Don't Miss Your Deadline! (Manga Editor Quest)

Hmmm... well Subaru bombed, Ninja had mixed reviews, but right now our focus should be vampire.

Assistant sure thinks that the way to go is to turns it into ecchi story, but seeing how he just admitted that he is also hired due to nepotism, I don't think listening to him is gonna be our highest priority. Not to mention I do not think that Akira is gonna be ok with writing an ecchi story where his idea is a wholesome fun. Not to mention those that did liked the story (all 1 of them) seemed to be drawn by wholesomeness and there are no hits of horniness being required.

I know that I said that Morita should be the next person we should network with, but that was before the vampire daughter's stability became questionable. As such I think meeting with Akira, having a deep and insightful conversation with him regarding what he wants his manga to be, and seeing how we can improve it in such a way that he will be comfortable with, should be our next step. Meeting with cousin and trying to get on his good side before we start to ignore his advice should also be a good way to use our time, not to mention meeting the actual editor to let him know that we can be trusted and that we won't just blindly follow ideas of Daisuke who seems to be interested less in the boost of popularity and more in his personal preferences. Also learning the current trends can help us in general with all 3 mangas.

[X] Plan: The Anatomy of Popularity
-[X] [Overtime] No
-[X] Networking (Assistant Editor in Chief)
-[X] Networking (Editor in Chief): While Masaru is your senpai, he's still just a senior editor. Introduce yourself to someone a bit higher up and see if you can make a good impression.
-[X] Networking Mangakas
--[X] Aoiki Akira
-[X] Research
--[X] The Trending

Jokes on you Daisuke, but truth is, the power of nepotism is wielded by both of us, and time will tell that we are wielding it with much greater skill.
 
I think we should meet our other two mangakas since 1) We need to discuss with both of them on how to improve the story and 2) We have a high schooler writing manga and we want to reassure his parents that we aren't gonna do him dirty. The business can be really messed up.
 
Racer Subaru-kun is easily the most popular of our three though?
I was under the impression "bombed" is a positive expression? I most likely confused it with "exploded in popularity".


Additionally I have a suggestion regarding the backstory of Junkyard planet:

What if we make it so that Junkyard does not have its names as a mockery for its bad environment, with it being a literal galactic Junkyard. Designated by the local authority of the star system or sector, the Junkyard planet started as yet another colony albeit one that is extremely poor when it comes to natural resources, yet habitable enough the poor planet was colonized to fight overpopulation. Eventually the authority decided to designate the planet as the "reforging world", which means the planet's main purpose soon became to take in trash from neighborhood worlds, and recycle it into raw materials to be shipped out back to the other world. The supply of trash, often toxic and poisonous, outapaces the recycling process which in itself requires grand output of energy, resulting in several giant city sized factories dominating the landscape, further polluting soil, waters and air alike, eventually rendering the entire planet into an environmental catastrophe, in fact the place where Subaru is located is ironically one of the most healthy district, with other places being polluted by all kinds of nigh uninhabitable conditions, like smog so thick it renders some areas stuck in constant night, heavy radiation storms coming and going through countries, not to mention tons upon tons of criminal underworld activity.
 
Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I wouldn't call AoT that.

mh.. on second thought, while Attack on Titan is one of the most successful anime of the last decade, if we truly want to consider the PEAK of populary, that would be something like Dragonball, One Piece, Sailor Moon or Pokemon (though Pokemon is mostly popular for anime and games, not really for the manga).

You were having so many problems with just three series, yet here he was trying to manage twenty at once!
...if he's actually editing them, that's far too many! Even if he had double our editor points, that's FAR too much.

Admittedly he likely doesn't need to use actions to "work on removing noob status" or "work relationships" and he's ALSO likely taking one or two overtimes... but still!

...on a secondary note, let's all remember that we mostly want to reach the next tier of quality when possible for quality modifiers (so 40, 50, 60 and so on).


Never heard of it, though a quick wiki look tells me it's pretty famous. I suppose we now have a title to look at for tips and inspiration if necessary.

Technically speaking, you probably should have gone back to work on Sunday. It was what everyone expected after all. According to tradition, a hardworking young salaryman like yourself should be in the office every day to prove how enthusiastic and dedicated you were.
Sick Japanese work culture...

