Don't Miss Your Deadline! (Manga Editor Quest)
- Thread starter zamin
- Start date
- Original Modern
ConfusedCanuck
Where did it all go wrong?
- Location
- Neverland
[X] Plan: Out with the old, in with the new
- Pronouns
- He/They
[X] Plan: Out with the old, in with the new
[X] Plan: Out with the old, in with the new
I'm sad to hear about your job situation, good to hear you're more stable now, though.
I'm sad to hear about your job situation, good to hear you're more stable now, though.
- Location
- Somewhere else
Welcome back! You've been missed!
[X] Plan: Due diligence with old and new
-[X] [Overtime] Yes
-[X] Networking (Masaru-senpai)
--[X] Goodbye Morita
-[X] Networking (Mangaka)
--[X] New Mangaka
--[X] Separately: Arrange two separate meetings in order to ensure that both your new mangaka receive the attention they need. (Special: Costs 2 Personal Actions and gives you +1 Suggestion for each of your new Mangaka)
-[X] Research
--[X] The Greatest Fake Teacher
As much as I hate having to use overtime, the emergency meeting eating one of our personal actions pretty much forces our hand. We can't really do our best on The Greatest Fake Teacher without knowing anything about it. We should give both of our new mangaka separate time to make a good impression.
@zamin I had a question about Shion's action and hiring manga assistants: who foots the bill, the company or the mangaka?
[X] Plan: Due diligence with old and new
-[X] [Overtime] Yes
-[X] Networking (Masaru-senpai)
--[X] Goodbye Morita
-[X] Networking (Mangaka)
--[X] New Mangaka
--[X] Separately: Arrange two separate meetings in order to ensure that both your new mangaka receive the attention they need. (Special: Costs 2 Personal Actions and gives you +1 Suggestion for each of your new Mangaka)
-[X] Research
--[X] The Greatest Fake Teacher
As much as I hate having to use overtime, the emergency meeting eating one of our personal actions pretty much forces our hand. We can't really do our best on The Greatest Fake Teacher without knowing anything about it. We should give both of our new mangaka separate time to make a good impression.
@zamin I had a question about Shion's action and hiring manga assistants: who foots the bill, the company or the mangaka?
zamin
The Watcher in the Dark
Generally the mangaka would be expected to pay for any assistants. However, since you're Maeda, you will have the option of spending a bunch of Favor to convince the higher ups to either pay part of their salary or even hire them outright (though good luck with that).
Small Nerd
Meganekko
- Location
- Out There
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I just discovered and read through this quest, and I have to say that I think it's a really interesting idea I don't recall seeing very often. I look forward to seeing where it goes.
- Location
- Italy
counterpoint: I think we have more useful actions that meeting the mangaka separately, so I'd use that action somewhere else.
For example, the faster we progress our editor trait, the sooner we can get more editor points and the Overtime penalty becomes less relevant.
so, I'd try something like this instead
[X] Plan: Using Time Effectively
-[X] [Overtime] Yes
-[X] Networking (Masaru-senpai)
--[X] Goodbye Morita
--[X] Learning the Ropes:
-[X] Networking (Mangaka)
--[X] New Mangaka
--[X] Together
-[X] Research
--[X] The Greatest Fake Teacher
we meet them together instead of separately, and in exchange we manage to get another improving session out of Morita.
I kinda hope we can get a turn of full learning (reading old manga) at some point. another 2 or 3 actions in that category might very well be enough to get another editor point boost
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- Location
- Estonia
Could you rename to something other than "Due diligence", because that part of my plan name precisely refers to giving both New Mangaka individual attention instead of meeting them together. Taking overtime to actually have the actions for it is secondary.
- Location
- Italy
sounds like nitpicking, it's still very diligent to focus on learning from Morita, but fine.
- Location
- United Kigdom
nice to see more of this
[X] Plan: Due diligence with old and new
[X] Plan: Due diligence with old and new
- Location
- Somewhere else
While I do think improving our editor trait is important, I think meeting them separately and getting an extra suggestion each is important as well, especially since we already burned 3 so far. (Not that I have any regrets on that, Space Racer Subaru-kun needs all the help it can get right now.) We also want to make a good impression with both of our new mangaka and I'm concerned that a group meeting might give the impression to them that they're just part of our checklist rather than that we're a partner who wants to help them succeed. Next round of Personal Actions, I'd like to pair learning from Maeda with helping him with his workload. While it's true he doesn't have to run himself into the ground anymore, if he's taking the time to teach us, the least we can do is make it easier for him.
