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Success is often a matter of chance. No creator dares to claim their work will reach the top ten or even the top hundred before it is actually born.
The reason is quite simple.
Japan is a massive market and when you factor in the global reach of the industry, who can truly grasp the tastes of such a vast audience?
One person's masterpiece is another person's poison. Even a hit as massive as Initial D, which was both a critical and commercial darling in Japan, still had its fair share of detractors who called it boring.
Until a work has been tested by the market, no one dares to predict its performance.
Yet, Haruto spoke as if it were already a settled matter.
His series hadn't even started serialization, and he already believed it would become the number one manga in history in terms of average sales per volume?
Yukino gave him a strange look.
If it were anyone else, she would have laughed out loud, but this was Haruto.
Up until now, he had never boasted. Every statement he made that others dismissed as arrogance had eventually come true.
"It has only been four years," Yukino said suddenly, looking at Haruto as he sat in front of the computer.
"Four years for what?"
Haruto stopped fiddling with Yukino's hand. When they were alone, he often played with her fingers, and Yukino had grown used to his constant small gestures.
"I mean, I can still clearly remember the scene four years ago when you brought your first Blue Spring Ride manuscript to see me. Who could have known that in just four years, you would have grown to this level?" Yukino smiled, her eyes filled with a touch of pride.
"Looking at it this way, my career as a light novel editor was actually quite successful. I personally scouted the greatest genius in the history of the ACG industry."
"It is just a bit cruel for Reina Fujimoto, though," Yukino said, pausing for a moment.
"What does this have to do with Reina?" Haruto asked.
"Reina, well, she has viewed you as her life goal since her senior year of high school. In truth, her talent is also incredibly formidable. Her fifth light novel series, Absolute Realm, which is currently being serialized, has already surpassed an average of ten million copies per volume. If you didn't exist, Haruto, she would be the most dazzling genius light novel author of this era. With the foundation of Absolute Realm, if she polished her writing skills and created one or two more popular series to boost her standing, she would likely grow into the top author and leader of the light novel world in five or ten years."
"However, because you exist, her exposure in the industry is limited. Competing in the same era as you, her dream of becoming the number one person in the light novel industry will be very difficult to achieve," Yukino sighed.
Hearing this, Haruto remained silent.
In reality, Reina's path was the normal trajectory for a genius novelist. Before drawing One Piece, Oda worked as a manga assistant for several years. Before Kishimoto drew Naruto, he faced numerous failures. Takeshi Obata only became famous with Hikaru no Go after his own students had already made names for themselves. Even Makoto Shinkai worked as an outsider in a game animation company for several years after graduating university before he got the chance to hold an important position, and it took over a decade after graduation for him to create 5 Centimeters per Second.
Were these creators not geniuses?
But they all had to endure the friction of the industry, fate, and the era during the early stages of their careers before they could truly rise.
Reina was certainly a genius author, but in the first two years of her career, she had to serialize several works in small local magazines. It was only after she moved to Tokyo for university that she could serialize at Kiyozawa Library. Furthermore, it was only her second work at Kiyozawa, Absolute Realm, that truly became a massive hit.
That work sold over ten million copies per volume, but even so, it was nearly impossible for her to reach the fifteen million mark, let alone twenty million, or reach the heights of Sword Art Online at the very top of the historical rankings.
The gap was immense.
Even if she maintained this momentum and grew for a few more years, she would still need perfect conditions just to have a slight chance of creating a work that approached or exceeded twenty million copies per volume. If a top-tier genius like her felt the pressure, a presence like Haruto truly made his contemporaries feel a sense of despair.
Even if you worked hard for ten or twenty years and finally caught up to Haruto's current achievements, where would Haruto be by then? No one could say for sure.
This was the difference between a genius and someone using memories from another life.
A genius still operated within the realm of human limits.
"That is why I have always told her not to make me her goal," Haruto sighed.
The results Haruto had achieved over the past year or two were simply too terrifying, putting immense pressure on Reina. Currently, aside from attending classes and maintaining her rank as the top student in her department, she didn't participate in any campus activities or clubs. Despite earning tens of millions in royalties, she didn't even have time to go shopping for clothes or jewelry when Yukino invited her. She claimed she couldn't slack off, or the gap between her and Haruto would only grow wider.
"You really should try to talk some sense into her. I feel like if she keeps this up, she'll end up following in my footsteps. I didn't start dating you until I was twenty-eight. If she gets any more obsessed with writing and lets her competitive nature take control, she might never have any interest in men until she surpasses you," Yukino said with a hint of worry.
Haruto felt a headache coming on. You could say this was related to him, but that didn't feel quite right, yet his presence was definitely a major factor.
Moreover, it wasn't easy to give her advice. If he used the wrong words, she might misunderstand it as the winner pitying the loser, which would only ignite her competitive spirit even further.
"I'll try my best," Haruto said.
The two looked at each other, both sensing that the topic had become a bit heavy.
"Shizuru has the right mindset!" Yukino exclaimed.
"True. She eats when there's food and drinks when there's a drink. She has no procrastination. After finishing the weekly manga updates, if there are no editorial activities, she spends all day traveling for fun. In a single day, she can go shopping in Shibuya in the morning, fly to a coastal beach to sunbathe at noon, visit a festival in the afternoon, and then sleep in business class on the flight back to Tokyo at midnight. She visits three places in one day and still makes it to class the next morning. I was stunned when I saw her itinerary after a weekend break last year. She is the happiest of us all. Now that she's a senior, she has earned more money than she could spend in a lifetime, and she isn't even looking for a job. There's no pressure at all," Haruto said.
"It feels like most of our troubles are self-inflicted," Yukino remarked.
"Indeed," Haruto smiled.
