The day after Dream Comic was released, the editorial department of Hoshimori Group also came to its weekly performance review.
At present, however, all editors responsible for works in Dream Comic Journal felt a faint but unmistakable sense of tension.
Everyone could see the current growth momentum of Hikaru no Go.It already possessed the strength to challenge the top three positions in the journal.
For two to three years, Fist Armor, Source War Chronicle, and The Wanderer had firmly occupied the top three spots. Yet now, no one could say with certainty how long they could withstand the pursuit of Hikaru no Go.
The popularity of the TV series was still in the stage of accumulating fans for the Hikaru no Go IP.
It took time for TV viewers to catch up through collected volumes and weekly journal purchases, which was why Hikaru no Go remained in fourth place for now.
But the real question was, how long could Fist Armor hold onto third place?
Two weeks? Three weeks? Or, this very week?
For the editorial department as a whole, the emergence of a work capable of breaking the long-standing dominance of the three pillar manga was, in theory, a good thing.
But when they considered that Shirogane, a seventeen-year-old manga artist, had reached this height in the industry, and that such a genius had not been discovered by them, their emotions inevitably grew complicated.
Their attitude toward Hikaru no Go, toward Shirogane, and toward Misaki, hovered somewhere above envy and just short of outright jealousy.
They all knew, rationally, that Hikaru no Go surpassing Fist Armor was only a matter of time.
Yet emotionally, there was an unspoken reluctance to see it rise so quickly.
To put it bluntly, an uncontrollable sense of jealousy was at work.
Misaki, of course, noticed this shift in atmosphere.
She also understood that within the editorial department, many were quietly hoping for Hikaru no Go to stumble, hoping that she and Rei would become the industry's laughingstock, all out of envy.
But she didn't mind.
Human weakness was something nine out of ten people could not escape.
And in any case, what they thought would not affect Hikaru no Go's ranking.
At 9:30 a.m., the statistical results for Chapter 41 of Hikaru no Go were released.
Weekly votes: 553,698
Ranking: 4th place
Although the ranking remained unchanged, the vote gap between Hikaru no Go and Fist Armor, which ranked third, had shrunk to just 60,000 votes.
Only three weeks ago, the difference between the two had exceeded 200,000.
The premiere of the TV series had nearly doubled the number of Hikaru no Go supporters among Dream Comic readers.
Misaki calmly closed the email and glanced at the colleagues around her.
She showed no visible emotion.
Because there was no need to.
Everyone here had worked in the manga industry for many years.How could they fail to judge the situation clearly?
As long as Hikaru no Go's plot didn't self-destruct in the coming weeks, whether one week, or at most two, Its promotion into the top three of Dream Comic Journal was inevitable.
And once that happened, no individual, company, or media outlet in the Japan manga industry would dare question whether Hikaru no Go belonged among first-tier manga.
While "first-tier" status is often judged by comprehensive data across the top five of the six major journals, there is a long-standing consensus:
Any manga ranked in the top three of a major journal is unquestionably first-tier.
As Misaki thought this, goosebumps rose on her arms.
After all, Rei was a new manga artist she had discovered only last year.
He had entered the industry just one year ago.
And while Hikaru no Go was still advancing toward third place in Dream Comic, on Friday evening, the fourth episode of the Hikaru no Go TV series premiered.
In the episode, Akira sought out Hikaru to play Go once more, only to be rejected.
Hikaru no longer wanted to rely on Sai to defeat Akira.
He wanted to win, someday, fairly and squarely, using his own strength.
Under a gentle, melancholic BGM, Akira stood outside the window in the fading sunset.
All he could see was Hikaru's retreating back, and the curtains slowly drawn shut.
Akira turned and left.
That night, he made a decision, to transfer to Kaio Middle School and join its Go Club, spending an entire year preparing for the campus team tournament that Hikaru planned to enter, all for the sake of playing him again.
This short segment alone made countless TV drama viewers break down in tears on Friday night.
For some people, black-and-white manga better conveys the emotions the original author intends.
For others, however, the synchronized power of visuals, music, and performance in anime and live-action dramas strikes far deeper.
The cast's restrained yet expressive acting, paired with the emotionally charged background music, made this episode resonate profoundly after it aired. It pierced straight into the hearts of viewers.
At the very least, everyone was moved by Akira's persistence, and by his willingness to sacrifice an entire year of his youth just to play a single game of Go with Hikaru.
And he was only thirteen years old.
