[X] An ordinary family restaurant: A normal, if fairly unremarkable, meal would allow everyone to get comfortable without distracting them from the meeting.
Hmm, people's discussion about addressing the teacher's alienation sounded pretty good as an idea. Will depend on how things shake out.
[X] An ordinary family restaurant: A normal, if fairly unremarkable, meal would allow everyone to get comfortable without distracting them from the meeting.
[X] An ordinary family restaurant: A normal, if fairly unremarkable, meal would allow everyone to get comfortable without distracting them from the meeting.
[X] An ordinary family restaurant: A normal, if fairly unremarkable, meal would allow everyone to get comfortable without distracting them from the meeting.
[X] An ordinary family restaurant: A normal, if fairly unremarkable, meal would allow everyone to get comfortable without distracting them from the meeting.
Hearing how the story is pretty generic for an Isekai manga I came up with an idea.
Now, usually when I hear "Generic" in Isekai manga I think about those that simply have the character travel to another world and have no complications, can go through all problems easily, and if there are any they are solved in a couple of chapters and then not referenced again. For this manga, being about a man entering another's life, we see that they have been focusing on those that are near strangers to rivals; people who have no care for the Wizard before he was replaced and hardly knew him.
I think we can lean into the chracters that must be there but the Mangaka has not thought of; those who have a connection with the WIzard prior to the Iseka, those who would know him better and those who cared about him. We could have a Mini Arc showing a sibling coming to visit, only instead of playing it like comedy hijinks we play it straight. The sibling notices that he is not his brother, accuses him, brings in the authorities, but at no point do we show that what he's doing is wrong. We can have the SI lament about it but then also consider and muse how he would ract if such a thing would happen to his family, and realize that he would do the exact same thing.
We have the POV of those he's interacted in the School, from rivals and students alike, and eventually ending the arc with his identity "proven" and his sibling found "guilty" and clearly trying to blacken his reputation because of jealousy. As the sibling is brought away we can have him rant about how he will expose him and find his true brother, show that this is not a bad person but someone who just cares about his family, show that the SI could have confessed at any point but was too Scared/Selfish to do so (Perhaps he's enjoying the perks a bit too much) so this can serve as a turning point for him, realizing that he's stolen someone else's life, recontextualizing all those generic and happy days before.
[X] An ordinary family restaurant: A normal, if fairly unremarkable, meal would allow everyone to get comfortable without distracting them from the meeting.
[X] An ordinary family restaurant: A normal, if fairly unremarkable, meal would allow everyone to get comfortable without distracting them from the meeting.
[X] An ordinary family restaurant: A normal, if fairly unremarkable, meal would allow everyone to get comfortable without distracting them from the meeting.
Hearing how the story is pretty generic for an Isekai manga I came up with an idea.
Now, usually when I hear "Generic" in Isekai manga I think about those that simply have the character travel to another world and have no complications, can go through all problems easily, and if there are any they are solved in a couple of chapters and then not referenced again. For this manga, being about a man entering another's life, we see that they have been focusing on those that are near strangers to rivals; people who have no care for the Wizard before he was replaced and hardly knew him.
I think we can lean into the chracters that must be there but the Mangaka has not thought of; those who have a connection with the WIzard prior to the Iseka, those who would know him better and those who cared about him. We could have a Mini Arc showing a sibling coming to visit, only instead of playing it like comedy hijinks we play it straight. The sibling notices that he is not his brother, accuses him, brings in the authorities, but at no point do we show that what he's doing is wrong. We can have the SI lament about it but then also consider and muse how he would ract if such a thing would happen to his family, and realize that he would do the exact same thing.