Unfortunately for them, you'd already made sure to memorize the official work hours listed in your employee handbook. If they wanted to drag you back into the office anyway, they had better be prepared to pay for your overtime hours.
I COMPLETELY agree with this.

I suppose there's nothing wrong with dedicating some extra time to prove yourself, but it's not like they can't afford to pay the overtime!

Despite what some might claim, the good jobs and salaries would always go to the people with the best connections, not the people with the best work ethic.
I'd argue both matter, though one can compensate for the other... up to a point.

"Who wants coffee?" you asked, diverting their attention to the bag at your side. "I've also got some fresh cupcakes from a bakery at the station!"
Totally worth it to avoid the Sunday work :D

It was 3 favour points well spent, I'd say.

You opened up the latest volume, resisting the urge to groan as it slowly loaded. Didn't you already scan all the pages for printing? Why did this look like someone had taken a printed copy, then scanned it all in one page at a time into a pdf?
...I could see that happening. Maybe we could point it out to a superior?

MysteryMaster: It's nice to see a new scifi series that isn't another wannabe Star Wars clone. I swear, ever since the 14th movie came out everyone's just trying to copy them.

...now that I think about it, There's actually quite a few out already. the 3 trilogies, the spin-off trilogy (third yet to come out I think), the clone wars animated movie.. I suppose there's technically also the holiday special :whistle:

MysteryMaster: Oh god, this isn't a sequel for Boruto, right? Please tell me it's not.

BURNED.

Though in Boruto's defense: the anime sucks outside of a few battles (I dropped it a LONG time ago. quick check there's nearly 50 episodes before reaching boruto movie material, and nearly 150 before reaching MANGA new material. And most of this material is just boring) the manga is actually decent though.

The character art is nice though, so I think you should concentrate on that. Forget the old man MC and focus on the cute daughter instead. Just make it more ecchi and you'll have more readers in no time!

NO. ALL OF MY NO.

There's SO MANY PROBLEMS with that!

1)this kind of genre change often don't work. It doesn't seem like the mangaka would be good with it.
2)it's heavily inspired to his life. how would he feel about drawing someone inspired to his daughter to be lewded on?
3)...that's it, actually.

It's not a bad idea in principle, but in this specific case it just can't work.

P.S: Oh yeah, Asa (that's our editor in chief) wanted me to tell you to focus more on the story part. But you should definitely do the ecchi thing too, though!
this is better though.

Status Update:
  • Gained +1 Favor for each successfully released new series. (+3 Favor)
  • Space Racer Subaru-kun's high popularity on its very first chapter looks good for you! (+1 Favor)
  • Gained new requests for Our Daughter is Actually a Vampire!:
    • Focus more on the daughter and add more ecchi elements (Assistant Editor in Chief)
    • Raise the Story stat to at least 60 for the next chapter (Editor in Chief)
...that's a LOT of favour. we've already recovered our big expense!

story is fine. we might want to ignore the ecchi request, or at least be very diplomatic about proposing it (or even better, about refusing it).



now, let's see the actions available...

-[ ] Look At Me, I Am The Senpai Now (Special): It seems that the new editors will be joining your team later this week. Considering his current workload, Masaru would probably be really grateful if you 'volunteered' to handle the welcoming process. The fact that it'd let you make a good first impression is just the icing on the cake. (Gain +1 Favor)

this makes sense for the kind of character we're trying to play. I'd also argue that it's a better fit than just doing the repetitive paperwork, and the first impression will help in case any of them somehow gets promoted in the future. The best time to build a good relationship with coworkers is at the beginning, after all.

I mostly want it for the first impression more than the favour, really.

[ ] Networking (Coworkers): You and Masaru may be the only ones on your team right now, but that doesn't mean that the office is completely empty. You never know when making friends might come in handy.
-[ ] Team Player Maeda-kun: People tend to appreciate the little gestures. A cup of coffee here, a friendly ear to listen to problems there, and suddenly they think you're friends. But if you want to make a stronger impression, you need to go the extra mile. (Unlocks options to spend extra Favor)

it has potential, though maybe not this turn. Didn't we just do it anyway?

[ ] Networking (Assistant Editor in Chief): Ah, shit. Who decided to give such an important position to your idiot cousin? Meeting with him isn't going to be pleasant, but you should see if you can do some damage control before things get out of hand.

We might be able to remove the Ecchi request and prevent more problems.

