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Tips On Creating Manga From Shueisha’s Deputy Director of Shounen

By Ishaan . August 6, 2011 . 12:01pm

Tips On Creating Manga From Shueishas Deputy Director of Shounen

Last month, Viz and Shonen Jump announced a storyboard contest, where fans could send in storyboards for a manga and have them critiqued by Hisashi Sasaki, Shueisha’s Deputy Director of Shonen Manga Group and former Editor in Chief of Weekly Shonen Jump. At a Comic-Con panel, Sasaki did a live-critique of some of the submissions.

 

The theme for the storyboard contest was: “The summer adventures of a thirteen-year-old teenager who dreams of becoming a movie star in New York.”

 

One of the points Sasaki mentioned was to keep the number of panels per page to a minimum. “Most pros usually only use a maximum of seven panels per page,” Sasaki shared at the panel. You can read a transcript of his critiques for seven different entries at the link above.

 

Viz are still accepting storyboard entries until August 15th. Winners will receive a set of professional art supplies, professional feedback from Sasaki, and have their work featured in the upcoming Bakuman December/January issue of Shonen Jump. You can read up on how to enter and the various rules at this link.


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  • http://myfigurecollection.net/collection/DrakosAmatras DrakosAmatras

    “Most pros usually only use a maximum of seven panels per page,”

    I’ll keep that in mind. But keeping the panel count too few might not look “professional” as much as “lazy”; it might also depend on how much work has gone into those though. I’ve seen Bleach pull of some pages with a single panel with only a couple of characters, a few backdrops and a blank white background.

    • Suicunesol

      Excuse me, but I’ve always found it somewhat insulting when someone says a manga-ka is being lazy when manga-ka in general work very, very hard. Just because there is less ink on a page doesn’t mean a mangaka is being lazy.

      Bleach gets away with doing panels and pages like that because there are a lot shock, suspense, and transformation moments in that series where emphasis must be put on a single character or object.

      I also believe that the fact that Bleach can be so minimalist yet still be coherent and exciting is a sign of experience in compositional flow. Sometimes more white is better than more black.

      Also, I’m sure there are other factors that affect how Bleach is written, but if laziness is one of them, I’m sure he has good reason considering that Kubo has been drawing the series for almost exactly a decade.

      • http://myfigurecollection.net/collection/DrakosAmatras DrakosAmatras

        “Lazy” was admittedly a rather risky word to use. While I can assure that I didn’t use it in an offending sense, some things just need to be said: Like all businesses, there are Mangaka who try to cut corners when it comes to effort. I’m not accusing Kubo to be one; I have no way of knowing that. However, there are some things in Bleach that I find really questionable.

        First is story content per length; be it per-chapter (this fared very well in earlier parts though), per-arc or per-total length. Like you said, Kubo’s been drawing this for almost a decade. Shouldn’t that length of time warrant more (story) content than its current amount? Especially for a weekly run.

        The other is art. I’m not talking about ink usage per page; I’m talking about the inconsistent usage. Why is it that I come across pages like this a bit too often, where he completely skips toning the background in large panels while he does the smaller ones?
        http://www.mangareader.net/bleach/458/8
        Not to mention the bare-bone details in panels. Aren’t shadings and tonings a huge part of Japanese Manga? Granted, this can be partially attributed to his preferred style, but he certainly wasn’t like that in the beginning. His character art was a bit weak, but characters are distinguishable, and he did shadings and details pretty well.

        Bleach doesn’t focus on story, it’s not big on fleshing out characters, it doesn’t care much about art details, so what does it have to offer aside from battle scenes? I don’t think art alone can support a Manga – much less character drawings alone. Wouldn’t anyone expect a bit more from a work considered one of the “Big Three” of a prime Manga magazine? Especially when some obscure titles contain more art, details and content than he’s doing now in much less chapters. Like these:
        http://www.mangafox.com/manga/akumetsu/?no_warning=1
        http://www.mangafox.com/manga/rappi_rangai/?no_warning=1

        In Kubo’s defense, I don’t know what problems he’s having, so I don’t want to be too hard on the man. Maybe the weekly schedule is really strict, for example. Whatever the reason, though, it still doesn’t negate the work’s shortcomings. While I have interest in the Manga, these are personal peeves I can’t get rid of when it comes to Bleach.

