Raiku vs Shogakukan part 3
Tons of people in the industry have been coming out with their own personal experiences in the manga industry ever since Raiku Makoto announced that lawsuit with Shogakukan.
Many seem to have experience with having the original copies of their manuscripts getting lost by the editorial team, and many also comment on how cheaply Raiku is being paid on a per page basis in contrast to how popular Konjiki no Gash is. (he probably makes a fortune from the tankoubon royalties, but it doesn’t make sense to be paid much less per page than an unpopular author)
Shinjo Mayu (Kaikan Phrase author) talks about her experience working on Shoujo Comic, another magazine that is being run by Shogakukan. She says she worked long hours with little sleep everyday in order to keep up with the pace that is demanded of her by the magazine, and even after staying with the same magazine for 13 years, she was told by the chief editor that her serialization would be cancelled and she would be moved to another magazine when she wanted to change the direction of her manga.
The new magazine that she was asked to move to also wanted her to continue drawing manga that was in the same fashion as before instead of what she wanted to do. So she decided to leave Shogakukan, but when she did, they threatened to make all her books go out of print. (They didn’t in the end)
She also makes a second post where she makes a killer pass saying that she’s leaving the rest to Kumeta.
Shounen Sunday’s official statement is that Raiku is lying
Takato Rui (Cynthia the mission author) kinda supports Shinjo Mayu’s statement in the comments.
Umekawa Kazumi (Gau Gau Wata author) talks about her personal experiences of being mistreated in the manga industry and supports Raiku’s stance.
Yanmura (Shounen Sunday manga assistant) says that a certain author on Shounen Sunday was told to “please draw One Piece” when they were planning a new serialization. That’s not “draw something like One Piece”, it’s “draw One Piece”.
Wakaki Tamiki (Kami no mi zo shiru sekai author) asks readers to not forsake Shounen Sunday (gotta highlight to see the message)
Watanabedenki Inc. (mangaka) says that both sides are not trying to see from the point of view from the other side and the whole incident is childish. But he is surprised at how little Raiku is paid per page.
Gotou Hideki (mangaka) shares his experience where his manuscripts, both monochrome and colour pages, got lost too, except it was before they were even published in a tankoubon.
Harada Takayuki (ex-assistant for Shinsei motemote oukoku author) talks about how his manuscripts were also treated negligently when he was with Shounen Sunday but he wasn’t verbally abused and he did not really experience any trouble when with them. However he has heard of many people that left Sunday because of problems with the editors, and he wishes to show his support for Raiku’s stance against Shogakukan.
Hagiwara Reiji (ALIEN hihouden author) says that he doesn’t get an urge to support Raiku when reading the details of the lawsuit, but he feels that such actions from mangaka protesting against the editors should be welcome.
Ueda Miki (Bakuretsu!! Kungfu musume author) she used to work with Shogakukan too, and she strongly supports Raiku’s stance against the editorial department in Shogakukan as she says that she herself has also experienced very unreasonable treatment which caused her to completely leave the manga industry.
Hanamizawa Qtarou (REC author) is currently serialized with Shogakukan and feels that he’s lucky as he has not been verbally abused or forced to draw manga that he doesn’t want to.
Takeshita Kenjirou (Happy world! author) had a serialization on Shogakukan many years ago and he says that he too has had a similar experience working with editors that aren’t motivated to work or don’t like manga at all, but he has also had good editors that he respected.
There is still a lot more mangaka who are commenting on this thing, but… there are too many.
June 15th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
So, has Kumeta said anything on this matter? It´d be delightful to see Zetsubou somehow addressing this situation.
June 15th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Not yet! I’m waiting for it!
He’s probably secretly cursing Shinjo for passing it to him. I think there was already a chapter in zetsubou sensei on how there are times where you don’t want the baton to be passed to you.
Though I’m 100% sure the entire case will appear in zetsubou sensei. It’s too good for him to pass up on.
June 15th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
I think it’s good. (You think it’s good?!) No doubt.
They can stop putting all that whack $### out.
June 15th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Wah! manga drama ensues!! ;A; And a lot are coming out!!
Reading their entries make me think how cruel some editors can get. ;A;
June 15th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
LOL, I never cared for Shinjo Mayu’s type of comic, but I have complete respect for her now. It seems like she might be friends with Kumeta to say something like that though, I think.