[ ] Networking (Mangaka): Paying a visit to one of your current mangakas might be a good idea, if only to ensure that they aren't having any problems meeting the deadline.

We might want to do at least one meeting with each Mangaka. Next should probably be Vampire daughter guy, especially considering we've received TWO requests about improvements for his manga.

I'd like to meet Tana-sensei again either, but actions are limited...

[ ] Research: It's probably a good idea to make sure that you're not totally ignorant about your job anymore. (Progress towards removing Maeda's "Complete Newbie" trait)
-[ ] The Big Three: Naruto, One Piece, and Bleach; the biggest shonen series of their time. Perhaps you'll find the secret of their popularity by rereading them as an editor rather than a fan.
-[ ] The Trending: What's even in the top ten list now, anyway? Probably a good idea to see what the fans are into nowadays.
-[ ] Sunday Star Series: What kind of series is your magazine currently running? If nothing else, this should let you see what your direct competition will look like.


We should take another one of those. I suppose that, as we went with the classics first, the logical next step would be the big 3.




so, I'd go with one mangaka networking, one manga research, first impression as senpai, and networking with our cousin.

Alternatively, remove one of these for Team Player option.
 
I think we should meet our other two mangakas since 1) We need to discuss with both of them on how to improve the story and 2) We have a high schooler writing manga and we want to reassure his parents that we aren't gonna do him dirty. The business can be really messed up.

Hard agree, in fact I would like to go out on a limb and network will all of our current mangakas. We are supposed to be the people pleaser, after all.

[X] Plan: Mangaka Madness
-[X] [Overtime] No
-[X] Research
--[X] The Trending
-[X] Networking Mangakas
--[X] Aoiki Akira
--[X] Tanaka Himari
--[X] Sano Morita

The goal with this plan is to more or less give our mangakas our full attention, and make sure we do our damndest to salvage their work and make something of them all. Which comes with the added bonus of getting on their good side should the series flop regardless of our efforts, allowing for a better working relationship for future series as well.

I almost want to try Overtime for extra networking potential… but that feels a bit premature. That mechanic seems extremely harsh, kind of like crunch time pre-rework in that it doesn't actually provide all that much and halves our current editor points.
 
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[X] Plan: Mangaka Madness

Lets hope to make them like us more while chipping away at being a clueless newbie
 
something in the style of the big three (naruto, one piece, dragon ball).
Technically speaking dragonball is from BEFORE the big 3. It's basically their main source of inspiration, and the other member of the big 3 is Bleach.

Admittedly it's by far the least popular of them (Naruto super popular in the west, and One Piece easiest the most popular in Japan for a LONG time, though apparently Demon Slayer surpassed it in sales recently), and it was both the first to conclude and the only one of them to not get the last arc of the manga adapted to the anime (though they're FINALLY correcting that mistake).

Do you think it'd be possible to get our three mangakas to cooperate on a manga? Cause from their stats, they seem like they'd make a pretty awesome team.
I'd say that's too many. Different drawing styles wouldn't mesh easily, and it also means sharing pay and credit.

Sometime there's a partnership of "one mostly draws, the other mostly takes care of the writing", like in Death Note and Bakuman, but those are exceptions.

At best I'd argue that if one of their manga fails, we could propose to have them help as assistant for a bit. That would expose them to more authors, their styles, the way they work, and get them more experience.

It was done in Bakuman too, and it makes a LOT of sense... though the question is if that would pay well enough for vampire daughter mangaka's family needs. The kid would likely be fine with it as a part time job while he prepares a new submission if he ends up failing the ninja manga though.

I was under the impression "bombed" is a positive expression? I most likely confused it with "exploded in popularity".
I think I've seen it used the same way as "tanked", though I get why you'd think it could mean the opposite.

bombed





ok, here's my plan, though I'm not necessarily against the ones already proposed. This just gives us more options.

[x]Plan Networking, vampire and study

-[X] [Overtime] No

-[x] Networking (Masaru-senpai):
--[x] Look At Me, I Am The Senpai Now (Special): (Gain +1 Favor)

-[x] Networking (Assistant Editor in Chief):

-[x] Networking (Mangaka):
--[x] Aoki Akira:

-[x] Research:
--[x] The Big Three:


The first plan takes advantage of our networking abilities to start building a relationship network and reputation from the ground up. We get the newbies from the first moment, and talk to our cousing to mitigate problems from his advices.

