Another awful adaptation of my favorite series; why do they keep doing this?
The Isekai webnovel "Dungeon Lord Saga" has an excellent setting. The creator of this webnovel, Madou-sensei, is quite detailed when it comes to world building. The characters... Not that much... Even his plot is really generic... But the world of this novel is absolutely amazing!
It has been five years since the webnovel was created and two years since its completion. I was overjoyed to learn that it will be adapted into an anime... Then the trailer arrived, and the CGIs I saw dampened my expectations.
It's still fine, I told myself, hoping that they wouldn't just flop one of my favorite webnovels!
Then they just did!
The first episode is completely garbage!
What did they do to the protagonist?!? Why does he resemble another Yuto copy!?
Why are the creatures CGI? It looks very strange moving stiffly in the background!
What's with the voice acting!?
It felt like they were reading a script rather than voice acting!
Why is an adventurer pursued by a monster speaking in such a low tone? Up your tension, dammit!
I forced myself to finish the episode, but I couldn't help but feel frustrated. More so when I looked at the credits at the conclusion of the episode and discovered how many animators worked on the anime!
There are around a hundred names in there, and this is what they can do!?
What happened in the year since they published the trailer!? Do they think they can explain it as time constraints again when they have so many people behind the scenes and a year to create that episode?
That is a load of BS!
This reminds me of the numerous anime and live-action adaptations based on light novels or manga in the past five years. All of them are so poorly adapted that I can't help but feel unhappy. Are all of my favorite series going to be translated by these soulless companies?
I am so tired of hearing the same reasoning from them. They always claim that it's because of time constraints, a lack of budget, or other internal difficulties that they will not disclose, but this is ridiculous!
"Cheat Potion Master" turned into another poorly animated slice of life crap even though it has a lot of interesting things in the novel!
"Lady of Aldria" became a flop because instead of focusing on the political intrigue and strategical thinking of the female protagonist, they just turned it into another braindead anime where they tell everything without showing anything!
What about the "Spaceship Reincarnation"? Of course it got the same treatment as the many Isekai anime, and it's full of stiff CGI animation!
Then, there are the live-action adaptations of popular anime and games themselves.
What's the point of "Sword Tale" if all of them are going to use guns?
Why are the shamans from "Battle of Shamans" wearing modern clothing and sneakers when they are specifically set in ancient Japan!?
Where did the martial arts fight scenes from "Combat Master" go? Why did it turn into another Hollywood action flick!?
More and more, they keep disappointing me further and further. I am not even going to mention the numerous movie adaptations that cater to a demographic that doesn't care about their product!
I'm already depressed in my life. I'm stuck in a dead-end job, staring lifelessly at my computer while enduring the incessant ranting of my so-called boss every single day!
My only respite in this depressing reality is being tainted by these stupid companies!?
Why? Why? Why?
I hate all of this!
If I can, I will take over and ensure that each of these series receives the adaptation they deserve!
Because these buffoons have completely ruined them!
"Argh!"
After scratching my head in frustration, I rested my head on my bed and looked up at the ceiling.
"... If only I could change this reality."
I will be very happy if I can do that...
So those were the final memories I had before finding myself in my old apartment room. I didn't simply find myself in my old apartment room; I learned that I had returned to the past!
How did I know?
I recall distinctly that the year was meant to be 2028, but my calendar now shows 2018 instead. I also have my old phone, which currently shows March 2018!
I went back in time to when I was 22, right as I was looking for a new career after quitting my job at a convenience store. This signifies that I am now jobless.
I basically regressed to my younger days!
And, as if my life has become a novel itself, I got a cheat ability along with it!
The [Singularity Tech System] is a cheat ability that provides me knowledge at the pinnacle of every field of technology in the whole universe. This System has given me a starter pack, which is a broad understanding of every technological knowledge of Earth for the next ten thousand years.
I basically became the smartest person in the world!
There is one problem...
I am not the most creative person!
This starter pack only gave me a broad understanding. That meant I understood the concept behind every technology on Earth, even into the distant future, but I can't design anything at all!
