"Damn it. Why is this happening? Why did One Piece's vote count in the magazine rise again this week? It's already double Reincarnation's."
"One is fourth in the rankings, the other is third, and the gap is this wide? Reincarnation was at the top of the chart before."
Saturday morning again. Miyu woke up, picked up her phone, and felt like the sky had fallen.
The latest ranking results for Dream Comic, released yesterday, were out.
She had made peace with the reality that Rei's three manga held the top three slots of the magazine on a regular basis. What she could not make peace with was that the total online votes for those three combined ran past double the votes for Reincarnation.
Reincarnation's average volume sales had cleared a fifty million, and the anime adaptation was launching next season, produced by Illumination Animation.
This kind of gap, though.
"One Piece reached the Baratie arc recently, so it's natural that the heat would jump." Rei smiled at his wife. His hands kept moving as he rocked Hina's cradle. "Only losing to One Piece by double the votes is something to be proud of, Miyu."
"Heh heh." Miyu gave a thin laugh. "I should be proud, huh. I'm out of moves at this point. Threw everything I had at it, and the gap is still this wide. Sigh."
"Why be upset? You and I are one," Rei said, falling back on his usual line of comfort. "The better the Big Three do, the bigger the inheritance for little Hina. Ideal case, by the time she grows up, we've earned enough for her to burn through ten lifetimes of spending and still have a pile left over."
"True." Miyu had her moments of feeling low from Rei's run of crushing wins over her, but the bounce-back was quick, and her head shifted onto the next thing. "There's an anime convention in Tokyo next week. I'm planning to go with my sister. We're cosplaying as masked Haku and Kakashi from Naruto. You interested?"
"Aren't you worried about getting recognized and cornered at the convention?" Rei asked.
"Why do you think we picked masked Haku and Kakashi? They're characters whose faces don't show. If you want to come, you can be Zabuza with the bandages. You're tall enough, you've got the build. Your eyes are a bit too gentle, but I can put fierce eye makeup on you. Should be fine."
"All right." Rei thought about it and smiled.
Staying at home all day drawing manga and supervising production and IP operations across a stack of anime at the company, Rei was a bit cooped up himself.
"That's the spirit. Life isn't only about the anime in front of you. There's eating, drinking, playing, and the wider world too," Miyu said with a sweet smile. "Back when none of us were famous, the three of us used to go to conventions and nobody recognized us at all. Now the first thing we do going out is put on a mask. It's more important than the house keys."
"That's the trade you have to make to become a famous mangaka," Rei said. "Although, the last year or two, a lot of ACGN specialty shops have opened around the joint headquarters of Shirogane Animation and Illumination Animation. ACGN fans from all over the country show up in Tokyo to visit every day.
A few hardcore ones walk the streets holding posters of me. In a few years I think the center of Tokyo's ACGN scene is going to shift, and the commercial strip near the company building is going to become a new pilgrimage spot."
"Of course. You're the god of the Japanese anime scene right now. The hottest works in the industry for the past seven or eight years have all come out of Shirogane Animation and Illumination Animation's HQ. Of course the shops around it are going to shift," Miyu said, like it was obvious.
"Actually, I have a suggestion. There's an old stadium near the Shirogane Animation headquarters. It covers a large patch of land, the operators don't have much of a strategy for it, and they have to put a lot of money into maintenance every year.
You could talk to the Tokyo district government about buying it and redoing it. Then you can run large-scale local anime conventions there on a regular schedule, with the focus on the merchandise, games, and adaptations for your anime works.
Most important, at a convention run by your own company, you and I can cosplay however we want. We can give orders to the security ourselves. No worry about making trouble for the organizers."
Rei looked at his wife with an odd expression.
"You're trying to get me to buy a stadium just for that? This is a stadium in Tokyo. Every square meter of land there is worth its weight in gold."
"Why does it matter? You've made so much money. You have to find places to spend it. And my suggestion isn't a waste either. If the goal is for Shirogane Animation to become a world-class IP company, this kind of investment near the headquarters works as an alternative form of promotion," Miyu said with a small laugh.
"True. I'll talk to your sister about it," Rei said after a moment.
Miyu froze for a second at his reaction. Realizing he wasn't joking the way she half had been, she asked, careful.
"Are you tempted by the idea?"
"Yes," Rei said. "Your suggestion has me thinking about a lot of things."
