All-rounder Artist

Chapter 372: Chapter 351 This Boss is So Capricious_1

It’s a well-known fact.

Xian Yu, Chu Kuang, and Shadow are the Three Bros.

This was something Shadow himself admitted during the pre-release interview for “Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma”.

They do not pay attention to other celebrities or peers, only to each other, forming a perfect cycle. Therefore, netizens often tease their relationship.

But…

Even though the trio’s focus is interconnected, for a very long time, everyone’s attention was completely focused on Xian Yu and Chu Kuang.

A well-suited phrase to describe Shadow’s state would be: The excitement is all theirs, I have nothing.

Just as there’s always a “transparent” member in many groups.

Xian Yu of the South, Chu Kuang of the North.

Even though Shadow had a good relationship with the two, he seemed to be like an overlooked outsider. Netizens who paid attention to all three simultaneously often joked about him being:

Invisible.

This was tied to their individual accomplishments in their respective fields.

Xian Yu was recognized as a genius in the world of music composition and was also talented in scriptwriting for films. His crowning achievement was a masterpiece like “Mariage d’Amour”.

Chu Kuang, on the other hand, had a wide range of literary works, considered as a monster by many of his peers, he swept through the realm of mystery with multiple classic short stories, fantasy novels, and even “Murder on the Orient Express”.

Shadow, in the world of manga, though a significant figure, wasn’t at the top tier.

Even some believed…

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That Shadow gained his fame thanks to Chu Kuang’s “King of the Net”.

Of course, the subsequent success of “Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma” proved that Shadow could achieve good results in the manga world without relying on Chu Kuang.

But it ended there.

Therefore, many people had the vague feeling:

That Shadow simply didn’t measure up to the other two.

Shadow being friends with Xian Yu and Chu Kuang was simply a stroke of luck.

His inclusion in their interconnected attention cycle was him punching above his weight.

However, the emergence of “Death Note” completely shattered this perception!

Everyone’s views on Shadow were turned upside down overnight!

That’s why this highly upvoted online comment, “I think I understand why Xian Yu and Chu Kuang keep an eye on Shadow. Like attracts like, birds of a feather flock together, a pervert will only hang around with other perverts.” struck a chord——

This sentence perfectly expressed the subversion everyone felt at the moment!

“That’s so true, like attracts like, birds of a feather flock together, a pervert will only hang out with other perverts!”

“Who dares to say now that Shadow playing with Chu Kuang and Xian Yu is punching above his weight?”

“How does the old saying go? If you want to know what level a person is on, just look at who they’re friends with. Shadow’s friends are Chu Kuang and Xian Yu, do you need to say what level he’s on?”

“That’s right, can someone who’s Bros with Xian Yu and Chu Kuang possibly be weak?”

“From now on, who dares to say Shadow is invisible!”

“Shadow: I lay my cards on the table, I can’t pretend anymore, actually, I am also the GOAT.”

“There isn’t really anyone out there who thought Shadow was invisible, right? Surely not, surely not?”

“Turns out Shadow is so cool, why didn’t he show his colors before, allowing everyone to tease him for so long?”

“Maybe this is the mindset of a GOAT, they simply do not care.”

“Shadow: Fine, I’ll also start playing the game using my hands.”

“Insightful! Judging from ‘Death Note’, Shadow was really just playing around before.”

“There are no younger brothers in the Three Bros, they’re all bloody elder brothers!”

“…”

It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand manga.

As long as you have eyes.

Anyone who has seen Shadow’s drawings is impressed!

There’s no need for any professional perspectives to judge, simply describing it as “the drawings are too good looking” is enough.

But netizens couldn’t figure out why Shadow didn’t show his skill earlier if he was so talented?

Could it be that he really was just too lazy, as netizens had speculated?

So he was just too lazy to take drawing seriously?

Even though this was the only explanation that made sense, it seemed absurd to everyone——

Or even ridiculous.

And then, the very next day, many people’s questions were answered.

Someone came forward to explain exactly why Shadow’s art style in “Death Note” suddenly became extraordinarily magnificent!

This person was Shadow’s main manga assistant, Luo Wei.

Luo Wei’s online name was “Luoli”.

She was a famous mangaka in the doujinshi (fan work) community.

“Mangaka” and “GOAT” carry the same meaning, both terms are used to refer to doujinshi authors with respect and admiration.

Aside from this, Luo Wei had also been Shadow’s assistant under the pseudonym “Luoli”, hence she had a say in “Death Note”.

Luo Wei released a long post:

“Seeing everyone discussing why Teacher Shadow’s drawing skill has suddenly become so good, as someone involved, I think an explanation is needed.”

“First, I want to correct a misunderstanding. It’s not that Teacher Shadow’s drawing skills suddenly improved or that there was some sort of breakthrough, but rather his drawing skills have always been tremendous!”

“The reason I originally agreed to be Teacher Shadow’s assistant was because I was won over by his drawing techniques.”

Luo Wei was referring to her past experience competing against Lin Yuan in Chinese painting at Qin Art, but she didn’t disclose too many details.

In Luo Wei’s view, Lin Yuan’s level of Chinese painting could crush her own!

Therefore, even though she was initially shocked at Lin Yuan’s frightening manga techniques, after remembering how her Chinese painting was outperformed by Lin Yuan, she suddenly understood why Lin Yuan’s manga drawings could also outperform her own.

But what was crucial was her following explanation:

“Actually, Teacher Shadow is a very easygoing person in private and even a bit lazy. He often provides the storyboard, does a simple line drawing, and then hands off the main drawing task to me, his assistant. Therefore, everyone would think that Teacher Shadow’s previous works were not as good as they are now, because in ‘King of the Net’ and later ‘Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma’, a lot of the content was drawn by me. That’s why there were some jokes online saying that Teacher Shadow must have found an assistant to ghostwrite for him in the past, it wasn’t entirely wrong, it just wasn’t that exaggerated.”

“In fact, ‘Death Note’ was also supposed to be completed by Teacher Shadow and me together.”

“We had accumulated drafts for two months, and the quality of the drawings didn’t differ from the previous two manga works.”

“But just before ‘Death Note’ was about to be released, Teacher Shadow suddenly rejected our previous drafts and personally hand drew a new version, the version that everyone is now seeing. The new version had such superb drawing skills from Teacher Shadow that I was not able to keep up, and could only assist from the sidelines.”

“As for why Teacher Shadow suddenly decided to redraw ‘Death Note’, maybe everyone can guess even without me saying.”

“I will upload the first version of ‘Death Note’, the drafts that were discarded by Teacher Shadow, in a moment. I’ve randomly taken screenshots from a few pages of the content, so everyone can get a feel.”

“…”

After the long post was published, Luo Wei indeed uploaded the first version of ‘Death Note’ onto Tribe.

As for the first version of ‘Death Note’, the discarded drafts, the quality of the drawings were indeed around the same as Teacher Shadow’s first two works…

Netizens were dumbfounded.

This GOAT has such an air of incorrigibility!!