- Location
- Italy
as a general rule I think we agreed that it's not worth using suggestions on someone unless we can put 3 on them, right?
After all, not using suggestions means they get a free reroll from not having to waste time, or at least that's how I remember it. It's been a while, so correct me if I'm wrong.
So, if that's how it works, I think we should concentrate the remaining 2 suggestions (and the "free" one) on only one of the two authors, depending on if we get good ideas for that manga
- Location
- Somewhere else
Not exactly. I believe last time the number was two suggestions.
Still, it's a valid point that one suggestion isn't mechanically equal to a free reroll, so we maybe might be better off putting the rest of our suggestions in one basket. But from an in-character perspective, I still think it's more meaningful if we meet our new mangaka separately.
Random Member
Gardener of Human Happiness
- Location
- Behind You
[X] Plan: Due diligence with old and new
Cosplay Days
- Location
- Somewhere else
After banging my head against my laptop for a few days, I've finally got this finished: another glimpse into the Sunday Star:
Cosplay Days
Is John-san colorblind? Seriously, who wears a green coat with blue pants?!
View: https://imgur.com/Wlj8LnM
Shion blinks twice as she turns towards him. "John-san, you watched Sailor Moon?"
What.
sailormoon.fandom.com
"I wouldn't have admitted it when I was a teenager, but yes, I did. You watched it too?"
You'd be surprised if there was a single girl you knew who didn't watch Sailor Moon. Which is admittedly rather sexist, but still...
"I read the manga and watched the original series, Crystal, and the live action series. Who's your favorite Senshi? My favorite is Sailor Mercury."
"Mine was Jupiter, she was really awesome, just lifted a goon over her head before she became a Sailor Scout. I'd wish I'd had access to the subtitled episodes back in the day; I actually thought Neptune and Uranus were cousins."
"What."
View: https://imgur.com/gallery/ExGTdKv
View: https://imgur.com/gallery/Ct57NTQ
Shion looks over your shoulder behind you and chuckles. "I shouldn't be surprised that you're a fan of Tiger and Bunny, John-san." You turn around to see John wearing a red track jacket, boots ...and glasses?
"Good morning, John-san. That's... a nice jacket." You don't want to offend your colleague, but at the same time, he's only slightly less professional in his All Might outfit.
John appears to notice your discomfort. "C'mon, Maeda, lighten up! It's Saturday, no one in the office should care what you wear on the weekend. Or at least no one did back home." he said, seemingly ignoring the side-eyes and glares from the other employees passing by your desks. "Well, I was wanting to cosplay as Kotetsu T. Kaburagi, seeing as I already had the dad bod and the outfit from SuperCon last year, but unfortunately, the vest and hat got left behind back home."
"Well, you do make a fine Barnaby Brooks Jr., John-san. You've already got the blonde hair."
vndb.org
As they're talking, you look up "Tiger and Bunny" on your phone and look for a character named Kaburagi; the civilian outfit for the character is actually presentable. "I think there's a shop a few streets over that sells specialty hats. Maybe we can find one like this?" you say, as you hold up your phone. You don't really want to encourage John, but if you can be outwardly helpful to your senpai and get him to at least cosplay as a responsible adult, that's an opportunity you can't pass up.
John smiles. "Thanks, Maeda, but I can hold off for now; I'll just ask Marie if she's seen it around. No need to end up with two of the same hat." He turns to his desk for a moment, thinking, then turns back to you. "Y'know, I bet you'd look nice with this kind of hat..."
Someone help you, please.
You're yawning into your elbow as discretely as you can when you see him. On the one hand, John is actually wearing a proper outfit today: a business suit with a plain red tie. On the other hand, he's also wearing a pair of black and white furry (wolf?) ears on his head and a gray tail tied to his back belt loop. After about an hour of the three of you clinking away on laptops and calling people, Shion turned to John. "I give up. Who are you today?"
"I'm Haida, from Aggretsuko. Masaru suggested I watch the series and I finished season two yesterday."
hero.fandom.com
"Aha, I see it now." Shion paused, with a conflicted look on her face. "I can't say I care for Haida as a character; I preferred Tadano."
View: https://imgur.com/gallery/V1im4xd
"Tadano? But he's a rich idealist who could never understand Retsuko. Haida isn't perfect, but he's a nice guy who tries his best."
"I spent half of season 4 screaming at Haida. I won't spoil anything for you, but Retsuko deserves better."
