Tokyo 1970: I'll draw Doraemon?

But this is a feeling that most people will never experience.

So we have no choice but to grit our teeth and keep going.

……

"Is it hard for Dad? I love Dad. Dad can tell me his troubles. Grandpa, don't bother me, go away!"

At the Shogakukan annual meeting, Fushimikawa finally met Morimoto.

This person, despite his old-fashioned and serious appearance, was strange and eccentric. When he saw Fushimikawa, he gesticulated wildly, full of dissatisfaction.

"Morimoto-sensei, what's wrong now?" Fushimikawa asked helplessly.

"You wrote about Grandma first, then Dad, now it's Mom's turn, right? But you won't draw Grandpa, really..."

A despicable outsider.

His eyes said it all.

"It's just a coincidence, and 'Daddy Also Acts Cute' was something I had planned long ago. It has nothing to do with you, Morimoto-sensei. Besides..." Fushimi said, "You're the head of the Morimoto family, aren't you? If we're talking about hard work, you should be the one who works the hardest. The kids are just reciting from a book, how come you..."

"That's right!" Morimoto clapped his hands, suddenly realizing, "I am the one who belongs to Nobi Shinsuke's ecological niche."

In order to serialize the story, he had to cooperate with a scoundrel like Yamashita. When it comes to hard work, who could work harder than him?

"That brat got away with it for nothing!"

“So it’s none of my business,” Fushimikawa said, extending his hand. “Is there anything else? I’ll be taking my leave now.”

"Wait a minute," Morimoto hesitated, his old face turning slightly red.

This made Fushimikawa feel very uneasy.

"Speak quickly if you need anything!"

"Please...please...please sign your name for my grandson!"

Chapter Thirty-Three: Osamu Tezuka

In early January, Fushimikawa attended Shogakukan's annual meeting.

He was dressed unusually simply and modestly, but Morimoto grabbed him as soon as he entered.

"The only person so young who was led into the lobby by Editor Takei is Oikawa Ni."

That's what Morimoto said.

Like him, many other people recognized Fushimikawa.

"This 18-year-old... now 19-year-old genius is as handsome as the rumors say."

"He doesn't look like a comic book artist at all."

"His unexpected talent is truly astonishing."

"Mr. Uchida, didn't you say back then that 'Oikawa's serialization wouldn't last long'?"

"I misspoke. He exceeded my expectations. His comics are really interesting. He doesn't seem like a newcomer at all. He's really amazing."

"The innovation in comics always happens among the younger generation; we older folks have long since become stagnant. Look, even Morimoto-sensei asked Oikawa for his autograph; you have to admire the talent of the young people."

On the other side of the lobby, a cartoonist gazed at Fushimikawa, muttering to himself, filled with emotion.

Morimoto had no idea that his humble attempt to get an autograph for his grandson had been seen by everyone.

Most of these people were manga artists who had previously been skeptical of Fushimikawa, but were now captivated by the young man before them.

"Johnny's Kitagawa is recruiting handsome guys to be idols, and Oikawa could work there."

"How can an idol, who uses their looks to please people, possibly compare to a cartoonist?"

The conversation quickly shifted, and Fushimikawa felt relieved.

He signed an autograph for Morimoto's grandson, instructing him to study hard and not to be playful.

After receiving the autograph, Morimoto's expression changed, and he immediately left, perhaps feeling humiliated.

……

"This person is still the same; he looks down on people from other places."

Someone casually remarked to Fushimi Kawa.

“Yes, I’ve been told this so many times…” Fushimikawa turned around and saw a big nose, which made him stop what he was about to say and momentarily lost in thought.

He had seen this image countless times, whether on television or in magazines.

A legend of the manga era, a pioneer of Japanese animation, Osamu Tezuka founded Mushi Productions and the manga magazine "COM," an idol to countless manga artists, and a manga artist with an astonishing number of titles.

Sometimes, encounters with God aren't necessarily filled with fantasy; it might just be a casual conversation that leads to a chat.

"Are you... Osamu Tezuka?"

“Yes, it’s me,” Tezuka Osamu nodded, looking at Morimoto’s back and muttering, “When I first came to Tokyo, he told a bunch of people that I was an Osaka immigrant.”

“Oh, really? Haha,” Fushimikawa chuckled, thinking that he was much better than Osamu Tezuka. “It seems that Mr. Morimoto has toned down a lot in recent years.”

Osamu Tezuka explained with a smile: "In the beginning, I didn't care about the art style of my manga. As long as I had a wild imagination, I could draw it. But it's different now. The visual expression has to be excellent, and the plot has to be profound. With these considerations, I can't put much energy into excluding outsiders."

“What the teacher said makes a lot of sense.” Fushimikawa nodded thoughtfully.