        “I also believe that the fact that Bleach can be so minimalist yet still be coherent and exciting is a sign of experience in compositional flow.”

        That’s where I’ll have to put up a big “I beg to differ”. “Minimalism” means something is presented in a very simplistic style. Be it art or story, Bleach is anything but. Relatively speaking, for example, The World God Only Knows has a more minimalistic character design. And when it comes to story/writing, a series that keeps throwing in one fight after another is hardly simplistic.

        With all due respect, whatever adjectives may describe Bleach, “minimalistic” is not one of them. Not after stretching things this far. Bleach can be exciting when it gets down to the point though; I’ll give you that. If anything’s dragging it down, it’s the unbalanced pacing and constant acts of deus ex machina.

        P.S: I should remind you that the “Akumetsu” manga I mentioned above is made by a two-man team. And only one of them is the artist. I remember reading somewhere that Kubo has some assistants; shouldn’t that team yield more result than two people?

        • TempestTwin

          I find it funny how easily someone like you can critizisize Tite Kubo’s work. How about instead of complaining about his art style, you go out and draw all the shadings in the panels and every little detail. Its his manga, he can do what ever the hell he wants with it. If he wants to skip toning the background then so be it. Sure you might question why he did skip a certaqin toning of a background but at the end of the day he did, and there is no changing it. Sure, maybe he did change his work and make it different from the start to how it is now, but who cares to be honest it is his decision after all.

          You say “Be it art or story, Bleach has anything but”. Well yeah….thats with all manga…. All manga is just art and story. If you have a problem with the manga artist drawing the way he does then maybe you should stop reading the manga and watch the anime. Then you will have no problems and you will stop whining about stupid things….

          • Exkaiser

            Maybe you shouldn’t get so defensive about your favorite manga. Most Bleach fans joke about Kubo being lazy.

            Also, you completely misconstrued what he meant by “Be it art or story, Bleach has anything but.” He was saying that neither the art or story was minimalistic.

          • TempestTwin

            Your one thats quick to judge…where did I ever say that bleach was my favourite manga? Learn to read before you comment….

            Also Drakos certainly was not “joking” Do you even know what a joke is? Did you read the tone that he was writing in? Does it sound like he was joking to you? Because to me it certainly did not look like a “joke”. Most bleach fans do joke around about Kubo being lazy, but Drakos certainly isnt.

          • http://myfigurecollection.net/collection/DrakosAmatras DrakosAmatras

            For the record, it’s actually “Bleach is anything but.” The typo’s not mine.

          • Asura

            Your defense to a very well-written post:
            “I’d like to see you do it, and it’s his manga, just drop it then~!”

            Really? It would have been more beneficial for you to not reply at all.

            As for the bit where you talk about whether Drakos was joking, of course he bloody wasn’t, and nobody said he was! Read better! Exhaiser NEVER claimed he was joking, and Drakos is clearly not a fan to begin with!

            Urgh, the shounen humpers…

          • http://myfigurecollection.net/collection/DrakosAmatras DrakosAmatras

            Well… I’m not a Bleach fan, true, but I don’t dislike it either – I go back to it occasionally; I just find its current state sad. I browse a lot of Manga titles, so I come across many different styles. And one of the things I learned from all this is that a Mangaka who’s serious about the art in his work never skips out on details like shadings, tonings and backgrounds – things that give each panel its depth and completion. Bleach, sadly, is guilty in that regard.

            Thanks for reading through the text wall and trying to understand what I’m saying; I know from the start that I’m treading on sensitive territory here.

