Official announcement from Manga Sunday in Japanese I hope the author and illustrator have a good long and restorative break. No masterpiece is worth the health of its creators. Thank you for...
Official announcement from Manga Sunday in Japanese
I hope the author and illustrator have a good long and restorative break. No masterpiece is worth the health of its creators. Thank you for everything so far, and if there won't ever be more, it has been a privilege. Anime next year is just a wonderful bonus.
So, i can admit that there might be something in suffering for great art. I don’t think it’s ideal but if a grown adult wants to dedicate their life to something at the cost of their health,...
So, i can admit that there might be something in suffering for great art. I don’t think it’s ideal but if a grown adult wants to dedicate their life to something at the cost of their health, especially when it so rarely produces anything, well that’s their choice.
However from a similar point of abstracted pragmatism, can they really not find a way to, you know, not grind their artists into dust?
I’ve heard there’s some level of cultural issues and self selection (you don’t get to the high tiers unless youre crazy dedicated and then you don’t want to give up control) , but I’ve mostly heard that yeah, the schedules and output expected of these artists are nuts.
It’s objectively awful for the artists but even from the evil mustache twirling point of view it’s like cooking the golden goose.
There's a bit to unpack here, but my high level thoughts: Weekly serials are a bit of a rare beast nowadays due to how punishing the schedule is, but the big three (Jump, Magazine and Sunday) are...
There's a bit to unpack here, but my high level thoughts:
Weekly serials are a bit of a rare beast nowadays due to how punishing the schedule is, but the big three (Jump, Magazine and Sunday) are still generally seen as the most prestigious and where the 'big hits' are made (leading to fame and riches). Hence, there's a lot of competition to run in these serials, and a lack of popularity can easily lead to getting cut (especially at Jump, the big dog). As a result, I suspect a lot of mangaka put pressure on themselves to put out the best product they can so they can shoot their shot, rather than the magazine editors directly grinding them with demands for X quality in Y time.
More and more, mangaka are choosing not to participate in that grind. With online electronic distribution being a thing now, there are plenty of smaller competitors to the big weekly serials. Monthly magazines are producing their own share of hits now (e.g. Jump+ with Spy X Family and Chainsaw Man) and also host some big names who want to gear down (e.g. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is monthly now). Some mangaka are even selling directly to the customer (Blackjack ni Yoroshiku attempted something like that, IIRC, and plenty more just make and sell adult content through DLsite - I believe even a couple of former weekly Jump mangaka!)
Even back in the olden days, though, I think people realised that the weekly grind was kind of BS. Mizuki Shigeru once famously said that the reason that he outlived his famous contemporaries like Tezuka (who often ran like a dozen serials at once) was that he just got adequate sleep, and the dude was no stranger to hardship - he became a mangaka after losing his arm in the war!
This got me curious to check who currently actually serialises weekly in Sunday. I just want to point out how insane it is that Takahashi Rumiko, a 68 year old lady who is a millionaire many times...
Official announcement from Manga Sunday in Japanese
I hope the author and illustrator have a good long and restorative break. No masterpiece is worth the health of its creators. Thank you for everything so far, and if there won't ever be more, it has been a privilege. Anime next year is just a wonderful bonus.
So, i can admit that there might be something in suffering for great art. I don’t think it’s ideal but if a grown adult wants to dedicate their life to something at the cost of their health, especially when it so rarely produces anything, well that’s their choice.
However from a similar point of abstracted pragmatism, can they really not find a way to, you know, not grind their artists into dust?
I’ve heard there’s some level of cultural issues and self selection (you don’t get to the high tiers unless youre crazy dedicated and then you don’t want to give up control) , but I’ve mostly heard that yeah, the schedules and output expected of these artists are nuts.
It’s objectively awful for the artists but even from the evil mustache twirling point of view it’s like cooking the golden goose.
Is there more to this?
There's a bit to unpack here, but my high level thoughts:
Weekly serials are a bit of a rare beast nowadays due to how punishing the schedule is, but the big three (Jump, Magazine and Sunday) are still generally seen as the most prestigious and where the 'big hits' are made (leading to fame and riches). Hence, there's a lot of competition to run in these serials, and a lack of popularity can easily lead to getting cut (especially at Jump, the big dog). As a result, I suspect a lot of mangaka put pressure on themselves to put out the best product they can so they can shoot their shot, rather than the magazine editors directly grinding them with demands for X quality in Y time.
More and more, mangaka are choosing not to participate in that grind. With online electronic distribution being a thing now, there are plenty of smaller competitors to the big weekly serials. Monthly magazines are producing their own share of hits now (e.g. Jump+ with Spy X Family and Chainsaw Man) and also host some big names who want to gear down (e.g. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is monthly now). Some mangaka are even selling directly to the customer (Blackjack ni Yoroshiku attempted something like that, IIRC, and plenty more just make and sell adult content through DLsite - I believe even a couple of former weekly Jump mangaka!)
Even back in the olden days, though, I think people realised that the weekly grind was kind of BS. Mizuki Shigeru once famously said that the reason that he outlived his famous contemporaries like Tezuka (who often ran like a dozen serials at once) was that he just got adequate sleep, and the dude was no stranger to hardship - he became a mangaka after losing his arm in the war!
This got me curious to check who currently actually serialises weekly in Sunday.
I just want to point out how insane it is that Takahashi Rumiko, a 68 year old lady who is a millionaire many times over, is still doing a weekly.