章節 483: Chapter 483: To Receive Without Giving Is Unseemly
*Zhiyin Comic* had grown from nothing to a weekly circulation of over one million copies in the island country. This meant that new fans had a hard time knowing the earlier storylines.
The release of the four manga volumes was like a blessing from the heavens for these new fans.
Therefore, many readers, after buying the latest issue of *Zhiyin Comic*, went on to purchase the volumes of their favorite manga.
Those without much money grouped together to buy, while those with more money bought all four sets at once.
Moreover, after years of cultivation, readers in the island country had a strong interest in collecting. So even though many readers had already read the manga and had every issue of *Zhiyin Comic* at home, they still bought all four volumes.
As a result, the sales of the four volumes continued to rise sharply!
Fortunately, Ma Tengdong knew the influence of *Dragon Ball* and the other three mangas and had prepared enough stock, avoiding any market shortages.
With the release of the manga volumes, the influence of *Dragon Ball* and the other three manga exploded once again. After all, people have a tendency to boast, and those who bought their favorite manga always liked to show off and discuss it with friends, which helped to exponentially increase *Zhiyin Comic*'s influence.
Thus, the manga volumes immediately showed their added impact on *Zhiyin Comic*.
With the release of these volumes this week, after the week ended, statistics showed that *Zhiyin Comic*'s sales easily surpassed 1.2 million copies in the island country, exceeding the sixth-place *Weekly Shonen Champion*, reaching 1.35 million copies. It was now just under 50,000 copies away from the fifth-place *Hana to Yume* published by Hakusensha.
Ma Tengdong was confident about surpassing Hakusensha's *Hana to Yume*!
The influence of the manga volumes and the anime was long-term, solidifying *Zhiyin Comic*'s foundation. He was confident that next week, *Zhiyin Comic* would surpass *Hana to Yume* and reach the fifth position in island country manga magazines!
Apart from the island country market, Southeast Asia also saw an increase in *Zhiyin Comic*'s reputation and sales due to local TV stations airing *Dragon Ball* anime and the impact of the manga volumes.
Aside from the island country, the total weekly circulation across all regions reached 1.3 million copies. *Zhiyin Comic*'s global highest weekly circulation was 2.65 million copies.
Of course, in terms of profit, *Zhiyin Comic*'s profit was not as high as that from the manga volumes.
In the island country, the price of one *Dragon Ball* volume was 250 yen, which, at the current exchange rate, equaled $1.14 USD, or about 6 HKD.
This price was standard in the island country, whether for Shueisha or Shogakukan's volumes, but was twice as much as the Hong Kong version.
This meant that selling a manga volume in the island country brought in more than twice the profit compared to markets outside the island country.
For the four manga series, each had four volumes released, such as *Douluo Dalu* with *Douluo Dalu 1*, *Douluo Dalu 2*, *Douluo Dalu 3*, and *Douluo Dalu 4*.
In total, sixteen manga volumes were released all at once, with the island country market accumulating 11.85 million copies in one week, averaging about 740,000 copies per volume.
Of course, the actual situation was that earlier storylines had higher sales. For instance, *One Piece 1* directly surpassed 1.2 million copies in sales.
Globally, the manga volumes' circulation reached 18.9 million copies, with *Dragon Ball* contributing the most at 5.3 million copies. Although this was very high, it was still far from the previous world record of 160 million copies.
*One Piece* fared even worse, with only 4.64 million copies sold, barely reaching one percent of the previous total of 450 million copies. Considering that *One Piece* was popular during the internet era, which severely impacted physical book sales, its potential in this era, almost twenty years earlier, was expected to be even greater!
The booming situation of *Zhiyin Comic* magazine and its related volumes was not unnoticed by the Sanga family, and Kohei Sanga and others grew anxious.
Their imitation manga storylines had just begun, with the world structure and main plotlines still not fully revealed. Reader loyalty and interest in their manga were not high.
At this time, the original four major manga suddenly released volumes, each with a super long storyline. Their imitation manga couldn't compare, and the difference was clear.
Even though their *Weekly Shonen SUNDAY* and *Weekly Shonen JUMP* had weekly circulations of over two million copies and strong promotional capabilities, it was still difficult to make up for the gap.
While they were anxious, an urgent report from a subordinate made them feel even worse, as if they had swallowed something unpleasant.
At Ichihashi Group headquarters, Kohei Sanga, Ichiro Sanga, and Seitaro Sanga sat together, all looking at a stack of newspapers on the table, their faces grim.
Picking up a newspaper with a circulation of 500,000 copies, they saw a headline that read: "Manga Industry Overlord Loses Dignity—Suspected Plagiarism?"
The article detailed the comparison between Shogakukan's *Shenling*, Shueisha's imitation of *One Piece*, Hakusensha's imitation of *Pokémon*, and the original four major mangas of *Zhiyin Comic*.
This news led readers to believe that *Shenling* and other mangas were plagiarized.
In addition to this newspaper, many others were commenting on the issue.
These comments had suddenly appeared; they hadn't been noticed the day before but were now flooding in all at once.
Kohei Sanga immediately realized that this must be the work of Jiuding Animation Company, which had bribed the media to smear Shogakukan and Shueisha.
There was even a possibility that they were using negative marketing to expand their influence by making them the target.
Of course, according to Kohei Sanga's view, Jiuding Animation Company was smearing them, but they were already in the wrong. However, no thief was willing to admit to being a thief.
"This must be Jiuding Animation's doing. We're in trouble now. We must quickly eliminate this wave of public opinion; otherwise, if it continues to ferment, it will have a significant negative impact on us!"
Kohei Sanga's face was serious as he spoke.
Ichiro Sanga and Seitaro Sanga nodded in agreement. Seitaro Sanga thought for a moment and said sternly, "We should immediately contact these newspapers, urging them to stop their attacks. At the same time, we need to produce enough evidence to release publicly and squash the rumors in their infancy."
As soon as Seitaro Sanga finished speaking, Ichiro Sanga shook his head in disagreement: "That won't work. Today it's these newspapers. We don't know which other newspapers they have bribed. Even if we suppress these newspapers, there might be others attacking us tomorrow."
"More importantly, this is a passive approach. The cost of suppressing it will be high, and if it gets exposed, it will confirm that we are the plagiarists!"
Hearing Ichiro Sanga's reasoning, Kohei Sanga nodded in agreement.
"So what should we do?"
After his suggestion was dismissed, Seitaro Sanga was momentarily at a loss and looked at Ichiro Sanga, asking instinctively.
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