Konbanwa, managaka-san desu!!

Konbanwa, managaka-san desu!!

I made that thread back in December looking for manga story ideas, this is an update post (I promised to return with updates). If anyone has posted about this since that original thread, it wasn't me.

In terms of my progress, I'm almost ready to draw the final draft. I've got a story board for the first chapter penned and I'm going to revise it a few times before I start the final version. I will share some story details, but there are also some details of the story that I won't mention because I think I've got a good thing going here and I'm a little nervous about my ideas being stolen by posting them here, so I apologize about that.

The manga is going to be a 4-koma series, unless the editor asks me to try it as a regular story comic. Or I might draw it in the structure of a normal manga but with a comedic style more akin to a 4-koma (like Yotsuba, for example). But my original version that I will submit to my editor is a 4-koma manga. Also I have been working on developing my art style. I was failing to capture the same exact style as a lot of other series in the moe genre, but there are actually two series in my favorite moe magazine (Manga Time Kirara Carrot) that have very oddball styles that are drastically different. One of them has a highly stylized art style, and the other just has really shitty art but it's allowed to remain in the magazine because it's funny. If you don't know this magazine, it runs series like Blend S, New Game, Swap Swap, and Shippuu Windmill. I'm hitting the character limit so I'll continue this below.

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I have been reading a book by a certain famous mangaka about what makes a good manga. In one part they talking about Story, Theme, Setting, and Characters and how these have to work together to make a good story. So for example One Piece is really popular because it uses these 4 things really well. It has likeable characters, an interesting themes (pirates), a good setting (Oda has fleshed out that world so much), and a good story. But some manga don't do this, and are able to carry themselves with just one element. Like Mushishi doesn't have memorable characters, but it has a fantastic setting. Or Kochikame doesn't have a story, but has great characters and exists as a sort of character sketchbook. I'm going to go this route, and aim for strong characters and have a basic story that could change with every entry. For examples of this you can look at Crayon Shin-Chan, Chibi Maruko-Chan, Sazae-san, Kochikame, or any similar series to this.

The manga will be about an American girl living with a host family in Japan and attending a Japanese high school. I know, you might be thinking "that's been done before" and mention Kiniro Mosaic, but I promise that the two series will have nothing in common other than the similar theme. They would have nothing more in common that Naruto and Nabari no Ou have in common (They're both about ninja but are drastically different.)

This will be more of a bizarre comedy series, if I had to compare the humor style to another series I would probably say Pani Poni Dash (Remember the cat who lives in the vending machine and thinks he's god?) but it will still be quite different from that series. The only reason I say this is because the host family feels like something that would fit into the humor of that series well. The host family is not human, but that's all I can tell you for now. They're not aliens either though. The main character works a night time job as an animator, and her best friend is a total bitch tsundere that doesn't believe all of the bizarre things that the main character tells her but is constantly shocked. I want to include a character that is a dog who cries a lot (with very detailed drawings of his wimpering face) but I'm not sure where he would fit into the story.

Sorry for changing the story from what you guys came up with but I wanted to try something completely original. However I still want to include a character I build from a few of the ideas you guys gave me. Ask me anything, I'll check the thread while I draw.

Bump because i'm interested

desuarchive.org/a/thread/165899181/#165899181
For those who missed it
Any plans for a trap character still or did you toss that out?

Show me the name you faggot.

I want to believe you're real but I can't quite yet.
Do what says, even a page or two would boost your credibility a bit.

On the slim chance you're real, I hope you succeed user.

hear hear

Ganbarre mangaka-san! When you get published make sure to tell us what the title is. From what you've described I'm looking forward to it. Is there a kamidere character in it at all?

Yes, there will absolutely be a trap character.

I can post a page, but please understand that I can't do so yet. I have a draft right now, but it's most likely incomprehensible to anyone but me and is pretty much scribbles in a notebook that explains some panels. Also I'm planning to revise that draft a few times still, so it would be pointless to show at this point anyway. I'm reading a book by Hirohiko Araki right now and that made me want to make some light changes to it. But I can post a page of the finished version before I take it to the editor. If it gets rejected I'll post the whole thing here while I work on whatever the editor advises me about it. But hopefully I'll succeed, at least as a one shot, and then somebody could share the magazine scans. I think this could work well as a series though.

Of course, I'll post any and all details related to the final version if it gets published. Or I'll share the whole chapter here if it gets rejected and then I'll come up with a new story and try again. There is a kamidere, yes.

Good luck user, it's interesting to see how far you've thought about all these things. Sorry if it's already been answered, but how much experience do you have in making manga?

?

Thanks. Not much experience, I'm still playing around with my art style. When I try to draw the typical moe style it kind of looks like shit, but when I draw the way I want it looks alright. So I'm actually going to go with my style, but my style probably looks a little old compared to a lot of the current styles. Modern moe characters have very rounded faces that are almost entirely circular, but the way I draw characters is with a bit of a longer face (Kind of an older style, maybe). I've been trying the more rounded style but I just can't do it, so I said fuck it and I'm drawing it my way. But the two comics with different art styles in my favorite magazine are serving as my encouragement that it'll be OK. I can do rounded chibi's though.