"These are all my true feelings."

Osamu Tezuka's life was a life of continuous learning.

Initially, he was jealous of Eiichi Fukui's sports manga "Kurisuke Igatani" and had a public conflict with him, but he also learned action paneling from Eiichi Fukui.

Later, the theatrical craze brought about by Bai Tusanping and others dealt a heavy blow to his career, plunging him into a slump and even causing him to develop depressive tendencies. He had no choice but to focus his energy on his studies, publishing papers and becoming a medical doctor.

However, he also absorbed the characteristics of gekiga, enhancing the expressiveness of the images, and also created manga like "Dororo" with cruel and profound elements.

He said that Shotaro Ishinomori's "Jun" only has visuals and no dialogue, so it doesn't count as a manga.

However, his comics later also featured long stretches of scenes without dialogue.

Only by continuously learning and striving for progress can we avoid being left behind by the times and always stay at the forefront.

In late 1970, Osamu Tezuka drew a manga he despised the most called "The Invisible Man".

This manga is too dark and goes against the humanistic ideals that Tezuka pursued.

While it's a dark chapter in Osamu Tezuka's history, it also reflects his continuous innovation.

So even though he's legendary now, there will still be exciting comics to come.

"By the way, are you... a celebrity attending the Shogakukan annual meeting?" Osamu Tezuka asked.

Fushimikawa quickly handed over his business card: "I am Oikawa Ji, a manga artist. My teacher is Fujiko Fujio."

"You're Oikawa Ji?" Tezuka Osamu was taken aback. "Fujimoto praised you to me, saying you're the future of Japanese manga, with many imaginative ideas. I even wanted him to introduce you to me, but I never expected to meet you today."

Although he was very jealous, he always liked to promote young people.

"It's a pity you've been signed by Shogakukan, otherwise I'd really like to commission you to write articles."

"actually……"

……

The annual meeting was about to begin, but Toshiki Takei was still pestering Sunday editor-in-chief Shizuo Watanabe backstage.

"Doraemon has been serialized for 10 chapters now. You should be able to see Oikawa-sensei's commercial value by now. It's time to sign an annual contract with him for the new year."

“Even though the last five episodes of Doraemon have been in the top five on Sunday, perhaps…” Shizuo Watanabe stroked his chin, having a different thought, “it’s just a flash in the pan…”

Takei Toshiki was so angry he laughed.

"You mean, Mr. Oikawa urgently needs to prove his abilities again?"

Anyone with eyes can see Oikawa's bright future, but the editor-in-chief in front of him stubbornly persists in making the same mistake from the beginning, refusing to repent.

When Noriyuki Nagano, the editor-in-chief of Weekly Shonen Jump, wanted to serialize in COM, he immediately established an exclusive contract for his ace writer, Go Nagai, to prevent talent from leaving.

You, on the other hand, don't get any preferential treatment at all.

No wonder Sunday has so many experts, yet they still lost to Magazine and then Jump. Even Jump has something to say: Who is Sunday's editor-in-chief?

Do you have any plans for the future?

Have we created a more advanced system?

People like Shizuo Watanabe are all editor-in-chief? Will he become one?

Really...

resignedly.

“Let’s wait a bit longer,” Watanabe Shizuo patted Takei Toshiki on the shoulder. “If Oikawa-sensei achieves even better results, the contract fee will be even more generous. Let’s just wait for his talent to come to fruition and for him to receive a higher reward.”

He spoke in a grand and dignified manner, seemingly without any concern about outsiders poaching his employees.

"It's okay, this is Shogakukan's annual party, everyone will give me face."

……

"Didn't you sign a separate contribution contract?" Osamu Tezuka's brow relaxed. "If you have any works you'd like to publish, then contact me."

Chapter Thirty-Four: Fushimikawa Also Wants to Be Jealous

Osamu Tezuka was a master in both the manga and animation fields.

However, his company's operational capabilities were far from adequate.

Despite the fact that anime such as Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion, Ribbon Knight, Goku, Joe, and Dororo are all ratings hits, the company's operations and employee salaries are maintained by Osamu Tezuka's royalties, which cost hundreds of thousands of yen every month.

Despite possessing resources that animation studios like Toei Animation covet, he has become a black hole in his life.

The same was true for "COM". Despite having Osamu Tezuka's name and a bunch of top manga artists submitting their work, the circulation was only in the tens of thousands, forcing Tezuka to search everywhere for commissions and the company was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Fushimikawa was secretly on guard; he couldn't become like Osamu Tezuka, with perfect literary talent but zero business acumen.

“If you have any ideas, I will.” Fushimikawa nodded and brought up a topic that interested him.

"The teacher has a deep understanding of Buddhism."