As they begin discussing the show, something catches your eye and you look up to see Suzuki storming past, not even glancing at John. You really hope Daisuke isn't slacking off again. The last thing the three of you need is to be reprimanded for "shipping wars" during work hours when the Editor-in-Chief is already in a bad mood. Shion's question pierces your thoughts.
"Maeda-san, have you seen Aggretsuko? It seems like something you would enjoy."
You shake your head. "There seems to be a lot of screaming metal in it and that's not really my thing."
"But that's one of the best parts!" John protested. "And don't you ever feel like screaming after work? I think you should give it a chance."
"I don't think it's for me, really," you say, as turn back to your laptop, having seen a new email notification. Excellent, the sooner your mangakas turn in their work, the sooner you can fin-
View: https://imgur.com/gallery/kYgfhVO
Your chair gets turned around and you are suddenly faced with both John and Shion staring at you. "We're serious; it's a good show. You should watch it with us."
You don't know what's scarier: the look in their eyes or the fact that they both said the exact same thing.
Cosplay Days
Is John-san colorblind? Seriously, who wears a green coat with blue pants?!
View: https://imgur.com/Wlj8LnM
Shion blinks twice as she turns towards him. "John-san, you watched Sailor Moon?"
What.
Mamoru Chiba / Tuxedo Mask (anime)
Mamoru Chiba (地場衛, Chiba Mamoru) is the present-day incarnation of Prince Endymion and the civilian identity of Tuxedo Mask (タキシード仮面, Takishiido Kamen) in the 90's anime. He has short black hair and blue eyes. He usually wears a black turtleneck tucked in his indigo pants pulled up to his waist...
sailormoon.fandom.com
"I wouldn't have admitted it when I was a teenager, but yes, I did. You watched it too?"
You'd be surprised if there was a single girl you knew who didn't watch Sailor Moon. Which is admittedly rather sexist, but still...
"I read the manga and watched the original series, Crystal, and the live action series. Who's your favorite Senshi? My favorite is Sailor Mercury."
"Mine was Jupiter, she was really awesome, just lifted a goon over her head before she became a Sailor Scout. I'd wish I'd had access to the subtitled episodes back in the day; I actually thought Neptune and Uranus were cousins."
"What."
View: https://imgur.com/gallery/ExGTdKv
View: https://imgur.com/gallery/Ct57NTQ
Shion looks over your shoulder behind you and chuckles. "I shouldn't be surprised that you're a fan of Tiger and Bunny, John-san." You turn around to see John wearing a red track jacket, boots ...and glasses?
"Good morning, John-san. That's... a nice jacket." You don't want to offend your colleague, but at the same time, he's only slightly less professional in his All Might outfit.
John appears to notice your discomfort. "C'mon, Maeda, lighten up! It's Saturday, no one in the office should care what you wear on the weekend. Or at least no one did back home." he said, seemingly ignoring the side-eyes and glares from the other employees passing by your desks. "Well, I was wanting to cosplay as Kotetsu T. Kaburagi, seeing as I already had the dad bod and the outfit from SuperCon last year, but unfortunately, the vest and hat got left behind back home."
"Well, you do make a fine Barnaby Brooks Jr., John-san. You've already got the blonde hair."
Barnaby Brooks Jr.
A rookie hero who does not conceal his appearance or identity and is the newest addition to Hero TV. Partnered with Wild Tiger, he has the same power, though Barnaby relies more on strategy than outright brute force, saving his Hundred Power for the most dire of circumstances. [Edited from...
As they're talking, you look up "Tiger and Bunny" on your phone and look for a character named Kaburagi; the civilian outfit for the character is actually presentable. "I think there's a shop a few streets over that sells specialty hats. Maybe we can find one like this?" you say, as you hold up your phone. You don't really want to encourage John, but if you can be outwardly helpful to your senpai and get him to at least cosplay as a responsible adult, that's an opportunity you can't pass up.
John smiles. "Thanks, Maeda, but I can hold off for now; I'll just ask Marie if she's seen it around. No need to end up with two of the same hat." He turns to his desk for a moment, thinking, then turns back to you. "Y'know, I bet you'd look nice with this kind of hat..."
Someone help you, please.
You're yawning into your elbow as discretely as you can when you see him. On the one hand, John is actually wearing a proper outfit today: a business suit with a plain red tie. On the other hand, he's also wearing a pair of black and white furry (wolf?) ears on his head and a gray tail tied to his back belt loop. After about an hour of the three of you clinking away on laptops and calling people, Shion turned to John. "I give up. Who are you today?"