Like the Disney Company in his previous life, where every major IP had been packed into Disneyland. Once you stepped into a Disney park, Disney's advertising was hitting you from every direction.
Rei wasn't interested in copying that business model, for now. But spending money to buy or lease venues to promote his works through conventions wasn't off the table. At the right moment, he could even fund live-action stage productions for major IPs like the Big Three and Hunter x Hunter.
"Right now, the popularity of Bleach, One Piece, and Naruto hasn't peaked yet. Once their popularity reaches a certain level, I really will do what you said and host themed convention activities at my own venue on a regular cycle. Just thinking about it makes me happy," Rei said.
"Not at the peak yet?" Miyu caught the key word in Rei's line.
"Of course. These three anime are expected to serialize for ten years. If their popularity peaked after only one year on air, what would we do for the next nine? Can the popularity of these three works really slide downhill for nine straight years?" Rei laughed.
"Just wait and watch the upheaval these three are going to drop on the global anime industry over the next two or three years."
Miyu watched him as his voice came across.
"It's going to have a bigger impact than Attack on Titan, Demon Slayer, Hunter x Hunter, and every previous work of mine, combined."
"..."
Time moved into the end of September.
By this point in the year's development of the Japanese anime industry, roughly half the topics ACGN fans were discussing online were about the Big Three, and the other half was about other seasonal anime.
That ratio was still climbing.
People in the Japanese anime circle had assumed that once the ratings for these three long-runners crossed 8%, the popularity had hit the ceiling.
On ratings, further movement was hard. On the works' influence, the room for growth was still enormous.
The channels for the Japanese public to watch the Big Three weren't limited to the television premieres. Rerun data at various slots, tankobon sales, and the existence of binge-watchers were all feeding the fan base, and the fan base kept growing.
On plot structure alone, the worldviews of the three works were far from showing the full shape.
Naruto was still tangled up with the early arc boss Orochimaru. Naruto had just learned the Summoning Jutsu from Jiraiya and summoned Gamabunta.
Ichigo in Bleach had returned to the living world from the Soul Society and started a peaceful stretch. For an anime like Bleach, where the protagonist doesn't have a clear goal, after the urgency of the rescue had ended, manga fans had begun to feel a bit lost along with Ichigo. Aizen's scheme was still laying itself out under the surface in the meantime.
Of the three works, One Piece was the one carrying the fastest momentum at the moment.
The Baratie arc moved through Sanji's debut, the famous bowl of fried rice scene where Sanji saved the starving "Demon Man" Gin, and then Gin bringing his own starving captain, Don Krieg, to the restaurant. Sanji fed Krieg too, and Krieg turned on him the moment he was full and moved to rob the Baratie. Then.
The top-tier powerhouse character Hawk-Eye Mihawk arrived, and Nami fled with the Going Merry.
A run of plot beats pulled audience attention back up to the ceiling.
This was the arc that gave the audience their first look at what top-tier combat power inside the One Piece world looked like.
It was a different category from Luffy's childish rubber punches or Zoro's swordsmanship, which still sat inside the range of what a normal person could imagine handling.
In last week's plot, the moment Mihawk appeared, he swung his sword from hundreds of meters away and cut Krieg's massive pirate ship, which could hold thousands of crew, in half.
That scene had kept the audience hanging for a full week.
Tuesday again, and a massive number of One Piece fans were gathering once more.
"After a long week of waiting, it's finally here."
"This has become a habit."
"Following a long-running anime like this is so satisfying. We're on episode twenty-six and the protagonist is still in the starter village. In other seasonal anime, the protagonist would already be invincible by this point."
"The buildup in One Piece is genuinely long. Inside the Big Three, I think One Piece has the deepest character writing. It's also the most painful to watch. Following this weekly is rough. The show is better suited to binge-watching by arc."
"Nothing to be done about it. Can you go a few months without following it? I can't last even a little. Even getting tormented by Shirogane-sensei's god-tier cliffhangers every week, I'm still hooked."
"All the key plots in One Piece are character-driven. Last week, Shirogane-sensei put a powerful guy on screen. Who is he planning to build out this time?"
"No idea. Half an hour and we'll see in the new One Piece episode."
"It definitely wasn't that trash captain Krieg. I thought Muzan Kibutsuji in Demon Slayer was bad enough. I didn't think anyone could go lower. Zeff and Sanji gave the man food when they saw him starving, and the second he was full he smashed the bowl and went straight at the Baratie. Even Buggy the Clown isn't as disgusting as Don Krieg."