We have the POV of those he's interacted in the School, from rivals and students alike, and eventually ending the arc with his identity "proven" and his sibling found "guilty" and clearly trying to blacken his reputation because of jealousy. As the sibling is brought away we can have him rant about how he will expose him and find his true brother, show that this is not a bad person but someone who just cares about his family, show that the SI could have confessed at any point but was too Scared/Selfish to do so (Perhaps he's enjoying the perks a bit too much) so this can serve as a turning point for him, realizing that he's stolen someone else's life, recontextualizing all those generic and happy days before.
It sounds interesting but it runs the risk of turning readers against the MC. An option would be to run a similar plot but also make it so that there is a monster like a doppelganger or a changeling running around with no easy way to identify it.
That would make it so that the MC being arrested risks it running free and hurting people if he is misidentified as it.
Of course, this runs the issue that the director probably would have his back, but that is for the mangaka to solve.
[X] An ordinary family restaurant: A normal, if fairly unremarkable, meal would allow everyone to get comfortable without distracting them from the meeting.
It sounds interesting but it runs the risk of turning readers against the MC. An option would be to run a similar plot but also make it so that there is a monster like a doppelganger or a changeling running around with no easy way to identify it.
That would make it so that the MC being arrested risks it running free and hurting people if he is misidentified as it.
Of course, this runs the issue that the director probably would have his back, but that is for the mangaka to solve.
How about a doppelganger as you say, which then mixes with the sibling accusing the SI of not beinf the brother, and through some hijinks the Doppelganger is found and the SI uses him to clear his name. That way the sibling is not arrested and instead leaves believing that it is his brother and he was fooled by the doppelganger.
This could serve as a way to explore how those who truly know and care about the Wizard would react, and give a bit of exploration on the feeling of the SI, as well as giving him a, well, "kick in the pants" to start looking for ways to get back home, while also creating some inner conflict as he might also be getting attached to this world.
[X] An ordinary family restaurant: A normal, if fairly unremarkable, meal would allow everyone to get comfortable without distracting them from the meeting.
[X] An ordinary family restaurant: A normal, if fairly unremarkable, meal would allow everyone to get comfortable without distracting them from the meeting.
Alright, I'll add it in now. Thanks again, QueenPally!
Now then, let's take a look at the votes.
Scheduled vote count started by zamin on Sep 16, 2022 at 10:04 AM, finished with 38 posts and 31 votes.
[X] An ordinary family restaurant: A normal, if fairly unremarkable, meal would allow everyone to get comfortable without distracting them from the meeting.
... you know, I was kinda expecting this to be a closer vote, but it looks like An ordinary family restaurant wins by a landslide! I'm going to be busy tomorrow, so expect the next vote to be out by Monday instead.
Scheduled vote count started by zamin on Sep 16, 2022 at 10:04 AM, finished with 38 posts and 31 votes.
[X] An ordinary family restaurant: A normal, if fairly unremarkable, meal would allow everyone to get comfortable without distracting them from the meeting.
[X] An ordinary family restaurant: A normal, if fairly unremarkable, meal would allow everyone to get comfortable without distracting them from the meeting.
The Greatest Fake Teacher (17 Chapters): a legendary archwizard dies from a demon's curse, only for his soul to be replaced by an ordinary Japanese man who's suddenly found himself way over his head. Looking for a way to cure his curse, he accepts a job at the Royal Academy for Magic. But how is he supposed to teach anyone when he doesn't even know how to use magic himself?
(Masaru's notes: an Experienced mangaka who's spent many years working as an assistant. They have some confidence issues as this is their first solo series)
Lesser Evil, Greater Evil: when the Chosen Hero unexpectedly gets killed by a minor villain, the gods must turn to Plan B: make the killer complete the job instead! Cursed with an inescapable divine geas, the creepy wannabe necromancer Vile Glass is now on a mission to save the world or die trying.
Just because this is your first time meeting your new mangaka doesn't mean that you should go out of your way to do anything special. You make your way over to a cozy little family restaurant that's halfway between your home and office, sending them both a quick text once you've arrived.
