Master of the Machete Style Manga

Before the release of Chapter 91 of the single volume

Friday afternoon.

These past few days, Kenjiro Sakamoto has been fully immersed in the creation of "Chainsaw Man," and today he just finished the manuscript for chapter 18.

This means that, with only chapter 8 currently available on the JUMP+ platform, he is already ten chapters ahead, enough for five weeks of double-chapter updates.

If we follow the progress of last week's first season of the Chainsaw Man anime ending, "Japanese sword VS chainsaw," then it's already halfway done.

At the earliest, the animation project could even start next month.

Of course, it won't be that fast; just forming the production committee will take a long time.

Last week's Chainsaw Man was an independent production by MAPPA without a production committee, but it seems unlikely they can produce it this time.

After all, making animation is not like drawing comics, which can be done by a small team or even by a single person. It requires a lot of manpower.

MAPPA has only been established for four years and is still a newcomer to the animation industry. They should be busy with the "Ushio and Tora" project.

Ken Sakamoto doesn't seem to have any particular obsession with this. An anime adaptation is definitely in the works, but even without the anime, the sales of the collected volumes will certainly not be bad.

Around four o'clock in the afternoon, my phone on the table vibrated. It was a message from Keiko Kaji.

Keiko Kaji: "Sakamoto-sensei, do you have time this afternoon? I'd like to come and pick up this week's manuscript."

Ken Sakamoto: "I'm at home. Editor-san can come over anytime."

He organized the manuscripts for the latest two chapters, set them aside, and then continued drawing the cover illustration for chapter 19.

Keiko Kaji arrived an hour later.

The apartment building is not equipped with a device to remotely open the downstairs door. If there are no residents coming in or out at the right time, Ken Sakamoto has to go downstairs to open it.

Outside the main entrance on the first floor, Keiko Kaji was dressed in a knitted sweater and wide-leg pants, a typical urban minimalist style.

It wasn't until he got inside and took off his loafers that Ken Sakamoto noticed the green socks.

Last time it was blue Doraemon, this time the green socks have a chibi Tornado head on them, it's a collaboration with One-Punch Man.

She didn't seem to find the combination strange at all, and strode confidently into the house.

"Sakamoto-sensei, excuse me~" Kaji Keiko said politely, but she didn't stand on ceremony and sat down at the table.

"This is the latest completed manuscript. Editor, please take a look." Ken Sakamoto took the manuscript and placed it on the table in front of Keiko Kaji.

"Thank you for your hard work, I'll read it right away." Keiko Kaji immediately started flipping through the pages, saying as she read, "Sakamoto-sensei, have you been paying attention to the recent popularity of your work?"

"Oh? How is it?" Sakamoto Ken asked.

"Chainsaw Man has already garnered over 15700 votes this week." Keiko Kaji's voice was filled with excitement. "Last week, it broke the record for all new works since the founding of JUMP+, and this week it has broken the record you set yourself."

She looked up at Ken Sakamoto and said, "Besides, there are still two days left in this week. User activity will be even higher over the weekend, and we might be able to reach 20,000 votes."

"That's not bad." Sakamoto Ken's reaction was calm; this result was entirely within his expectations.

He then asked, "What about 'The Young Lady'?"

“Oh, that book…” Keiko Kaji recalled for a moment, “I don’t remember the exact number, but I think it was more than 9000 votes.”

“Nine thousand votes, isn’t that a lot?” Sakamoto Ken said.

"Yes, although it's still quite far behind Sakamoto-sensei, its growth rate is very fast, and it has already far surpassed the third place," said Keiko Kaji. "Now, thanks to the works of Sakamoto-sensei and Mitsuki-haru-sensei, the popularity of the entire platform has increased rapidly. It wasn't easy for the editor-in-chief to persuade the president to focus on developing JUMP+ at the last meeting. In the past few days, the president has been actively inquiring about the operation of JUMP+."

She quickly flipped through the two original manuscripts, put them in the file bag with satisfaction. She had already seen the scanned version that Sakamoto Ken had sent her, so she had a good grasp of the contents.

Then she took out some printed materials from her bag. "Sakamoto-sensei, I need to confirm with you today about the publication of the Chainsaw Man manga."

She handed a document to Ken Sakamoto.

"In addition to the cover and color pages, the individual volumes usually include some small illustrations or short four-panel stories in the interleaving pages of each chapter."

Keiko Kaji said, "I noticed that Sakamoto-sensei's works include mascots, and the image of Pochita is very suitable for use as a small illustration in these places, which will increase readers' impression of the mascot and make the merchandise sell much better in the future."

Ken Sakamoto thought about it and realized that when he read the Chainsaw Man manga last week, he was indeed very impressed by the little illustrations of Pochita.

Those illustrations often feature a Pochita character based on the story of the current episode.

Initially, Pochita's illustrations were all in a cute and adorable style.

But later on, Fujimoto Itsuki's abstract thinking skills came into play, and he started to torment little Pochita in various ways...

For example, the episode where Denji uses the Flame Fist...

Ken Sakamoto said, "No problem, let's put various Pochita figures in this position."

“Then I’ll have to ask Sakamoto-sensei to create some small illustrations about Pochita in the next few days,” Kaji Keiko said.

"I'll draw it for you right now." Ken Sakamoto picked up the paper and pen on the table.

Keiko Kaji was slightly taken aback: "Eh? Won't Sakamoto-sensei reconsider?"

"It was planned long ago."

Ken Sakamoto's pen flew across the paper; after all, it was just drawing a polcita, and the lines were very simple.

In just a few minutes, several Pochita figures were drawn.

A waving Pochita, a Pochita eating ramen, a Pochita that's turned into a dark bat...

Ken Sakamoto handed the completed illustration to Keiko Kaji.

"Just add the book title next to it when you're doing the typesetting."

“Sakamoto-sensei is really efficient…” Kaji Keiko said, taking the artwork. “By the way, the first few pages of the collected volumes usually include some character design information, this…”

“I have all the settings here.” Ken Sakamoto pulled out a few more manuscripts. “However, the character descriptions are all handwritten, so I’ll have to trouble the editor to type them up.”

Keiko Kaji quickly took it, nodded, and said, "I've been reading the first seven chapters over the past few days. I originally wanted to offer some suggestions for revision, but overall, I feel that Sakamoto-sensei's serialized version has completely met the requirements of a single volume, and there's nothing that needs to be changed."

"Then, we can now officially begin the publishing process."

Keiko Kaji took out the design draft for the cover of the first volume of "Chainsaw Man" from her bag.

"This cover was designed according to Sakamoto-sensei's requirements, and subsequent covers will continue in the same style."

The cover illustration for the first volume features Chainsaw Man in battle, with a splashed ink art style. It was actually designed based on the cover of the Chainsaw Man manga from his memory.

“It looks great. We should continue with this design and just change the character each time,” Ken Sakamoto said.

"Well... the subsequent cover design, proofreading, and submission to the printing plant will take about a month," Keiko Kaji continued to explain the process. "Then we'll distribute the goods to bookstores all over the country, and then they'll be available for sale at the same time according to our expected schedule."

After saying this, Keiko Kaji let out a long breath, but her expression became serious.

“However, Ms. Sakamoto, these are just minor procedural issues,” she said in a deep voice. “The biggest problem now is actually persuading the sales department to increase the initial print run as much as possible before sending it to the printing plant.”

(End of this chapter)