How can I do that? I am not that imaginative!
If you tell me to make a design for a car, I can only copy the design of a civilian brand car that I know and just fill it in with more advanced parts to boost its performance, because that's the only thing I can do!
It is why, even though I am so angry at the poor adaptations of my favorite series, I can't do anything, not even a fanfic of how I want it to happen, because I'm not good at it!
Making my own twist to a story? I don't know how to do that!
How about making a new idea for a character? I'll just copy another character I know!
I know myself. I tried it in my middle school years and then abandoned doing so after learning that I'm just that bad!
And now, this System is asking me to show the innovation of humanity!?
Are you serious!?
[Show the innovation of humanity, Host! Good luck in your endeavors!]
What innovation? I can't innovate anything!
The power I got is incompatible with me. I am an uncreative person bound by a power that forces me to be creative. Isn't that a waste!?
Really, what else should I do with this power?
I lay down on my bed and decided to cool my head by checking my phone and browsing some novels. An idea struck me as I was reading through the backlog of stories that I had bookmarked on a famous webnovel writing website that I frequent.
That's right... Since I returned to the past, doesn't that mean I can change the history of those great series that flopped because of their poor adaptations?
It's possible for the current me!
"That's it!"
I quickly stopped browsing webnovels on my phone and went straight to my computer, booting it up and swiftly opening my browser. Ideas are already flooding my mind as I look at different art tools on the internet.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"I'll make a manga adaptation!"
That's the plan. I will make a manga adaptation of my favorite series!
Even though I claimed I'd do a manga adaptation, I'm not a real artist. Again, I am not a creative person. If I am compelled to draw a person, all I can do is draw a stick figure. Going beyond that will result in a scribble, and no one wants to see childish scribbles created by an adult, right?
So how can I make a manga adaptation of a webnovel if I can't even make a simple illustration?
Simple, I'll cheat!
I have knowledge of smart applications that are very useful in digital art. The majority of them incorporate AI assistants or even AI-generated material itself. My CPU's processor and data storage capacity are sufficient to run the smart tool that I intend to employ. This smart tool is basically an auto-assist for manga creation.
This smart tool's function is to convert an entire paragraph or even a whole page of texts into proper manga panels, each with character outlines indicating who is who. When a background is applied, it will also create a general outline of that background. These outlines can then be changed by the artist themselves, or if you're feeling lazy, let the AI handle the entire development of these outlines, with the artist only assisting by highlighting specific portions of the finished work and instructing it to change them.
That isn't the only smart tool I created. I created two other smart tools that are connected to it. One is a smart tool designed exclusively for character illustration, while the other is for creating the setting itself. These two are required because if I leave it up to the manga creation smart tool, the vector for the drawing style will be chaotic.
After that, I named these tools the [Manga Assistant Tool], [Character Illustrator Tool], and the [Background Modeling Tool]. After I made these tools, a prompt suddenly appeared in my eyes.
[Congratulations on making new programs! Host has acquired 300 TP!]
What new technology? These are just the nerfed versions of the original design for a full-dive virtual environment technology! I just took these three aspects because they will help me make manga adaptations of my beloved series!
Whatever. Getting Technology Points (TP) is a good thing. With TP, I can buy materials from the System that I can use to upgrade my computer. I can also use these points to get the knowledge from other branches of technology from this System.
But enough about that. Now that I have these three programs, I can finally start making manga adaptations.
I already have something I want to turn into manga from the webnovels that are available this year. This webnovel is an Isekai with many combat scenes and absurd powers, but it was regrettably discontinued and forgotten after a month in the past timeline. I believe, at this time, it is because people are uninterested in cool fight scenes and instead prefer dialogue-heavy stories or another braindead story with a harem...
Well, it's a webnovel, so stories with only fight scenes are obviously undesirable. It's boring to read about a character moving around and have to constantly imagine it when you could just watch something similar. Most combat scenes in webnovels are also subpar, because depicting a fight scene through words is difficult. They need to strike a balance between descriptive and reactive. Too much description will bore the readers, but if the fight scenes only show their reactions with no context, the readers will become confused. Most of the time, it even lacks any description, which makes it look like a word jumble that can only be summarized as someone attacks and then the other side loses.
