I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 233 Double happiness, a total sensation!
The completion of the first part of "The Strange Bird Chronicle", the Thief Magpie Bird, and the start of serialization of "Killing Commendatore" make old readers feel as if they were dreaming back to the time when "Devil's Tattoo" was serialized in "Shincho" 36 years ago.

The February 1960 issue of New Wave sold 2 million copies that month, a historical record that has not been broken to date - ordinary pure literary magazines cannot even achieve a fraction of this.

The August issue of "Wenyi" has created an astonishing record of 8 million copies, but this is not even half of the sales of that issue of "Xinchao".

Therefore, even though Kitagawa Hide and Arima Yoriyoshi were fighting each other fiercely, Tanizaki Ichiro still sat firmly on the throne, and was the unshakable number one "world's best".

But this does not obscure Kitagawa Hide's brilliance. On the contrary, this comparison has become the theoretical basis for Kitagawa Hide's complete deification - for more than 30 years, apart from him, no other pure literature writer can come close to Tanizaki Ichiro in boosting magazine sales!
Let’s talk about these two novels published by Hidetsugu Kitagawa.

After reading them, everyone gasped and was impressed by the new writing techniques and literary concepts displayed in the two novels.

Previously, readers had read too much war literature that followed a routine or formulaic style like "The Burmese Harp."

Moreover, Japan's previous war literature was basically based on pseudo-anti-war and anti-defeat themes, and contained many mixed and personal opinions, which made readers feel nauseous.

Now that they have eaten real fine bran, they have begun to look down on the coarse grains they used to eat.

No matter how much the literary criticism circle controlled by the print media exaggerates, it cannot turn black into white or turn ugly into beautiful.

As personal computers gradually entered the homes of ordinary people, the number of Internet users on Yahoo Japan Forum increased by several million. The literature section was filled with various popular science articles about Kitagawa Hide's new book, as well as "combat power analysis" of the two "world's best".

Readers' love is very simple and crude.

Just a few days after the September issue of "Wenyi" was released, a large number of excerpts and quotations about Kitagawa Hide's two new novels appeared on various literary forums. The heated discussion spread to the entire Internet, and "Kitagawa's Little Bookstore" added hundreds of thousands of official members.

The message board of this private website is full of praise from fans of the show. There are endless praises such as "good to see", "want to see it again", "unexpected surprise", "it turns out that war literature can be so thrilling and captivating". It looks like even worse than the early days of online gambling!
Based on a large amount of real-time data, the data department of Kawaide Shobo came to a surprising conclusion after analyzing it - there would be no problem for the September issue of "Wenyi" to sell more than 9 million copies.

A monthly sales volume of over 200 million copies is nothing. Among the five major pure literature magazines, "Wenyi", "Xinchao" and "Wenxuejie" have all achieved it.

But if it happens twice in a row, that would be a big deal.

This shows that the serialized novels contain valuable information that can attract a large number of readers!

The only event that could be compared to this phenomenal event was probably the release of "No Longer Human".

In addition, readers are also looking forward to the content of the next issue.

At the suggestion of Kitagawa Hide, Kawaide Shobo, for the first time, followed the practice of popular literature magazines and included a "preview of the next episode" at the end of the novel.

This type of thing is usually more common in TV programs and popular literary works, because they are story-telling and interesting, and readers have a strong urge to watch the next episode.

Pure literature magazines that focus on literary quality rarely play this trick. After all, no one would be stupid enough to compete head-on with others' strengths with their own weaknesses.

In fact, after the trailer for the second part of "The Strange Bird Chronicle" - the prophecy bird - was released, the expectations of these "young" readers in 1996 were immediately raised to the maximum!
The preview for the next issue focuses on the most interesting Battle of Nomonhan in the whole book.

Saito Rena and others originally thought that this historical line would be boring for readers, and even decided to suggest Kitagawa Hide to cut out some of the content in the later chapters if the response was not good.

However, with all the popular science and hype, readers of "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" are far more interested in the historical line than the other two lines.

The textual research party and history enthusiasts quoted various classics and commented on the details of the Battle of Nomonhan mentioned in the book.

Most of these people are students and enthusiasts. They do not have very solid historical knowledge. When they chat on the Internet, they rely on a pile of relevant reference books on the table.

Maybe when you are talking nonsense with others, you need to look up some information to recharge yourself.

Then they were surprised to find that Teacher Beichuan had really read a lot of reference books and materials!
The details inside are exactly the same as what is written in the reference book!

This has become another big topic for die-hard Beichuan fans to brag about.

In contrast, Arima fans simply remained silent.

Comparing sales volume, it feels like we’re not even worthy of carrying their shoes.

In terms of literary quality, it seems not as serious and innovative as others.

Let’s compare historical knowledge. Look at other people’s attitudes, and then look at the attitudes of your own idols. Wow, there is a world of difference.