"I'm Haida, from Aggretsuko. Masaru suggested I watch the series and I finished season two yesterday."
Haida
Haida is the deuteragonist of the Netflix Original series Aggretsuko, he is a major character in Season 1 and 2, the deuteragonist of Season 3, the secondary antagonist of season 4 and the protagonist of season 5. Haida works alongside Retsuko in the accounting office and has a long-standing...
hero.fandom.com
"Aha, I see it now." Shion paused, with a conflicted look on her face. "I can't say I care for Haida as a character; I preferred Tadano."
View: https://imgur.com/gallery/V1im4xd
"Tadano? But he's a rich idealist who could never understand Retsuko. Haida isn't perfect, but he's a nice guy who tries his best."
"I spent half of season 4 screaming at Haida. I won't spoil anything for you, but Retsuko deserves better."
As they begin discussing the show, something catches your eye and you look up to see Suzuki storming past, not even glancing at John. You really hope Daisuke isn't slacking off again. The last thing the three of you need is to be reprimanded for "shipping wars" during work hours when the Editor-in-Chief is already in a bad mood. Shion's question pierces your thoughts.
"Maeda-san, have you seen Aggretsuko? It seems like something you would enjoy."
You shake your head. "There seems to be a lot of screaming metal in it and that's not really my thing."
"But that's one of the best parts!" John protested. "And don't you ever feel like screaming after work? I think you should give it a chance."
"I don't think it's for me, really," you say, as turn back to your laptop, having seen a new email notification. Excellent, the sooner your mangakas turn in their work, the sooner you can fin-
View: https://imgur.com/gallery/kYgfhVO
Your chair gets turned around and you are suddenly faced with both John and Shion staring at you. "We're serious; it's a good show. You should watch it with us."
You don't know what's scarier: the look in their eyes or the fact that they both said the exact same thing.
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zamin
The Watcher in the Dark
Amazing work as always, QueenPally! I'd consider it canon - this is a really good glimpse of what their interactions are like. Only issue I have is that some of the artwork isn't loading properly for me, but that might be cause I'm on the phone.
As a reward, I'll be offering you 5 Favor, but if you have another kind of reward in mind just let me know.
19. Hellos and Goodbyes (Week 3 Pitching 3)
zamin
The Watcher in the Dark
[X] Plan: Out with the old, in with the new
-[X] Networking (Masaru-senpai)
--[X] Goodbye Morita
-[X] Networking (Mangaka)
--[X] New Mangaka
---[X] Together
-[X] Research
--[X] The Greatest Fake Teacher
-[X] Networking (Masaru-senpai)
--[X] Goodbye Morita
-[X] Networking (Mangaka)
--[X] New Mangaka
---[X] Together
-[X] Research
--[X] The Greatest Fake Teacher
"Thanks again for helping me out with this," Masaru said as the two of you stepped into the elevator. "I know that everything is a bit rushed this week."
"It's no problem, senpai," you said reassuringly, pressing the button for the 20th floor.
Even though you'd visited the Sano family before, a part of you still couldn't help boggling at the sheer extravagance of this place. What kind of lunatic would put gold and marble tiles in their elevator of all places?!
"Don't need to feel nervous, Maeda-san," Masaru said, apparently mistaking your sudden silence for skittishness. "I'm the senior editor here, so let me handle the talking."
"Oh, I'll be fine, senpai. It's just that the parents are a little… distrusting. I'm not sure how they'll take this."
"Ah, that's fine, that's fine," Masaru said, waving off your concerns as the elevator dinged. As the doors opened, he patted your shoulder reassuringly before stepping through. "This isn't my first time doing something like this, you know? Just sit back and watch a master at work."
An hour later, you found yourself blinking in disbelief as Masaru shook hands with your ex-mangaka's smiling mother.
"-and I can assure you that your son will be in good hands, Sano-san!"
"Oh, I do hope so, Masaru-kun. It's just… I've heard a lot of bad rumors about your company… but if someone like you is working there, I'm sure it can't be that bad," she said, slapping his arm playfully before pouting in mock annoyance. "And I already told you, there's no need to be so formal! Please, just call me Rumiko~"
"Rumiko-chan, then? In that case, I must insist that you return the favor!"
"Oh my! How bold of you, Tatsuya-kun," she giggled, raising a hand to her reddening cheeks. "I look forward to working… very closely with you in the future."
As the two of them continued to chat, you looked past them to see an equally horrified looking Morita. You're not sure how Masaru had transformed the fierce tiger mum you'd previously met into a blushing schoolgirl, and honestly you're not sure that you actually want to know.
