Part 5:<\/b>
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I Want to Do Something that Amuses Others, Not Myself\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Our Job is to Provide a Place to Debut for Those with the Fundamentals Down\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Meet Again in Five Years. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll See Then Who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Laughing and Who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Crying\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/a><\/p>\n
[Original Article: Masahiro Yamaguchi, ITmedia.
\nCopyright 2011 ITmedia Inc. All Rights Reserved.]<\/b><\/p>\n
———————<\/p>\n
Part 4: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We Might Start Seeing More Manga Artists with Six-to-Eight Million Yen Salaries in the Future\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Takekuma)<\/b> <\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: Thinking in terms of frameworks is dangerous. If anything, I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s best to take a shotgun approach. Have a lot of talented artists draw something, do a media mix, or all sorts of added-value extras, and put out a lot of product. Being able to try many different things is one advantage of manga. Editors mostly pay attention to frameworks and packages. I mentioned this on Twitter, but I feel like people aren’t recognizing just how risky creating frameworks can be.<\/p>\n
Takekuma<\/b>: Though you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re saying that about frameworks, editors have to work alongside an author, since their job isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t something they can do alone.<\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: The kinds of fixed models you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re talking about are disappearing. I think that editors will start to disappear, and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll basically move to a model where a ton of titles are constantly released, and the industry focuses on fostering along whatever sticks. If this happens, then editorial corrections aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t needed anymore. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll basically be that as long as you have a lot to choose from, something good will show up, and you won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to fix those works.<\/p>\n
Takekuma<\/b>: Actually, in a way, that was how the manga industry used to work. They assumed that they had an unending supply of new artists, and that a poor marksman would hit a target eventually, given enough tries. But now, even if you have a talented new artist…<\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nowhere for their work to be released.<\/p>\n
Takekuma<\/b>: People working at the publishers have all been going to Comiket and Comitia recently, too. Places like those are really efficient in terms of finding talent.<\/p>\n
— Other than Comiket, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t there also the option of exhibiting your work online now?<\/p>\n
Takekuma<\/b>: Yes. For example, the woman who did the cover of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mavo\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is forty right now, and first debuted as a manga artist at 38. She drew as a hobby until she got married, and started displaying her animations and manga online after marrying. She became well-known through those, and people started coming to her with work. The number of people debuting online these days is increasing quite a bit. Actually, all the young editors these days are looking at pixiv, looking for people they can start using immediately.<\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like you always hear, right? The people who make the top 10 at pixiv get a bunch of people offering them work, but none of them want to pay the artist for it.<\/p>\n
— There are definitely a number of professional manga artists who got their start on pixiv, though.<\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: But they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not working in major magazines, are they?<\/p>\n
Takekuma<\/b>: I think the concept of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153major magazine\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is going to start changing. We might be entering an age where we stop hearing about things like million-selling volumes, or series selling 20 million. This current generation of people like Mr. Akamatsu or series like One Piece might just be the last of their kind.<\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: Isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that the same as what I just said? The industry is going to snap after all.<\/p>\n
Takekuma<\/b>: No, you see, artists will still be able to sell 50,000 copies, for example. You can make a living selling 50,000 copies of a volume.<\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: You say 50,000, but how expensive are those volumes?<\/p>\n
Takekuma<\/b>: Regardless, I think that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see more manga artists living off of six to eight million yen a year, as long as they have at least a bit of a name.<\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: Huh?<\/p>\n
Takekuma<\/b>: That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been trying to say. Since you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a major artist, creating a million seller is a certain marker of status to you. I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take away from that, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m thinking that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fine to hit a bunch of singles, or even bunts. Just as long as you get on base.<\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: That must be an editor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s point of view. As an artist, you would obviously rather have a million people reading your work and be making a few hundred million yen a year. If baseball players all got paid 5 million yen a year, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be taking away the dream.<\/p>\n
Takekuma<\/b>: No, editors think that as well. But what happens if you fall short and can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make it that far? Do you quit altogether, or do you stay, because you love manga? In any case, I think that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll start seeing a business model completely different from the one we have now. And, if it involves the overseas market like you were talking about earlier, there is certainly room to make however many hundreds of millions of yen. But the Japanese manga industry hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been attempting to make that happen at all.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153As Long as an Artist Pays Their Own ‘Entertainment Fee,’ They Won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Make Money\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Akamatsu)<\/b><\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: Which is better, a manga that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interesting, or a manga that sells? Do you think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no good if a boring manga starts selling?<\/p>\n
Takekuma<\/b>: Hmm, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have to say the interesting manga.<\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: So you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re fine if a manga doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sell, as long as it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interesting?<\/p>\n
Takekuma<\/b>: If you put it like that, then yes. But doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t everyone think that they want to sell something interesting?<\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: Hmm, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really like that line of thought. Isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that being too much of a romanticist?<\/p>\n
