Chapter 200: Adapted into a TV Series?

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, he already felt bored to tears.

Therefore, as soon as the holiday ended, he immediately cast everything aside and came to the Editorial Department, throwing himself into his work with boundless energy.

The first thing he did was look into the sales fluctuations of "April Youth" and the other three major magazines during the New Year holiday.

During the ten 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 fifth and sixth issues of "April Youth" at the Editorial Department to not only fail to grow but to drop slightly. Even so, it still exceeded 200, 00 copies, maintaining its third-place position.

Mantan Publishing's "Tokyo Literature" continued to push the market with 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, 00 copies.

Due to students being on break, Jingfan Publishing's "Spring of Literature" saw its market channels around schools severely affected; sales continued to wither, falling to only 150, 00 copies.

As the veteran number one, Dongying Publishing's "Tokyo Youth" was naturally steady and solid, continuing to use "Detective Kamimura" as its main feature, with sales reaching 300, 00 copies.

After learning all the facts, Akiwara Yuto could not help but knit his brows.

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

He had thought this gap was slowly shrinking, but he didn't expect that those two had found some way to continue encroaching on the market.

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

But would that be inappropriate?

Watching the deep in thought Akiwara Yuto, Da Cheng 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 he naturally paid it extra attention.

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

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

He did not know that "Detective Kamimura" had changed writers, and assumed it was just that Furuya had changed his style.

"Our editorial department thinks so too, but do you feel that the other party is plagiarizing your 'Furuhata Ninzaburo'?" Da Cheng 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 certainly borrowed and imitated to a certain extent."

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

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

If one were to look into it deeply, it might not even count as imitation.

Da Cheng Lixiang nodded. In fact, their editorial department thought the same; they were just afraid that Akiwara Yuto would be like some extreme writers who think that if a few plot points match, others are plagiarizing them.

"I see. Actually, there is some news I need to inform you of." After finishing this sentence, Da Cheng Lixiang handed over a document.

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

"This is?" Akiwara Yuto glanced at Da Cheng Lixiang.

"This is news we obtained through some special channels. It is said that Dongying Publishing is currently in detailed talks with Asahi and Fuji television stations, preparing to adapt 'Detective Kamimura' into a film or television project."

"This is bad news!"

Akiwara Yuto immediately realized the implications behind it.

For a work, if it can be made into a television series, the sales of the magazine serializing it will inevitably skyrocket!

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

This was quite inconsistent with Akiwara Yuto's expectations.

"Editor-in-Chief Da Cheng, what are your intentions?"

Akiwara Yuto looked at Da Cheng 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 mystery writer, haven't you guessed my thoughts?"

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

Hearing his answer, Da Cheng Lixiang revealed a satisfied smile.

6: 0 PM, Dongying Publishing building.

Fujioka Taishu walked out of the main entrance with a heavy heart. He turned his head to look at the bustling Dongying Publishing and sighed inwardly.

He was a television producer for Fuji Television, mainly responsible for program planning, budgets, casting, and so on; he was the person in charge of coordinating program production.

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

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

This was because the 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 television series is starting production, a large audience base can be secured.

But he didn't expect that while he was talking things over well with Dongying Publishing, Fuji Television also jumped in and began competing with him for the adaptation rights to this work.

Seeing that a new interested party had appeared, Dongying Publishing 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 Publishing's benefits, the board of directors definitely won't agree, but if I refuse, Dongying Publishing will definitely give the rights to Asahi Television."

Fujioka Taishu said 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 door opened, and a young man wearing a high-end suit stepped out of the car and said to him in a polite tone, "Excuse me, are you Fujioka-san from Fuji Television?"

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

He thought for a while in his mind, confirming that he did not 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."