Then let’s compare the word count!

Forget it, this can't be compared with Kitagawa Hide.
With the praise of these die-hard book fans, many passers-by were gradually attracted by Kitagawa Hide's two new novels. Before writing "Confessions", Kitagawa Hide attracted a wave of book fans in the popular literature market. Those people really couldn't read pure literature, but they really liked "Confessions".

The passers-by attracted this time were originally discouraged by what they saw as war literature and boring pure literature.

But when he heard that the other party was Mr. Kitagawa, who wrote novels such as "No Longer Human" and "Confessions", he became interested again.

After buying "Wenyi" and reading it, I was immediately drawn into it.

This novel is beautifully written!

Maybe I should take the time to read this teacher's other works!
It turns out that pure literary novels can be so interesting!

The editors of those publishing houses were also silenced.

We know that there has been a sales war between Arima Yoshiyoshi and you, Kitagawa Hide, in the past few months. Can't we just run away instead of participating?
But what do you mean by insisting on opening two accounts at the same time?

It attracted a lot of traffic directly, and even second- and third-rate pure literature magazines were not spared. It felt like their volume was being absorbed by Kitagawa Hide.

But to be honest, this novel is really well-written. They are following the updates and discussing it enthusiastically. After reading it, they just waved their hands and asked their writers to follow suit!
Writers at all levels in the Japanese literary world have also fallen into deep thought.

The "upper-class writers" who were once famous all started writing, no matter whether they had any grudges with Kitagawa Hide in the past, no matter what they thought of this up-and-coming star, they just followed the trend!
Although the first batch of writers who followed Kitagawa Hide to write pure literary novels about youth romance had a bad reputation and were denounced by the industry as followers, their novels were indeed hot-selling, and they earned both money and readers' reputation!

With this craze for war literature, those "upper-class writers" who usually act pretentious no longer hide their feelings and simply follow the trend openly.

The "middle-class writers" who are neither good nor bad are generally the pillars of various publishing houses. They have a certain readership and a stable income, but they are always better than the best and better than the worst.

In this wave of following the trend, these people are the main force.

Not only did they follow the trend, they also wrote crazily to take advantage of Kitagawa Shu's popularity, praising him for ushering in a new era of war literature - after all, it doesn't cost anything to just talk a little bit of praise, and by the time Kitagawa Shu becomes more famous, their follow-up works will also be able to attract more traffic!
"Vulgar" writers like Mayumi Aso mainly read and review books.

Following the trend actually has little to do with them.

After those mediocre writers made their move, not much profit remained for them.

But if we don’t allow people to follow the trend, then we can’t allow people to take advantage of the popularity?

These new generations who were previously silent in various publishing houses suddenly jumped into the public eye one after another, and their main theme was to worship and admire Kitagawa Hide.

Then use various methods to get traffic.

For example, if he said that he had received guidance from Mr. Kitagawa, but in fact he had only met Mr. Kitagawa at a book signing event and then told him his identity, of course Kitagawa Hide would have to say a few clichés to encourage the younger generation.

There are also people who say that the novels they wrote were strongly recommended by Mr. Kitagawa. In fact, it was just a collaboration between two publishing houses. Kitagawa Shu nodded, and the other publishing house would write "Highly recommended by Mr. Kitagawa" on the novel's waistband.

Don't underestimate these few words. With just this small cooperation, Kitagawa Hide will get at least 100 million yen in net income!

In short, the Japanese literary world has inexplicably fallen into a wave of Kitagawa fever, and everyone is racking their brains to think of any connection they have had with Mr. Kitagawa, and then use it as a topic of conversation and bragging.

It is a bit similar to the period of rampant short videos in later generations, when those internet celebrities put something like "XX Lun" and tried every means to ride on the popularity of a certain music king, and they could get everything they wanted just like that.

The literary world that Hide Kitagawa belongs to is still at the top of the contempt chain in the Japanese entertainment industry.

Whether it’s music, movies, games, or animation, you have to stand back when it comes to literature.

Don’t talk about your high sales and high profits. Your historical and social status are not even a hair’s breadth away from that of pure literature writers anyway.

After half a month of excitement, the sales of "Wenyi" continued to rise, and the momentum of "Literary World" gradually weakened. Then another killer appeared out of nowhere, rubbing salt into Arima Yoshiyoshi's wounds.

The Prime Minister's Office had previously played dumb and pretended that the matter had nothing to do with it.

Ryutaro Hashimoto has been busy with financial issues recently. He is troubled by the chaotic banks, the undisciplined Bank of Japan, and the Ministry of Finance, which is full of mistakes.

Just when everyone thought that he would ignore this literary event, the Prime Minister's Office suddenly issued a short announcement to strongly support Kitagawa Hide!

(End of this chapter)