The next morning, Rin came to Akira's house as agreed to continue her work as a manga assistant.
Of course, this meeting naturally couldn't avoid the topic from last night.
Akira praised her from the bottom of his heart:
"Last night's performance was amazing; no wonder you received the director's praise afterward!"
Last night was Rin's first television appearance, and he had naturally stayed in front of the TV to watch the whole thing.
It had to be said that although he was already very familiar with Rin and they met often, the posture and aura she displayed on stage still left him somewhat stunned.
Some people are born for the stage, and that probably refers to someone like Rin.
However, facing Akira's praise, Rin immediately covered the lower half of her face with Weekly Shonen Jump and said shyly:
"Honestly, didn't we already talk about this last night? Why are you bringing it up again today...!"
After her performance segment ended last night, they had already chatted about it via email, and Akira had already expressed his praise once through email.
Not only that, but Haruka had also called them to report the results of this TV promotion, stating that during Rin's performance, the program's viewership peaked at 23%!
As one of the two top music variety shows, "HEY! HEY! HEY!" had maintained an average viewership of around 18% this year.
For a newcomer, being able to maintain viewership around the average level during their appearance was already very good.
It wasn't uncommon for viewership to drop significantly after a newcomer appeared.
After all, few people watch variety shows for newcomers; the vast majority are there for the popular artists.
But during Rin's performance, the viewership was not only above the average but even saw a 5% increase—this result was quite terrifying!
This meant that 『Tsukirin』 and Rin were truly popular now!
This wasn't just reflected in the viewership; last night, Akira had also checked various major forums online and found that the number of new posts related to 『Tsukirin』 and Rin was increasing rapidly.
However, for Being and for them, the most important thing was still the single's sales.
Popularity that can be converted into single sales is real popularity.
This would depend on how the feedback turned out following this TV promotion.
Speaking of which, among the online discussions about 『Tsukirin』, a post in a section of an ACG forum caught Akira's attention—
『I found two Akiras!』
"
As per the title.
I'm a loyal reader of Shonen Jump and have recently become obsessed with the newly serialized manga, Fate/stay night.
By the way, I'll give it a quick recommendation: the setting of this manga is very interesting, and the female characters drawn by the author are all very beautiful. Highly recommended!
Anyway, the author of this manga is called Akira, which is also the theme of what I want to say.
I was just watching HEY^3 with my family, and this episode featured a newly debuted music group called 『Tsukirin』.
The group's lead singer is a very cute girl who sings well, and their single is also quite good. I feel like I'm already becoming a bit of a fan...
The point is that the other member of 『Tsukirin』 is also named Mochizuki Akira. He's the creative contact person in the group and didn't appear on the show.
However, his name is a complete match for the name of the Manga Artist, Mochizuki-sensei!
Is this really okay?
When the time comes to call for 'Mochizuki-sensei,' we won't even know who's being called, hey!"
After this post was published, many comments immediately appeared below, most of them from users who, like the poster, were fans of both.
"I saw it too, it gave me a fright during the introduction! I almost wanted to say, 'Could it be the same person?!'"
"How could that be? When would a serialized Manga Artist have time for that? Besides, the gap between the fields of music and manga is a bit too large, isn't it?"
"True, in this kind of situation, it's usually just a coincidence of having the same name."
"So, what should be done in this case where both sides have the same name? Should one of them be asked to change their name?"
"Same question."
"It seems like it would be a hassle, right? If it's just a coincidence, how would you convince one of them to change their name?"
"
Actually, it's fine even if they don't change their names. There have been similar situations before.
One side was an actor and the other was a singer.
Because they work in different fields, as long as the two don't appear at the same time, even with the same name, you can tell who is being referred to based on the context.
If all else fails, you can add a professional prefix, like introducing them as Actor XX and Singer XX."
"I see! Thanks for the explanation."
"Thanks, anyway, my useless knowledge has increased again."
"
But there's still a problem. If one of the two artists with the same name becomes a huge hit, wouldn't it be bad for the other one to keep the same name?"
"Good question. Since there are no real-life cases, I don't know either."
"If it's a stage name, they might negotiate, but if it's their real name, there's nothing that can be done, right?"
"That makes sense."
...
...
Just like the content shown above, most people currently don't believe that the two 'Akiras' are the same person, thinking it's just a simple case of having the same name.
Not only that, but netizens also followed the topic to discuss which 'Akira' was more likely to become famous.
Ultimately, the conclusion most people agreed on was that the Manga Artist 'Akira' was more likely to become famous.
First of all, 'Manga Artist Akira' is already a serialized author for Shonen Jump, and the manga's performance is excellent. It's only a matter of time before he grows into a well-known and popular Manga Artist.
On the other hand, setting aside whether 'Composer Akira' can continue to produce high-quality songs, even if he can, the public's attention toward song creators is far lower than the former.
This is true whether it's now or in later generations.
Akira thought this made a lot of sense.
However, this discussion seemed meaningless to him, since both identities were himself.
Regarding the issue of dual identities, he hadn't thought about intentionally hiding it, but he wouldn't actively confess either; he'd just let things take their course.
Besides, once his light novel is published later, it will be a triple identity.
Speaking of which, the reason he wanted to talk about last night's program in front of Rin again was that he thought her reaction would be quite interesting.
The result was indeed as expected.
Of course, such things certainly couldn't be said out loud, so he smiled and said:
"Although we already talked about it last night, I thought it would be better to say it once in person."
"Is that so?"
To this, Rin said somewhat suspiciously:
"Why do I feel like Mochizuki-kun is just teasing me?"
Akira was instantly broke into a cold sweat. Is this a woman's sixth sense?
Truly terrifying.
"How could that be..."
So he hurriedly changed the subject:
"Right, if you've finished reading the manga, shouldn't it be time to start working?"
Mentioning this, Rin indeed immediately shifted her attention and looked back at the magazine in her hand:
"Please wait a moment, I haven't finished reading yet."
She was currently reading the 40th issue of Weekly Shonen Jump, which had just been released today.
In this issue, the content of Fsn Chapter 9 was released, and two important characters from the Type-Moon Series—Illya and the Berserker Heracles—finally made their debut.