Chapter 152: Natsume Mio Full Of Confidence
Tokyo in April hadn’t warmed up yet, and it was still a bit chilly outside.
Entering the Shueisha Building, Sakamoto Ken spotted Kaji Keiko right away, standing by the front desk chatting and laughing with the staff.
She had clearly dressed up carefully today, wearing a proper light gray women’s suit skirt set, which made her look very capable.
“Sakamoto Sensei! You’re here!” Kaji Keiko hurried over, her voice carrying a hint of urgency, “Hurry, everyone is waiting for you!”
“Kaji, is it that urgent?” Sakamoto Ken asked.
“Of course it’s urgent!” Entering the elevator, Kaji Keiko pressed the floor button, turned back to Sakamoto Ken, and said, “This is an important meeting that decides the fate of Chainsaw Man!”
Sakamoto Ken nodded without saying much and followed her to the meeting room.
Kaji Keiko pushed open the door, and the meeting room immediately fell silent.
Several people were sitting inside, with some printed information spread out in front of each.
Sakamoto Ken glanced around and recognized Chief Editor Ono Tomohiro; he didn’t know the others.
Seeing Sakamoto Ken enter, Ono Tomohiro smiled slightly, stood up, and introduced him to everyone: “Everyone, this is the author of Chainsaw Man, Sakamoto Sensei.”
Then he said to Sakamoto Ken: “Sakamoto Sensei, this is the representative from NESX Company, Ms. Hanabe Kyoko; she is serving as the general producer for this animation, and the entire production is invested by NESX Company.”
Hanabe Kyoko looked to be in her early thirties, wearing a dark blue OL suit set with her hair pinned up and exquisite makeup.
She nodded slightly to Sakamoto Ken and said, “Sakamoto Sensei, I’ve heard so much about you. I’m pleased to be working together.”
Sakamoto Ken replied, “Ms. Hanabe, thank you for your company’s support. Please take care of me.”
Ono Tomohiro continued introducing the two older men sitting opposite: “This is Director Mizushima Seiji, invited by Ms. Hanabe to direct Sakamoto Sensei’s work. This is Screenwriter Aikawa Noboru Sensei.”
Hearing the name Mizushima Seiji, Sakamoto Ken was slightly startled inside.
He didn’t recognize the man’s appearance—after all, directors mostly worked behind the scenes—but this name was too familiar to him.
Mizushima Seiji was the famous director who had helmed Fullmetal Alchemist; besides that, Shaman King and Mobile Suit Gundam 00 were also his directing works.
He had also participated in directing EVA, starting his career as the cinematographer on Doraemon.
He hadn’t expected that they had managed to bring him on to direct Chainsaw Man this time.
It seemed NESX Company had invested a substantial amount.
Sakamoto Ken said to Director Mizushima and Aikawa Noboru, “Director Mizushima, Kawai Sensei, please take care of me.”
Mizushima Seiji nodded and said, “Sakamoto Sensei, your manga has a lot of impact. I’m looking forward to this collaboration.”
Aikawa Noboru chuckled too: “Yes, the plot has strong tension, but adapting it will be quite challenging.”
Sakamoto Ken sat in the empty seat indicated by Kaji Keiko, and Ono Tomohiro spoke up: “Alright, let’s continue. Today we’re mainly discussing the episode count and plot planning for the animation. The first season is confirmed at 12 episodes. Now we need to set the rough corresponding manga content for each episode and then optimize based on the animation pacing…”
As the director, Director Mizushima said, “As it stands now, the biggest issue is that the manga probably doesn’t have enough content for 12 episodes. We only have storyboard drafts up to chapter 33 in hand. Setting this season’s ending at manga chapter 33 would feel like chopping it off at the waist in terms of emotion.”
Aikawa Noboru continued, “During animation production, Sakamoto Sensei will also keep creating, so the content might catch up later, but adjusting it would still take some effort—unless the later parts use animation-original scripts.”
“Director, I actually brought these specifically…” Sakamoto Ken placed his backpack on the table, pulled out a stack of storyboard drafts, and handed them to Kaji Keiko beside him. “These are my latest completed storyboards, advanced to chapter 38. According to my plan, the first season’s animation content matches exactly from manga chapter 1 to chapter 38.”
Kaji Keiko took the manuscript, her eyes widening slightly: “Sakamoto Sensei, weren’t the storyboards only up to chapter 33 yesterday?”
Sakamoto Ken nodded: “I got up early this morning to draw them. Now they can be put to use perfectly.”
Kaji Keiko remarked with emotion, “Sakamoto Sensei really has drive.”
