ON FINISHING THE SERIALIZATION OF YYH - looking back on failure
If I'm honest, I'm feeling a great relief and pleasure at the thought that I've finally been able to finish YYH. It's not that I've lost all emotional attachment to the work, but I feel that my stress levels had greatly surpassed my will to work. The six months leading up to the concluding chapter felt awfully long to me. To tell the truth, it had already been decided that YYH was going to end in December 1993 -- or rather, this was a decision that I had forced on the editorial staff. There were many reasons for this, all in all about 50 big and small ones, but in broad strokes, these were the major reasons:
My body.
Thoughts I had about what it means to draw manga.
Desire to do other things than work.
Point 3 is out of the question for a professional manga writer; basically I wanted to indulge in my hobbies, rest, and sleep as much as I could. Most of my 50 reasons fall into this category.
Point 1 was caused by Point 3 not being fulfilled for too long. From when YYH began serialization up until the start of the Dark Tournament, I had half a day off every week in which I caught up on sleep. Other than that all I had time for were occasional naps, and I'd indulge in my hobbies by sleeping less. For a while, I quite enjoyed this. But my HP (as they say in RPGs) was gradually but surely falling, and around the time that I wrote a 31-page one-shot and simultaneously had to do color pages, my heart began to hurt every time I went without sleep -- and then it began to hurt more and more often.
cont'd
This was when I seriously started to think about the pace of production for manga. I thought, "I probably won't be able to keep regular hours, but if I sleep as much as I want to, when I want to, how much would I be able to produce?" I tried it out. I immediately began to fall behind on my schedule. But I tried to get some sleep every night. Around this time, my feelings about writing manga as a profession began to change. "I don't want to die from overwork. If I die, I want it to be when I'm having fun or when I'm drawing manga for fun. Color pages are scary. One-shots are scary." I also began to use some time before going to bed to relieve stress. I fell even more behind, and at the point where Sensui and Yusuke were fighting, this reached its first peak.
But also around this time, I realized I was starting to experience a different kind of stress. Because I had stopped overworking my body, and started to relieve my stress, I was feeling stressed that I couldn't draw manga in a way that satisfied me. This is where point 2 comes in.
I believe that anyone who draws has a desire to attract people with their art, but this is an ambition that I had suppressed for a long time. This is because back when I had just had my debut, my editor at the time had shown me a manga page by Hagiwara Kazushi (BASTARD!!). I felt that if I were honest with myself, my art would never be able to compete with something like this. But I was never able to throw away my ideal of being able to draw manga without help from other people. A few times during the run of YYH, I finished my manuscripts all by myself. All of these instances were when my stress levels were at their highest. I don't know if anyone will understand, but when I was stressed because I wasn't satisfied with my manga, the only way for me to relieve this stress was to draw all my manga by myself.
cont'd
As a result, those chapters ended up horrible. Both the characters and the backgrounds were messy. The one shot Two Shots, Karasu vs. Kurama, Yusuke vs. Sensui, the scene where Yusuke meets Raizen, I drew most of those alone. The latter two were finished in half a day before my deadline, as a reader guessed and criticized in a letter. This might mean I fail as a professional, but I was satisfied. I had already started to think that no matter what anyone says, no matter how messy the finished pages are, I just wanted to draw this by myself, and I had no reason not to go through with it.
It saddens me to say this, but I had explored every possible direction for the YYH characters that I could in the context of a professional publication. All I could do at this point was to start deconstructing the characters, or go on repeating the same storylines over and over until the readers got bored. My attempts to deconstruct the characters were, of course, turned down by Jump. I didn't have the strength, physically and mentally, to keep doing the same thing over and over.
So I went ahead and did what I had always wanted to do: "If I ever manage to have a long serialization in Jump, I will end it on my own terms." I knew that Jump dropped a manga after 10 weeks if the readers' surveys proved it to be unpopular, and I knew this when I started working for them. This system proved encouraging for me, and I learned a lot by being aware of readers reactions. But I ended up wanting to draw manga for myself, without thinking about anyone's reactions. I don't believe that anything I came up with on this premise will live up to Jump's standards, so I will not try.