At least the husband was out of town. You're pretty sure that he wouldn't have been quite so impressed with Masaru's… diplomatic skills.
"Maeda-san…" Morita whispered, doing his best to avert his gaze from the sight before him. "Can I change back to you? Please?"
You tried to ignore the betrayal in his eyes as you shook your head. Leaning forward, you awkwardly patted his shoulder. The teenage mangaka slumped in defeat, wincing as he heard his mother giggle at another of Masaru's jokes.
"I'm going to become a published mangaka… but at what cost?" he asked despairingly.
"I'm sure that everything will work out fine, Morita-san," you said, doing your best to sound encouraging.
===
The next day, you left the office a little earlier than usual. In your bag were copies of Sunday Star publications dating all the way back to last year.
You'd pulled them out of the archive in order to read up on your newest mangaka's work, but if you were going to spend the whole day reading manga you were damn well going to do it somewhere comfortable and away from all your deskmate's click-clacking and video calls.
Fortunately, there was a quiet little coffee shop just a short walk away from your office. Settling down in one of their corner tables, you ordered a simple latte and got to work.
… the fact that you were literally being paid to read old manga still felt a little ridiculous, but you aren't going to complain about it.
Opening up the oldest magazine, you flipped through the pages until you found what you were looking for: the very first chapter of The Greatest Fake Teacher. As your drink arrived, you took a moment to pull out a pen and notebook to jot down any observations.
As mentioned in the files you'd received, The Greatest Fake Teacher was an isekai story about Kaito Shinichi, an ordinary Japanese salaryman who's been reincarnated into the body of the legendary archwizard Godfrey. Shocked and confused, he meets up with Lady Malicia, Godfrey's self-proclaimed 'rival', to ask for help returning home to his own world.
After failing to make any progress, Lady Malicia offers Kaito a deal. In exchange for working at her Academy, she would continue to study his situation. Seeing no other alternatives, Kaito accepts.
As far as isekais go, you have to admit that this was a fairly interesting premise. Despite having access to some of the highest level magic in the world, Kaito has absolutely no idea how to use any of it, which leads to a rather amusing chapter where Lady Malicia tries to teach him, only to get frustrated at how he's got so much power but can barely figure out how to make a light.
To prevent anyone else from discovering his lack of ability, she makes him the Alchemy professor since the subject is more about preparing ingredients and brewing potions rather than active spellcasting.
So far so good. But after this point, things slowly start to go downhill.
The next few chapters are about Kaito settling into the academy, teaching classes, getting to know his students, and so on. None of it is particularly bad, but as the series goes on you find yourself becoming less and less interested.
Looking through your notes, there's no specific problem with this series. Everything from the story to the art is average at worst, yet you can't help feeling like it's just checking things off a list.
There's the 'evil rival' character (a fellow professor who's jealous of Godfrey's achievements) who gets promptly defeated in a duel in less than two chapters. The cute and innocent young scholarship student from the countryside who gets a crush on Kaito after he protects her from being bullied by her rich classmates. The class tournament where all the students are supposed to be competing to determine their ranks, yet somehow Kaito gets to participate and show off his amazing skills despite being a professor...
If you had to put it in a word, the whole thing just felt generic. The plot points, the characters, even the world felt like something that you'd already read a hundred times already. Though instead of a hot headed young teen the main character looks like a middle aged man, which is… at least a little different?
Honestly, you're not exactly sure how to fix this. Is this even something you can fix? As you packed up you decided to at least take a look at the mangaka's next draft before making a decision either way.
Which meant that it was time to meet your new mangaka. You'd already exchanged a couple of emails to explain the situation, but meeting them in person would give you a better idea of what you had to work with. Ideally, you'd meet with them both one-on-one, but given the current time crunch that probably wasn't feasible. Fortunately, both of them had already confirmed that they would be available for a meeting later today.
Sighing, you tried to cheer yourself up with the reminder that since this would be a 'work' meeting, you'd at least be able to stick the company with the bill. Pulling out your phone you sent both your new mangaka a quick message to meet you at…
[ ] A high class hotel: Make it clear who's in charge by treating them to an elaborate meal that neither of them would normally be able to afford.
[ ] An ordinary family restaurant: A normal, if fairly unremarkable, meal would allow everyone to get comfortable without distracting them from the meeting.
[ ] A fast food joint: Quick, cheap, and filling. Lets you finish the meal and get down to business as fast as possible.
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