— Recently in the world of J-Pop, there have been a lot of young artists who are fine with not selling a million copies, and are thinking of ways to just pay the bills by selling 50,000 or 100,000 copies. They’re also starting their own independent labels, and running their own businesses. At the same time, those people are also trying to get into the Oricon ((a major Japanese media sales tracking company, similar to Billboard)) top five. I think that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll start seeing something similar in manga. The only problem is whether or not we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have as many people still hoping to become manga artists once that happens.<\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the problem. Why not just draw and upload what you do to pixiv?<\/p>\n
Takekuma<\/b>: I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never made a huge amount of money, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m more of the type who feels like if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have money, you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have money, and I find that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of enjoyable things about that kind of lifestyle.<\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: But back when Monkey Manga was selling and everyone was reading your work, you also had the experience of making a lot of money and everyone knowing your name, didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you?<\/p>\n
Takekuma<\/b>: Well, for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Monkey Manga\u00e2\u20ac\u009d… Even if you say that it sold well, it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t anything amazing. The company went and printed 200,000 copies for the first printing of the first volume, and Koji Aihara and I got them to hold up after that. We said to start with 50,000, then see how sales go. After that, the volume sold about 120,000 or 130,000 copies. Even so, there were a lot of unsold copies, so they printed 80,000 for volume 2, and 45,000 for volume 3. In the end, my read of printing 50,000 and waiting was right.<\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: If they were able to sell 120,000 copies of a 200,000 copy print run, they still must have made money.<\/p>\n
Takekuma<\/b>: Of course it still made money, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a minor artist at heart. An underground, super-minor artist.<\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: In Bakuman, you have a story where upstart young boys say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re gonna sell a bunch of manga!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and an upstart editor who says \u00e2\u20ac\u0153we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re gonna sell a bunch of manga!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. Do you think there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something wrong with that line of thought?<\/p>\n
Takekuma<\/b>: Of course I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m fine with that. Just, I think that there are books that sell a million copies in one year, and books that sell a million copies, but not until after a hundred years. Of course, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d think the former case is better, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s becoming a lot harder to do that.<\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand that. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve even had experience working on something that sold well.<\/p>\n
Takekuma<\/b>: But what I want is for something I worked on to last, even after I die. You were saying that I was being a romanticist earlier, but you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re exactly right. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been living my life as a romanticist for the last fifty years. (laughter)<\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: I entered the manga world with the intention to quit if my first work didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sell, and even had a backup plan secured. But my juniors in the industry don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have backup plans. In order to persuade my parents, I won a newcomers prize, and when I was debuting as a manga artist, I was simultaneously hunting for jobs. They were very demanding. I absolutely wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t thinking something like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I know I can make it!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t give up until I make it!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d You can say that I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t much of a romanticist in that regard, but there are a lot of manga artists who are. In that way, I think of you as being like a manga artist, Mr. Takekuma.<\/p>\n
Takekuma<\/b>: Well, maybe I have an artist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mentality. The reason I call myself an editor, too, is because I want to create a work as an editor.<\/p>\n
— What kind of mentality do the students at Tama Art University and Kyoto Seika University who want to be manga artists have?<\/p>\n
Takekuma<\/b>: There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been a lot of people who I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve thought are incredibly talented, but as far as I know, not a single one has debuted. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of reasons for that. For example, they can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t communicate well with others, or they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re such perfectionists that they can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t show people something that might still have room for improvement.<\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: All the talented artists say that.<\/p>\n
Takekuma<\/b>: I had one female student who I thought was a genius, and she told me an idea she had for a manga. I told her it sounded interesting, and that she should draw thumbnails for it, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been two years and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still not finished with them. Basically, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a perfectionist. During this period, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been selling BL (boys\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 love) manga at Comitia, so she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll draw those. Except, even though she received a booth at Comitia, she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get there until three in the afternoon. ((Comitia, Japan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largest all-original doujinshi event, generally ends at 4 PM.)) She was drawing all the way until that point, and just brought bundles of unstapled copies with her to the event. Clearly, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not thinking about sales. When I looked at those copies, I thought that she was definitely very talented, but that if she’s this kind of person, she could never become a pro.<\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: In Akamatsu-ian Theory, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a concept called the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153entertainment fee\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re enjoying what you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re drawing, you are paying your own work\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s entertainment fee, and so you won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make any money from it. If you draw something so that your editor and your readers enjoy it, you receive that entertainment fee. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re enjoying what you make, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re paying your entertainment fee, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s harder for other people to enjoy the work, while your chances of debuting also decrease.<\/p>\n
If a genre requires a high entertainment fee, it means that the genre is also fun to draw, causing everyone to be attracted to it, and the number of writers in that genre will become very high. When that happens, page rates will go down, and you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make money. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why you shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get involved with something with a high entertainment fee when you can help it. On the flip side, commercial magazines have to make all sorts of people happy, so you have less freedom to enjoy yourself. As this happens, the chance that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll receive that entertainment fee becomes higher.<\/p>\n
