initial D.
They had truly given it their all. Thanks to the publisher's efforts, nearly every manga fan in Japan had heard through various channels that Prime had signed a new duo to launch a racing series. As for what kind of results the manga would achieve, that depended entirely on the quality of Initial D itself.
On the night of July 14th, Shizuru lay in bed, unable to sleep. She had counted three hundred sheep, but her mind was too wired to drift off.
"Tomorrow... is the day the first chapter of Initial D finally comes out," she whispered, her eyes shining in the dark room. Haruto's face flickered through her mind. "Please, I hope everyone likes my art style. I really hope they don't think he chose the wrong partner and turn him into a laughingstock!"
Shizuru was genuinely terrified of letting him down. She loved the story of Initial D and felt that the first five chapters she knew were absolutely gripping.
If a story that good failed to get a positive reaction from the readers, she felt there could only be one reason: her art wasn't up to par. The thought sent a fresh wave of anxiety through her, and she spent the entire night wide awake.
The next day, Friday, July 15th, arrived.
Rento woke up early that morning. As a loyal fan of Shiori Takahashi's novels, he didn't usually care much for manga. However, he had crawled out of bed at dawn for the sole purpose of getting to the bookstore to buy the latest issue of Weekly Prime.
Even though it was early, the bookstore was already crowded. Many people were there for the same reason, to get their hands on the new magazine. While waiting in line to pay, Rento looked at a promotional poster near the register.
It featured the photos of Haruto and Shizuru set against a vivid color spread from the manga. A sense of excitement began to stir in his chest.
He took the thick magazine home and made himself a quick breakfast. Sitting at his desk, he ate with his left hand while his right hand flipped through the pages. He finally reached the section where the serialization of Initial D began.
Rento's eyes narrowed at the very first image. As a casual manga reader, he didn't know anything about storyboarding or technical art quality. His judgment was based entirely on whether a work looked "right" to him.
The first page of Initial D depicted a pitch-black mountain road. The only source of light was the glow of headlights from a white-and-black car, which was performing a sharp, clean drift across a dangerous curve on Mount Akina.
So cool...
In real life, a car drifting often looks heavy or slightly clumsy, but the manga medium allowed for a depiction that was incredibly stylish and sleek.
Heaven only knew how many hours Shizuru had poured into that single opening page. The final result was so effective that Rento found himself instantly immersed in the world of the story.
The story featured a group of high schoolers, including a seventeen-year-old protagonist named Takumi Fujiwara. It also introduced Takumi's school friend and a girl he seemingly had a crush on, Natsuki Mogi.
The pacing of Initial D was relentless.
Within the first few pages, the series had already introduced its primary cast. Once the characters were established, Rento began to absorb the setting. The story took place in a version of Japan.
There was Itsuki, a car-obsessed friend whose life goal was to work enough hours to buy a vintage AE86. Then there was the protagonist, Takumi, a seemingly detached boy who lived at a tofu shop and worked at a gas station after school. The senior worker at the station, Iketani, happened to be the leader of a local racing team called the "Akina SpeedStars." The station was owned by Yuichi.
Rento knew that the first chapter of most works usually focused on world-building and character introductions rather than shocking plot twists. He quickly familiarized himself with the elements. the Akina mountain pass and the AE86.
He also noticed Natsuki, the potential female lead, who seemed to come from a wealthy family and was often seen being picked up by a rich man in a luxury car. A "poor boy meets rich girl" romance setup? He speculated that the girl's father might eventually turn out to be a racing veteran who would mentor the protagonist. In many martial arts stories, the heroine's father is a secret master who passes on his techniques to the lead; perhaps this was the racing version of that trope.
As Rento absorbed these details, the first minor antagonist made his appearance. A young man with bleached hair, driving a high-end yellow FD sports car, Keisuke Takahashi, the younger of the famous Takahashi brothers.
Seeing this, Rento finally felt the story begin to truly heat up.