Surviving a Shounen Manga

Prologue

[M Comics Column] – In an interview with the author of ‘Adventure King'.

Q. First of all, congratulations on the completion. How do you feel?

A. Happy as well as sad. No other words seem necessary.

Q. This work was famous for having a lot of characters. Who is the character you love the most?

A. Probably the main character. He's the character I've been watching and cheering for the longest. Other than that, the weight of each character in the work can be seen as a measure of my affection for them.

Q. Are there any missing characters that you feel particularly regretful about? Or anything that received many complaints from readers.

A. There is absolutely nothing. In the case of some characters, there were times when I thought that the abilities they had were disappointing. But even so, what had already been shown were enough to build the story. There is no other reason for a character to disappear, it's because they didn't have enough strength to survive. I send my deepest condolences to the few readers who loved them.

Q. So, what are the requirements for a character to survive?

A. A character should draw the reader's interest and attention as soon as it appears. Otherwise, it loses its utility value immediately. Even if you drag it, the moment they're forgotten, it's over. Except for the main characters who were born with important roles from the beginning, attributes of other characters are basically predetermined. Their appearance is controlled by the author, but from then on, it is solely the responsibility of the character to live on. Unless the characters try to live on their own, they can't see the light of the end.

Q. Did the character popularity vote affect the development of the work?

A. I can't say no. If you do not understand the needs of your readers, you are disqualified as a commercial writer. But …

⁝

I read up to there and closed the page. Because I couldn't stand it.

It was all pathetic.

A character that doesn't attract the reader's attention from the first episode can't see the light of the end.

If the character doesn't try to live and breathe on his own, he will eventually disappear.

It was funny that the author himself said that. Well, no, it wasn't really funny.

The character disappeared because the artist didn't draw it. It's just been forgotten because we didn't love it enough.

What did the simple character do?

Actually, I even thought about dropping the series when the character I was cheering for died. Because of that, there were times when I didn't read it for several months.

[Corrupted Knight Lucas].

My favourite character in Adventure King.

The Corrupted Knight certainly attracted the attention of many. A character who appeared as a villain and ranked in the Top 10 of the popularity polls after just 15 episodes.

However, the Corrupted Knight died before the story reached its climax.

Because of narrative plausibility?

Well, there was a lot of discussion about this at the time. There were many opinions that even if he hadn't died at that time, the flow of the story would not have been greatly affected.

In the community, the popularity of the Corrupted Knight was about to surpass the main character, so there was a rumour floating around that the author was wary of it and killed it. It'd just been reduced to consumables for the main character to dope out on.[1]

Even if it's your own work, so you own it all, but isn't it still funny to say something like this? After all, if everything moves, attacks, and kills according to your intention, how do you think the character should work hard?

Thinking about it, my head felt hot again.

I immediately logged into social media. Then I sent a message to the author's official account.

– I thoroughly enjoyed reading your interview in the column. But I have one question. What do you mean that the character has to work hard for himself? Wasn't it the writer who killed the Corrupted Knight who was doing well, just because he overshadowed the main character?

No reply would come anyway. The message would not be passed on to the author himself.

If the author had been the person who checked this, he would have replied to the dozens of messages I had sent at least once. Even if only to curse with abusive language telling me to stop sending DMs.

Anyway, after sending the message, I felt a little relieved.

 "Hoo…"

I slowly looked back at the ‘Adventure King' books neatly arranged on the desk.

A total of 60 books, over 10 years.

A treasure I'd been collecting since middle school.

…

I felt sad. I did. It was sad.

It was still the one I liked best. My favourite manga.

I bought the last book a week ago but hadn't read it yet. Because I didn't want to admit that it was really over now.

"…”

However, it was useless to deny it as the final reviews and author's interviews were pouring in all around me.

Okay, let's read it while thinking about it.

It was time to pick up the last book.

Wiiiing –

The cell phone made a sound.

There was a message on SNS.

– I didn't lie.

After checking the sender ID, I opened my mouth in amazement.

It was the account of the author of ‘Adventure King'.

He sent me a reply for the first time. After ten years.

– Characters can struggle to survive. The Corrupted Knight simply neglected this.

After a brief moment of surprise, anger rose again.

Struggle to survive? Since he didn't do that, the Corrupted Knight died?

‘It sounds just like an excuse…'

But I couldn't go on thinking any further.

The moment I checked his last message, I suddenly lost consciousness.

– Would you like to try it?

Editor's Notes:

[1] 뽕맛 (lit. mulberry flavour) is a gaming slang in Korea talking about characters becoming overpowered. 뽕 is actually standing for methamphetamine i.e. as if the character is doping.