The Editing Process

In the meeting room, Shizuka sat down across from several executives plus a new man she had never seen before. She looked around and took a deep breath as Kyosuke began the meeting. “I’m glad you could make it, Hiratai-san. You may have noticed there’s a new face among us.”

“Indeed,” Shizuka nodded.

“Well, after some discussion and a request from a certain someone, we have come to a decision regarding who your editor will be.” Kyosuke turned to the new man and said to him, “Obuchi-san, feel free to introduce yourself.”

“My name is Obuchi Daichi,” said the new man, who was in his early forties. “From today, I’ll be your editor.”

“We called you here so you two can go over some things together,” Kyosuke explained. “Obuchi-san has a lot of experience as an editor with our company. He has been editing manga within our shojo and josei magazines for twenty years, and when he read your manga, he jumped at the opportunity.”

“I think your manga is one of the best shojo manga we’ve seen submitted in a long time,” Daichi explained. “I would love to help you along and make it a bestseller.”

Shizuka was floored by his words. She had known who Daichi was, having read several other manga he had edited, and to hear such a high-profile editor praise her work nearly overwhelmed her. “Holy shit,” she thought to herself. “This is actually happening. This guy’s one of the best in the business, and he personally asked to oversee my work?! No way!”

“Hiratai-san,” Kyosuke then asked her, snapping her out of her thoughts. “Are you okay? It seemed like you spaced out a bit.”

Slightly embarrassed, Shizuka replied, “Oh, my bad. I would love to have Obuchi-san be my editor. I’ve read several manga series he’s been the editor for, and to hear he personally asked to edit my own manga is an honor.”

“Excellent,” Daichi replied as he reached over to shake Shizuka’s hand, which she accepted. “You can count me in. Together, I think we’ll make Break The Ice a phenomenon that doesn’t just sell well among the shojo demographic, but even goes beyond.”

Kyosuke pointed out, “While it’s good to focus on one demographic, it’s always a treat to get readers from the outside. If you two play your cards right, Break The Ice will do just that.”

Shizuka asked him, “You really think s-?” Cutting herself off when she realized what she said probably sounded like she lacked confidence in her work, she corrected herself. “I mean… I think so, too. I know so.”

“That’s the spirit,” Daichi replied with an eager smile. “Starting this Monday, let’s get to work!”

“And one last thing,” Kyosuke then added. “We have decided on a date for when your manga will premiere.”

Curious, Shizuka asked, “You have? When?”

“It will start with the April issue.”

“April? I can do earlier than tha-“

“It’s fine,” Kyosuke assured her. “I want to give you some time to refine your works. Everyone else will be premiering in either March or April anyway.”

“I see.” Shizuka then got up and bowed to the executives and Daichi. “Thank you all very much. I will not let any of you down.”

…

Later in the night, Takeo and Shizuka met up for drinks together at a bar, both of them celebrating the fact they now had editors. The former said to the latter in disbelief, “You got him as your editor? No way! I call bullshit!”

“Yep,” Shizuka replied, showing off a business card Daichi had given her. “Here it is.”

“Damn. They gave me some girl who looked a few years older than you. I think she’s pretty new to editing.”

“How much older?”

“Like maybe twenty-eight or nine?”

“Wow,” Shizuka replied in surprise. “She must be pretty new, then.” She then downed the last of her beer. “How many beers in are you?”

“Two. How about you?”

“I just finished beer number three.”

“Three already?!” Takeo then turned to the bartender and asked him, “Hey, can I get a third beer, please? Same as before.”

“Sure thing, man,” he replied, pouring him another one and then handing it to him. “You got a tab with us, right?”

“Yeah,” he replied. “I’m under Furihata Takeo.”

“Got it.”

Takeo then drank as much of the beer as he could, trying to catch up with Shizuka as fast as he could. Shizuka playfully commented, “Be careful, Furihata-san. I don’t want you puking on me.”

Takeo put down the beer and told her, “Oh, shut up. I’ll be fine.” He then began drinking again, downing the beer very quickly. Once he was done, he proudly proclaimed, “See? I’m fine!”