I'm a young person, still in my very early 20s. I think most of the people getting into the industry these days are probably around my age, maybe some are older. Not everyone can be like Yudetamago, who started writing at the age of only 16. I drew for myself for a while, and when I was in junior high/high school I read Bakuman which was what originally inspired me to want to become a mangaka. But for a variety of reasons I thought I couldn't do it, it felt like a pipe dream. My friend at the time was much better at drawing than I was and she would always put down my drawings, so I stopped drawing entirely. (Continued below)

Recently I've been a bit fed up with my work and want to look for something I can enjoy more. Preferably a job where I can work from home. Last year I bought some "how to draw manga" type books from an art shop (Sekaido, if you know it) with the goal of finally learning to draw properly. I've come a long way and decided I wanted to finally become a mangaka, so that's my new year's resolution, hence why I want to get my draft in front of the publisher before the end of the month. But I started planning last month so that I wouldn't just be throwing something together. Back in September I met with a professional mangaka and he gave me some really good advice and taught me a lot about the industry, I'm very grateful to him. He came out to meet me on his own time and he gave me some wonderful advice. His name is Takafumi Adachi, he was the mangaka who wrote Metal Fight Beyblade which I loved during junior high school. I hope to include a short thank you message to him when I get published.

That's the one! It was gifted to me recently, and I consider it invaluable for what I have learned so far. Everything he says, combined with what I have learned from Takafumi Adachi-san, and also what I learned from the series Bakuman, is just an incredible amount of insider's knowledge to learn as a complete beginner.

I'm not very good at giving Ideas so I'll just wish you good luck for now and hope some other anons could help you out

I forgot to mention in this comment. but I hope to start working as an assistant in the near future if I am unable to get my own story published. I don't like my current job so much, so I hope that I can cut back my current work to only part time and then work as an assistant for the other half of my income. And hopefully I can phase into being a published author from that. I hope to become published from the beginning though, however unrealistic of a goal that may be. But I'm not too worried if I work a little as an assistant. Takafumi-san worked as an assistant for 7 years before getting his first series published because he was in a very comfortable spot financially with the series he was working on, and he really admired the artist he was working for.

I have a friend who recently quite her job in hopes of becoming a mangaka as well. We are rivals, in a sense. I think the types of stories we are writing will be quite different though. She is publishing her first tankoban soon, I hope to read it.

I think I'm done collecting ideas, I want my story idea to be completely my own which is why the one I'm using now is quite different than what was discussed in the last thread. This thread was just a progress update, but I'd also love to talk with others about how the industry works and whatnot.

Well, good luck with getting it published.

Don't show us your name but sketch us something quick user.

He gave us this cute little thing last time

Pretty good

fuck off. not your fucking blog you dumb weab. also not manga, whiteboi

Have a Luffy.

Why isn't it manga?

Are you Japanese, or a foreigner? How did you get to the point where you're actually in talks with an editor?

Why do you browse Sup Forums? Why not some Japanese chan?

I'm a foreigner. Basically you just go into their office and talk with them. They put ads in all of the magazines giving instructions on how to submit, such as page size and paper type etc and you just go down and they'll meet with you. They'll assign you an editor who will work with you until you have something that can be serialized. Sometimes they'll just tell you really basic stuff like art critique and they'll tell you to work on developing your skills and then come back. If you're good they'll be really critical of your work. Usually they judge your work by the first page alone, so that first page is really important. If they turn the page, you've already a big step ahead of some of the other artists. Some magazines are easier to get into than others. Some magazines want you to schedule an appointment in advance, others accept walk-ins. I was first critiqued by a professional manga artist who I met back in September, he was willing to meet with me in a private meting space and give me some pointers. Next is the editor.

Usually when you meet an editor it's best to go in with a completed draft - they might turn you away if you don't have one. Draft requirements depend on the magazine. In my case, the magazine I'm submitting to wants 6-8 pages if it's a 4-koma, or 16-32 pages if it's a storied manga. If you're good at drawing but bad at stories they can try to find you somebody to team up with and vice versa.

Some manga artists start out by entering contests, such as the Gold Future Cup in Jump. But the majority of mangaka get published because they drew a draft and took it in to an editor. This is what I'm doing.

It's important to note that you must be able to speak Japanese.

Didn't 2chan get closed or something? There was a bunch of people from 2chan that made their own subreddit a while back after some drama over at 2chan and I thought I heard it closed after that. Besides that I thought a thread like this would be more interesting over here, I don't think any Sup Forums posters have legitimitely tried to get a manga published. And as for foreigners in general, Mark Crilley and that Whyt Manga guy are just drawing manga-styled comics and haven't attempted to get into a Japanese magazine. Their works really aren't manga since their target audience is western people who like manga (A very small audience since most western people who like manga don't want to read foreign works). The only foreigners I can think of who have actually made is are the guy who drew Sunken Rock (He's Korean, and he's doing the art for a series in Shonen Jump right now), or MAYBE this white girl who was an assistant for New Prince of Tennis. But she was only an assistant, so I wouldn't say she made it. She has yet to be published.

