154. Choice of Illustrator

Similarly, if we want to examine the impact of good illustrations on a work, *Infinite Stratos* serves as a great example.

After reading their son's work, the original author Izuru Yumizuru's parents even gave it a "very boring" review. It is not hard to figure out what the book-buying crowd was actually after.

To be frank, however, within the context of that era, the premise of *Infinite Stratos* still possessed a certain novelty, or rather, it precisely struck the sweet spot of the otaku demographic. That is the later ubiquitous trope where "under a certain worldview, there is something that only females can use, but the protagonist is the sole exception."

Pulling back his wandering thoughts, Jiang Yu stopped rubbing his chin, tilted his head to look at the bedroom ceiling, and began to ponder the illustration issue for *My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected*.

In his past life, the illustrations of *My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected* were frequently criticized, especially by many readers who watched the anime first and then read the original light novels, only to find that the art style of the early volumes' illustrations was completely different from the anime's art style, right? Although the art style of the first two seasons of the anime also underwent a noticeable change...

Perhaps because Wataru Watari initially intended for it to be just a short story, the original illustrator Ponkan⑧ also began to let loose, producing illustrations leaning toward rich watercolor styles. However, he later compromised due to the anime adaptation, shifting toward an anime-influenced art style, which ultimately caused the character designs from different stages to give completely different impressions.

It is not to say that the former art style was bad, but rather that first-time readers might find it a bit strange. From Jiang Yu's own perspective, now that he is the creator, driven by his confidence in this work, if he had to establish a consistent art style from the beginning, he would choose the anime style.

However... while he spoke of seeking advice, as a newcomer author, does he really have the right to give suggestions on the illustration style of his own work? Or rather, isn't it already fortunate enough that someone is willing to take on the illustration work?

On this point, Jiang Yu somewhat underestimated publishable light novels. However, neither his past life nor his current body was a practitioner in this field, counting at best as a web novel writer, so such a misunderstanding was inevitable. A light novel capable of being published is inherently a work that the publishing house deems "marketable" or "profitable," which is why the author holds a certain degree of decision-making power regarding the illustration style of their work.

Having reached a conclusion in his mind, Jiang Yu began to reply to Kuroneko.

"I don't have any special requirements. Besides, I don't know any famous illustrators... Do you guys have any candidates in mind?"

Very quickly, the other party replied.

"Yes, we do! Because many people in the editorial department think highly of Teacher's work, Editor-in-Chief Machida is planning to contact several relatively famous illustrators through the channels of Giga Bunko. Would Teacher Tusu like to take a look at the portfolios of the tentatively available illustrators?"

"I would be extremely grateful for that. If Kuroneko-san is free right now, could you please send them over? Also, it would be even better if we could drop the honorifics in our conversation~"

Naturally, Goko Ruri did not respond to such remarks, but simply organized the portfolios of the shortlisted illustrators and promptly sent them to Jiang Yu.

Looking at the dozens of images along with the accompanying text annotations, Jiang Yu silently compared them. Most of them featured currently popular art styles, lacking works similar to the original illustrator Ponkan⑧, which also spared Jiang Yu from any potential hesitation.

After a moment of thought, Jiang Yu selected two illustrators—or rather, he believed entrusting the illustration work to these two would be the optimal choice. One of them used the pen name "Ermie," and from the works sent by Kuroneko, it was evident that this artist could handle a variety of art styles, and handled them quite well at that. The name of the other was somewhat subtle, rendered as "Eromanga Teacher," which was the result of transliteration; translated literally, it would be "Erotic Manga Teacher." This artist's art style was quite distinct, following a moe route that precisely matched the later art style of *My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected* from his past life.

Having made his choice, Jiang Yu naturally conveyed his thoughts to Kuroneko. Upon receiving her promise to "contact the illustrators as soon as possible and inform Teacher of the results," this brief exchange between editor and author temporarily came to an end.

After ending the conversation, Jiang Yu leaned back against his chair, stretched lazily, wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, and used the Menu key + Tab to switch out to the browser.

The contact from his editor just now reminded him of the Giga Bunko newcomer award that he hadn't paid attention to for several days. Taking advantage of the break, he prepared to log onto the official website of Giga Bunko to check the current status of *My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected*.

Upon entering the newcomer award page, the first thing that naturally caught the eye was the massive ranking list in the center of the webpage, occupying nearly half of the entire screen.

It seemed that a week had passed since Kuroneko last informed him about the newcomer award news, yet *My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected* still firmly held the number one spot. In this information age where news spreads with extreme rapidity, the reputation of *My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected* seemed to have begun slowly fermenting throughout the entire otaku community. Jiang Yu clicked to view the comments below, which were almost universally positive. The few reviews that were not five stars pointed out some practical issues or feigned detachment out of fear that the short length might jinx it... In addition, there were also comments from people saying they came by recommendation from elsewhere.

Seemingly benefiting from the foil of the current industry landscape, this somewhat distinctive light novel was viewed very favorably by many. This was perhaps one of the reasons why Giga Bunko was already contacting him to prepare for publication-related matters.

After silently reading the comments for a while, Jiang Yu, in a good mood, closed the webpage and immersed himself once again in game development. With his previous production experience, he understood very well that during independent game development, the majority of time was actually consumed by sitting idly in front of the computer and zoning out.

For someone with relevant experience, truly pouring full effort into making a game like *The Witch's House* under high-intensity daily work could be completed in less than a month. Even factoring in the subsequent runtime debugging and bug detection processes, it would take at most a month to release a relatively polished game version.

Thinking of this, Jiang Yu suddenly felt like changing his mind. Originally, he had planned to release this game at the winter Comic Market, but judging by the current progress, could it perhaps be released during the summer Comic Market? After all, the subsequent 1.08 version of the original work was already a very complete version, requiring no excessive optimization on his part. He had no intention of making subsequent updates either, planning instead to go straight for the definitive edition in one go.

However, this might be for the better. That way, he could completely dedicate the second half of the year to the production of *Steins;Gate*, and perhaps even squeeze in some extra work?

Wait... Why am I looking for trouble for myself? Does he still feel like his past programmer life wasn't bitter enough, and is planning to go through it all over again?

Instantly rejecting the flag he had just planted in his heart, Jiang Yu suppressed his restless programmer soul with a wry smile.