BREAKING NEWS. In his recent vlog on the Las Vegas stop on the #arirang tour 💜 Jungkook shows his backstage routine which includes watching BZ! fave, Mission: Yozakura Family. You got taste, JK ! We need the whole stadium to watch season 2 streaming subbed on @hulu!
“The Illusion That Things Will Stay the Same” Part 1.
In Vagabond(バガボンド), one of the greatest masterpiece in the history of Japanese manga, there is a line like this
(please understand that I am paraphrasing, not quoting exactly):
“I was inside a spiral.
A spiral of rising or falling.
I am through with it...”
These are the words of a swordsman named Kohei Tsujikaze who spent his life cutting down opponents in pursuit of being “the strongest swordsman on earth.”
After finally losing a duel with Musashi Miyamoto, he says this as he decides to stop.
“A spiral.”
To me, the word. “a spiral” reflects Takehiko Inoue sensei’s own life philosophy.
In fact, when I asked a Jump editor about this in 2014, he told me:
“It’s similar to the way people at Jump think.”
And I thought:
“Indeed!”
The life of a Shueisha Jump creator is itself a life lived inside a spiral — endlessly pursuing strength, success, and the top position.
That line, spoken in one of the greatest masterpieces created by one of the greatest mangaka, felt like a projection of the creator’s own life in a world obsessed with becoming number one.
So I came to think this way:
“As long as I pursue Jump, I will never step out of the spiral.”
“A spiral where one can only rise or fall.”
That is Weekly Shōnen Jump.
But after living with this way of thinking for a long time, I realized something else.
The “spiral” is not just Jump.
It is everything in this world.
Everything in life — every person, every industry, every civilization — exists within a spiral of rising or falling.
In other words, the idea of “remaining where you are” is only a temporary illusion.
Because between rising and falling, or falling and rising, there are brief moments that merely appear to be stillness.
The spiral is one of the laws of the world.
And in truth, I had already learned this in high school.
It was taught to me as: “The standard distribution curve.”
Without intervention, all phenomena in this world eventually rise, pause briefly, and then decline.
That is the standard distribution curve.
And that is also the life of the spiral.
There is, however, a difference between the two.
A standard distribution curve describes a natural phenomenon.
A spiral life describes fierce pursuit, competition, and ambition.
And yet both share the same essential truth:
“There is no permanent state of stillness.”
Or if there is, it exists only temporarily.
If we apply this way of thinking to the comics industry, then while the industry is growing, we must also understand this:
“A time will inevitably come when growth stops.”
And when growth stops at the peak, we should not assume the industry will simply continue forever as it is.
We should instead think:
“Ah… this is where decline begins.”
And the only way to stop this phenomenon is through intervention.
Now let’s talk about the Japanese manga industry.
And let us remember the spiral, and the standard distribution curve.
The Japanese manga industry reached a peak of roughly ¥ 590 billion in 1996, then declined until 2013.
It fell to around ¥ 440 billion.
It was still the strongest comics industry in the world, but it was undeniably in decline.
I remember very clearly what happened during those years, and the kinds of conversations taking place inside the industry.
(At the time, when people in both Japan and Korea were saying, “Japanese manga will slowly disappear like this,” I predicted the opposite.
I said:
“When digitalization comes, the industry will grow again.
It will draw a V-shaped curve.”
And I advised people to prepare for the moment growth returned.)
And beginning in 2014, the Japanese manga industry truly began to grow again.
Why?
Because there was an intervention into the spiral — into the distribution curve.
That intervention was the same intervention transforming everything in the modern world:
Digitalization.
The Japanese manga industry, which had been descending along the spiral — along the standard distribution curve — began rising again in 2014 through digitalization.
And as a result, we arrived at the new era we are living in now:
“The era in which the world loves us.”
To be continued
@chikauzui Thank you so much!! Voice acting is something I'm interested in doing, but not something I'm doing professionally yet. Honestly, this demo was just me trying to get some practice 😞 And yes, I did theater in high school and college. I really like doing anything that tells stories
Voice Actor Demo Reel (2026 DIY)
I have a strong interest in voice acting, any form of storytelling, and a background in theatre involvement. Feel free to reach out with any questions!!
https://t.co/PrgnfiuvFW
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Direct feedback from a Kodansha HENSHUSHA
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Video by: @shibutake_Ole
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