At the same time, following this episode's broadcast, the popularity of Akira's TV drama portrayal surged dramatically.
Two days later, the fourth-week viewership data for October's TV drama market was released.
With an average rating of 4.98%, the fourth episode of Hikaru no Go surpassed Clinic in the Reverse Light, which held a 4.92% rating, and, for the first time, claimed the number one spot in viewership.
For a series with a production budget of just over 20 million, airing in the fiercely competitive Friday 9 PM slot, this result was nothing short of explosive. Media outlets rushed to report on it.
Even casual drama viewers, those who had never followed Hikaru no Go, were inevitably drawn in by the headlines.
Although many instinctively resisted the idea of a Go-themed drama, the fact that it had reached the top of the ratings forced them to reconsider.
If it can do this well, they thought, then maybe it isn't the boring Go drama I imagined.
During this same period, Volume 5 of the Hikaru no Go manga was released.
Unlike the steady success of previous volumes, this one erupted in theJapan's manga market.
Bookstores saw long lines of fans, both manga readers and TV viewers, waiting to purchase it.
In even more stores, Volumes 1 through 5 were completely sold out.
Unable to endure the weekly cliffhangers any longer, many TV viewers chose to dive straight into the manga, desperate to free their hearts from the relentless suspense.
Most popular manga maintain stable sales unless boosted by major adaptations. Their numbers rise steadily, predictably.
But Hikaru no Go was different.
After the live-action adaptation ignited public interest, its sales surged dramatically in a short span of time. On this month's national manga sales charts, compiled midway through the month, Hikaru no Go had already risen to first place.
By month's end, cumulative new sales of Volumes 1–5 were approaching seven million copies.
The TV series had already claimed the top spot in ratings. Breaking 5% seemed inevitable next week.
The manga's popularity ranking breaking into the top three now felt only one, or two, weeks away.
At the same time, the manga's plot had reached the decisive climax of the Professional Go Qualification Tournament.
Whether Hikaru would qualify came down to a single remaining match.
And as October drew to a close and the weather cooled, another major event loomed, the Annual Manga Awards were about to begin.
Last year, Rei had won the New Manga Artist Award with Tonight.
This year?
Looking across all six major journals, none of the new artists' works could stand beside Hikaru no Go.
In concept, structure, emotional weight, pacing, popularity, and cultural impact, it stood in a completely different league.
Some fans had already begun celebrating early.
Everyone understood.
At last year's New Manga Artist Award, Teacher Shirogane had said that he would stand on the awards stage again the following year, and win the Annual Manga Award the year after that.
Now, looking at the situation as it stood, it was obvious.
If this award were not given to Hikaru no Go, then the credibility of these so-called selection events and awards would be completely meaningless.
Soon, time once again arrived at Wednesday.
In the this version of Hikaru no Go, Rei deliberately chose to omit some overly drawn-out setup segments.
In the original manga, after Ochi was confirmed as the final obstacle, the story spent four or five chapters on flashbacks, layered foreshadowing, and bystander psychology before the two players finally faced each other across the board.
Rei remembered feeling extremely impatient when he read that part back then.
It wasn't that those chapters were poorly written, but Rei was looking forward to something else.
He was waiting for better moments.
Rei kept only the essential plot points and decisively trimmed what he considered dispensable.
What the manga readers wanted to see was simple: Hikaru and Ochi playing Go.
Not excessive detours. Not endless emotional padding.
If the pacing slowed down at such a critical moment, it wouldn't build tension, it would backfire.
Fortunately, Hoshimori Group was fully cooperative.
This week's cover of Dream Comic Journal gave Hikaru no Go absolute prominence.
Only four figures appeared on the full-color cover.
Hikaru and Ochi sat across from each other at the Go board, their gazes locked, blades metaphorically drawn.
Behind them, Sai stood behind Hikaru.
Akira stood behind Ochi.
Guidance against guidance.
Belief against belief.
This was not merely a match between Hikaru and Ochi.
It was also a confrontation between Sai and Akira.
With just this single cover, every reader of Dream Comic immediately understood what this week's main storyline was about.
Early that morning, Takeda Hiroto arrived at the bookstore.
The moment his eyes landed on the cover of this week's journal, his heart began to race.
"It's finally here…"
He took a deep breath and picked up a freshly unpacked copy.
"The final match of the Professional Go Player Qualification Tournament."
Whether Hikaru could successfully qualify, would be decided right here.
...
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