In a certain editorial department of the weekly magazine Shonen Jump, a subsidiary of Shueisha in Tokyo, there would be a meeting to decide on a new series in a few days. As the chief editor of this branch, Kitagawa had the obligation to select the best comics and submit them. This was not only his responsibility, but also related to whether he could be promoted and raised in the future.
As long as the manga he submitted could enter the weekly magazine Shonen Jump's serial, it would be a success. If the manga became popular and brought a lot of benefits to the company, as the creator of the manga, he would have the bargaining chip to compete for the chief editor of the company in the future.
"But this issue's comics aren't very good.”
Kitagawa sat in his office, flipping through the manuscripts on his desk at an extremely fast speed. He frowned and shook his head.
As the comic magazine with the highest circulation in the industry, the weekly Shonen Jump had a unique policy, which was to prioritize reader research.
Most comic magazines only used the readers 'opinions as a reference. Whether or not they would serialize it depended on the magazine's internal selection, so it was relatively less fair and easier to operate. However, Shonen Jump was completely different. They placed special emphasis on the opinions of readers and used them as an indicator of popularity. The rule was to use the ten issues after the release of the new series as the benchmark, and the opinions of the readers of each issue during the period would be used to determine the fate of the work.
The data of each issue would also be reflected in the front and back positions of the comic layout. Only the first place would often be reserved for pillar comics or works with special significance, such as the first serial, which was the first chapter.
This was a very cruel rule of competition. Those popular comics would naturally continue to be serialised, but every issue of Shonen Jump had a page limit. In other words, after about three months of ten issues, those comics that had been ranked at the bottom of the popularity rankings would be forcefully cut in half and give up their spots to new serialised comics.
Therefore, many comics that were popular at the beginning but fell after a few issues were forced to end. The comics that could continue to be published in this magazine had the potential to become national level comics, and most comics might only be short-lived.
Every three months, the editor-in-chief would select comics that he thought were good and submit them to the headquarters. At the final meeting, all the editors-in-chief would jointly decide on the next series.
The chief editor of this branch was called Kitagawa. He was a balding middle-aged man in his forties. He had many years of working experience in the industry. He loved manga and knew about manga, so he didn't know if a manga would be popular, but he could tell at a glance whether the plot, storyboard, and style were good or bad.
"I'm afraid we're going to lose again.”
Kitagawa placed the draft in his hand on the table in disappointment. He held his head and thought to himself,"
There were a total of four new comics on his desk, but Kitagawa did not take them seriously because there were quite a number of manga artists who submitted them. There were quite a lot of new comics every three months, but most of them were works of very naive beginners. Before they were handed to Kitagawa, most of the comics were reviewed by his editors. In the end, Kitagawa was left with a total of ten comics, but he was not satisfied with the ten comics in this issue. However, in order to cope with the meeting that would be held in a few days, he could only choose the best four.
Since there had been no manga from their branch that had been serialized for several issues, this was not good news for Kitagawa's position. He had thought that his staff had been negligent, but this time, he had even personally reviewed all the submitted manga. In the end, he had to admit that his staff were very responsible. The quality of the submitted manga was really not good, so he could only admit that he was unlucky.
If he didn't know that he wasn't cut out for this, he would have drawn a manga himself.
Just as Kitagawa was sighing and worrying about his future, there was a sudden knock on his office door.
Kitagawa, who was in a bad mood, frowned even more when he heard this urgent voice. He said impatiently,""Please come in!"
The office door was pushed open, and a man in his thirties walked in excitedly. He was balding, just like Kitagawa. Perhaps it was because this industry was too tough that all men in this industry balded early.
"Chief Editor Kitagawa!"
The man bowed respectfully. In Japan, especially in Japanese companies, young employees had to be respectful to the old employees who had contributed to the company for many years. No matter how talented the old employees were, this was a necessary etiquette. It might not be good for talented young people to have such etiquette; however, it was very happy for the old people who had been working hard all their lives. Generally, the salary of the old employees was much higher than that of the new employees.
Of course, the reason why the man who came in was so respectful was because Kitagawa was an old employee who had worked for 20 years. He was also the boss with the highest authority in this branch.
"It's Xufang-kun. What's the matter?”
Kitagawa quickly adjusted his emotions. As a leader for many years, he was very experienced. Even if he was in a bad mood, he should not vent his anger on the lower-level employees.
"Managing Editor, I spent half a day carefully reading the new manuscript that was sent in this morning. I think it's very good and completely capable of being submitted this time, so please take a look!”
"You sent it so late?"
Kitagawa furrowed his brows. The conference would start in a few days, and honestly speaking, manuscripts sent in at this time would usually be automatically moved to the next issue. But looking at Xufang's excited expression, he had worked here for several years and was very experienced, which meant that this new manga was pretty good.
Kitagawa looked at the manga on the table and decided to take a look.
"Let me see."
"Yes, sir!"
Xufang respectfully handed the manga drafts to Kitagawa and stood in front of his desk, waiting for his comments.
On the first page, there was a boy with yellow hair. Below him were four large red words-
"Naruto!"
Kitagawa muttered the name of the manga. There weren't many ninja-themed manga in Japan, but since Xufang was so excited, it meant that this manga had its own uniqueness.
"Shining Shrine? A name that he had never heard of, was he a newcomer?”
Kitagawa muttered to himself as he looked at the author's name circled in blue under the red words Naruto.
On the second page, there was a rather strange picture. Beside it, there was a note that seemed to be narrating history. It wrote the story of a nine-tailed fox and the fourth generation Naruto.
The third and fourth pages were two still pictures.
The fifth page was the real beginning of the manga.
When Kitagawa flipped to the fifth page, his eyes lit up.
"This kind of storyboard doesn't seem like a newbie.”
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