Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

It was great to be sent into a popular franchise like “Fast Track: No Limits,” but it was not without any challenge: most of the characters were male.

“Most” did not exactly mean that there were ready-made female racers for her to possess. Most of the female characters were display vases. Even if they were boss characters with their own arcs, they would be promptly defeated and cast aside by the story. Even so, female racers stopped appearing after the early chapters. The last update did not even feature any sliver of them.

The girlfriend of the protagonist was a failure. She basically leeched off a sugar daddy. Perhaps the author had some bad experience in his relationships…

She barely even mattered in the story. Nobody could even recall her name, except for the fact that she was involved in sex trade. The author was apparently a guy who had minimal interest in the opposite sex.

Ever since his first attempt to draw a romance manga was poorly received, he almost stopped bringing in female characters altogether. Most of his stories were focused on modifying race cars and car racing.

Undeniably, he was a terrific story writer. Before every race, he kept the readers in great suspense, eager to see the outcome. Every main character had a unique skill of their own. They kept this special ammunition chambered, revealing them only when pushed to the limits. This was how you also identified the grunts of the race. They would not have any unique skills of their own.

This manga sold well, not only because of its wise choice of having mountain racing as its premise. The artwork was detailed, realistic and adrenaline-inducing. Along with the author’s considerable knowledge of car racing and car modification, readers would remain grounded in reality as they sailed through the pages.

A significant downside to the story was the lack of key characters. Other than protagonist with his father, there were only a few other key roles, such as antagonists who were better drivers than the protagonist, and the protagonist’s best friends. Other characters only popped up to be quickly defeated, before they vanished from the scenes.

It was a rather popular manga that repeated the same turn of events over and over again. Even so, the author managed to keep his readers interested with the beautiful artwork and detail. He could repeat the same plot two days in a row, and readers would not notice.

There was also the fact that the protagonist would insist on using an older car that anyone could own. With that old, trusty car, he would make quick work of rich, famous racers in their heavily modified supercars. Relating ordinary folk to the protagonist was a classic but perpetually relevant strategy, no?

Nobody thought that Wuling Hong Guang from Mount Haruna would stand a chance in any of its races. As it racked up more and more victories, both opponents and audiences would be left speechless… This was the dream of most readers!

Zhao Youyue did not even bother looking at the available female characters. She was sure that no matter what she did with these characters, the author would find them ridiculous and remove them after a few chapters.

Either way, the author was incapable of drawing beautiful female characters. He was only good at drawing cars….

True racers did not need women in their lives. They were destined to be alone forever. This had been mentioned by its author Chen Daxiu in an interview. He had even bragged about his deliberate use of the protagonist’s girlfriend cheating tendencies.

Chen Daxiu had admitted that he was not good at drawing female characters. Also, what’s wrong with having a girlfriend who got herself involved in the sex trade? If her behavior had not upset the protagonist like so, he would not have made up his mind to be a professional racer, would he?

Chen Daxiu was an experienced truck driver. He dreamed of being a film director. After a series of unexpected events, he became a manga artist. His passion for car racing was channeled into his manga and quickly became famous. Even the related merchandise sold like hot-cakes.

He cooked up good relationships with several car manufacturers. Most of them wished to see the protagonist driving their brand. It was an effective form of advertisement!

Protagonist Zhang Tuohai drove the Wuling Hong Guang. He used it with such flair that the Wuling Hong Guang became a crowd favorite. Some of the manga’s fans had even modified their cars to look just like Zhang Tuohai’s car. They even took it for practice, hoping to unlock its hidden potential as the manga had demonstrated…

Apparently, Chen Daxiu had made a wise decision in choosing Wuling Hong Guang. If he was in a supercar, his opponents would not underestimate him. The protagonist could not force them to eat their words at the conclusion of the race.

Urban novels loved using such a twist. Have the wealthy protagonist purposely disguised as a homeless man and bait some idiots into insulting and challenging him, and then have them eat their words soon after.

Zhao Youyue withdrew from “Two DImensional Gate,” spent a few days running through the manga chapters and anime. This had not been a jackpot!

Yes, it was famous, but there were no female characters for her to use. Disappointed by her research, Zhao Youyue felt stupid for feeling that skip of her heart when she saw those words, “Fast Track: No Limits.” The “Two Dimensional Gate” had fooled her once again…

Suddenly, she missed her time in “The 4WD God.” It had been so easy to make a highly-popular character card out of her. At least the female characters played actual roles in the story. Currently, the only female character available was that prostitute of a girlfriend. She was far from a fan-favorite. Readers barely even remember her name.

Zhao Youyue soon learned that the anime adaptation of “Fast Track: No Limits” had far more delicate artwork. All characters had been improvised and beautified. In the original manga, the author simply drew a few lines to differentiate the characters. He was focused on drawing cars more than anything else. As a result, his characters in the manga were no better than the original version of “One-Punch Man.” [2]

Most readers of the “One-Punch Man” manga only knew of the redrawn, remade version. They were not aware that it had started as the sketches of a drawing practice. Its original version was plain and simple.

Characters in “Fast Track: No Limits” had been drawn leisurely. Whenever the story turned into a car race, the visual quality would change from fifty cents to Hollywood standard. Most readers happily accepted this norm, due to the already intense pace of things.

In fact, readers were concerned about nothing but car racing. They wanted to know what sort of new tricks this experienced truck driver had in mind. It was like the protagonist of “Case Closed.” [3] Conan solved his cases with the different methods, according to how the victims died.[4]

Such manga always recycled the same plot-progression. It is likely that when you graduate from university, the protagonist would still remain as a primary school student.

