Chapter 28: A Fleeting Glimpse

Generally speaking, a manga artist’s creation process begins with conceiving the plot.

Then, they use rough lines to design the panel content on the manuscript paper, roughly showing the characters, movements, and backgrounds in each panel, and then mark the dialogue on the side.

One of the most important jobs of an editor is to repeatedly polish this storyboard draft with the author until it is finally confirmed, before starting the next process.

The storyboards of some authors are very abstract, so editors must also be able to adapt to the style of the authors under them.

(Image above: Comparison of storyboard draft and finished product, taken from the TV series “Juhan Shuttai!”)

But Sakamoto Ken’s creation process was not like this.

He only had to carefully recall the manga he had read in his previous life, and every page would appear directly before his eyes. If he placed a sheet of manuscript paper in front of him, it was no different from copying it.

It was impossible for him to deliberately create a draft when he could directly draw the complete storyboard.

However, if he said this, probably no editor would believe it.

Seeing Editor Kaji’s confused expression, Sakamoto Ken said, “Editor-san, can you get me a few sheets of manuscript paper and a pencil?”

Kaji Keiko nodded and said, “Wait a moment, I’ll get them right away.”

She got up nimbly, walked quickly out of the small room, and came back a few minutes later with a stack of blank manuscript paper and a pencil.

“Sakamoto-sensei, are you going to create the storyboard draft on the spot?” Kaji Keiko thought for a moment and said, “That’s great. We can discuss it on the spot right after you finish drawing. Just let me know if you need anything.”

Sakamoto Ken actually shook his head and said, “I’m just introducing my creation process…”

Sakamoto Ken spread a sheet of manuscript paper in front of him and picked up a pencil.

When he was actually creating, he would need various tools such as a G-pen, a round pen, a D-pen, and so on. After all, he drew the finished product in one go, so all kinds of pens were prepared and ready to be replaced at any time.

But now, he was just demonstrating the creation process, so a pencil was fine.

“Kaji-san, you still remember the plot at the end of the seventh chapter, right?” Sakamoto Ken said.

“Of course,” Kaji Keiko said, “Denji’s decisive battle with the Bat Devil, the counterattack begins… eh?”

Before she could finish describing the plot at the end of the seventh chapter, she saw Sakamoto Ken quickly drawing on the paper.

Denji cut off the Bat Devil’s wings in mid-air, and they fell to the ground together. The whole scene was extremely tense. The details of the background buildings, the speed lines on the characters, and even every piece of debris from the shattering building glass quickly took shape on the paper.

First page, second page, third page…

Sakamoto Ken completed the first four pages at an extremely fast speed. Except for the areas that needed to be filled in with large areas of black and screen tones, it was almost no different from the finished product.

Sakamoto Ken looked up at Kaji Keiko and found her eyes wide open.

Just now, Kaji Keiko had been staring intently without saying a word. Four pages of finished-level storyboard drafts had taken only twenty minutes in total.

In these twenty minutes, he hadn’t even used an eraser once!

Not even a single line was drawn wrong.

Kaji Keiko picked up the manuscript paper in disbelief and examined it carefully.

“Sakamoto-sensei, this… is your creation method?” Kaji Keiko’s lips trembled slightly.

Is this the terrifying strength of a single person creating three chapters a week?!

“The first seven chapters were all drawn like this. I only have a pencil in my hand now, so I can only do this much. Otherwise, these four pages could be used directly.”

Sakamoto Ken shrugged and said, “Speaking of which, if Kaji-san insists that I provide a storyboard draft, I would actually be in a bit of a difficult position.”

“Ha… so that’s how it is…” Kaji Keiko now finally understood what Sakamoto Ken meant by having no outline and no drafts.

For a moment, Kaji Keiko couldn’t find the right words to describe her current feeling.

This had already exceeded her cognitive scope as a manga editor.

She had seen geniuses, authors who seemed to have divine help when they put pen to paper.

But even they needed to do a lot of conception and sketching before they started drawing.

But Sakamoto-sensei was like having his brain directly connected to a printer, printing the manuscript page by page onto the paper.