"I hope Shirogane-sensei arranges the Luffy vs Krieg fight to be quick and clean, beat him soundly."
"And from what Nami said to Yosaku and Johnny before she stole the Merry, the next arc looks like Arlong the Fishman."
"He's planting so many seeds for later. Can Shirogane-sensei actually cover all these threads down the line?"
Before the One Piece anime kicked off that evening, the discussion heat around the show hit its peak online.
The viewership ratings on Tokyo Television were already pushing the 7% mark before the broadcast even began.
Daiki couldn't sit still, counting down the seconds until One Piece started airing.
He was a regular middle school student, and didn't have much free time outside school, but One Piece was the one series he would make time for every week without fail, no matter what else was happening.
That's just how people are. No matter how much the Naruto and Bleach fans mocked One Piece online, saying Luffy's yelling made him look like a monkey.
To him, One Piece was the best anime he had ever seen in his life.
The supporting character Zoro in this anime was, no question, the coolest character he had come across in any of the works he'd watched.
At eight in the evening, the Capital Television screen started One Piece on schedule.
After the familiar opening theme ended, the plot picked up from last week.
Following the shot of Don Krieg's massive battleship being cut in half from a distance, the top-tier combat power of the One Piece world began to show even a small slice of itself.
Then the owner of the Baratie, the chef Zeff, took over as narrator and explained the identity of the man nicknamed "Hawk-Eye" who had cleaved Krieg's pirate ship.
Don Krieg, the great pirate of the East Blue with five thousand pirate subordinates, had gathered dozens of warships and pushed into the Grand Line, only to be beaten back inside a week. He had ended up adrift, half-starved, looking for food and water.
The reason was that he had run into this man, Hawk-Eye Mihawk, drifting on a small boat across the open sea of the Grand Line.
Krieg had looked down on Mihawk in his arrogance, given offense, and Mihawk had proceeded to slice his fleet into pieces across the endless sea with the Black Blade on his back, leaving only Krieg's flagship to escape the Grand Line, and then.
Mihawk, out of boredom, had chased Krieg out of the Grand Line, planning to wipe Krieg out, which led into the shot of the giant ship being sliced that had played in front of Daiki.
Up to this point, Daiki couldn't figure out why Shirogane-sensei had brought Mihawk onto the stage.
Most hot-blooded anime do not let the protagonist run into the world's top-tier powers in the early stretch of the story.
The reason is simple. The audience will lose interest fast.
In the arc built around Don Krieg, Krieg was the lead antagonist, Luffy's final opponent for this stretch.
But with the appearance of a power like Mihawk, a man who sits above the East Blue tier and is the open enemy of Don Krieg, what was the point of this arc?
Did Luffy still get a moment to shine?
Wasn't Don Krieg about to get put down in one stroke by Mihawk?
Daiki understood why this character had appeared soon enough.
The popular Zoro's dream in One Piece is to become the World's Greatest Swordsman.
So how is that goal achieved?
The answer is straight.
You beat the current number one, and you become the number one in the world.
Inside the One Piece anime's setting.
Mihawk is the recognized World's Greatest Swordsman.
So at that moment.
When Mihawk's identity was revealed.
Zoro stood up from the deck of the Baratie with a hard expression and drew the sword at his waist, facing Mihawk head-on.
The scene was cool. It also pulled Daiki's mood into conflict.
Hey, hey. This isn't right, is it?
Zoro is the man who is supposed to sail with Luffy until the very end.
If he fights Mihawk here and dies, that's a major flaw.
If he doesn't die, and he beats Mihawk, what is the point of developing his character any further?
Daiki's mental tangents got swept up fast by the quality of the animation and the fight choreography.
"A contest? Pathetic weakling. If you were strong, you would be able to see the gap in strength between us. Drawing your sword against me, you ignorant fool." Hawk-Eye Mihawk's magnetic, cold voice cut through.
"For my ambition. For the promise with my dearest friend." Zoro answered, simple.
He could see the gap between himself and Mihawk. Mihawk's strength, the power to cleave a giant ship in one stroke, had been put on display.
But Zoro's reason for setting out to sea was to find Mihawk, so.
Could he back down here? Wait until his swordsmanship was sharpened and he felt sure he could win before challenging Mihawk with full confidence?
