Tokyo: Earth Online Manga Artist

Masaya Sakurai nodded and said, "Yes, it's been almost two weeks."

The second round of judging for the Tezuka Award concluded last week.

The judges' scores were sent back to Shueisha from all over the country.

Some of the rating forms were mailed in, and some were faxed in.

Some judges even personally delivered their score sheets to the editorial department.

The day before yesterday, the scores from all the judges were basically submitted to Shueisha.

Yesterday, the editorial department held a meeting to finalize today's work plan.

Today's main task is to tally the judges' scores.

Then, based on the scoring results, the list of winning works and winning new cartoonists will be officially determined.

This job may sound simple, but it is actually quite tedious.

Because each judge has a different scoring standard, some are strict and some are lenient.

Judges like Akira Toriyama and Takehiko Inoue are generally fine; they rarely cause any problems.

However, some of the judges are reader representatives, which may lead to personal biases.

The editors need to convert each judge's score into a standardized score.

Then calculate the average score and total score for each work.

Finally, the rankings are determined by the scores, which generally ensures fairness and impartiality.

However, at this moment, Lin Shiping suddenly said with a smile, "Ya Ye, shall we make a bet?"

Chapter Nine: Final Result

Sakurai Masaya was slightly taken aback, but still asked, "What kind of bet?"

Lin Shiping said, "Guess which works won the Tezuka Award this year."

However, to Lin Shiping's surprise, Masaya Sakurai did not hesitate at all and said directly, "I bet that Attack on Titan will be nominated."

Lin Shiping was speechless for a moment, and the smile on his face froze.

He said helplessly, "Hey, hey, hey, this kind of gambling is no fun."

Lin Shiping's eyes darted around, and he said, "How about this, you choose another work."

He thought for a moment and continued, "For example, Saito-san's 'HAMMER HEAD,' didn't you think it was very promising back then?"

Without looking up, Masaya Sakurai said, "No matter how good Naotake Saito's 'HAMMER HEAD' is, it's definitely no match for 'Attack on Titan'."

He paused, then added, "And he's no match for that guy who doesn't eat pears either."

Lin Shiping was at a loss when he heard this, and nodded in deep agreement.

He remarked with emotion, "Yes, the entire Attack on Titan manga has such a great setting and plot."

He leaned back in his chair and continued, "And his drawing skills are quite good, even excellent."

"Of course, the most important thing is the overall setting of the comic, and it is clear that the story can continue to be drawn."

Lin Shiping spoke with obvious admiration in his tone.

He said sincerely, "If I were a comic book enthusiast, I would also really like to see what happens next in the story."

The meaning of this sentence is quite obvious.

One of the highest rewards of the Tezuka Award is that you are guaranteed to join Shueisha as a full-fledged professional manga artist and begin serializing your own manga.

So what Lin Shiping meant was that he really wanted to see the sequel to Attack on Titan.

Unfortunately, they don't have that power; the final judging and scoring power belongs to the judges.

But as senior editors at Shueisha, they have seen far too many works by newcomers.

Some works have excellent artwork but a weak story, while others have a good story but only average artwork.

Some works have interesting concepts but are poorly executed, while others are well-executed but lack originality.

But Attack on Titan is different.

This work is outstanding in terms of drawing skills, story, setting, panel layout, and pacing.

It even surpassed other works in the same batch.

Therefore, it's hard for them not to be optimistic about Attack on Titan.

As a seasoned editor, he certainly has that kind of insight.

Sakurai Masaya understood what Lin Shiping meant, and agreed, saying, "Me too."

He picked up the glass on the table, took a sip of water, and said, "If I had to choose, I would also choose not to eat pears."

Lin Shiping glanced at the clock on the wall and said, "The editor-in-chief should be arriving soon."

Masaya Sakurai nodded and said, "Yeah, it'll probably start when the editor-in-chief arrives."

The two chatted for a few more minutes before returning to their respective desks.

Lin Shiping turned on his computer and pulled up the list of submissions for this year's Tezuka Award.

He took the judges' score sheets out of the drawer and arranged them one by one.

Masaya Sakurai did the same preparations.

He printed out the statistical forms that were distributed at yesterday's meeting and placed them on the table.

About ten minutes later, the office door was pushed open.

The man who walked in was in his fifties, with gray hair and wearing gold-rimmed glasses.

He was wearing a dark gray suit with a white shirt underneath, but no tie.

This person is Masahiko Ibaraki, the editor-in-chief of Weekly Shonen Jump.

Masahiko Ibaraki worked at Shueisha for over thirty years, rising through the ranks from the bottom.

He has worked as an editor and deputy editor-in-chief before being promoted to editor-in-chief three years ago.

He has a serious personality, is very meticulous in his work, and has high standards for his job.

But he treats his editors fairly well, praising them when they deserve it.

After entering the office, Masahiko Ibaraki glanced at the editors present.

He walked to his desk, put down his briefcase, and looked at everyone.

Good morning, everyone.

Ibaraki Masahiko immediately clapped his hands and shouted.

All the editors stopped what they were doing and looked at him.

"Everyone should know what the work is for today."

Masahiko Ibaraki said, "We need to tally the scores for the Tezuka Award and determine the winning entries and winners. I hope everyone will take this seriously and avoid making any mistakes."

"After you finish compiling the statistics, please summarize the results for me, and I will make the final confirmation."

He paused, then continued, "Then in the afternoon we'll contact the winners to inform them of the results."

The editors replied in unison, "Understood."

Ibaraki Masahiko nodded and said, "Then let's begin."

Like the other editors, Masaya Sakurai began to get busy.

He opened the statistical spreadsheet on his computer and then took out the judges' score sheets.

A total of 28 works advanced to the second round of the Tezuka Award this year.

Each work has a number, corresponding to the contributor's pen name and the work's title.

There were twelve judges in total, all of whom were prominent figures in the industry.

Akira Toriyama, Eiichiro Oda, Masashi Kishimoto, Kenjiro Ko, Yoshihiro Togashi.

Several others were senior, top-tier editors and reader representatives from Shueisha.

Each judge scored each work, with a maximum score of one hundred points.

Masaya Sakurai was responsible for tallying the scores for four of the works.

He first sorted the scoring sheets by the judges' names, and then entered the scores one by one.

After entering the data, double-check it to make sure you haven't entered any incorrect numbers.

He then used the built-in formula in the spreadsheet to calculate the average score and total score for each work.

This task is not difficult, but it is tedious and requires great care.

Masaya Sakurai was typing in the data while looking at the scores of the works.

Most of the entries scored between 60 and 80 points.

Some works received high scores from one judge but low scores from another.

Such score fluctuations are normal, because each judge has different tastes.

But one work received a very special score.

The work is numbered 017, written under the pen name "I Don't Eat Pears", and its title is "Attack on Titan".

Masaya Sakurai glanced at the rating of the work and immediately thought that it was just as he had expected.

All twelve judges gave this work a score of 95 or higher.

Five of the judges gave it a perfect score of 100.

Akira Toriyama gave it 100 points, Eiichiro Oda gave it 98 points, and Masashi Kishimoto gave it 99 points.

Ken gave it 97 points, and Yoshihiro Togashi gave it 96 points.