Master of the Machete Style Manga

Chapter 30 invites you to join the group chat.
After returning home, Ken Sakamoto sat down at the table and prepared his drawing tools.

He has a wealth of inspiration in his mind, and he can reproduce the image just by staring at the original manuscript. He is very motivated now.

In actual drawing, it takes about half an hour to complete one page, and even faster for simpler illustrations.

From the time I got home until late at night, the original manuscript for episode 8 was completed.

Ken Sakamoto took the original manuscript to a convenience store and scanned it using a coin-operated printer.

I made an agreement with editor Kaji today that I would send each completed chapter to her as soon as possible.

As for Shueisha, the editorial office was still brightly lit.

Several writers who were used to working on their manuscripts at night had their editors adjust their biological clocks accordingly, spending every night discussing the plot with them on the phone.

The entire editorial department is staffed almost 24 hours a day, because everyone's work hours are often staggered.

Keiko Kaji rubbed her slightly sore eyes, picked up her green tea drink, took a sip, and prepared to finish the last bit of work before leaving.

Her previous flagship work was canceled by JUMP, and now she only has some web comics to work on, urgently needing to launch her own weekly serialization as soon as possible.

After sifting through a sea of ​​new submissions for two or three months, I finally found Sakamoto-sensei, a promising talent, in the submissions for the New Works Award.

Just then, a notification for a new email popped up in the lower right corner of the computer screen.

From: Ken Sakamoto.

Email subject: Chainsaw Man Episode 8.

"So fast?!"

We just met this afternoon, and in less than half a day, a new chapter is already finished?
However, having already witnessed his astonishing creative speed during the interview, Keiko Kaji was not particularly surprised.

She opened the scanned copy in the email attachment.

It's definitely in the style of "Chainsaw Man".

The quality hasn't declined at all; in fact, it's even more intense than the previous episodes.

As Kaji Keiko checked the manuscript, she kept marveling at it.

Suddenly, she remembered something.

He opened his drawer and took out a few pencil sketches that Sakamoto Ken had casually drawn in the meeting room that afternoon from a file folder.

Sakamoto Ken didn't take these manuscript papers with him at the time; she simply put them away.

"Is the content of episode eight the part I drew this afternoon?"

She muttered to herself, placed the pencil drafts on the table, and then displayed the corresponding electronic versions side by side on the computer.

With just a cursory glance, a thought made her heart leap.

How can they be so similar?

No, it's not just like that.

She zoomed in on the digital image and carefully compared it to the lines on the pencil draft.

The figures' outlines, the subtle details of their expressions, the damaged buildings in the background, the splattered blood... everything is almost identical.

Keiko Kaji got up, printed out the manuscript sent by Ken Sakamoto, and then, holding the pencil drafts, quickly walked to a corner of the office.

Here is a light table commonly used in hand-drawn animation production, where editors occasionally review animation keyframes.

She first laid out the pencil sketch that Sakamoto Ken had drawn that afternoon on a glass plate, and then covered it with the newly printed original.

Turn on the switch for the light-transmitting platform.

A bright white light shone from below, penetrating the two layers of manuscript paper.

Keiko Kaji frowned as she carefully examined the manuscript paper on the light-transmitting table.

The lines on the two sheets of paper overlapped.

It's not just similar, it's... almost completely identical!
Whether it's the expression on the protagonist Denji's face, every tooth of the chainsaw in his hand, or even every piece of rubble and shard of glass scattered in the background, the direction, curvature, and thickness of the lines are all terrifyingly consistent!
She was quite certain that the pencil sketches in her hand were drawn by her while watching Ken Sakamoto draw them on the spot; he didn't take them back or take any pictures.

This means that he copied the scene he had drawn a few hours earlier by hand without any reference.

Exactly perfect!
This level of precision is so high that it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say it's comparable to a human printer.
This can no longer be explained by the word "genius" alone!

After the initial shock, Keiko Kaji couldn't hide her joy; she almost burst out laughing.

This is truly a stroke of luck! Although he hasn't released his own hit work for several months, it's not enough to get him fired by the company.

But it's still embarrassing to see your colleagues chatting animatedly with the writers you're in charge of, while you're only responsible for some minor web-related tasks.