Fortunately, you don't have to wait too long. Your tea is pleasantly warm as a worried looking young woman approaches your table. She's dressed in a stylish yet sensible looking pink dress, and her posture just screams nervousness.
Yuzuki Himari
Experience Level: Experienced Mangaka
Overwork: 0
Series:
The Greatest Fake Teacher (17 Chapters Published)
Traits:
Perfectly Average: When final stats are rolled, raise the lowest stat to 50, but reduce the highest stat by an equal amount. This does not trigger if none of the stats are below 50
"E-excuse me, are you Maeda-san?" she asks. At your nod, she brightens up. "Ah, that's good! I'm Yuzuki Himari. The one doing The Greatest Fake Teacher? Thank you so much for meeting me today!"
Well, at least she seems eager to please. Maybe you'll have an easier time convincing her to change things after all.
"It's nice to meet you as well, Yuzuki-san," you reply, plastering a smile on your face as you gesture at one of the empty seats in front of you. "We're still waiting for one more, so if you're hungry just go ahead and order whatever you like."
Taking the cue, she does exactly that. Once the waitress scurries off with her order, you take the opportunity to make some small talk.
"So, I've heard that you used to be an assistant artist? Worked with anyone interesting?"
She blinks before frowning thoughtfully. "Well, if you're talking about 'most famous', I guess Kido-sensei? That was… one - no, two years ago now. I helped out with his Silent Hero series."
"I'm afraid I haven't actually read that one before," you admitted. Though it did sound a bit familiar… "Oh, is that the Sentai hero deconstruction thing? I think I read a bit of it a while back."
"Yes, that's the one! The character designs for that one were all super difficult because Kido-sensei insisted on making all the costumes so elaborate."
"I see. Could you tell me more about-"
"Sorry, but is one of you Maeda Hiroshi?" a quiet voice interrupts.
Gendou Ren
Experience Level: New Mangaka
Overwork: 0
Series:
Lesser Evil, Greater Evil (0 Chapters Published)
Traits:
Light Novel Writer: Gain a +10 bonus to all Writing stats and a -10 penalty to all Art stats
"Yes, that's me," you reply, glancing towards your other new mangaka.
His face mask and messy hair covers up most of his face, but what you can see looks… fairly normal, honestly. His slouched posture and the bags under his eyes make you wonder if he only just woke up or if he was just severely sleep deprived.
"Gendou Ren," he introduced himself, dropping down on the last empty seat with a sigh. "Sorry if I'm late. Wasn't sure if I'd found the right place or not."
"That's fine. We're still waiting for our food to arrive," you said, signaling the waitress for another menu. "You're the one doing Lesser Evil, Greater Evil, correct?"
"That's me," he nods. "Didn't think that it'd actually get approved, so thanks for giving me this chance."
A few minutes later, the three of you perked up as your food arrived. You and Yuzuki both ordered a simple spaghetti while Gendou ordered a chicken sandwich.
"Haven't eaten all day. If I take something too heavy now I'll throw up," he said, pulling down his face mask to take a bite.
"That's not good. Were you busy with something?" Yuzuki asked worriedly as she glanced between his relatively tiny meal and her own full plate.
"Mmyeah, I-" he choked, then swallowed. "Ugh, sorry. I had to stay up late to make some last minute edits. Wanted to make sure that my first draft was as perfect as possible."
"Well, don't worry if it's not 100% perfect. After all, that's what I'm here to help with," you reminded him.
After finishing your meal, you pushed the plates aside and got ready to get into the real purpose of this meeting.
"Now then, I know that this is a little last minute, but let's see what you have for me," you said to the pair of increasingly nervous looking mangaka. "Yuzuki, you're up first."
"A-ah, right!"
The Greatest Fake Teacher Chapter 18 Pitch
We start this chapter with Kaito-sensei exploring the school festival, taking in the sights and sounds.
He plays a few games, talks to a few students, and tries to avoid getting stuck with the supervisor job. However, he's soon interrupted by an emergency. The star of the school play, Edward-san, has gone missing!