“Let’s see how fine you are in a few minutes,” Shizuka said as she put some money down on the table. “I bet you five hundred yen you’ll be getting sick in about ten to fifteen minutes.”

“Fine by me,” he replied, setting his own money down. “I can’t wait to get another five hundred yen.”

…

Fifteen minutes later, Takeo was in the men’s room of the same bar, having indeed gotten sick. Thankfully, he had held it in long enough to make it to a toilet. As he puked his proverbial brains out, Shizuka stood watch outside the men’s room, quietly laughing to herself since she won the bet. She smiled and said to herself, “Hah… That amateur really thought he was gonna win. He went up against a girl who’s been doing this for a lot longer than he has.”

Takeo then came out of the bathroom. “Okay, I’m done.” He handed Shizuka five hundred yen and told her, “You win, Hiratai-san.”

“Thank you.”

“Let’s go back to your place. I think I’m done drinking for the night.”

“Yeah,” Shizuka agreed. “Let’s head back. If we fuck, though, I’d prefer if you don’t puke on me while you’re in me, if you know what I mean.”

“Are you expecting that every time we meet up?”

“You’re a guy,” she pointed out. “Why wouldn’t I expect you to ask for it given what we did last week? I’m not gonna say yes every time, but I’m not gonna turn you down all the time, either.”

…

About forty minutes after they left, Takeo and Shizuka were busy having sex once again in the latter’s small apartment. As the two of them got finished, Takeo took several deep breaths and wiped his forehead of sweat. “Ah… Hah… Wow, it’s fucking cold out, but I’m sweating like a pig.” He then stepped off the bed to dispose of a condom in the trash.

“Hang on,” Shizuka said as she got up from the bed and cracked open a window without opening the blinds to make sure no one could peep inside, letting in some cold air. “There. That should make it a little better.”

“So, how was that?”

“You’re getting better.” Shizuka then gave him a kiss on the forehead, making him blush. “So… Got any other plans?”

“Not really… Unlike last time, neither of us passed out from exhaustion.” Takeo looked over at Shizuka’s work desk and remarked, “Hey, is that Break The Ice on there?”

“Yeah,” she replied as she began to put underwear and a bra on. “That’s my work desk. Anything I draw professionally is done there. I can start off with sketches elsewhere, but anything I would post online or send to Shimizu gets finished there.”

“Post online? Like commissions?”

“Yeah. How do you think I made money before I got signed? Well, besides menial labor here and there.” Shizuka, curious about how his work station was set up, asked him, “Speaking of, how do you work? What’s your setup when you write?”

“Since I live with a few roommates,” Takeo explained. “I just type on either my phone or my laptop, usually the latter. I can do it anywhere, really.” He then put on underwear as well before looking more closely at the art Shizuka had drawn. “You’ve probably, uh… You’ve probably been told this a lot, but your art is really pretty.”

Shizuka’s cheeks reddened with a blush at his compliment. Though indeed she had heard such things about her art plenty of times before, something about how Takeo had said it hit differently for her. “Oh, uh, thank you… Your writing is really nice, too.”

“So, can you tell me more in-depth what your story is about? Like, what you have planned for it?”

“Yeah,” Shizuka nodded as the two of them sat down on the bed and she opened up a documents app on her phone to show off what she had planned for Break The Ice. “I mean, this might change as time goes on. I don’t know how much of this will make it past the editor, but this is what I have so far.”

As Takeo read the notes she had taken for the story, he was amazed by how much detail there was compared to the notes he had for his own. “Wow… There’s a lot here. My notes are only about 3,000 words, and yet this is easily twice that.”

“I’ve done a lot of planning. To sum it up the best I can, it’s about a girl named Ichigo who decides to finally start making friends in her final year of middle school. In English, the term ‘break the ice’ is used to refer to how people start conversations when they meet for the first time, which is what she’s trying to do, hence the title of the manga.” Shizuka was clearly passionate about her plans based on how she spoke about her story. “She starts making friends, and then she meets a boy a year older than her who goes to a high school she wants to apply to that’s named Kazuya. However, Kazuya’s family has a dark history, and it’s because of this that there’s a whole kidnapping plot I have planned out.”