In conclusion: I ended YYH because of my own selfishness. I'm sorry.
My own personal opinion: cry me a fucking river, I'm a full time graduate student that work over 40 hours a week. He doesn't know stress.
>>139131537
>he likes Hagiwara Kazushi, the king of hiatus
>>139131582
>My own personal opinion: cry me a fucking river, I'm a full time graduate student that work over 40 hours a week. He doesn't know stress.
Funny. I was going to say that the bits about feeling increasing pain after missing sleep reminded me of the first three years or so of grad school.
>>139131582
>I'm a full time graduate student that work over 40 hours a week.
My own personal opinion: cry me a fucking river.
That prince looks quite menacing, actually
I thought he'd be some bitchmade royalty
HxH Thread? HxH Thread
>>139131582
>My stress is far greater than yours!
Whatever you say kid.
>>139132480
He and his brother who snaps a lion's neck are pretty menacing considering they don't even know nen.
>>139132623
that made me laugh
thank you
>>139132558
Actually this is a Togashi tread
>>139132558
Pick your favorite design.
>>139133183
I like the 14th mainly because of the mom's design.
>>139133183
Top tier:
Camilla
Luzurus
Oito
Mid tier:
Benjamin
Zhang
Tserriednich
Kacho
Halkenburg
Fugetsu
Momoze
Low tier:
Tubeppa
Tyson
Salesale
Nasubi
Baby tier:
Marayam
Woble
>>139133183
Halkenburg and Luzurus seem like decent guys. I like the drill slut too.
Realistically, the only contenders for "best shounen manga of all time" are HxH and Medaka Box
Which one do you think is superior?
I'm both a medakafag and hxhfag, it's difficult to decide
>>139131509
>basically I wanted to indulge in my hobbies, rest, and sleep as much as I could
i really hope that hell exists
>>139133937
>frogposter
Kill yourself
>>139133937
Cancerous frogposter.
>>139133183
Halkenburg
Is Prince a bad guy?
>>139134681
>Those who don't know their own place are the greatest sinners of all
I actually agree with this, because I think this is what a perfect meritocracy would be all about
am I an edgelord?
>>139135016
Yes, society told us that others should not decide what we are,but it your own self should ;^)
>>139132672
>Considering they don't even know nen.
Was this really confirmed? they may know about nen but not the nen beasts.
>>139131509
>>139131537
>>139131582
And this is why Araki, Oda, Toriyama, Kurumada, Buronson, Watsuki etc are better mangaka. They're professionals who don't whine about how hard their work is.
>>139133873
>and Medaka Box
「The only good thing about Medaka Box is Kumagawa.」
>>139135335
Well he only whined about it once his manga actually ended, and i think it's fair to complain when you're overworked to the point where your health starts deteriorating.
>>139135503
>good thing
but anon he's a minus
>>139133873
>JoJo's
> Fist of the North Star
> Original Dragon Ball
> Kenshin
>Not contenders
>>139135673
please try to be more realistic
>>139134681
>>139135335
> They're professionals who don't whine about how hard their work is
Or they are just really autistic/lazy about their work? Most of them seem to repeat the same stories as opposed to Togashi who actually gives a shit for the audience enjoyment of his manga.
Japanese work ethic is ridiculous by human standards and have been known to push people to death through overwork alone.
>>139135755
He seems like a nice guy to have a conversation with.
HOLD THE FUCKING PHONE.
Are you telling me, there is nobody ever invented satellite in HxH world??
>>139136083
They don't even have planes you nigger
>>139136083
HxH looks like it takes place on fucking Jupiter
>>139136121
They have passenger blimps though.
>>139136121
they have all this stuff from our world though?
>>139135755
>>139136204
I'm no expert but i'm fairly sure blimps require less advanced technology than planes
>>139135755
>IPS
A murderer and a yurifag I see.
>>139135335
Pls, anybody can draw, especially like Oda does, but its the story, dialogues and characters that make you a good mangaka. Araki is fun but you gotta admit he almost always makes no fucking sense. Toriyama was amazing at its roots but its out of his time. Kurumada, Buronson and Watsuki are good, even though I can not bring myself to like Saint Seya. But what is Oda doing in that list? He is absolute garbage, has no originality, no characters no story, he cant even draw.