Then we meet Aoki Akira for the vampire requests we had, and continue our study, going the logical next step from classics ( to the more recent classics).




About the already proposed plans

@Mechasaurian you only took 3 actions, we have 4. Maybe you might like my plan though.

[X] Plan: The Anatomy of Popularity
-[X] [Overtime] No
-[X] Networking (Assistant Editor in Chief)
-[X] Networking (Editor in Chief): While Masaru is your senpai, he's still just a senior editor. Introduce yourself to someone a bit higher up and see if you can make a good impression.
-[X] Networking Mangakas
--[X] Aoiki Akira
-[X] Research
--[X] The Trending

I personally think that big 3 comes before Trending, as we decided to start from the classics it feels like a logical next step.

Other than that no real complaint, probably my second choice of plan.

[X] Plan: Mangaka Madness
-[X] [Overtime] No
-[X] Research
--[X] The Trending
-[X] Networking Mangakas
--[X] Aoiki Akira
--[X] Tanaka Himari
--[X] Sano Morita
I think that's too much focus on only the mangakas, though I suppose I see your point.

I have a counterpoint though: if you want to really maximize their chances, you might instead be interested in studying a second manga (both trending and big 3) to remove the noob status and get more editor points, instead of going to all 3 mangakas at once.
 
I think that's too much focus on only the mangakas, though I suppose I see your point.

I have a counterpoint though: if you want to really maximize their chances, you might instead be interested in studying a second manga (both trending and big 3) to remove the noob status and get more editor points, instead of going to all 3 mangakas at once.

I actually considered that for my plan prior to posting it, but then I remembered that when we networked with Tana previously we ended up giving her a +15 bonus to her setting roll by sitting down and working with her.

I figure that, even excluding Tana and potentially ridding ourselves of the noob debuff to our editor points (we might need to read the Sunday star mangas too to get rid of it, which would mean 3 research actions), it would be unlikely for us to earn 15 or more editor points from that. I don't know if the bonus for working closely with our mangaka will ALWAYS be +15 to something, but I think it's safe to assume we'll contribute something.

Altogether, I just like the idea of a closer working relationship with our mangakas both for what it mechanically provides… and for the options it might present us later in the quest.
 
[x]Plan Networking, vampire and study

Like this plan, this way, we might be able to avoid the potential damage of "ignoring/declining" ecchi stuff in SoL manga where its strong point is the interaction between two MC.

While collecting favor, helping the low-scoring guy and more self-study.
 
[X]Plan Knowing our Team
-[X] [Overtime] No
-[X] Networking (Masaru-senpai):
It's probably a good idea to butter up your direct superior before your other riva- I mean, editors arrive.
--[X] Look At Me, I Am The Senpai Now (Special): It seems that the new editors will be joining your team later this week. Considering his current workload, Masaru would probably be really grateful if you 'volunteered' to handle the welcoming process. The fact that it'd let you make a good first impression is just the icing on the cake. (Gain +1 Favor)
-[X] Networking (Mangaka): Paying a visit to one of your current mangakas might be a good idea, if only to ensure that they aren't having any problems meeting the deadline.
--[X] Aoki Akira: You have to admit, Aoki-san doesn't seem like the kind of person you'd typically expect to be interested in a mangaka career. It might be a good idea to learn more about his motivations.
--[X] Sano Morita: You may be new, but even you can tell that hiring someone so young is going to cause some issues. It's probably a good idea to visit him eventually, if only to reassure his parents that you're not trying to take advantage of him.
-[X] Research: It's probably a good idea to make sure that you're not totally ignorant about your job anymore. (Progress towards removing Maeda's "Complete Newbie" trait)
--[X] Sunday Star Series: What kind of series is your magazine currently running? If nothing else, this should let you see what your direct competition will look like.

I want to catch up on our other 2 Authors and network/teach the other newbies since that keeps us from having to deal with the more complicated aspects of the job and knowing someone who isn't a burn't out husk might make problem solving easier. Knowing what our Book runs tells us our audience Plus the big 3 are fucking massive Bleach and naruto together are about 1400 chapters before the sequels and One piece crossed a 1k a while ago that's journey by itself so I'm saving that as the last research options. Plus even if its gonna crash I want Aoki-san to at least have a volume for his effort and have him focus on the story he wants to tell.
 