“Wait, a kidnapping plot? From what you submitted, it seems like a straightforward romcom.”

“That’s the idea,” Shizuka winked. “It starts out purely as a romcom, but it delves deep into more serious topics without getting too dark. Don’t worry, though, because there’s still plenty of comedy all throughout. Anyway, Ichigo gets kidnapped because a gang that hates Kazuya’s family mistakenly thinks she’s his girlfriend, but thankfully, Kazuya and his father rescue her. After that, Kazuya and Ichigo begin dating for real.”

Intrigued by the full explanation of the story, Takeo asked her, “Is that all you have planned out so far?”

“As of now, yes. I’ll be sure to expand it, though. I want to have enough material to at least cover her third year of middle school and her first year of high school.”

“Ah, I see.” Takeo then scrolled up on her phone, but did so in a way that accidentally caused him to scroll onto a few interesting images of Shizuka’s two main characters. “Uh, wha-“

“Okay, hang on,” Shizuka said as she quickly grabbed the phone and closed out the images. “You weren’t supposed to see those, Furihata-san.”

“Did… Did you draw porn of your own characters?”

Flustered, the artist denied his accusation. “Porn?! No! I just… I made full body sketches of them… Naked… Come on, that’s something a lot of artists do so they can get more accurate body sizes of them for reference!”

“But what about that one picture of Kazuya on top of Ichi-“

“Okay, fine,” Shizuka admitted. “I drew one picture of them doing… That. That was for my eyes only, Furihata-san. There’s no way in Hell I’d actually draw the two of them having sex, and I doubt Shimizu would be okay with me putting a full-page spread of that in a shojo magazine.” She then joked, “If I wanted to draw people fucking in a mainstream manga magazine without it being full-blown ero-manga, I would have applied to Weekly Riders or Afternoon Riders… Or maybe Lilywhite Storm if I wanted to do girls’ love.”

Curious, Takeo asked her, “Did any of your commissions involve lewd things?”

“Well, duh,” Shizuka said, trying to brush it off casually. “When you’re an artist online, you learn to accept doing more… Steamy commissions for people. Now, look, I’m not making, like, weird fetish shit. I drew pretty normal stuff… Or, well, normal for sex and nudity. People pay a lot of money to see their favorite characters having sex with each other. If you look up my old artist name online, you’ll find all my art.” Turning the conversation on him, she asked, “Since we’re talking about me making lewd art, have you written lewd stories?” Takeo grew silent, seemingly not willing to answer. This prompted Shizuka to tease him as she put a hand on his upper leg. “Come on. Tell me the truth, Takeo…”

Hearing her call him by his first name in a teasing yet seductive voice finally caused him to admit, “Yes… I did… I wrote some stuff like that… But not of my characters from my novel.”

“Wait, really? I’m surprised. Your novel seems like it’s setting up for a main couple based on what you submitted.”

“It is, but… Well, I don’t know. I’ve been so busy working on the novel that I really haven’t had time to actually do that, you know?”

“It’s fine. I’m not gonna judge you. I’d be a hypocrite if I did.”

“One last thing,” Takeo then asked. “Was any of Break The Ice based on your own life? I mean, some of myself is in my main character, but some other parts of me is in his love interest instead.”

“That’s an inevitability when you’re writing any story,” Shizuka shrugged. “For me, I was pretty shy when I was in middle school, but my shyness extended beyond there for a bit into high school. I began dating my first boyfriend, and the guy I had sex with for the first time, when I was a second-year. That was a big step forward for me, and after then, I slowly got less and less shy and more and more outgoing. I guess you could say Ichigo is kinda like the old me.”

“That sounds about right. I’m still pretty shy, admittedly, but if you had met me when I was still in high school, I would have probably freaked out from being talked to like this by a girl.”