Unfortunately, the webnovel I intend to adapt falls under the "too much description" category. Does it matter?
Of course not!
I've always wanted to see "Isekai Growth Cheat" turned into manga or anime. I believe the manga adaptation would be fantastic, so I'd like to start there!
So that's why I will start adapting "Isekai Growth Cheat" first!
(Third Person POV)
Hirohito Yuuma is a young webnovelist who has recently begun publishing his stories online. He's recently become interested in the Isekai genre, which inspired him to create his own twist on it, resulting in creating his first work, "Isekai Growth Cheat." This story is about a protagonist who was accidentally killed by a Goddess in his world, who offered him a boon of his choice and the opportunity to reincarnate on another planet as an apology for her mistake. He chose the ability to grow stronger quickly, which the Goddess bestowed on him.
In terms of why he wrote the story, he simply wanted to write one in which the protagonist is the strongest and everyone reacts in awe. Though he has only been writing for a month, he can't help but notice how the narrative is developing and getting more action-packed. He could not help it. Combat scenes make him want to write a lot more than slice-of-life scenes, which he is terrible at. He tries to squeeze as many facts as he can into a paragraph because he believes it is necessary, especially when the skills of the characters he created are so distinct that not explaining them may confuse readers.
He did his best to write three chapters each week. Despite the fact that only a few people read his work, it appeared that his efforts were not recognized. Compared to new works, which were all Isekai genres like his, they had a thousand followers on the first day of publication. It's been a month since he posted his story, and he barely has 50 followers. He believed that if this continued, he would lose his motivation to write.
He likes the occasional short review, such as "Thank you for the chapter!" or "Cool!" but this does not suggest that he was satisfied. At the very least, he hoped to see at least one response expressing gratitude for his efforts, as well as hear their comments on the portions of his stories that he believes are the most important. Because just reading the same comment, no matter how helpful it was for his psyche, was disheartening. It felt like they were compelled to say it out of politeness rather than reading and appreciating his story.
"If only I knew how to draw..."
He sighed, disappointed that he lacked the talent for it. He originally planned to write his story as a manga, but because he lacks the skills for it, he opted to write it using his limited literary abilities.
He shakes his head. "Ugh, I should stop thinking about this and start writing the next chapter for my story!" He returned his gaze to the monitor, leaning in closer as he moved the cursor on his screen, tabbing out the browser page showing the status of his story and then looking at the opened document file in another tab where the half-finished draft of his most recent chapter was written.
Before he could begin, he was interrupted by a ping from his phone. He groaned under his breath as the building thoughts in his brain vanished due to that noise, and he grabbed the phone just beside his keyboard in frustration, glaring at its screen.
"... An email? I don't know who this is!?"
He didn't remember being acquainted with someone calling themselves "Genjitsu," so he pondered why they were contacting him via email. The email's title, "Proposal," made him suspicious, believing it was a hoax of some kind.
He checked the email first and was so astonished by the contents that he quickly dismissed his suspicions.
From: Genjitsu
To: Wadokami-sensei
Hello, I am a huge fan of your work, and I would love to create a manga adaptation of your story. I am a new mangaka who recently joined the industry, and I want my first work to be yours.
Here is my concept art for some of your characters and settings on "Isekai Growth Cheat" I drew as an example of my skills:
[Image of Nagumo Yuuki's Concept Art]
[Image of Sein Lescatie's Concept Art]
[Image of Firias Lereas' Concept Art]
[Image of Fuu's Concept Art]
[Image of Walkyngryde's Concept Art]
[Image of Talos City]
[Image of Dragon Valley]
[Image of Rotesheim, Capital of Rodhen Kingdom]
[Image of Clastidios Continent]
[Image of the Heavenly Realm]
If you are interested, you can call me on my LINE and we can discuss anything about this. I hope to hear from you soon.
LINE:
"... Wow..."
