From Sunday morning onward, Rei's fans were everywhere online.
Whether they followed One-Punch Man or Hunter × Hunter, large numbers of them began posting spontaneously, hyping the new broadcast and dragging casual viewers along with them.
In Tokyo, some volunteers even took it offline, roaming anime shopping streets and convention halls, loudly announcing that Hunter × Hunter would be airing that night.
On Capital Television, promotional spots for Hunter × Hunter ran far more frequently than usual.
Naturally, fans of Echoes of the End refused to sit still.
They transformed into full-time trolls, swarming anime forums and comment sections to trash Hunter's source material at every opportunity.
But casual viewers in the country weren't naïve. Toxic fandom culture had existed for years.
Everyone understood a simple truth.
If a work truly had no flaws, no one would bother attacking it.
And if a title were genuinely worthless, no one would waste time hating it either.
Who would bother trashing a grade-schooler's doodles?
A third-rate series doesn't even earn the trolls' attention.
Only a work that inspires both loud praise and loud hate sparks real curiosity among bystanders.
Even if it turns out to be trash, you still want a taste, at worst, you lose twenty minutes.
By evening, posts supporting Hunter × Hunter had begun to outnumber the hate.
In pure manga popularity, Hunter was still a step behind Echoes of the End, which had been serialized for seven years.
But once the fan army jumped in, the balance shifted completely.
"Only one hour until Hunter airs! I wonder how far episode one will go."
"At most, Gon will set sail, maybe we'll even meet Leorio."
"Quick primer for newcomers: the manga isn't slow, but the world-building is. Before Nen appears, it's a fun, solid adventure. Once Nen shows up, it becomes god-tier."
"Just hope casual viewers stay patient. At least until psycho Hisoka appears. Even if you don't like Gon, you'll love Hisoka."
"Honestly, I'm more worried about whether anime Hisoka will sound twisted enough."
"Exactly. Casting's my only concern, can his voice actor really nail that unhinged vibe?"
"But Hoshimori Group's cast list looks solid. And the OP, ED, and insert songs were composed by Teacher Shirogane again, just performed by others this time."
"Shirogane, I kneel."
"That guy's so freakish I don't even know where to start roasting him."
That night, Hunter fans chatted cheerfully all the way up to nine o'clock.
In Rei's previous life, there had been two Hunter × Hunter anime adaptations. Setting aside the dated visuals, the first version's pacing and music far surpassed the remake.
Rei naturally made use of that advantage.
The original soundtrack had already been composed and delivered long ago, and the studio adopted it wholesale.
So when the broadcast began at nine sharp, manga readers were quickly pulled into the farewell scene between Gon and Aunt Mito.
With emotional voice acting and a perfectly timed score, the scene surpassed the manga itself.
And once the episode ended, the real frenzy began.
The next morning, Misaki arrived early at the Hoshimori Group editorial office.
By then, every employee, whether they worked on Dream Comic Journal or not, was talking about Hunter.
As she stepped inside, voices greeted her from all directions.
"Morning, MIsaki!"
"Misaki's here~"
"We're all waiting on Capital Television to send over last night's ratings!"
"Judging by the buzz after episode one, Hunter's no worse than Echoes of the End's premiere."
"The One-Punch Man fans are really showing up, so many of them are posting about Hunter."
"We're all Shirogane fans anyway. No need to split hairs."
What started as greetings quickly turned into a heated discussion.
Though none of them were directly involved with the Hunter manga, at Hoshimori Group, one success lifted everyone.
If the journal sold well and the stock rose, their pay rose too.
From that perspective, they owed Rei genuine thanks.
And seeing Misaki now, any lingering jealousy quietly melted away.
Rumors said her younger sister, Saki, and Shirogane had been dating since high school.
If that were true, then envy was pointless. Misaki hadn't stumbled onto a genius through luck, she had unearthed him through sheer effort.
Misaki sat at her desk, sorting documents, but her thoughts were far away.
'What would the first episode's rating be?'
Plenty of popular manga had collapsed once adapted into anime. Some stories simply didn't translate well to the screen.
Hunter probably wouldn't be one of them, but until the numbers arrived, she couldn't help worrying.
The answer came quickly.
Capital Television compiled the morning data and sent it directly to Hoshimori Group.
When Editor-in-Chief Han posted the figure in the company chat, the office erupted.
5.95%.
A collective sigh of relief followed.
No one had expected Hunter × Hunter to surpass One-Punch Man. Even landing slightly behind Echoes of the End would be acceptable.
After all, this was only the premiere. Ratings could still climb.
As long as the gap wasn't large.
And Hunter's first-episode rating was indeed just a hair behind Echoes of the End, by less than 0.1%.
Next week, it could easily reverse.
Misaki passed the news along to Rei.
He considered it briefly, then accepted it with a calm smile.
Some series simply didn't explode on screen.
Take One Piece for example. Its anime ratings hovered at mediocre levels year after year. Manga fans routinely mocked the later seasons for their declining animation quality, yet the IP still generated over thirty billion dollars, with more than a billion annually from licensing and merchandise alone.
The manga was the true juggernaut.
The anime was just icing.
One-Punch Man was the opposite case. The webcomic had been only moderately popular until the anime adaptation detonated worldwide.
Demon Slayer followed a similar path, an anime transforming a decent manga into a global phenomenon.
As for Hunter × Hunter, It had only trailed One-Punch Man in ratings. Within the domestic animation industry, this debut was still the stuff of dreams.
Hoshimori Group quickly published the numbers on its official website.
By then, the shape of the July, week-one anime battlefield was unmistakable.
One-Punch Man remained far ahead.
But Echoes of the End and Hunter × Hunter had officially entered the confrontation every industry insider was watching.
They had fought fiercely in manga rankings.
Now, their anime adaptations were locked in direct competition.
With a gap this small, they might as well have been tied.
...
Read 55 chapters ahead @[email protected]/Ashnoir