What if a foreigner post something online. A really great manga. Someone translated for the Japanese. And they think it's really amazing. Can it be serialized ? Will the publlishers itself come for you ?

No lolis, waifubait and traps

Whoa, nice. Good luck, Mangaka-san! Right now you're living my dream, so you'd better make it!

How similar is it for light novels? Are you going to publish the manga under your own name, or using a pseudonym so that your foreign-ness isn't as obvious?

I think it's extremely rare that a publisher would come for you. But if you draw a webcomic and a Japanese artist likes it and asks to work with you to submit it for serialization, that's a possibility. That's what happened with One Punch Man after all, it was just a silly webcomic, an artist liked it and wanted to improve it and now it's a hugely successful manga. It's even helped the original creator in that it attracted attention to his other works without him needing another artist to draw them. He wasn't a foreigner, but I'm sure the same could happen if a Japanese artist liked your work.

I'm sure you could even work on something directly with a publisher by yourself and pay a translator for each chapter, but then you have to factor in translation times and mangaka have trouble meeting deadlines as it is. Plus you would have to pay an interpreter just so you could have the meetings with your editor. You'd probably be spending so much money on translation/interpretation that you wouldn't be making much.

I don't know anything about how light novels work, but you would probably need really good Japanese for that. But it's been done! The guy who wrote No Game No Life was a foreigner!

I'm going to use a pen name. It's not to hide my foreign-ness, it's just to remain semi-anonymous. I don't want people to be able to find me easily. There might be a million Yamada Taro's in Japan, but there's only so many John Smith's and some obsessed person could probably track me down pretty easily if they got too angry about me lewding their waifu or something.

How'd you learn Japanese user?

I studied at a Japanese language school in Tokyo. I wouldn't really recommend it though, they're just for profit and they don't actually teach you much. But that got me into the country at least which gave me an opportunity to talk with locals and practice what I studied on my own by speaking with them. I think most of my advancement in Japanese happened after I met my wife though.

>166539115
How old are you ?
How much hard work did you put into ? How many years between when you started up until now.

...

Are we talking about Japanese or drawing? I guess I'll say both.

I'm 21, I moved to Japan when I was 19. I came from a poor family in a shitty area so I saved up the money to come here while working at walmart. I came as a student, but I dropoed out of school since I just couldn't afford to keep going and most of my career options over here were pretty much the same whether I had a degree or not.

I've been studying Japanese since I came here when I was 19, I took intensive courses in the beginning but the school was kind of bullshit. Now I take saturday classes at a different school and feel I am learning much more now. Learning Japanese isn't so hard. I'm from America, so Japanese is a category 5 language for me, that's the hardest level and it's my first time learning a foreign language. But Japanese just kinda makes sense, the hardest part is probably memorizing words. Kanji aren't too bad if you use them often.

As for drawing, I've been drawing for less than a year but once you learn techniques it's not too hard. Most of the techniques I know are things I learned from some books I bought over here, but I also learned some stuff from YouTube.

Wow, nice. 21 and already married? I guess that's how it works in Japan. Good luck with your manga, user!

I think I'm kind of a special case. My wife and I met through rather unusual circumstances and started out as roommates. She's several years older and is already established in a permanent position at her job so we were able to get married with me at such a young age.

Just a heads up anons, I finished my final design of the main character. I shared it with a few friends and the current standing is that she's cute.

Is this thread a joke?

No, it's completely serious. I know you're probably going to read this comment as sarcasm but I'm serious. I'm trying to become a mangaka.

so can we sue you in the future for taking ideas from here?

I'm not using the ideas that I got from here, so no. But since i explained in my original post what the ideas were for, anything you guys threw at me was voluntary lol.

Can you share with us? Or don't we count as friends?

Just wait until I make the completed draft, I'll post some of it.

Also drawfag here. I want to draw a manga. I drew one before when I was in high school, but it wasn't very good. (Actually it was sci-fi, and the tech I had written later became a real thing.) I was working on one, set in historical russia, but I'm losing interest in it. I want to write one about a bunch of characters living in a big city, mainly poorfags and part-timers trying to get by. American city setting, not japanese.

I'm drawing some porn comics right now to get a style down. Think I finally found something I like. I just need more practice to get anatomy/flow/style/consistency down.
Do you do digital or traditional? I like digital, so I don't need to worry about materials quality or hauling heavy reams of pages around. I've been focusing on getting good, clean lines with it. Well, I was drunk when I drew this, so you probably can't tell.
>I've been drawing for less than a year
Post some examples? It's hard to imagine being decent so soon, unless you draw 10 hours a day.

Bumping because this is one of the cooler threads I've seen recently

I draw traditionally, but I'd like to switch to digital eventually (maybe). I was going to pick up a budget drawing monitor but then I bought a Nintendo Switch on a whim since they've been impossible to find here in Japan, so I've gotta wait a bit on the monitor. I love buying art supplies though,s o it's fine.

My art probably isn;t anything great, but it's decent. Just wait for the draft.

Thanks, user! :D

>:D

...

Ganbare, OP. Make some good OC for us.