I wish Kumeta had a blog or something, he wrote a lot when he had the Sunday Backstage thing. I know he’ll do some shout outs to the incident(s) within the comics, but I don’t know if it’ll go beyond that or not this time… It’d be nice if he took advantage of the internet to talk unsupervised like everyone else is, even Sunday Backstage was still through Sunday.
Also loled @ killer pass.
June 15th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Thanks so much for this news update. I’m not familiar with Konjiki no Gash but I find this case very interesting. Infact the only manga (related to any of the mangaka listed here) I’m barely familiar with is REC.
TIt was very awesome to see that Kumeta was referrenced like that.
Whats interesting is that even the the people who are trying to go for a more neutral stance are still showing a little support for Raiku. I read through everything twice and the only person who hasn’t said any direct or indirect support is Wakaki Tamiki.
June 15th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Also, I wonder if Rumiko Takahashi has ever had reason to complain about these same things.
And I am quite sure the reason she won´t just end that goddamn Inuyasha borefest of a manga is because of pressure from her editors. Perhaps the higher ups at Sunday think they don´t have something to go in its place.
June 15th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Takahashi IS ending Inuyasha. The difference between what is happening between Raiku and Shogakukan and Takahashi is that Takahashi is one of the few mangakas that can write her own ticket.
Also her output is insane. Consider that she has actively been putting out serialized manga since the late 70’s and has, at times, been working on 3 series simultaneously (and for that matter with at most 3 assistants if the rumors are true). The only other mangaka that could match her for creative output during her peak period was probably Akira Toriyama (but Toriyama hasn’t put out a regular serial since 1995). Honestly, Takahashi is such a money magnet that she might be the one creator that doesn’t get messed around with by Shogakukan editorial.
Raiku is in a unique position to go ANYWHERE right now and you better believe Shueshia is chomping at the bit to get him.
I, like everyone else, eagerly awaitthe Kumeta respinse
June 15th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
I think it’s escaped notice because of how long she’s been doing it for, but Inuyasha is finally ending this week.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-06-10/inuyasha-confirmed-to-end-next-wednesday-in-japan
June 16th, 2008 at 2:52 am
As for Rumiko Takahashi, I read in another blog that most editors in Sunday just cave in to the whims of the magic 3 of Shounen Sunday: Rumiko Takahashi, Adachi Mitsuru, and Aoyama Gosho. They can do whatever they want to do, but not the new ones… as Raiku has shown. ;A; Sadness…
I think Mayu Shinjo’s cancellation was the editors way of saving girls from reading badly written shoujo smut. lol. That’s my opinion though.
June 16th, 2008 at 5:13 am
By the way, the only reason why Mayu Shinjo’s manga are not out of print is because she hired a lawyer.
June 16th, 2008 at 6:27 am
I can’t believe Inuyasha is finally ending… no wait that is not right…. I can’t believe it lasted this long as I find it her absolute dullest and least inspired work. The queastion is will she cheat the fans of a real ending like she did with Ranma?
I’m still stunned at the poor treatment of Raiku (if it is what is being reported). I mean Konjiki No Gash made a mint for Shogakukan, you expect that maybe it would give him some foothold… but alas it seems like the answer to that is no.
Shogakukan also puts out Major don’t they? (or has that finally wrapped up?). This whole thing reminds of what happened between Shueshia and Masami Kurumada back in the 90’s.
June 17th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
It does seem like a unique perspective with what’s been going on (having been a Gash fan myself). On one hand, Raiku wants the pics back yet keeps telling people to “read Sunday”. (particularly mentioning Takahashi and the end of Inu Yasha as one reason to keep reading it) On the other, it sounds the Sunday editors are wiping their hands clean of Raiku as if they want nothing to do with him anymore. Personally, if I were Raiku, I’d bolt out of Shonen Sunday because of all this crap just like Kumeta did. I can’t say where he’d end up (Magazine like Kumeta, Jump, someplace non-shonen) but seeing another manga mag getting someone coming off a big success like Gash would either peeve Sunday’s management (in a period where they just keep getting further and further back in #3) or just say “well he was arrogant, so what”
June 17th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Ah if only this wee the 1970’s, a tiem when one creator could have manga for upto 5 different publishers the way Go Nagai did…
February 25th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Sorry! I need of an important information.
Where can I find the Mokoto Raiku ’s blog?