Master of the Machete Style Manga

Chapter 26 Related Households

After the morning meeting ended, Keiko Kaji walked out of the meeting room with her manuscript in her hand.

Just then, a bald middle-aged man hurried over and called her to a stop.

"Kaji, wait a minute!"

Keiko Kaji turned around, puzzled, and asked, "Editor-in-Chief, is there anything I can do for you?"

Tomohiro Ohno waved his hand, then pointed to the small conference room next to him: "Chainsaw Man is one of your works, right? Let's go over there and talk."

When the editor-in-chief mentioned Chainsaw Man, Keiko Kaji immediately perked up.

During the morning meeting just now, she showed all the editors the original manuscript of "Chainsaw Man" and introduced Ken Sakamoto's writing speed.

The reader survey data for last week's new book has also been released, and it shows a significant lead.

Upon entering the small conference room, Keiko Kaji noticed the editor-in-chief's worried expression.

"Editor-in-Chief?" Keiko Kaji asked, "Is there some trouble?"

Tomohiro Ohno sat down in the chair, pondered for a few seconds, and then said, "When I heard you introduce 'Chainsaw Man' just now, I was moved by your attitude, risking your career and all that... To be honest, in all my years in the industry, I only had that kind of passion when I first started out."

Kaji Keiko bowed slightly to the editor-in-chief and said, "It was rather presumptuous of me to say that at the morning meeting..."

“No, you’re right. Actually, I also think highly of Chainsaw Man and want to make it my next major project,” Tomohiro Ohno said.

This sounded like good news, but when Keiko Kaji heard the word "actually," she already realized that the editor-in-chief's words would be followed by a "but."

Sure enough, Tomohiro Ohno continued, "But... the higher-ups specifically mentioned to me that they wanted me to take good care of another new work."

"The one that's the young lady's?"

“That’s right.” Tomohiro Ohno nodded and said, “I don’t know the author’s background either, but he’s probably related to the president in some way…”

"The president of Shueisha?!" Keiko Kaji exclaimed in surprise.

This is the editorial department of Weekly Shonen Jump, and Tomohiro Ohno is just the editor-in-chief of Weekly Shonen Jump.

Shonen Jump is just one of the magazines published by Shueisha. In addition, there are a number of other publications such as Weekly Shonen Jump, Ultra Jump, the shoujo manga Margaret, the entertainment magazine Weekly Playboy, and the literary magazine Novel On.

Only in the last two years, due to the launch of JUMP+, have there been some communication between the editorial departments of various comic magazines; otherwise, they were basically independent entities.

If that manga has connections with the president of Shueisha, then all new works would probably have to make way for him.

However, Tomohiro Ohno sighed and shook his head.

He said in a helpless tone, "President Horiuchi is actually in a difficult position, because the person who brought this up with us was the president of the Hitotsubashi Group..."

"A...bridge?"

Even Keiko Kaji said the name somewhat awkwardly.

As editors of Weekly Shonen Jump, the highest level they could usually interact with was the management of Shueisha.

Horiuchi is merely the president of Shueisha.

Hitotsubashi Group is the parent company of Shueisha!

The president of Shueisha may have surnames like Horiuchi, Yamaji, Taniyama, Chiba... but they're just high-level employees. The person in charge of the Hitotsubashi Group, however, will always have only one surname—Saiga.

Hakusensha, Shogakukan, and Shueisha all belong to the Hitotsubashi Group.

This is one of the oldest publishing groups in Japan.

Alongside them are the Otowa Group, centered around Kodansha, the Kadokawa Group, known for its light novels, and Shinchosha, a very influential company in the literary world.

Keiko Kaji had never even met any of the senior executives at the parent company level.

"So, 'Chainsaw Man' has to make way for her now..." Keiko Kaji didn't ask about the author's background anymore; perhaps she was just the daughter of a high-ranking relative or friend who drew comics out of interest.

Similar examples of people born into wealthy families who pursue creative work out of interest include Keiko Kaji, who probably heard of Makoto Shinkai, whose father owns a century-old architecture company, and Hayao Miyazaki, whose family runs an aircraft manufacturing plant...

While it's unclear how much of their own business is related to their family connections, it's certain that this March Spring was trying to take a shortcut by leveraging the connections of the Hitotsubashi Group.

Editor-in-Chief Ohno tapped his fingers lightly on the table. He said, "There's a lot of buzz for Chainsaw Man on the JUMP+ platform right now. The results of our new work's voting will eventually be announced to the readers. If we insist on serializing The Young Lady first, I'm afraid many readers will be dissatisfied."

"Social media is so hot right now, maybe the whole of JUMP will be attacked? Then sales will be greatly affected, and readers will all go to competing magazines..." To get the editor-in-chief to take it seriously, Keiko Kaji deliberately exaggerated her words.

"Well... that's how it is at the higher-ups. They just need to look at the business reports regularly, while we in the editorial department have a lot more to consider..."

Editor-in-Chief Ohno said, "Now JUMP's sales are not as good as before, especially Kodansha's two magazines, Weekly Shonen Magazine and Bessatsu Shonen Magazine, whose combined sales are comparable to JUMP. Fairy Tail and Attack on Titan are both popular works that are hard to ignore, and now everyone is vying for new writers."

Keiko Kaji pulled out a chair and sat down. From what she had just heard, she knew that the editor-in-chief was on her side.

"Then what should we do?" Keiko Kaji asked.

Tomohiro Ohno said, "I have already arranged to meet with Ms. Haru Mitsuki this afternoon. I will ask her about her writing progress and use the excuse that the writing intensity for the magazine serialization is particularly high to encourage her to continue to accumulate more manuscripts before publishing, so that we can stagger the publication time."

“Good idea…” Keiko Kaji nodded and said, “As for Sakamoto-sensei, there’s no need to worry about his writing speed at all. He can draw three chapters a week, and he has already completed the manuscripts for the first seven chapters, and the quality hasn’t dropped at all.”

“That’s what I value in him,” Tomohiro Ohno said. “It’s so rare to find a writer who can deliver on quality. You know, it’s actually the norm for writers like Togashi… cough cough, Togashi-sensei who always misses deadlines.”

“Perfect timing. I also have an appointment with Mr. Sakamoto this afternoon. I’ll take a closer look at his creative plans and discuss the color pages with him,” said Keiko Kaji.

“Regardless of what happens to Mr. San Yuechun, we can start preparing the color pages and posters for Chainsaw Man. We’ll need them eventually.” Tomohiro Ohno thought for a moment and then said, “Also, let him plan out some famous scenes and lines. Streaming video promotions are all the rage these days. If the popularity is high enough in the next few weeks, we can also create animated promotional videos with voiceovers.”

“Yes, I will discuss it with Sakamoto-sensei,” Kaji Keiko replied.

Tomohiro Ohno stood up and hurried out of the conference room.

As the editor-in-chief of JUMP's editorial department, he had too many responsibilities.

For example, when a famous writer is late with their manuscript and the editor can't get them to follow up, he has to step in.

There are also some older writers whose works have been finished for a long time, and he needs to visit them regularly to prevent them from switching to other publishing houses.

Or, for collaborations and events involving major IPs within the company, negotiations with investors are necessary.

Now another person with connections has appeared...

This is really a headache.

(End of this chapter)