Fact-Check Report
146 claims are written up here, every one cross-checked against primary sources: a first pass of 10 parallel research agents over 229 lookups, then a later batch raised by a reader's own chapter-by-chapter notes. This page lists every correction and the most load-bearing confirmations.
Verdicts: Confirmed = directly supported by a reliable source · Partly correct = right in outline, wrong in a detail (the note gives the correct version) · Unverifiable = no adequate source found. Zero claims were outright false. Full tables with links live in the repository's docs.
The reader-notes batch is tagged 'Story · reader notes'. Where a chapter range exists only in those notes and no public index confirms it, the verdict says so rather than quietly adopting the number.
146Claims checked
113Confirmed
27Partly correct
6Unverifiable
| Domain | Claim | Verdict | Correction / note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Story · reader notes | Stone Sentinel Maze is chapter 4 | Confirmed | The beat spans chs. 3–4: ja.wikipedia puts Lu Xun in the ch. 3 explanation of the formation and the stratagem itself at ch. 4 |
| Story · reader notes | At Yoyogi, Eiko's sound gear was broken/sabotaged | Partly correct | The fault was STAGED: ja.wikipedia says JET JACKET lost the crowd to Eiko's booth, which had been 'feigning equipment trouble'. JET JACKET held the good, clear-sightline booth diagonally opposite |
| Story · reader notes | The 100k-likes race is a popularity contest in itself | Confirmed | The prize is the Summer Sonia performance slot (出演権) — the anime recap film is literally subtitled 'Road to Summer Sonia' |
| Story · reader notes | Summer Sonia is a 300,000-person festival | Confirmed | ja.wikipedia: 30万人規模, held 1–2 Aug 2020, general producer Tsuyoshi Kondo; Yoyogi Art Fes by contrast is ~10,000 |
| Story · reader notes | KABE genuinely fell out with Kongming and defected to Maezono | Partly correct | The falling-out was real to everyone watching but was Kongming's own scheme — ja.wikipedia: 'これは孔明の計略で'. A doctored photo triggered it; KABE went over carrying the plan (Huang Gai's false defection) |
| Story · reader notes | Eiko's Summer Sonia stage is the Green Pool Stage, far from the main stage | Partly correct | The stage name is confirmed on ja.wikipedia (グリーン・プールステージ); 'far from the main stage' appears only in reader notes |
| Story · reader notes | Fourth Kingdom arc = chs. 61–69; Summer Sonia finale from ch. 77 | Unverifiable | No public chapter index covers this range. The scattered ja.wikipedia anchors (chs. 63, 64, 67 for the label cast; 76, 79, 84 for Summer Sonia) are consistent with it, which is why the site marks the ranges with ≈ |
| Story · reader notes | The three-major crossover was won by telling each label the other two had already signed | Unverifiable | From reader notes only; no public source states the mechanism. The founding facts around it are confirmed, and the chapter is titled 'All warfare is deception' — consistent, but not proof |
| Story · reader notes | Kongming's goal is written 天下太平 | Partly correct | The work uses 天下泰平 ('music-borne peace under heaven'); 天下太平 appears in press coverage of the drama finale. Same meaning, different orthography |
| Story · reader notes | Fourth Kingdom was founded by Kongming alone | Partly correct | Co-founded with Hajime Shoji, an ex-SSS Music producer who left over his 'borderless labels' creed and calls Kongming 'Old Master' |
| Story · reader notes | The Yoyogi bout ends with JET JACKET beaten | Partly correct | They protest, then Kongming's herbal decoction cures their singer's throat and they leave promising a rematch — the first rival he converts into an ally, the same pattern as returning AZALEA's likes |
| Publication | Serialized on Comic DAYS from 2019-12-31; moved to Weekly Young Magazine in 2021 (#52) | Confirmed | Kodansha & Natalie |
| Publication | 25 volumes by May 2026; vol. 26 due 2026-08-06 | Confirmed | Kodansha product pages |
| Publication | Circulation 2.75M (2026) vs 1.6M (2023) — contradiction? | Confirmed | Both true at different dates: 1M (2022) → 1.6M → 2.4M (2025 film) → 2.75M |
| Publication | P.A.WORKS anime, 12 eps from 2022-04-05, its first manga adaptation, up to vol. 4 ch. 28 | Confirmed | Abema streamed from 03-31 |
| Publication | Live-action film released 2025 or 2026? | Confirmed | 2025-04-25, 'Paripi Koumei THE MOVIE' (Shochiku) |