>>139132672
>snaps a lion's neck
well I'm guessing Uvo could also do that without using any nen
but look how that ended
>>139136236
What do you mean?
>>139136011
>Most of them seem to repeat the same stories
Hello there, Generalization
>Togashi who actually gives a shit for the audience enjoyment of his manga.
Which is why he keeps go on hiatus and ending his story arcs on anti-climaxes.
>>139136299
Come on, saint seya is pure crap. The art is shit, the battles are boring, the plot makes no sense, and it is bland as hell. It only has a fanbase because it's the first anime a lot of people had. One Piece is One Billion times superior.
>>139136121
>have mobile phones
>somehow don't have satellites
Literally retarded
>>139131509
christ, Togashi cant write for shit.
>>139136121
>Planes were invented in the early 1900's
>Smartphones started getting popular around 2007
Togashi is a hack
>>139136820
Just because they have one bit of technology doesn't mean they need to have another. A lot of technology we adopted over time has less to do with how advanced it is than hey this is neat or even though developed tech x would be inferior to immature tech y once it to is developed, right now developed tech x is more economical, so y is a waste short term and long term I'm not going to be running things so fuck it. If they had blimps and they were able to get enough helium so they wouldn't go full oh the humanity every other day, early planes might not have been competitive, so they didn't bother developing them.
>>139136820
It's not set in a precise time and the setting isn't the real world. It's like One Piece having a huge projectile TV transmission during Marineford, and also why HxH has nuclear fission but no planes, the technology isn't "linear" for lack of a better word.
>>139137383
>he doesn't know how phones work
>>139132623
Laughed.
>>139137193
>>139137383
this is stupid
>>139134681
No, he's actually a good guy in a really good disguise.
>>139131582
>My own personal opinion: cry me a fucking river, I'm a full time graduate student that work over 40 hours a week. He doesn't know stress.
Dude, drawing 20 pages in in 7 days, every week, without a break, is a fucking disaster. You also have to write the story, come up with character designs and locations and think way ahead because you can't make revisions of printed chapters. There's also shit like writer's block so there will never be a time when the deadline won't be a lurking problem in your head.
>>139135236
You should be able to see the beasts if you use nen a little, and it seems kind of weird you'd not want to learn more about it if you knew about it.
>>139139440
Ironically, Togashi's success was what brought him a lot of grief. It's an immense amount of pressure to be under.
>>139131582
>My own personal opinion: cry me a fucking river, I'm a full time graduate student that work over 40 hours a week. He doesn't know stress.
And do you want to be doing that for the rest of your life? If you were given the choice to sit back and live off your royalties for a few years, wouldn't you take it?
Togashi created something that millions of people enjoyed and he's using the proceeds from it to do what he enjoys, which is nothing. Obviously I would prefer it if he was someone like Oda who just loved drawing manga, but it's not like he's doing anything wrong. He worked hard to make a life for himself and now he's living it.
>>139136083
Of course they have satellites. How can this guy >>139135755 be using a cell phone if there aren't any satellites?
>>139132114
that's some passive-aggresive shit right there
>>139137383
I like how Einstein is illustrated in the manga along others
I'm kind of endeared by Togashi's lack of work ethic when he talks about it himself. It's more relatable when he acknowledges it, and I know I'd have similar attitude.
He's like a real life Hiramaru, or rather Hiramaru is manga Togashi.
>>139142318
He still enjoys drawing manga, but he thinks of it more as a hobby than a job. He has a family now so HxH isn't his first priority.
I'm happy for him but i really wish we had more consistent releases and less hiatus.
>>139133873
>Medaka Box
>Good
>>139136011
>lazy
Oda works 7 days a week, and sleeps 4 hours only daily.
>>139133183
Is anyone expecting the baby to be some super nen user like manipulating the woman to do his will and stealthily get the throne
>>139146643
They are ruining their health and their bodies. Oda is going to die young.
>>139146835
That's why One Piece is on break every 6th week now, so Oda won't work himself to death
>>139147050
It's still pretty taxing work. He is still relatively young, but it's going to catch up to him sooner or later.
