Chapter 200: Adapted into a TV Drama?

The New Year holiday passed quickly. During this time, aside from making phone calls to acquaintances and receiving greeting cards, Akiwara Yuto did nothing but eat and sleep. By the end of it, he felt bored to death.

Therefore, as soon as the holiday ended, he immediately dropped everything and went to the Kexiao Hall, throwing himself into his work with boundless energy.

The first thing he did was look into the sales changes for "April Youth" and the other three major magazines during the holiday period.

During the 10 days of the New Year holiday, many people were busy with shrine visits and resting, so the market response was noticeably much colder.

This caused the sales of the 5th and 6th issues of "April Youth" at Kexiao Hall to not only fail to grow but to drop slightly. Even so, it still exceeded 200,000 copies, maintaining its third-place position.

Mantan Society's "Tokyo Literature" continued to push its market strategy with the two works by Seto Tamae and Nakata Keito as its main features. Perhaps due to increased advertising at train stations, sales actually bucked the trend and broke through 280,000 copies.

Jingfan Society's "Spring of Literature," due to students being on holiday, saw its market channels around schools severely affected, and sales continued to wither, falling to only 150,000 copies.

Dongying Society's "Tokyo Youth," as the veteran No. 1, naturally played it steady, continuing to feature "Detective Kamimura" as its main draw, with sales reaching 300,000 copies.

After learning all the facts, Akiwara Yuto couldn't help but knit his brows.

As it stands, "April Youth" has firmly established its third-place position, but the gap with the first and second places remains quite large.

He had thought this gap was slowly shrinking, but it turned out that both of them had found some way to continue encroaching on the market.

He still had to think of a way; maybe he should put out a special issue?

But would that be inappropriate?

Watching the deep-in-thought Akiwara Yuto, Dacheng Lixiang, who was sitting across from him, said, "Teacher Akiwara, have you been paying attention to 'Detective Kamimura'?"

Akiwara Yuto nodded. The other party's work belonged to the same genre as his, so naturally, he would pay more attention to it.

"Then, have you seen the latest two issues of this work?"

"I have. How should I put it..." Akiwara Yuto hesitated for a moment before saying, "Although the formulaic style hasn't changed, compared to the previous monotonous crime-solving, it has added an exploration of the murderer's humanity. It feels like that Furuya Masaaki has achieved a new breakthrough."

He didn't know that "Detective Kamimura" had already changed writers, thinking it was just Furuya changing his style.

"Our editorial department thinks so too, but don't you think the other party is plagiarizing your 'Furuhata Ninzaburo'?" Dacheng Lixiang pressed.

Regarding the exploration of the murderer's humanity, "Detective Kamimura" had been very weak before, whereas "Furuhata Ninzaburo" used a large amount of space to describe it.

"Plagiarism is too strong a word," Akiwara Yuto shook his head, "but the other party has definitely borrowed and imitated to a certain extent."

He didn't find it strange; after all, based on his past-life experience, many works would imitate the plot points or ideas of other works in the name of "homage" or "reference."

What's more, "Detective Kamimura" only increased the space dedicated to the murderer's humanity.

If one were to delve deep, it might not even count as imitation.

Dacheng Lixiang nodded. In fact, their editorial department thought the same, but they were afraid that Akiwara Yuto would be like some extremist writers who think that if a plot point matches even slightly, it's plagiarism.

"I see. Actually, there is some news I need to inform you of." After saying this, Dacheng Lixiang handed over a document.

Akiwara Yuto was a bit curious, but he took the document and lowered his head to read it. He saw that the document was titled "Report on the Screen Adaptation Status of Detective Kamimura."

"This is?" Akiwara Yuto glanced at Dacheng Lixiang.

"This is information we obtained through some special channels. It is said that Dongying Society is currently in detailed talks with Asahi and Fuji television stations, preparing to adapt 'Detective Kamimura' for the screen."

"This is bad news!"

Akiwara Yuto immediately realized the implications behind it.

For a work, if it can be made into a TV drama, the magazine serializing it will inevitably see a surge in sales!

But if that happens, it will undoubtedly become even more difficult for "April Youth" to surpass the other party and become the industry leader!

This was quite inconsistent with Akiwara Yuto's expectations.

"Editor-in-Chief Dacheng, what are your plans?"

Akiwara Yuto looked at Dacheng Lixiang and asked tentatively.

He didn't think the other party was just showing him this news for no reason; there must be a follow-up.

"Teacher Akiwara, as a detective writer, haven't you guessed my thoughts?"

Akiwara Yuto pondered for a while, then gave his answer.

Hearing his answer, Dacheng Lixiang revealed a satisfied smile.

6:00 PM, Dongying Society Building.

Fuji Taishu walked out of the main gate, burdened with worries. He turned his head to look at the bustling Dongying Society and sighed in his heart.

He was a TV producer at Fuji TV, mainly responsible for program planning, budgets, casting, etc., and was the person in charge of coordinating program production.

His purpose for coming to Dongying Society this time was to obtain the TV adaptation rights for "Detective Kamimura," which meant bringing this work to the screen.

To be honest, he was very optimistic about this work, even believing it could become an evergreen in detective dramas.

Because this work had already been serialized for 60 issues and had a large reader base.

Not only that, according to the "Tokyo Youth" editorial department, this work might even be serialized for over 100 issues.

Looking at it this way, as long as the announcement is made that this TV drama is starting production, it could gain a massive audience base.

But he didn't expect that while he was in good talks with Dongying Society, Fuji TV also jumped in and started competing with him for the screen adaptation rights of this work.

Seeing a new interested party appear, Dongying Society directly raised the price, increasing it by more than a notch, and also proposed more harsh conditions.

This put him in a dilemma.

"If I agree to Dongying Society's benefits, the board of directors definitely won't agree, but if I refuse, Dongying Society will definitely hand the rights to Asahi TV."

Fuji Taishu muttered to himself, then took a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it, feeling even more distressed.

Just as he was worrying, a gray sedan drove up in front of him and stopped.

The car door opened, and a young man in a high-end suit stepped out, saying in a polite tone, "Excuse me, are you Mr. Fuji from Fuji TV?"

"You are?" Fuji Taishu was a bit confused for a moment.

He thought for a while in his mind, confirming that he didn't know the other party.

The young man didn't mind, bowed slightly, and handed over his business card.

"Hello, I am the author of 'Furuhata Ninzaburo,' Akiwara Yuto." ===== CHAPTER 201 =====