Daiki shook the thought off as it flashed past.
In One Piece, the choices many characters make at critical moments are not rational.
Hot-bloodedness itself isn't rational.
Rationality damps down human feeling and makes a person think like a machine.
In real life, you need rationality.
But the people watching anime.
Who comes in wanting to watch the protagonist solve problems by thinking like a machine?
The odds of Zoro winning were low. The odds weren't zero.
There are documented cases of humans being taken down in single combat by animals like cats, chickens, and dogs. Why say Zoro is definitely losing to Mihawk?
"Go on. Beat the hell out of this guy who calls himself Hawk-Eye. What is with the posing? Why is he acting that arrogant with that little V-shaped mustache?" As a fan of Zoro, Daiki couldn't be bothered with anything else right now. He was rooting for Zoro with everything he had.
On screen, though, Zoro fighting with everything he had didn't even earn him the right to make Mihawk draw the Black Blade off his back.
Mihawk drew only a small fruit knife hanging at his chest and held back the full assault of Zoro's Three Sword Style with no effort.
In the middle of the fight, Zoro's expression nearly collapsed.
The result was a stark one. Zoro was being played with by a man wielding a fruit knife.
No matter how much swordsmanship Zoro had spent his life learning and how much he poured out, he couldn't get close enough to touch the edge of Mihawk's coat.
Daiki was on the edge of tears watching this.
What is this.
He had finally grown to like an anime character this much. He had been defending One Piece against Bleach fans and Naruto fans online every week for Zoro's sake.
What he wanted to see wasn't a fight where Zoro got turned into a clown.
The memories of Zoro and Kuina flashed through his mind.
The vow under the moonlight, the scene of the promise to be the world's number one, played across his head.
In the end it took the shape of Mihawk's fruit knife piercing into Zoro's chest in one of the exchanges.
"Why didn't you dodge?" Mihawk's gaze went serious.
The atmosphere of the animation tightened.
"I don't know. I feel that if I step back here, every important promise and vow I've carried up to this point disappears. And I'll never be able to come back to this place again," Zoro said.
Tears rose in Daiki's eyes.
Mihawk asking that meant the strike had handed Zoro two choices.
Mihawk wasn't holding back on the swordplay alone. He was holding back the vastness of the ocean.
Zoro could take this strike head-on, fail to block, and end with a blade through the heart.
Or he could accept the charity of his enemy in this fight, dodge the attack, and save his life.
Running from the fight here would let him live. But.
Would he still have the courage to face Mihawk again and challenge him a second time?
Zoro's choice was that direct.
He would rather die than lose.
Death and losing were close to the same thing, but losing in battle meant there had been no fear and no surrender in his heart.
Losing by running meant going spiritually soft.
"That's right. This is defeat," Mihawk said back to Zoro, voice cold.
"Then I cannot retreat," Zoro said, voice level.
Mihawk stepped back one pace and pulled the small knife out of Zoro's chest.
He had not killed Zoro with that strike.
He drew the Black Blade off his back now, preparing to show his worthy opponent the real respect he had earned.
The tens of seconds of duel animation. Lighting, effects, character expressions, original sketch detail, BGM, color tone.
Daiki held his breath through the scene.
In the final clash, Zoro brought out his strongest swordsmanship, and then.
The result was clean. The sword broke, the man was beaten.
Zoro then looked at the broken sword in his hand, sheathed it, turned to face Mihawk, spread his arms wide, and accepted death with calm.
He even delivered a line that shook Daiki hard.
"A scar on the back is the shame of a swordsman."
Only running away leaves you with a wound on your back.
Even Daiki thought that if Zoro had wanted to live, Mihawk would not have killed him if he had fled.
Zoro refused to. The sword was broken and the loss was locked in, and he refused to entertain the thought of swallowing the shame of running away to come back stronger next year.
If he lost, he died.
A sword duel, like life, has no room for hoping the enemy will show mercy, no room for hoping for a second chance at a rematch.
Zoro's actions in this episode weren't rational, and the plot was heavy. In this moment, though, the writing of Zoro moved Daiki to tears.
Luffy is an idiot.
Zoro is too.
Nami and Usopp are also idiots.
Daiki was too.
He loved watching a crew of idiots like this run an adventure across the seas, chasing their dreams.
In real life, his parents kept telling him to be smarter.
In the world of anime, he loved characters like this, the kind whose choices could make him cry.