The others in the meeting room, including Director Mizushima and Aikawa Noboru, looked at Sakamoto Ken with completely changed expressions.
One morning, even adding an all-nighter, to produce 5 chapters of storyboard drafts?!
Five chapters—that’s nearly a hundred pages!
This couldn’t be described as just “having drive”; it was practically a humanoid drawing machine that didn’t need to think at all?
“Five chapters in one day?”
Director Mizushima frowned, taking the manuscript from Kaji Keiko with some skepticism, subconsciously thinking Sakamoto Ken had rushed it sloppily to meet the deadline.
If it were just sketching, completing over a hundred pages of lines in one morning was still possible.
After all, storyboard drafts, purely in terms of lines, don’t have a huge drawing workload.
But these were manga storyboards, requiring plot design, character actions, shot composition…
Storyboard design isn’t easy; sometimes revising a single page takes days.
If worst came to worst, they could just use his content as plot reference. It wasn’t an issue to do completely original animation storyboards—after all, the budget was generous; he and the screenwriter could just work harder…
Director Mizushima had already prepared for the worst, but when he saw the content of the storyboard drafts in his hand, he was still slightly surprised.
These storyboard drafts, aside from not having finished inking and specific background details, were already quite complete.
Not only could the plot and story direction be seen clearly, but the shots and character movements were also expressed very distinctly—this was the most important for animation adaptation.
Director Mizushima’s frown eased: “This new content comes at a perfect time. Chapter 38 is just at a climax point, with Denji’s battle against the katana man ending, giving the first season a strong conclusion.”
Everyone passed around the storyboard drafts, and Hanabe Kyoko, as the investor representative, nodded too: “In that case, 12 episodes fit perfectly: early episodes build characters and world-building, midsection advances the combat, and the latter part climaxes and wraps up—very complete.”
Next came the discussion on per-episode pacing, with Sakamoto Ken sitting by listening without offering many suggestions.
He knew that this animation adaptation was several years earlier than his previous life, and the entire project was completely different from the original, so it was better left to the professionals.
Bones’ team was very strong; he believed they could handle it well.
Time soon reached noon, and Ono Tomohiro checked his watch: “It’s about lunchtime, Sakamoto Sensei. You’ve been listening the whole time—if you have any requests, feel free to bring them up for discussion.”
Sakamoto Ken thought for a moment and asked, “Do we need to consider voice actors now, or decide later during production?”
Hearing the topic of voice actors, Hanabe Kyoko, who had been slightly relaxed, immediately sat up straighter.
Hanabe Kyoko said, “We’re still in the early preparation stage. We can consider voice actor candidates, but it’s far from final confirmation. Does Sakamoto Sensei have someone to recommend?”
Before Sakamoto Ken could speak, Kaji Keiko said first, “Actually, for Makima’s voice actor, we have a candidate suggestion: Natsume Mio, who did the voice acting for Chainsaw Man manga’s promotional video lines before. She’s a newcomer, but her skill and fit for the role are both very good.”
Kaji Keiko played that promotional video with a few lines of Makima’s dialogue on the big screen.
After listening, Director Mizushima nodded: “It’s very close to how I imagined Makima.”
He looked at Hanabe Kyoko, who smiled slightly: “Kaji, you can send me her information. But we’ll still need to do auditions and interviews, then decide after comparisons.”
Kaji Keiko nodded: “Got it. I’ll send her information to you after the meeting.”
Kaji Keiko didn’t mention Natsume Mio’s relationship with Sakamoto Ken, to avoid them thinking it was recommending an acquaintance, and Sakamoto Ken tactfully stayed silent too.
Sakamoto Ken was observing the people present. Hanabe Kyoko had placed her mobile phone on the table, seemingly typing on it, but she was shielding the screen with the information in her hand, so it couldn’t be seen.
At that moment, Sakamoto Ken’s phone in his pocket vibrated once.
He took it out and saw it was a message from Natsume Mio.
Natsume Mio: 「A Jian, I’ve arrived, I’m in the lobby downstairs. Is the meeting over?」
Sakamoto Ken typed back: 「Still in the meeting room. Just recommended you to the production team as Makima’s voice actor, and played your lines. Director seems pretty satisfied.」
Natsume Mio replied instantly: 「Really?! Thank you, A Jian!!! I’ll voice Makima perfectly!!!」
Sakamoto Ken: 「But the investor rep seems tough. They might still do auditions and interviews.」
Natsume Mio, full of confidence: 「No problem! A Jian, just get me the audition chance, and I’ll nail the role!」
