"Delayed release, but sales remain steady. Weekly Shōnen magazine has achieved great success in major bookstores!"
"Detective Conan introduces new characters and the protagonist's myth crumbles, causing much dissatisfaction!"
"Beautiful and exquisite, shocking, Mirai-sensei shows his sharpness, promising to use the most handsome thief to fight The Detective Sherlock!"
Several newspapers were placed on Alice's desk. Without reading the content, Alice knew that Takumi had succeeded.
The impact of the delayed release was much less than the sensation caused by this issue of Detective Conan. The entire city of Osaka was in a buying frenzy. Some booksellers even sold it at a higher price privately, but it still sold out in one day.
The editors in the editorial department congratulated Alice enviously, and Sun-san even asked her to pass him a letter from Tomato.
This letter was not encrypted, and Alice could see the content. Tomato praised the new plot of Detective Conan and said that he was a new fan of Mirai-sensei and that he hoped they could defeat The Detective Sherlock.
'Who is Tomato?'
When Alice took charge of Takumi, she heard Kurosawa specifically mention this veteran mangaka. He was said to have a great prejudice against Takumi, and Kurosawa asked Alice to be careful not to affect him. However, little time has passed since then, and Tomato has become a fan of Takumi!
Takumi is gaining recognition with his manga, which fills Alice with pride.
But when the entire editorial department was enthusiastic, the editor-in-chief, Kurosawa, was sitting at his desk, frowning.
"Editor-in-chief, aren't you satisfied with the sales of this issue?"
Alice asked curiously.
"No, sales are good." Kurosawa shook his head, looked up, and said, "I was thinking whether it would be appropriate for Takumi... Mirai-sensei to introduce the role of Kid. His charm is excessive, and it's easy for him to steal the spotlight from the protagonist."
He originally wanted to call him Takumi, but then changed his words. Now, the editorial department uses a pseudonym to call him, which avoids the risk of leaks.
"I don't think you should worry about this problem."
Alice smiled and said: "I've talked to Mirai-sensei and he has no intention of including Kid in the main plot. Kid is a special character who appears occasionally. His greatest charm is mystery, and Mirai-sensei won't destroy that mystery."
Maintaining mystery creates a special beauty. The original Kid is one of those characters. He appears and disappears mysteriously, with an unattainable elegance. Readers don't know who he is, what he looks like, where he comes from, or where he goes, so they look forward to seeing his magnificent appearance again.
In short, Kid's influence in Detective Conan is not great, but it will have a huge impact on readers.
"If the editor-in-chief is worried, I'll go to Mirai-sensei's house to get the manuscript for the next volume, and then we can see Kid's stance," Alice added.
Kurosawa nodded: "Good."
"By the way, could you help me remind Mirai-sensei of one thing?"
"Don't draw it too beautifully?"
At noon, Takumi received a message from Alice and couldn't help but wonder if Kurosawa was crazy.
'Other mangaka want their works to look better, but Kurosawa wants Takumi not to draw too beautifully!'
"This sentence is not what you think."
Alice smiled bitterly and explained that Kurosawa wanted Takumi to stick to normal manga fragments and not draw drawings that exceeded specifications, meaning the last drawing of the first chapter, the promotional poster, and this time's Kid.
"Why?"
Takumi was a little displeased: "I drew those images with great difficulty. Aren't they good?"
He felt that his efforts had been in vain.
"It's not bad, it's too good."
Alice shook her head, took some reports from her bag, and spread them on the table: "Look, this is part of the results of reader surveys from several months."
Takumi took the report curiously, and Alice continued:
"In the survey results on how readers fell in love with Detective Conan, we found something very strange. Over 50% of readers were attracted by the image in the first episode."
"They saw that image in magazines, on the internet, and from friends, so they became interested in buying the magazine. It is undeniable that Detective Conan is of great quality to retain them, but if that image hadn't existed, this manga's readership would have been significantly reduced at first, and it might have taken a long time to consolidate before it became popular."
"Are you exaggerating?"
"No, original manga are less popular than you think."
Alice seemed indifferent. 'If a market is deserted, even if high-quality works appear, it will take time to consolidate and stabilize.' Mirai-sensei broke this rule.
"Not only that, we conducted a survey on your posters, and the results were surprising. Thousands of people who haven't read Detective Conan plan to buy the individual volumes, and the reason is that the posters are so beautiful that they are willing to spend money to collect them."
"And with yesterday's Weekly Shōnen issue, you demonstrated that talent for the third time."
Alice paused, a smile on her lips: "Guess what happened?"
"What?"
"Three hours." Alice held up three fingers and smiled: "We printed over 30,000 copies in advance, but it only took three hours to exhaust the week's inventory in Osaka."
Let me tell you one thing: no matter how popular magazines are, publishers and bookstore owners will keep some for sale for the next few days, so if you go to close the door early the next morning for the Weekly Shōnen issue, you still have a chance to buy it.
However, when Kid came out, Osaka went crazy. Veteran readers preferred to spend more money to sell the bookstores. The bookstore owners secretly sold the magazine at a very high price and are now pressuring the publisher to reprint it.
The reason, of course, is Kid's charm, but 'how did it come about?'
Mystery, beauty, none of that is the main cause. The main cause should be the impressive cover image. That image shaped readers' first impression of Kid. And this impression will fully manifest after the plot is perfected and Kid's charm fully revealed.
"..."
Takumi read the report and thought for a moment.
"No! According to what you said, this is good, why don't you let me draw it?"
"The editor-in-chief doesn't mean you shouldn't draw it always, but choose carefully." Alice smiled slightly and said: "We're worried that readers will get used to it after reading too much. You can't ruin the story for them. The fewer such drawings, the better. As long as they appear at the critical moment, it's fine."
"You have to turn it into something like a magic weapon."
After her explanation, Takumi finally understood. However, the original inspiration rarely appeared, so even if he wanted to draw more, he couldn't.
'What is Kurosawa worried about? Isn't the most important thing now the single volume?'