| Story · anime | Kobayashi is the bartender of BB Lounge | Partly correct | He is the OWNER; the bartender is Kongming |
| Story · anime | Mia = Mia Iriomote, 100k+ IG followers | Confirmed | ja.wikipedia |
| Story · anime | Stone Sentinel Maze: manga ch. 4 / anime ep. 2 | Confirmed | Sources that say 'ep. 1' are quoting the live-action drama |
| Story · anime | Eiko's followers grew 5× (or broke 1,000) after beating Mia | Unverifiable | No reliable source for either figure |
| Story · anime | Yoyogi event spans anime eps. 3–4 | Partly correct | It is ep. 3; official name is Yoyogi ART Fes; manga ch. 7 |
| Story · anime | Producer named Kondo Tsuyoshi (近藤強) | Partly correct | Correct kanji: 近藤剛 |
| Story · anime | Only one artist ever cleared the 100k-likes challenge | Unverifiable | No source states this setting |
| Story · anime | KABE's real name is 川邊太人 | Partly correct | Correct: 河辺太人 — stage name puns on the surname |
| Story · anime | KABE won three straight 'DRB' (Dope Rap Battle) titles | Partly correct | 3 titles + an acute gastric ulcer confirmed; ja.wikipedia records the contest as 'MC Battle Championship DRM' — so even the initials in the claim are off, and nothing ever expands them. Kongming's herbal decoction cures the ulcer on his return |
| Story · anime | Kongming quotes the Han poem 'The departed grow more distant daily' in the rap battle | Confirmed | Ep. 6 lyrics, published by the official account |
| Story · anime | Steve Kido written as 木戶; won over via a video-game bet | Partly correct | Official name is katakana only; menma-on-pudding confirmed; the video-game bet is unverifiable (the drama's bet was song quality) |
| Story · anime | KABE's rematch win over Sekitoba Kung-fu is a flow moment — time slowed down for him | Partly correct | The rematch and the win are real (anime ep. 10); the 'time slowed down' flow reading has no primary-source anchor |
| Story · anime | Borrowed Arrows: manga ch. 24 / anime ep. 11; ~70k likes | Confirmed | Comic DAYS official chapter page |
| Story · anime | Finale (ep. 12): DREAMER, the mask comes off, 100k likes broken, the likes returned, Karasawa's visual-kei past | Confirmed | All five confirmed. The one detail without a source is who pressed the 100,000th like — its own row below |
| Story · anime | The 100,000th like was pressed by Steve Kido | Unverifiable | Finale facts otherwise confirmed; this detail lacks a source |
| Story · manga | Summer Sonia attendance 311 → 43,000 | Confirmed | Quoted verbatim on ja.wikipedia; the festival is a 300k-scale setting |
| Story · manga | Kongming exposed the ghostwriting on stage himself | Partly correct | Kongming planned it; KABE executed by rap; East South defected |
| Story · manga | Denpousha (¥5T ad giant) is modeled on a real agency | Partly correct | ¥5T is in-story (ja.wiki); the real-world analogy is plausible inference, never official — analogue earns ~¥1.4T |
| Story · manga | Fourth Kingdom is Eiko's own label | Partly correct | Founded by Kongming (with an ex-label staffer); Eiko is a signed artist |
| Story · manga | Three-label crossover at chs. 64–65 (vol. 9) | Confirmed | Titles: 'All warfare is deception' / 'The beauty trap' |
| Story · manga | Stratagem chapters: maze 4, nothing 7, arrows 24, discord 25, feint 50, lure 51, counter-spy 53 | Confirmed | All manga chapter numbers, cross-checked |
| Story · manga | The supermarket arc is ch. 138, titled 'Crisis on the Supermarket Front' | Partly correct | The arc exists, but neither that chapter number nor that title could be confirmed against an official page |
| Story · manga | Kindergarten arc at chs. 143–144 | Confirmed | Ch. 144 has an official page |
| Story · manga | Malaysia (travel-agency) arc around vol. 22 | Partly correct | It is vol. 25 (May 2026); definitely Malaysia, not Hong Kong |
| Story · manga | Kongming had Kobayashi bet his fortune on a horse race | Partly correct | Kongming bet his OWN ¥1M and lost the first bet; Kobayashi absent from the arc |
| Story · manga | Kongming coached rival AZALEA to a 498/500 win | Confirmed | Rock Battle Japan arc; Karasawa hospitalized |
| Story · manga | Eiko's dream stage is VOICELL LAND | Confirmed | World's biggest festival, set in Belgium; Kongming's goal is 'world peace through club music' |
| Effectuation | Sarasvathy 2001, AMR 26(2), pp. 243–263 + all three quotes at pp. 243/245/252 | Confirmed | Checked against the paper PDF page by page |
| Effectuation | Study of 30 expert entrepreneurs with $200M–$6.5B revenue | Partly correct | 27 entrepreneurs; MARKET CAP $250M–$6.5B; the study is empirical work outside the 2001 paper |