Zhao Youyue was at a loss. Her only option was to get in touch with the author, Chen Daxiu. There had to be a way for her to insert a female character, somewhere along the lines. What could Zhao Youyue do with all these men…

Worst of all, Chen Daxiu was horrible at drawing female characters. Personality-wise, she could make a gem of a female character, but those glittering, beautiful race cars had a firm grip on the spotlight!

This was a world where readers only took notice of female characters with beautiful faces. Otherwise, her efforts would be completely futile…

Mangas were nothing like novels. Words had more power over the human imagination than one would think. Words like “soft, delicate skin,” “flushed red in heat,” or “long slim legs,” easily brought Goddesses into mind.

Mangas were limited to the artist’s personal skill. You could not just draw any girl and call her the most beautiful girl on earth. How could she be beautiful if her face was all crumpled up like a pie?

Zhao Youyue took a longing look at the beautifully illustrated cars in high-definition. Could she possibly possess one of the cars? She could play as a female Transformer, changing the story from car racing to giant robot battles…[5][6]

There was nothing much Zhao Youyue could do. She had to put aside “Fast Track: No Limits” for the moment, and wait for Su Li to reach out to Chen Daxiu.

Zhao Youyue compared Chen Daxiu’s manga to Su Li’s comics. Su Li’s work was flawless! One look at the female character’s face, and people would practically scream her name out…

There was a point when Zhao Youyue had been certain that Su Li’s illustrations had been at best, average, in terms of manga standards. Now that she had taken a closer look at things, she realized that several famous manga titles did not share such quality. They were only popular because of their intense, mind-blowing storylines.

Several successful mangakas were better story writers than illustrators. Things were the same with novel authors. You cannot possess a good vocabulary, only to sugarcoat a lackluster story. People would rather have good stories than high-sounding words.

Everybody craved for an exciting and fun story. They could put up with ordinary drawing skill, if that was the only drawback.

Zhao Youyue could no longer consider herself the Queen of Luck. She had to move her attention back to reality and play the role of Chu Luoxun.

Han Leng had recommended Zhao Youyue to a female film director, Xue Lu. She was in charge of the new film, “Beautiful April”…

Zhao Youyue did not have any connections in the film industry. Xue Lu already had someone in mind, so she naturally disregarded the recommendation.

Even so, Xue Lu had to grant Han Leng due honor as the original author of the script. She would at least give Zhao Youyue a shot in an audition. That way, no one could refute her decision on the casting.

Translation note:

[1] Mount Haruna started to form more than 300,000 years ago, and the last known eruption was c. 550. The volcano has a summit caldera containing the symmetrical pyroclastic cone of Mount Haruna-Fuji, along with a crater lake, Lake Haruna, along with the western side. To the west of the lake is Mount Kamonga, the tallest of Mount Haruna’s numerous peaks at 1,449 m high.

[2] One-Punch Man (Japanese: ワンパンマン Hepburn: Wanpanman) is an ongoing Japanese superhero webcomic created by ONE[5] which began publication in early 2009. The series quickly went viral, surpassing 7.9 million hits in June 2012. The Japanese shortened name Wanpanman is a play on the long-running children’s character Anpanman, wanpan being a contraction of wanpanchi (“one punch”). One-Punch Man tells the story of Saitama, an extremely overpowered superhero who has grown bored by the absence of challenge in his fight against evil and seeks to find a worthy opponent.

[3]The Case Closed anime series, known as Meitantei Conan (名探偵コナン, lit. Great Detective Conan, officially translated as Detective Conan) in its original release in Japan, is based on the manga series of the same name by Gosho Aoyama. It was localized in English as Case Closed by Funimation due to unspecified legal problems.[1] The anime is produced by TMS Entertainment and Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation with the chief directors being Kenji Kodama and Yasuichiro Yamamoto.[2] The series follows the teenage detective Jimmy Kudo, who transforms into a child after being poisoned with APTX 4869 by the Black Organization. Now named Conan Edogawa and living with the Moores, Conan solves murders during his daily life as he awaits the day to defeat the Black Organization.

[4]Jimmy Kudo, known in Japan and internationally as Shinichi Kudo (Japanese: 工藤新一 Hepburn: Kudō Shin’ichi)[note 1], is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the manga series Case Closed, created by Gosho Aoyama. A high school detective, he is forced to ingest the lethal poison APTX 4869 after his encounter with Gin and Vodka. Due to a rare side effect, the poison shrinks him into a child and he adopts the pseudonym Conan Edogawa (江戸川コナン Edogawa Konan) to hide from those who poisoned him. He lives with his childhood friend Rachel Moore and her father Richard Moore as he awaits the day he can take down the Black Organization and regain his original size.

[5] Eva-01 was deployed by Misato Katsuragi in response to the battle between Optimus Prime’s Autobots and “Angel”-scream. Mode “Eva” chapter 2 When Prime met the Eva, he recognized it as a living being rather than a robot, sensing it to be emitting a “primeval call”. He proceeded to scan it, adopting its great size and colour scheme in the continued fight against “Angel”-scream. Mode “Eva” chapter 3 During their battle, Optimus Prime used his body to shield the seemingly prone Eva-01 from Starscream’s energy blasts. Mode “Eva” chapter 4

[6] Transformers (Japanese: トランスフォーマー Hepburn: Toransufōmā) is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. Initially, a line of transforming mecha toys rebranded from Takara’s Diaclone and Microman toylines,[1] the franchise began in 1984 with the Transformers toy line and centers on factions of self-configuring modular extraterrestrial robotic lifeforms (often the Autobots and the Decepticons) in an endless civil war for dominance or eventual peace. In its history, the Transformers robot superhero franchise has expanded to encompass comic books, animation, video games, and films.