Takekuma<\/b>: Does that mean that you couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stand to continue doing what you do if you couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make money from it?<\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another way to put it. If you look at it the other way around, I feel that something drawn by an artist who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing nothing but entertaining themselves couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t possibly make money. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not saying that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s karma, though.<\/p>\n
— Akamatsu-sensei, what motivates you right now?<\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: Seeing enjoyment on the faces of readers. After all, you can see how much people are enjoying themselves when you look at sales numbers. Sales numbers, or royalty checks. I see those and think, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad that people enjoyed my work this much.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It works out so that if readers are happy with my work, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m happy too. It was definitely like that toward the end of Love Hina.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Manga Artists Will Independently Hire Editors, as Lawyers or Accountants are Hired\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Takekuma)<\/b><\/p>\n
Takekuma<\/b>: While I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but speak from an editor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s standpoint again, one thing I want is to see the state of manga change into something new before I die. My end goal is to die after I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve created that state. J-Comi drew my attention because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one part of this new state, and if I were running J-Comi, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d think about releasing it as a system for new authors and their work, as an attempt to revitalize the manga industry. Listening to what you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve said today, though, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not what you want to do.<\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not something that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m considering. Really, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m trying to avoid any risk whatsoever.<\/p>\n
Takekuma<\/b>: But don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t they say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153no risk, no return\u00e2\u20ac\u009d?<\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: What I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve concluded is that I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take the time and effort to raise young artists whose ability to create something interesting or something that sells is still unknown. You might say that doing just that is the most interesting part of all of this, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a romantic way of thinking.<\/p>\n
Takekuma<\/b>: All editors are that way. The greatest joy an editor feels is when they meet a promising new artist.<\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: Editors might feel that way, but what about the lives of manga artists whose work doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sell? There seems to even be a mood where editors aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t considered true professionals until after they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve gone through and crushed however many artists first. Looking at editors from a manga artist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perspective, if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to get involved with an editor, I want a 100% guarantee that my book is going to sell. All manga artists wonder why it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s them who are getting cut by publishers, while their editors are still employed at a company despite canceled series after canceled series.<\/p>\n
— Won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that be fixed once the number of freelance editors increases, like Mr. Takekuma was talking about? Up until now, manga artists haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been able to choose their own editors. Things might start getting better if the number of freelance editors goes up.<\/p>\n
Takekuma<\/b>: Freelance editors will become agents. Manga artists will hire editors, just like how they might hire a lawyer or an accountant. I think we’ll be seeing this happen in five years or so. <\/p>\n
— That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something that editors won’t be able to do as long as they’re hired at a company. Also, while you might be reassigned editors at a publisher, that won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happen with freelancers.<\/p>\n
Takekuma<\/b>: I think that one reason that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Nodame Cantabile\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was such a success was because the editor for the series, Ms. Mikawa, was a freelance editor, and was able to work on the series for eight years straight, from the very beginning to the very end. Have you ever worked with an editor who really wowed you, Mr. Akamatsu?<\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: I felt like that when I was first starting, but after two to three years, you start figuring out what an editor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably going to tell you. Once that happens, in theory, you could just start correcting your own manga.<\/p>\n
— Looking at it the other way around, that means that those first two to three years are essential.<\/p>\n
Akamatsu<\/b>: That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right. At Magazine, when a new editor is assigned to an artist, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re also assigned a senior editor. That senior editor will tell the manga artist what they should fix, then turn to the younger editor and ask, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153by the way, what do you think?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d By doing this, both the manga artist and the senior editor are working together to train the younger editor. This means that it takes years to train an editor, and it also takes years to train a new manga artist. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no more room to do something like that. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in a situation where you have to get artists with some sort of immediate sales potential, so there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no more room for training. <\/code><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Translator\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Introduction: This is part four of the five-part conversation between manga artist and J-Comi founder Ken Akamatsu and manga editor, writer, and professor Takekuma Kentaro. Previous parts, as well as a more detailed introduction, can be found via links on the index below. Part 1: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153People are Noticing the Possibilities of Viewers Featuring Dynamic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,10,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-internet","category-manga","category-translation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/2chan.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/2chan.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/2chan.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2chan.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2chan.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1856"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/2chan.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1883,"href":"http:\/\/2chan.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856\/revisions\/1883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/2chan.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2chan.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2chan.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}