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I don't want to reveal more details right now, but you should bear in mind that Aoki's bonus is just for character art, not story. The idea is hilarious, but I can confirm that his daughter was never involved in any vampire cult, imaginary or otherwise.
Pls don't crush my headcanon :c

On the other hand, daughter super confirmed to exist.
 
Pls don't crush my headcanon :c

On the other hand, daughter super confirmed to exist.
But also, if I'm correct, holy shit dude how did you save your marriage after you started thinking your daughter was in a vampire cult? That's the real motivation to have vampire daughter do well. I get to know how this guy salvaged that

Then don't listen to the QM, they're just trying to distract you from the truth! The reason Akira's marriage didn't fall apart was because his daughter really was in a vampire cult, and he was right all along.

He now lives in constant fear of the day when her hunger inevitably turns towards her own father…
 
I actually considered that for my plan prior to posting it, but then I remembered that when we networked with Tana previously we ended up giving her a +15 bonus to her setting roll by sitting down and working with her.

I figure that, even excluding Tana and potentially ridding ourselves of the noob debuff to our editor points (we might need to read the Sunday star mangas too to get rid of it, which would mean 3 research actions), it would be unlikely for us to earn 15 or more editor points from that. I don't know if the bonus for working closely with our mangaka will ALWAYS be +15 to something, but I think it's safe to assume we'll contribute something.

Altogether, I just like the idea of a closer working relationship with our mangakas both for what it mechanically provides… and for the options it might present us later in the quest.
good point, though the extra editor points would be permanent, while it's unclear if bonuses like that +15 are permanent or one-off.

I like the idea of getting closer to the mangaka, so I get why you'd focus on that. I prefer not doing it all at once, but I get it.

Basically, a racing manga so good many people believed it kickstart Japan racing culture. And popularize "drift" technique in the west.

heh, maybe I'll try reading it at some point. I suppose adding Initial D to our editor's required reading might make sense/help too, but that can come after big 3, trending and our magazine.

[X]Plan Knowing our Team
-[X] [Overtime] No
-[X] Networking (Masaru-senpai):
It's probably a good idea to butter up your direct superior before your other riva- I mean, editors arrive.
--[X] Look At Me, I Am The Senpai Now (Special): It seems that the new editors will be joining your team later this week. Considering his current workload, Masaru would probably be really grateful if you 'volunteered' to handle the welcoming process. The fact that it'd let you make a good first impression is just the icing on the cake. (Gain +1 Favor)
-[X] Networking (Mangaka): Paying a visit to one of your current mangakas might be a good idea, if only to ensure that they aren't having any problems meeting the deadline.
--[X] Aoki Akira: You have to admit, Aoki-san doesn't seem like the kind of person you'd typically expect to be interested in a mangaka career. It might be a good idea to learn more about his motivations.
--[X] Sano Morita: You may be new, but even you can tell that hiring someone so young is going to cause some issues. It's probably a good idea to visit him eventually, if only to reassure his parents that you're not trying to take advantage of him.
-[X] Research: It's probably a good idea to make sure that you're not totally ignorant about your job anymore. (Progress towards removing Maeda's "Complete Newbie" trait)
--[X] Sunday Star Series: What kind of series is your magazine currently running? If nothing else, this should let you see what your direct competition will look like.

I want to catch up on our other 2 Authors and network/teach the other newbies since that keeps us from having to deal with the more complicated aspects of the job and knowing someone who isn't a burn't out husk might make problem solving easier. Knowing what our Book runs tells us our audience Plus the big 3 are fucking massive Bleach and naruto are Fucking massive with about 1400 chapters between them before the sequels and One piece crossed a 1k a while ago that's journey by itself so I'm saving that as the last research options. Plus even if its gonna crash I want Aoki-san to at least have a volume for his effort and have him focus on the story he wants to tell.

If Big 3 are presented as one action, then one action is probably enough. Or who knows, maybe it will take multiple actions? I'd expect it to get a warning in that case though, and we already went through the "classics" in one action (though it's unspecified how many they were, just that we spent a few days reading them)

"what our book run" is kind of my last pick, because if we don't know/understand the other three (classics, big 3, trending) I think we're kind of unprepared to judge what our magazine is like.

So, I basically only disagree with the manga study pick, and if we didn't get that stupid ecchi request I'd probably use that action for the second mangaka too (or, alternatively, another manga research action)
 
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