            And here’s a tip: If somebody picks a fight with you, don’t reply. And do keep the language mild too; it’s part of the site guidelines.

          • TempestTwin

            Dont tell me what to comment on and what not to comment on. Do I come here telling you what to say and what not to? No, I dont, so why dont you go back to the corner you crawled out from and stop giving out orders to me, because it clearly isnt working.

            And now your classifying me as a “shounen humper”? how about you go get lost and stop being so sterotypical. Just because I am standing up for bleach does not automattically make me a “shounen humper”

            Also btw Drakos I am not starting to pick fights with you, but clearly you take everything I said the wrong way. Your problem is you act like your opinion is the only vaild one on this site, when it is not.

          • Exkaiser

            I was going to type up an explanation of my post to you because you completely misunderstood it, but I figured you wouldn’t understand my explanation, either.

            Please work on your reading comprehension before commenting, next time.

      • meat0bun

        Actually, if there was any mangaka who would be considered lazy, it’s Kubo. Basically, he tries to fill up whole pages with only 1 or 2 panels so he can milk his story for the next few decades. I’ve already lost count of the number of times he’s used up a whole damn page to zoom in on a wall, door, shadow, or someone’s face.

        The proof is in the pudding: It literally takes me less than a minute to read a Bleach chapter and to say the plot is slow paced would be an understatement.

        (And no, drawing any series for a decade does not prove you’re not lazy, it just means it’s your job.)

        • TempestTwin

          But who are you to call him lazy? Just because he does things differently to different manga artisists does not mean he is “lazy”. Its his manga, let him draw it however the hell he wants to draw it, even if it is “zooming up on a wall, door shadow or someones face”.

          And since when is time counted for reading a bleach chapter? All manga has very few text invovled, if time is that much important for you then go read a novel, as that has as much text in i as you want, otherwise stop complaining.

          I would rather Kubo drag on fights in the manga then lets say with what naruto is doing now, it is changing scenes way to quickly and it is changing fights way to quickly, that it isnt being dragged on enough.

          • meat0bun

            Kubo IS lazy when compared to his peers; that is not my opinion but an objective statement based on his work compared to the works of other mangaka in SJ.

            The guy has THREE assistants working for him. What do they do? Bring him coffee, dust his sunglasses, and wipe his ass?

          • TempestTwin

            No, he is not lazy when compared to other mangaka, he is only different to them. Why should he be considered lazy? Just because he doesnt draw alot of panels from time to time, zooms in alot on faces of his characters? That is not lazy, that is called emphasizing. He has every reason to draw the bleach manga how he wants. Sure, it is our duty as fans to give feedback as loyal fans, but how is that helping by people like you calling him “lazy”?

        • Bakuryukun

          Iunno, I’ve found Bleach’s emphasis on character and character movement kinda nice, it makes it really easy to tell how movements flow into each other from panel to panel. I would agree that it’s a pretty slow paced series, but when you go back and read an entire arc after it’s finished it actually flows pretty well.

          • http://myfigurecollection.net/collection/DrakosAmatras DrakosAmatras

            Well, yeah, Bleach’s overall story is not bad as a Shonen title. The thing is that even if he likes drawing large, dramatic panels, it’s too slow for a weekly series running for almost a decade to amount to what it is now. Kubo focuses too much on fights to push the story forward, even extending a fight to tens of chapters. That’s pushing it, if you ask me.

          • Bakuryukun

            I wouldn’t mind him pushing the fights on so long, if he had something new to show each time, but a lot of times he doesn’t. I like the series overall, but I admit it has problems.

          • TempestTwin

            The whole point of bleach is fighting though, which is one of if not the main aspect of bleach. People only feel it drags on because they wait week after week for the new chapter to come out, but like Bakuryukun said, if you go back and read the whole arc again it flows nicley. If you dont like the fighting in bleach then bleach isnt the manga for you then, obviously.