Kaito and his class search through the whole festival to find their missing star, but find no trace of him anywhere. Some people are worried that Edward might have even gotten kidnapped by a jealous fan!
In the end, Kaito finds Edward's secret hiding spot on the roof of the school and learns that he's actually just ran away because he feels that his performance isn't good enough to be shown in front of the whole school. However, after a quick pep talk from Kaito, Edward regains his confidence and agrees to rejoin the play!
The chapter ends with Kaito watching the play. As it ends, he hears several of the guests praise the performance and talk about how amazing Edward looked on the stage.
You're not sure which character was Edward, which is a bit concerning since you'd literally just read through the whole damn series just this morning. Did she make up a new character just for this chapter or was he one of the nameless background characters that you just hadn't noticed until now?
Ignoring the part of you that wants to die, you turn towards the next mangaka. Hopefully this pitch would prove to be a little more interesting.
"Alright, hold it for now, Yuzuki-san. Gendou-san, what have you got for me?"
"Well…"
Lesser Evil, Greater Evil Chapter 1 Pitch
> Start from the perspective of the Chosen Hero, a generic isekai protag who spends a lot of time monologuing about how shitty his old life was and how glad he was to meet a goddess and get a second chance
> He signs up at the adventure guild, where he gets mad that nobody seems to take him seriously when he tells them that he's the Chosen Hero who'll save the world
> The receptionist offers a simple herb gathering job, but he insists on going to fight monsters. She admits that there have been reports of a possible dungeon appearing nearby, but warns him that it's too dangerous to handle alone
> He ignores her and heads straight over, thinking that this is the perfect chance to show everyone his true power
> The dungeon is filled with zombies and skeletons. Luckily, the goddess gave him a Holy Sword, which lets him OHKO all the monsters and charge straight into the heart of the dungeon
> It turns out to be a lab where an evil necromancer dude is busy trying to study. He hears the racket outside and opens the door to see the Hero cutting through all his guards
> Necromancer freaks out and slams the door in the Hero's face. Hero tries to cut through, but necromancer pulls a lever, which opens a trap door beneath the Hero's feet
> Hero immediately falls through, gets skewered by the spikes at the bottom, and dies
> "Is this... really the end...?"
> Necromancer notices the Hero's soul flying out of his body and gets excited because it looks surprisingly powerful. Before it can leave, he traps it into his crystal staff in order to fuel his own magic
> The Hero's body immediately turns into dust. A lightning bolt suddenly falls from the sky, smashing through the entire mountainside and hitting the necromancer before he can do anything
> Necromancer finds himself in a tribunal in front of all the gods and goddesses
> They're all bickering and arguing with each other about what to do next because he's managed to break the God's Hero Blessing
> The Hero was supposed to automatically ressurect at the nearest church after dying, but instead his soul got turned into a battery, which has caused a 'glitch' in the system. He can't save the world anymore, but since his soul is still stuck there, the gods can't summon a new Hero to take his place
> Most of the gods want to kill the necromancer, but there are rules preventing them from directly interfering in mortal affairs. They still drop a bunch of curses on his head, though. The goddess of the sea curses him to sink like a stone, the god of nature curses him to always smell delicious to animals, etc.
> Necromancer gets mad, yells back that this is all unfair and that he was just minding his own business when that crazy guy tried to kill him. The gods point out that he was practicing forbidden magic, so he was already a criminal anyway
> Before they can get too far, Alurna, the Chief Goddess, steps in. She declares that since the necromancer killed the former Hero, he must now take their place. She places her own curse on him: unless he saves the world within a year, she will strike him down and obliterate his soul
> Necromancer gets thrown out of the god's hall and sent back down to earth. He crashes into the remains of his former dungeon and realizes that he now looks exactly like the former Hero
> As he starts swearing and cursing the gods, the view pans out
> "This is the beginning of a story... of how a villain was forced to save the world or die trying."