His breath was stolen away by the stunning illustration attached to the email. It far surpassed his wildest expectations. The illustration of his story's MC, Nagumo Yuuki, was supposed to look like a typical MC from Isekai stories, and he continued to include that detail in his novel, but this one felt like the illustrator understood what he meant, as Nagumo Yuuki's art in that illustration captured that youthful naivety in his face while also distinguishing him from other Isekai MCs.
Sein Lescatie's illustration was lovely. The illustrator captured the impression of a young lady with a well-developed body despite her age, while simultaneously demonstrating her cluelessness and arrogance by her posture alone. The crimson colors of her flowy robe, as well as the style of her hair, made her appear more refined than anything he had imagined a noble lady to be.
The second female lead, Firias Lereas, was likewise stunning. If Sein embodied the aristocratic lady look, Firias embodied his vision of elves. The manner she was depicted highlighted the curves of her figure with her sophisticatedly created attire. The predominantly green colors of her outfit resembled a cross between hunter gear and that of a medieval lady's outfit, and the golden strands of her hair, as well as the smoothness of her skin and beautiful purple eyes, perfectly captured the calmness he had imagined for this second female lead.
Then there is Fuu, Yuuki's pet Fenrir. This juvenile monster looked incredibly cute, and just the art alone gave him a vivid illusion that it could be touched, because the way the furs were drawn made her look like a fluffball, which was the same detail he wrote from his novel. Walkyngryde also looked amazing in his illustration. The details of his body made him look like an actual boss from a highly renowned fantasy RPG game. He gives the impression of the king of the monsters, and just the appearance alone makes him gush about how cool the dragon is.
His setting is likewise highly detailed. Even though he didn't say much about the setting or how every place looked, it felt like the illustrator read his thoughts as they created a stunning representation of a medieval city in these images. It is so detailed that, even if he hadn't thought about the background setting, he would accept this rendition as the setting for his universe since it is that amazing!
Thoughts of whether this was a scam fell through his thoughts because the concept art Genjitsu had shown him was entirely accurate to what he had in mind. No, it wasn't only accurate; it was beyond his expectations!
"And they said they are a fan of my work?"
He returned his attention to his computer, returning to the tab containing the webpage that displays the status of his story and then clicking on the section where he could view the followers of his story. From there, he noticed that Genjitsu's username is among the fifty followers of his story. A grin appeared on his lips, which gradually transformed into tiny laughs as his heart felt uplifted. Learning that one of his few admirers is a talented mangaka artist made him feel like his story was truly relevant. That his writing was not a complete waste of time.
Of course, the choice is obvious for him...
He opened his LINE account and quickly searched for the name of his greatest fan!
(Asane POV)
This is amazing. I got Wadokami-sensei's cooperation!
Yesterday, he reached out to me through my LINE account, and both of us discussed everything from simple greetings up to the plans for the adaptation.
It surprised me that Wadokami-sensei is young. He even said he is still in high school. Just learning that he is still in high school elevated my impression of him a lot, because he can already write such descriptive fight scenes even at his age!
It's really a shame that he quit writing in my past life after he published the fiftieth chapter of "Isekai Growth Cheat." I don't know what happened to him after that.
This time, I will make a worthy adaptation of your story! It will be a great manga adaptation that will make you proud!
So, throughout our talk, I accepted most of his demands. Well, it's actually the opposite because I'm the one who demanded it. Wadokami-sensei is rather bashful when he speaks to me, and if I didn't lead the discussion, I believe we wouldn't be done till midnight.
So what kind of deal have we made?
Our discussion essentially comes down to this: First and foremost, he has complete control over the progression of this adaptation. He can also request any adjustments to the manga, and I must meet all of his criteria. That seems unfair to me, but I actually like it to be that way. Why? Because I cannot accomplish anything on my own! I'm not the sort of person who can add my own spin on his work when I couldn't even create my own story! I don't have that type of creativity!
With him in complete control, I effectively have to wait for him to approve my work before I can publish the chapter. It sounds troublesome, but it's not for me because, unlike most manga artists, I am cheating!