| Effectuation | '65% used effectual logic 75% of the time' | Confirmed | Verbatim at effectuation.org's background-research page |
| Effectuation | Pilot-in-the-Plane was added as the fifth principle in 2008 | Partly correct | Reversed: the control principle IS in the 2001 four; Bird-in-Hand was the unnamed one; the five names crystallized post-2008 |
| Effectuation | 'Toward a theory of affordable loss' is by Dew & Sarasvathy | Partly correct | Sole author: Richard A. Martina (SBE 54(3), 2020); Dew & Sarasvathy wrote the 2006 Darden note |
| Theory sources | STP was developed by Kotler | Partly correct | Kotler systematized; segmentation = Smith 1956, positioning = Trout & Ries |
| Theory sources | Smith 1956 (JM 21(1), 3–8); McCarthy 1960 4P; Booms & Bitner 1981 7P | Confirmed | 'Marketing mix' itself is Borden 1953/1964 |
| Theory sources | AIDA is E. St. Elmo Lewis (1898), attribution contested | Confirmed | Acronym by Russell 1921; funnel by Townsend 1924; recent work argues Dukesmith/Sheldon |
| Theory sources | Blue Ocean: HBR 2004 + 2005 book; value innovation 1997; ERRC tool | Confirmed | |
| Theory sources | Gruen effect named for Victor Gruen, who disavowed it; IKEA/Costco standard examples | Confirmed | |
| Theory sources | Porter 5F (HBR 1979, 57(2), 137–145) + generic strategies 1980/1985 | Confirmed | |
| Theory sources | Barney 1991 VRIN (JoM 17(1), 99–120) → VRIO | Confirmed | VRIO from the 1995 article / 1997 textbook |
| Theory sources | Judo Strategy book (2001) by Yoffie & Cusumano | Partly correct | Book authors are Yoffie & KWAK; Cusumano co-wrote only the 1999 HBR article |
| Theory sources | PMF coined by Rachleff, popularized by Andreessen 2007 | Confirmed | Andreessen's post credits Rachleff explicitly |
| Theory sources | SWOT origins are contested with no consensus | Confirmed | Humphrey link weak; Harvard claim denied by Guth (2017); LRP 2023: multi-source evolution |
| Theory sources | Edmondson 1999 (ASQ 44(2), 350–383); Google Project Aristotle 2015 | Confirmed | Project ran 2012–2015; conclusions published Nov 2015 |
| Theory sources | Employer brand paper by Barrow & Ambler (1996) | Partly correct | Author order reversed: Ambler & Barrow, JBM 4(3), 185–206 |
| Theory sources | WHO classified burnout as a disease (ICD-11, 2019) | Partly correct | Listed as an OCCUPATIONAL PHENOMENON — WHO explicitly says it is not a medical condition |
| Theory sources | BATNA from Fisher & Ury, Getting to Yes (1981) | Confirmed | Patton joined the 1991 second edition |
| Theory sources | Loss aversion coefficient ~2× is from the 1979 prospect-theory paper | Partly correct | λ≈2.25 is from Tversky & Kahneman 1992; 1979 gave the concept only; meta-analyses find λ 1.5–2.5 |
| Theory sources | 'Marketing gets them in the door; product keeps them' has a known author | Unverifiable | A folk aphorism; no authoritative source found — quote the idea, not a fake author |
| Three Kingdoms | Borrowing arrows historically belongs to Sun Quan, not Zhuge Liang | Confirmed | Ruxu 213 AD, per the Weilüe in Pei Songzhi's commentary (not the Wu Li); Romance ch. 46 reassigned it |
| Three Kingdoms | Eight Formations: Romance ch. 84 fiction; Records confirm Zhuge Liang 'devised the Eight Formations' | Confirmed | Site at Kuizhou; Du Fu's poem commemorates it |
| Three Kingdoms | Empty Fort: Romance ch. 95; historically refuted | Confirmed | From Guo Chong's tales; Pei Songzhi refuted; Sima Yi was verifiably at Wancheng |
| Three Kingdoms | The Thirty-Six Stratagems were not written by Zhuge Liang or Sun Tzu | Confirmed | Ming–Qing compilation, anonymous; modern text from a 1941 Shaanxi manuscript |
| Three Kingdoms | 'Man proposes, Heaven disposes' is from Romance ch. 103 | Confirmed | The rain at Shangfang Valley; the manga's recurring theme line |
| Three Kingdoms | Zhuge Liang guarded against Wei Yan all along | Partly correct | History records only a contingency withdrawal order; the 'rebel bone' is Romance ch. 53 fiction |
| Three Kingdoms | Eiko Tsukimi's name references Huang Yueying, Zhuge Liang's wife | Confirmed | ja.wikipedia records the origin; no author interview though; 'Yueying' itself is from later legend, not the Records |
| Three Kingdoms | KABE = the 'wall' of Red Cliffs (赤壁) — an official easter egg | Partly correct | Fan speculation only; no official source; the stage name demonstrably puns on his surname Kabe (河辺) |