Sakamoto Ken looked at her shocked expression and explained, “For me, before I start drawing, the entire page’s paneling, composition, character movements, including light, shadow, and details, have already formed a complete image in my mind.”

“My job is just to move this image from my mind to the manuscript paper without any changes.”

Kaji Keiko clicked her tongue in admiration and said, “I’m sorry, Sakamoto-sensei. I underestimated your strength before. Not to mention the creation speed, just these four pages you completed in twenty minutes, the visual tension is also very well done.”

“Then, I’ll just hand you the finished manuscript directly in the future,” Sakamoto Ken said.

“Let’s do it according to Sakamoto-sensei’s habits,” Kaji Keiko said. “The only request I have is that when you finish each chapter, you must send it to me immediately.”

“No problem,” Sakamoto Ken made an OK gesture.

Kaji Keiko tidied up the table. She had been a little worried at the beginning, but now her expression was much more relaxed.

“With Sakamoto-sensei’s strength, what I said to you before about the design of the color pages, you probably already have some ideas, right?” Kaji Keiko asked.

Sakamoto Ken didn’t speak and directly drew on the manuscript paper.

A few minutes later, a detailed line art appeared before Kaji Keiko’s eyes.

“The draft is done. Kaji-san, take a look,” Sakamoto Ken pushed the manuscript paper towards Kaji Keiko.

“A draft… you say…” Kaji Keiko’s eyes twitched slightly. What she was holding was a final-draft-level line art, just without color.

“It seems I was indeed worrying too much.”

Kaji Keiko let out a long sigh, as if she had made up her mind. She stared at Sakamoto Ken with a firm gaze and said, “Sakamoto-sensei, no matter what, I will fight for this main magazine serialization opportunity for you!”

“Actually, if the other party is really too strong… I mean, in terms of background connections and all that, Kaji-san, you don’t have to force it,” Sakamoto Ken shook his head and said.

“It seems you’ve guessed it too,” Kaji Keiko looked around, lowered her voice, and said, “The author of that Miss, probably has connections to the group’s high-level executives. Otherwise, Sakamoto-sensei’s serialization would definitely be stable.”

Sakamoto Ken just maintained a polite smile and did not reveal the connection between him and that author.

Kaji Keiko flipped through her small notebook and continued, “Alright, the two most important things today are about the storyboards and the color pages. Other than that, Sakamoto-sensei, you should think about it yourself, extract the famous scenes and famous lines from the work. It’s best to have them for each main character.”

“Is this for promotion?” Sakamoto Ken asked.

“That’s right,” Kaji Keiko explained. “In recent years, we have also been trying to promote through online media channels. If Sakamoto-sensei’s work continues to gain popularity, we can apply to produce a few minutes of motion comic videos. YouTube, Niconico, Twitter… are all platforms that Gen Z readers are keen on.”

“Alright, I’ll think about it carefully,” Sakamoto Ken noted down the editor’s suggestion.

These were easy to handle. Sakamoto Ken’s memory not only had the Chainsaw Man manga, but he had also watched the anime many times. And in this work, there were too many famous scenes…

Of course, some might be called infamous scenes.

The meeting with the editor ended here. Kaji Keiko still had to hurry to catch up on other work.

She walked in front and pushed open the door of the small meeting room.

A bald, middle-aged man was walking towards them. Kaji Keiko hurriedly greeted him, “Editor-in-Chief.”

Editor-in-Chief Ono Tomohiro nodded slightly at her and continued to stride forward.

And behind him followed a slender girl.

Sakamoto Ken’s steps paused, and his whole body froze for a moment. He reflexively hid behind Kaji Keiko.

But he was a step too late. When the girl passed by, she turned her head towards him, and their eyes met briefly in the air.

She didn’t seem to have any reaction and continued to follow the Editor-in-Chief forward.

It wasn’t until three seconds later that Mikazuki Haruna belatedly reacted. It seemed she had just seen a… extremely familiar figure.

She hurriedly stopped, turned around, and looked in the direction she had just come from.

But she only saw the female editor walking towards her, and further away, a back that disappeared around the corner in the next second.

(End of Chapter)