Chapter 26: Nepo Baby
The morning meeting ended, and Kaji Keiko hugged the manuscript as she walked out of the meeting room.
At that moment, a balding middle-aged man hurriedly walked over and called out to her.
“Kaji, wait a second!”
Kaji Keiko turned around and asked doubtfully, “Chief Editor, do you have any instructions?”
Ono Tomohiro waved his hand, then pointed to the small meeting room nearby: “《Chainsaw Man》 is a work under you, right? Let’s go over there and talk.”
As soon as the Chief Editor mentioned Chainsaw Man, Kaji Keiko immediately perked up.
In the morning meeting just now, she had shown all the editors the original manuscript of 《Chainsaw Man》, and introduced Sakamoto Ken’s creation speed.
The reader survey data for last week’s new works had also come out, clearly showing a substantial lead.
Once inside the small meeting room, Kaji Keiko noticed that the Chief Editor had a face full of worry.
“Chief Editor?” Kaji Keiko asked, “Is there some kind of trouble?”
Ono Tomohiro sat down on the chair, pondered for a few seconds, and then said: “Hearing you introduce 《Chainsaw Man》 earlier, I was moved by your attitude—betting your career and all that… To be honest, in all my years in the industry, I only had that kind of passion when I first started.”
Kaji Keiko slightly bowed to the Chief Editor and said, “Saying that in the morning meeting was actually presumptuous of me…”
“No, what you said was quite good. Actually, I also think highly of 《Chainsaw Man》 this work, and I want to make it our next flagship new work.” Ono Tomohiro said.
This sounded like good news, but when Kaji Keiko heard the word “actually,” she already realized there would be a “but” coming after the Chief Editor’s words.
Sure enough, Ono Tomohiro continued: “But… the higher-ups specifically mentioned to me that I should take good care of another new work.”
“The Young Lady’s one?”
“That’s right.” Ono Tomohiro nodded and said, “I don’t know the background of that author either; it’s probably some relation to the President…”
“Shueisha’s President?!” Kaji Keiko said in surprise.
They were in the Weekly Shonen JUMP editorial department, and Ono Tomohiro was just the Chief Editor of Weekly Shonen JUMP.
Weekly Shonen JUMP was just one magazine under Shueisha, and besides that, there were 《Weekly Young JUMP》, 《Ultra JUMP》, shoujo manga 《Margaret》, entertainment magazine 《Weekly Playboy》, literary magazine 《Novel A》, and a bunch of other publications.
It was only in the last two years, with the launch of JUMP+, that there had been some exchange between the editorial departments of various manga magazines; otherwise, they were basically independent entities.
If that manga had connections from Shueisha’s President, probably all new works would have to make way for it.
However, Ono Tomohiro let out a light sigh and still shook his head.
In a very helpless tone, he said: “President Horiuchi is actually in a tough spot too, because the one who brought this up to us is the President of the Ichihashi Group…”
“Ichi…hashi?”
Kaji Keiko felt a bit unfamiliar even saying that name.
As editors for Weekly Shonen JUMP, the highest level they usually interacted with was Shueisha’s management.
Horiuchi was just Shueisha’s President.
And the Ichihashi Group was Shueisha’s parent company!
Shueisha’s President could be surnamed Horiuchi, Yamaji, Tanigami, Chiba… but they were just high-level wage workers.
As for the Ichihashi Group, there was only ever one family name for those in charge—the Aiga family.
Hakusensha, Shogakukan, and Shueisha all belonged to the Ichihashi Group.
This was one of Japan’s oldest publishing groups.
On par with it were the Otowa Group centered on Kodansha, the Kadokawa Group known for light novels, and the heavyweight Shinchosha in the literary world.
Kaji Keiko had never even met the parent company executives at that level.
“《Chainsaw Man》 has to make way for her…” Kaji Keiko didn’t ask anymore about that writer’s background; perhaps she was just the daughter of some high-level relative or friend dabbling in manga for fun.
Examples of people from wealthy families pursuing creation as a hobby that Kaji Keiko had heard of included Makoto Shinkai, whose father owned a century-old construction company, and Hayao Miyazaki, whose family ran an airplane factory…
Though she didn’t know how much their own careers were tied to family connections, this Miyuki Haru was definitely trying to take a shortcut using the Ichihashi Group’s relations.
Chief Editor Ono tapped his fingers lightly on the desk and said: “Right now, 《Chainsaw Man》 has a lot of buzz on the JUMP+ platform, and our new work voting results will ultimately be announced to the readers. If we insist on serializing the 《Young Lady》 first, there will probably be a lot of reader dissatisfaction.”
“Social media is so hot right now; maybe the whole JUMP will get flamed? Then sales will take a big hit, and readers will all run off to competing magazines…” To make the Chief Editor take it seriously, Kaji Keiko deliberately exaggerated her words.
“Yeah… the higher-ups are like that; they just need to check the business reports periodically, but our editorial department has a lot to consider…”
Chief Editor Ono said: “JUMP’s sales volume is no longer what it used to be, especially Kodansha’s two magazines, 《Weekly Shonen Magazine》 and 《Bessatsu Shonen Magazine》, whose combined sales can already rival JUMP. Fairy Tail and Attack on Titan are hot topics that are hard to ignore, and now everyone is competing for new writers.”
Kaji Keiko pulled out a chair and sat down. From the previous few sentences, she knew the Chief Editor was on her side.
“So what should we do?” Kaji Keiko asked.
Ono Tomohiro said: “I’ve already scheduled a meeting with Miyuki Haru Sensei for this afternoon. I’ll ask about her creation situation then, and use the reason that the serialization intensity in the magazine is particularly high to have her stockpile more manuscripts before publishing, so we can stagger the publication times.”
“Good plan…” Kaji Keiko nodded and said, “On Sakamoto Sensei’s side, there’s no need to worry about creation speed at all. He can draw three chapters per week, has already completed the manuscripts for the first seven chapters, and the quality hasn’t dropped at all.”
“That’s exactly what I like about him.” Ono Tomohiro said, “Writers who can deliver quality and quantity on time are way too rare. You know, actually, like that old thief Togashi… cough cough, like Togashi Sensei who always delays manuscripts, that’s the norm.”
“Perfect timing, I’ve also scheduled a meeting with Sakamoto Sensei for this afternoon. I’ll get a detailed understanding of his creation plan then, and discuss color page matters with him.” Kaji Keiko said.
“No matter what the result is with Miyuki Haru Sensei, we can start preparing the color pages and posters for 《Chainsaw Man》; they’ll be used eventually.” Ono Tomohiro thought for a moment and added, “Also, have him plan some famous scenes and famous lines. Streaming video promotion is trending lately; if popularity is high enough in the next few weeks, we can even do voice acting for dynamic manga promos.”
“Got it, I’ll discuss it thoroughly with Sakamoto Sensei.” Kaji Keiko replied.
Ono Tomohiro stood up and hurriedly walked out of the meeting room.
As the Chief Editor of the JUMP editorial department, he had too many things to handle.
For example, when big-name writers delay manuscripts and the editors can’t get them to deliver, he has to step in.
Or for certain veteran writers whose old works finished long ago, he has to check in periodically to prevent them from jumping to another company.
Or negotiations with sponsors for various collaborations and events for the company’s big IPs.
And now there’s this nepo baby…
What a headache.