After discussing company business with Yukino for a while longer, Haruto held a meeting with the entire staff in the afternoon.
The next day, while everyone in the ACG industry was still discussing the upcoming serialization of Haruto's new manga, Hunter x Hunter, at the end of the month, Haruto didn't give his fans much time to process the news.
He had already scheduled Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion to premiere next April, so the earlier the promotion started, the better.
On the official Haru-Yuki Animation website and his creator account, a piece of news was updated simultaneously.
The content was simple.
Haru-Yuki Animation had officially launched the production project for a new original anime.
The title: Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion.
The synopsis was also brief, consisting of only about a hundred words.
The Holy Empire of Britannia.
Area 11.
Lelouch.
Geass.
People recognized each of these terms individually, but they had no idea what they meant when put together. Even though the project had only just been confirmed and was still in the early stages of pre-production, the character design for Lelouch was already complete. The animators at the company had spent a week creating a high-definition illustration, which was released alongside the production announcement.
It depicted a youth in lavish aristocratic clothing with black hair and violet eyes that held a hint of melancholy, his expression carrying a faint smile.
It was elegant, mysterious, and aesthetically stunning. His male fans were mostly indifferent, as they didn't have much of a reaction to a single character portrait. However, the female fans were struck to the core by this art style. After all, the original character designs for Lelouch were created by a famous manga collective known for beautiful and slender aesthetics. When Haruto brought works over to this world, he avoided changing things unless absolutely necessary.
This was especially true for the art style. Even if the artists working under him couldn't produce an identical manuscript, Haruto insisted that they capture the spirit and essence of the original.
It wasn't that he didn't trust their creative abilities; Code Geass would likely succeed with a different style, but there was no reason to gamble.
Haruto was very cautious about such things.
Naturally, the female fans fell in love the moment they saw the design. But more than the character art, what truly shocked the fans was the fact that Haruto was producing yet another new anime.
"Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. I have to say, if any other creator announced this, I'd think it was going to flop."
"Why is this guy so hardworking? I'm literally crying! He's a machine."
"Look at this man. Last month, he was doing weekly updates for Sword Art Online, Initial D, and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. It hasn't even been a month since Edgerunners and Initial D finished, and he already has two new projects lined up. He really cares about us."
"The best thing about him is his production speed. Speed is a talent and quality is a talent, but having both at once? He's the goat! He earns so much money every year because he deserves every yen!"
"Wait, it premieres next April? Damn…."
"Does this guy not have any image to maintain? He did Madoka Magica last year and Edgerunners this year. Now it's Code Geass. He starts these projects so quickly; has he never worried that a new work might underperform and lead to criticism?"
"Other famous creators spend ten years polishing a single project because they are paralyzed by their own reputations, and they often end up producing garbage. Haruto is different. After becoming famous with Madoka, he just kept creating, and in less than a year, he delivered a masterpiece like Edgerunners. Don't look at him through the lens of a normal person. Just praise him and move on."
"I am so excited. We already have news about the anime adaptations for Sword Art Online and Initial D. If they air next year, we might see three anime series from him in a single year. That's incredible."
"I don't want to spend another minute in this year. Can time just speed up and jump to next April? I want to see the premiere of Code Geass so badly."
"But at the end of this month, the first chapter of Hunter x Hunter is being serialized in Prime Manga!"
"I totally forgot about that. My bad."
"How is he this strong? Does he not have writer's block? The author of that other series I read is always taking breaks for being sick or stuck, writing barely fifteen days a month with terrible quality. Haruto's speed is top-tier, and besides his habit of cliffhangers, I've never seen him take a hiatus for some weird reason. Is this what a genius looks like?"
"I don't get it. And I don't need to get it. I'm just going to support him regardless."
"Lelouch of the Rebellion is such a weird name. I just hope the quality is on par with Madoka or Edgerunners."
"Be bolder. His new anime will surpass both of them."
In this October, with the news of the Hunter x Hunter serialization and the production of Code Geass being announced back-to-back, Haruto completely stirred up the industry. The ones who suffered the most were the production teams of the current winter season anime. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners had been finished for a month, yet its protagonists, David and Lucy, still firmly held the first and second spots on the character popularity rankings for the current season.
Everyone had assumed they would just be living in the shadow of Edgerunners' hype and were hoping to compete for the honor of being the third most discussed series. But out of nowhere, a character named Lelouch appeared in third place on the popularity rankings.
This anime was still just a concept!
The company hadn't even started production; they had only released one character design. Are these fans crazy? They pushed him to third place on the rankings just based on that? Out of the ninety-plus new anime airing in October, not a single character could beat David and Lucy from a finished series, which was embarrassing enough.
Now it was even worse. They couldn't even beat the protagonist of an anime that wasn't airing until next year.
Was this a joke?
It was beyond humiliating.
While Haruto wasn't intentionally trying to insult them, there were always people who took it personally. That night, Haruto gained several more jealous rivals and haters within the industry.
Haruto was relatively low-key and never spoke ill of his competitors, but that's just how competition worked. You didn't have to do anything; others would see you making money and feel like you were stealing it right out of their pockets. It was quite ridiculous.
Mid-October flew by in a flash.
The end of the month approached.
Prime Manga was now in full swing, launching a massive advertising campaign across the industry for the serialization date of Hunter x Hunter.
Promotional posters for Hunter x Hunter could be seen everywhere. The intensity of this campaign was several times stronger than when Initial D was first serialized.
The executives at Prime Manga understood that if they wanted the magazine to take the next step forward, this level of investment was an absolute necessity. In just one month, the marketing budget for Haruto's new manga exceeded 100 million yen.
Such a high level of promotion for a single new manga was extremely rare in the history of the manga industry.