> Most of the gods want to kill the necromancer, but there are rules preventing them from directly interfering in mortal affairs. They still drop a bunch of curses on his head, though. The goddess of the sea curses him to sink like a stone, the god of nature curses him to always smell delicious to animals, etc.
I think we should ask him to cut the curses out; they're not really needed when him being a necromancer could already cause plenty of problems, and honestly it still feels like interfering directly?
That's....really generic. I'm sure there's at least half a dozen series out there I've watched that do this exact same plot of someone getting stage fright at a school festival. Overall nothing interesting happens and the overall plot is not advanced. Boring.
Personally I always like 'gotcha' stories. Where something is set up as a story you've seen a dozen times before and then you reach the twist and the story is all 'Gotcha! This isn't that kind of story at all!'.
I think it's a pretty good setup so far and I like the bit where the necromancer gets various curses to make his life difficult which can be set up for comedy. Though I'm not a fan of giving him the appearance of the 'generic isekai protag'.
Has Gendou wrote any popular light novels?
He's not trying to write light novels and draw a manga at the same time is he?
[ ] (Yuzuki) Change a few things
-[ ] Have Kaito-Sensei have to start searching for Edward sooner. Kaito is excited to see what a magical school festival is like, but his excitement gets dashed when he's informed Edward is missing. Have Kaito remember back to his own times as a teenager and how he'd always go to the top of the school's roof to unwind. He finds Edward and the two have their pep-talk where Kaito also says that he has trouble meeting expectations even to this day. Rest plays out like the original pitch.
[ ] (Gendou) Change a few things
-[ ] Cut down the bit with the gods to make more room for when the Hero first invades the Necromancer's lair. Have the hero chase the Necromancer around a bit in a slapstick fashion, with it looking like the Hero has the Necromancer cornered only to then fall into a spike trap. Suggest not revealing what curses the Necromancer receives from the gods until the next chapter as a surprise for the readers(like for instance the Necromancer is walking through town and is having his body gnawed upon by all of the alley cats, revealing the Nature Goddess' curse, or the Necromancer is excitedly trying the local bathhouse for the first time in forever, only to sink to the very bottom cause of his curse of stone.)
That's....really generic. I'm sure there's at least half a dozen series out there I've watched that do this exact same plot of someone getting stage fright at a school festival. Overall nothing interesting happens and the overall plot is not advanced. Boring.
It's even worse - how is this different from a generic Japanese High School world without magic?
You'd imagine a fantasy world in a magic academy with a culture of it's own, would definitely employ magic into their festival - the possibility of flight to produce three-dimensional choreographies, the use of illusions both light and sound, the wonders of telekinesis and so on - the possibilities are endless. Slice of life is not an issue, if it advances the setting, or the protagonist knowledge of the world around him. The star of the show running away is boring. The illusionist star of the show performing a disappearing act on the other hand, is something potentially interesting.
I think it's a pretty good setup so far and I like the bit where the necromancer gets various curses to make his life difficult which can be set up for comedy. Though I'm not a fan of giving him the appearance of the 'generic isekai protag'.
One possible twist would be that these curses can be lifted, if the protagonist meets a certain milestone, accomplish a certain feat, or complete a quest/mission given by the god who places the curse on him. An even further twist is that the curses can get flipped into blessings under the right conditions, so animals thinking he is delicious, turns into a skill to calm and control animals and so on. Invert the curses, and it gives the protagonist a way to grow on his journey, and ultimately, in a Fantasy style quest, you'd want to see the protagonist gain powers over time - and flipping his curses into blessings as reward for progressing his quest is an interesting way to go about it.
He does have to watch carefully for pacing issues though, for the pilot chapter, this is a very busy proposal.
In my experience, reading at least, it's fairly common for a pilot chapter to be a fair bit longer than typical to help set things up but I'm not sure how much of that would really fit