Through the usage of my three smart tools, I finished the first chapter within an hour. It is that easy. Now I just have to forward this to Wadokami-sensei and wait for his confirmation. While that is happening, I have to finish the website for my company.
Oh... Is it surprising? Well, I'm planning to make one!
Adapting it into manga will be useless if I can't publish it on the internet, right?
There are two ways to publish a manga. The first one is to find a publishing firm and send the manga to them. The second one is to self-publish. I don't like the first option because I despise publishers in this country!
Many times, they have the audacity to cancel good series simply because they aren't profitable. Just remembering when stories like "Death Loop Heroine" were cut, despite the fact that the storyline is very original, makes my blood boil! Remembering why they discontinued it makes me want to find whoever runs that publishing firm and grab their neck in frustration.
Then, isn't the second option preferable?
Actually, it is, but that option is not enough for me.
To self-publish, I need to take care of a number of things. If I decide to publish the manga physically, I will need a production line dedicated to making the books, or I will have to hire someone with the right equipment to do it. This already costs a lot, depending on how many books I want them to print for me. I also must secure a location where I can sell these books, as well as promote them, among other things. This is only for selling physical copies of the manga.
If I merely want to publish it online, I will still need to do a number of things, such as create my own domain, rent a server, properly set up the website, and so on, before I can even publish my manga. This is also very expensive.
I am not made of money. I just look at my savings account and know that it basically looks pitiful that an average person will normally look for work just to maintain that amount of wealth.
So what else can I do then?
Well, I'll just go all the way and make my own server then!
I don't even need to pay for it. I have my cheat ability to help me with that!
[Would you like to purchase the Singularity Tech "Storage Server" for 100 TP?] (Y/N)
Of course, I chose the "Y" button.
After doing so, new information entered my head. The ability to create the ultimate data storage and servers of any kind was added to my memory bank, and simply examining some of that knowledge let me realize how great Singularity Techs are.
This is not scientific. Singularity Tech is more like magic itself with how much it embodies a concept. Is this what it means from having the pinnacle of technology!?
With this kind of knowledge, I can essentially make a server that can run a simulation of an entire universe. Not just a single instance of the universe, but multiple instances of it!
Holy crap, what kind of technology is this!?
And according to my System, this is a low-tier tech... Then what can the high-tier ones do!?
Whatever, I don't care. I just know the fundamental knowledge of how to make this technology, not how to design the technology itself. So I'll do it in the simplest way without thinking too much about it.
I still have 200 TP, so I just buy some materials from my System with these points. Other than knowledge of Singularity Tech, this System also lists a veritable amount of materials that will help me create any kind of technology.
So, I buy the necessary materials. Each tonnage of materials only costs 1 TP. As for the necessary tools to turn these materials into a useful piece of technology, each costs 5 TP. All of these tools are highly advanced tools, which I need because I'm quite lazy at making my own tools.
With that out of the way, I make myself busy making my own physical server for the eventual website of my company.
The sound of notification in my phone takes me out of my daze, and I look up. It seems like I have been doing this for a few hours now. It's already afternoon.
I rise up and look at the results of my efforts. A black box is on the floor of my living room. It is quite small, at least one-fourth the size of a typical CPU, and looks quite robust. It may not appear so, but this black box is a physical server capable of storing 7 googolbytes of data and processing trillions of data streams comprising yottabytes of data at the same time.
This miraculous piece of technology is surprisingly the most inferior form of the Singularity Tech that it was inspired by. Compared to a true Singularity Tech that can contain multiple simulations of universes, this one is simply not enough.
But it doesn't matter, because I'm not planning to simulate the universe or anything. I just want it to become my personal server for the website of my company. With this server storage, I think I won't have to worry about running out of sufficient resources when making AI assistants, right?
Anyway, the phone. I look at my phone and see that it's Wadokami-sensei replying to my call. I can't help but smile seeing a thumbs-up on our chatroom.
Great, now I can finally start publishing the first chapter of "Isekai Growth Cheat." This will be great!