novelraw Chapter 98 The Storm Before the Battle
Chapter 98 The Storm Before the Battle
"What on earth is Kodansha up to?! Are they really that afraid that Maijo-sensei will lose to other Japanese authors?"
"They said there's a backlog of manuscripts, and they don't have enough manpower to process them all, so they have to put them in the next issue?"
"The first issue of 'Top Hat' magazine sold 500,000 copies on its first day, and an additional 300,000 copies were issued on the second day. With 'Top Hat' magazine being so popular, shouldn't a large publishing house like Kodansha have allocated more staff?"
"I don't believe in the so-called hoarding of manuscripts. This is clearly Kodansha, or rather, the editor-in-chief of 'Top Hat' magazine, intentionally avoiding risk!"
"Exactly! True gold fears no fire. If Teacher Mai Cheng is truly capable, then give it your all in the competition and prove everyone wrong with your skills!"
"If you don't have the ability, don't spout such arrogant words on the Edogawa Ranpo Ryusho Award stage! If you think you'll lose, come out and apologize properly!"
After all, Shunma Matsushima had previously worked in the public relations team of a well-known celebrity.
Spreading rumors and smearing others is as simple as eating and sleeping for someone who is skilled at it.
Even after the announcement was issued, commentators such as Kiyoshi Kasai and Manji Gonda still stood up for Kyosuke Maishiro, vehemently refuting Shunma Matsushima's press release that smeared Kodansha and Kyosuke Maishiro.
However, the 1980s was an era when the internet was not well-developed and most information dissemination relied on print media.
Once a press release is issued, it will quickly incite countless people who love to watch the drama unfold, allowing such rumors to spread rapidly like a virus to every household!
Because information flowed very slowly in this era, and press releases could not be published immediately after being written.
So, for every million yen that Matsushima Shunma spent to create a rumor, Noma Genjiro would have to spend ten or even twenty times that amount to quell it!
Although this would cause Takarajimasha and Kodansha to break off relations, Takarajimasha clearly no longer cared about saving face at this moment!
Takarajima Publishing House wants to use all its resources, connections, and energy to destroy Maijo Kyosuke, the supernova who is about to ignite the entire Japanese mystery world!
Otherwise, when Maijo Kyosuke truly sweeps across the Japanese mystery literature scene, Takarajima Publishing probably won't even dare to think about competing with Kodansha!
The reason why Takarajima Society is so afraid of Maishiro Kyosuke is not without reason.
The fundamental reason is that there have been extremely cruel lessons to be learned in the history of Japanese mystery fiction!
In 1956 (Showa 31), the Edogawa Rampo Prize was awarded for the second time. Since the Edogawa Rampo Prize was not initially awarded to new writers, it was not a prize given to new writers.
Its main awards are given to mystery critics and mystery scholars, and the recipients are either publishers like Hayakawa Shobo or masters of classical Chinese studies like Kazutaro Nakajima.
However, the then president of Kodansha, Eiji Noma, who was also the father of Genjiro Noma, believed that such an award would not bring much benefit to Kodansha, so he planned to change the Edogawa Ranpo Award to the Mystery Newcomer Award.
This change was just a minor stroke in the history of Japanese mystery fiction, but it immediately sparked a bloody publishing war at the time!
At that time, the only channels for publishing mystery novels were the "Naoki Thirty-Five Prize" authorized by the Japan Literature Promotion Association to Bungei Shunju, the "Japan Mystery Writers Association Prize" authorized by Edogawa Ranpo to Kobunsha, and the "Jewel" magazine published by Hakubunkan!
If Kodansha were allowed to change the Edogawa Ranpo Prize into a newcomer award, it would mean that Bungei Shunju, Kobunsha, and Hakubunkan would lose a huge market share!
Other publishers, seeing Kodansha's actions, also began to do their utmost to stop it!
As a result, nearly a hundred publishing houses began to send out their best staff to compete against each other!
Seishi Yokomizo, Utsugi Oshita, Akimitsu Takagi, Futaro Yamada... a group of masters who dominate the mystery genre begin to compete on the same stage!
Even Edogawa Ranpo, who had already announced his retirement from writing, joined the publishing wars at Kodansha's invitation!
Unfortunately, these people seriously underestimated the methods of Bungei Shunju.
In this publishing melee, Bungei Shunju not only promoted Seicho Matsumoto, the "father of social mystery," but also directly suppressed all the masters of the orthodox, unorthodox, and hard-boiled schools of mystery.
It even led to the bankruptcy of more than 50 publishing houses and the mysterious disappearance of the presidents of more than 10 publishing houses in the past ten years!
The most horrifying incident involved the editor-in-chief of "Jewel," the most popular mystery magazine at the time, who was hacked to death in Kabukicho, Shinjuku, with more than seventy stab wounds!
This publishing war finally came to a complete end in 1968. Bungei Shunju, with its terrifying methods and the formidable trump card of Seicho Matsumoto, defeated nearly eighty publishing houses in one fell swoop and successfully ascended to the throne of Japan's number one publishing house!
Bungei Shunju was the ultimate winner in the entire "publishing melee".
Not only did it anger Kadokawa Shoten's ace author, "Master of Authentic Mystery," Seishi Yokomizo, to the point of temporarily putting down his pen.
They also exerted all their efforts to promote the infamous "Qing Zhang Curse"!
Thus, the "Kiyoshi Zhang Curse" dominated the entire Japanese mystery fiction market for a full twenty-four years!
Takarajima is afraid that Maishiro Kyosuke will become a terrifying figure like Matsumoto Seichō!
But what's even more frightening is that Maijo Kyosuke will become a pioneer like Edogawa Ranpo, forging a path that no one has ever taken before within the already established framework of mystery fiction.
To become an existence that cannot be surpassed or even imitated!
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Other Japanese publishers, unlike Takarajima Publishing, did not rush to smear Kodansha and Maishiro Kyosuke.
However, most publishing houses, newspapers, and media outlets have significant vested interests.
Therefore, at this time, almost all the presidents of publishing houses had set their sights on Maishiro Kyosuke and Kodansha.
Some of the publishing house presidents were envious and resentful that a genius like Maijo Kyosuke hadn't been discovered by their own editors.
Another group of company presidents, like Takarajima-sha's president Hosho Shirakawa, were gripped by fear.
Because this is the storm before the publishing war. If the situation of 24 years ago were to repeat itself, bankruptcy would be a minor matter. One careless move could lead to offending the wrong person.
There's a real chance they might not even be able to save their lives!
After all, the thirty-odd publishing houses that survived the last crisis were all very strong and had survived the crisis. Each of their presidents was worth at least several billion!
Nobody wants to become a fish to be slaughtered in this "melee"!
Seeing that Takarajima Publishing House was losing patience, a group of publishers took the lead in attacking Kodansha and Kyosuke Maishiro!
They also realized that they absolutely could not allow Maijo Kyosuke's popularity to continue to rise!
They all leveraged their own strengths and began to attack Kodansha and Maijo Kyosuke!