Kaji Keiko flipped through the manuscript page by page, holding a red pen for making annotations, but after reading it several times, she couldn't find a place to write down her suggestions.

A writer of such genius should be left to his own devices.

No need to rack your brains with writers to figure out the plot, no need to repeatedly nitpick the manuscript's errors—every editor would love that.

After tidying up the manuscript, Kaji Keiko prepared to go home.

But as soon as I got up, I saw a bald man at the very front, his head hidden by manuscripts and books.

"Editor-in-Chief?" Keiko Kaji hadn't noticed anyone there at all. She greeted him with some surprise as she passed by. "Editor-in-Chief, still busy?"

Tomohiro Ohno looked up from a pile of resumes, pushed up his glasses, and looked somewhat tired.

“It’s Kaji…” He pointed to a stack of documents on the table and said, “He’s helping Ms. Mitsuki Haru select an assistant. Her requirements are really high.”

Tomohiro Ohno picked up a manuscript and handed it to Keiko Kaji: "Take a look at this. It's a new manuscript by Haru Mitsuki-sensei. It's just a line drawing of one page, but the level of drawing has obviously improved by another level."

When Keiko Kaji took it, she was right. The illustrations were much more detailed than the two episodes that had been published before. In particular, the details were almost impeccable. Even the lines on the stockings were drawn with natural distortions following the contours of the legs.

For this kind of treatment, most writers would simply black out the area or use halftone paper, but Ms. Sanyuechun chose to hand-paint it.

"To achieve this effect, she plans to pay her assistant a daily wage of 30,000 yen," Tomohiro Ohno said.

"Thirty thousand?!" Keiko Kaji was somewhat surprised. "Such a high salary, even many famous writers' assistants don't get that much, right?"

Tomohiro Ohno chuckled and shook his head helplessly: "She's a rich girl who wants to experience the fun of serializing a manga. For her, money is probably just a number."

He suddenly changed the subject, as if he had remembered something.

"Oh, by the way, today Ms. Haru said she wanted to meet Mr. Sakamoto and have a chat with him." Tomohiro Ohno looked at Keiko Kaji. "Could you give me Mr. Sakamoto's email address or LINE ID? I'll send it to her."

Upon hearing this, Keiko Kaji was about to take out her phone when she changed her mind and looked troubled.

"Editor-in-Chief, isn't this... a bit inappropriate?" she said cautiously. "After all, Sakamoto-sensei's personal contact information is his privacy. If we give it out without his consent..."

“Hmm…” Tomohiro Ohno nodded. “You’re right, I didn’t think it through.”

“Actually, there’s an even simpler way,” Keiko Kaji suggested. “Neither of them have joined our writers’ LINE group yet, right? We can just add them both to the group and let them communicate with each other there.”

Tomohiro Ohno nodded and said, "Great, let's do it this way. I'll bring in Ms. Mitsuki Haru, and you can bring in Ms. Sakamoto too."

As he spoke, he picked up his phone and started using it.

……

The lights were bright in Haruna Mikazuki's room.

The newly completed, revised manuscript pages were neatly arranged on the table, but her mind was not on them at all.

That fleeting glimpse in the Shueisha corridor today keeps replaying in my mind.

That profile, that look in her eyes, perfectly matched the image that had appeared in her mind countless times.

She pushed aside the manuscript paper with some irritation and took out a sketchbook from her desk drawer.

Opening the notebook, I found that many consecutive pages contained sketches of the same person.

There are photos of him intently creating with his head down, and also of his profile when he's asleep.

Turning to the next few pages, the style changes, and a sketch of a naked male torso appears.

She painted this very meticulously, depicting every detail of the body with exquisite precision.

Haruna's fingertips lightly traced the lines of her abs on the paper, and a blush involuntarily rose to her cheeks.

I carefully stroked it, but unfortunately, the paper was flat, so I couldn't feel its solid texture.

Just then, the screen of the phone on the table lit up.

She picked it up absentmindedly and glanced at it; a LINE notification was displayed on the screen.

"Tomohiro Ohno invites you to join the group chat 'JUMP Author Exchange Group'."

(End of this chapter)