  • http://tristsantithesis.tumblr.com/ Tsunayoshi Sawada

    Aw I dont like when magazines do double issues for the holidays. I cant wait to see what other storyboards will be in the mag.

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/jodecideion?feature=mhum TheWon and Only

    Seem to be a huge Bleach fanboy in here? I’m sorry if we are going to compare all of the current members of the Tri-Shonens. Bleach is by far the worst of the three. The only thing going for it is the art style. More the desire he has to draw attractive characters. The story at this point is pointless, and characters are just cookie cutter versions of the original cast.

    • http://myfigurecollection.net/collection/DrakosAmatras DrakosAmatras

      Take it from me: If he talks to you, best not to reply.

      • TempestTwin

        Take it from me: Your a baby who sooks and cant handle other people replying back to your comments who has a differing opinion to you.

        • http://www.siliconera.com Spencer

          Hi thanks for commenting, but this kind of attitude is not appreciated on Siliconera. Please read over our community guidelines if you plan to participate in discussions in the future.

          http://www.siliconera.com/2011/06/25/were-going-to-fix-siliconeras-comments-and-we-need-your-help/

          • http://myfigurecollection.net/collection/DrakosAmatras DrakosAmatras

            Oh, thank god. Spencer finally noticed.

          • TempestTwin

            What do you mean by “finally”? If you realized none of my comments were bad apart from this one. Stop acting like I was a bad guy released from prison or something because I was doing fine up until now.

          • TempestTwin

            Alright, no worries. Thanks for your input in Siliconera and I like reading your articles, sometimes I understand I may get a little overboard, but may I ask can you please warn this Drakos dude aswell. My reason for this request is because he made this post that was clearly off topic, warning “TheWon” that I would come and comment, when I had clearly no intention to. I dont understand why Drakos should get away with making this comment which fired me up in the first place, and then when it comes to me telling him not to have a sook about it you pounce on me.

            I understand that what I said was bad, but I think it would be fair if Drakos got a warning aswell. 2 wrongs dont make a right and I should have easily ignored his post but he intentionally told this guy to watch out for me which I find really offending, as that is no way to welcome new members to the community? Surley you would agree with me. I am just questioning why I am getting a warning but not Drakos, that is all.

            As you can see I am a new member to Siliconera Community (well I was a lurker before but I decided to finally make a profile) and this Drakos guy is not making me feel welcome at all.

            Sorry about all this and hopefully you can see where I am coming from. As you can see, Drakos is warning other members acting like I am a “bad guy”. I dont go around telling other members “WATCH OUT FOR DRAKOS” or anything along those lines. “If he talks to you, best not to reply.” is what he said. Now to me it offends me because he made me sound like I am some type of criminal, or some kind of monster, which is why I responded the way I did.

            I expect an apology from drakos as he is very rude, making me feel unwelcome and uncomfortable.

    • http://www.facebook.com/blitzenberger3 Bradley Litzenberger

      Sure is easy to pass judgement when you yourself don’t have to put in any of the effort. :/ Sorry, if you don’t like something fine whatever. But there’s no point in berating something you don’t like just for the heck of it. The internet sure has made alot of average joes with no experience critiques of everything out there.

      • Asura

        The internet has also showcased how much people can love garbage.

      • Makenshi

        I can critique since I am(was?) a customer. Based on other works, I think he really is kind of lazy. Bleach was quite fun long, long ago. And I know it takes a big effort in order to do his work, but it would take a lot of more if he was not dragging the story around… Thats what I think based on the *experience* of consuming this media.

        PS: not native english speaker here, sorry…
        PS2: i’m not trying to sound offensive.

      • TempestTwin

        Finally, someone who sees the same light as me. All these people on the internet atre quick to judge, and are quick to critisize someone elses work. Its getting pretty annoying because its this simple: if you dont like it, you arent forced to read it.

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