Shizuka joked, “If I had met a high school aged version of you, I could have gone to jail for what we did during Comiket.” The two laughed, with Takeo falling on the bed from how hard he was cracking up. “Am I wrong?”

“No,” Takeo got out between laughs. “You aren’t!”

As the two of them settled down, Shizuka got a devious idea in her head, seeing how her words earlier had made him squirm. She got his attention by resting a hand on his shoulder and looking down at him. “Hey, Furihata-san, did you like it when I said your first name?”

“Ye- Yeah…?”

“Are you in the mood to have some fun again?”

Hearing those words immediately caused him to turn towards her and ask in anticipation, “Really? Again?”

“Why not? Close your eyes.” Takeo did as asked of him, prompting Shizuka to close her own eyes and plant a kiss on his lips, which surprised him and caused him to open his eyes. Despite being taken off-guard, however, he felt the sensation of kissing her rather pleasant. Shizuka split off his lips and asked him, “Since I kissed you, do you want to kiss me, Takeo? We haven’t really done that outside of actually having sex, after all. Let’s try making out a bit.”

Takeo replied by looking at her and saying, “Shi- Shizuka…” He then closed his eyes and kissed her, which she gladly returned before he gently rolled over her on the bed and began to take her bra off. Within a few more minutes, the two were back at it again, and this time, they would pass out afterwards and wake up the following morning, just like they had done the very first night they were together.

…

January 5, 2015

Shizuka and Daichi were doing a video conference in Shizuka’s apartment, going over how they would get Break The Ice ready for publication in April. “So,” Daichi said as he began. “I just wanna say that honestly, I don’t really have too much to criticize here from what you’ve sent me. The only major issue is that maybe you don’t have enough material to sustain the manga for a long time.”

“Don’t worry,” Shizuka assured him. “I was expecting that. I have plans to expand the story. I just sent a barebones plot.”

“That’s fine. Now, the other issue could be that kidnapping plot. Obviously, I’m not here to tell you you can’t include it, but obviously, there are certain standards that we have to adhere to when it comes to violence. This isn’t a seinen magazine, after all.” Daichi then looked down to go over his notes, seeing what kind of questions he had about the kidnapping plot. “Does anyone actually get shot, or at least… Does anyone important to the story get shot?”

“Ichigo doesn’t get shot,” Shizuka explained. “If anyone does get shot, it won’t be something gory like a headshot or guts spilling out of someone.”

“Yeah, that should be fine, but if I have any concerns, I’ll let you know. Worst comes to worst, we could censor it a bit for the magazine run and uncensor it for the volume releases.”

Shizuka playfully commented, “I’m sure you see plenty of gore already with someone like Anzai-sensei.”

“You’re not wrong,” Daichi chuckled. “Uncontrollable Battle is very much a seinen. I don’t really think it could run in any magazine besides one like our’s. I’m not its main editor, but I’ve done some work with it, and it truly amazes me some of the things he comes up with, both in terms of the quality of the art and story and how violent it can get. Aren’t you a big fan of Uncontrollable Battle?”

“I’m a huge fan.” Shizuka proved her status as a ‘huge fan’ of Uncontrollable Battle by holding up a drawing she did of its main character she happened to have in an art sketchbook on her desk. “I made this about a year ago. There’s a more refined version on my old online profile.”

“Wow, that’s pretty good. You should show Anzai-sensei some of your work.”

Hesitant to do so, Shizuka explained, “No, no, no, I don’t think I’m brave enough for that.”

“Come on. It’ll be fun. He loves seeing fanart.”

“Alright. Alright. Maybe if I run into him again when I go to the office.”

Moving on to the next part of the meeting, Daichi then looked over his notes again and asked her, “Hiratai-sensei, not to change topics suddenly, but do you happen to have more details on Kazuya? There’s not a lot here in terms of specific personality traits when you delve into the main characters, to be honest. Most of it is dedicated to Ichigo and her friend Miyako.”

“Admittedly, that has been a bit of an issue,” Shizuka explained. “I think it comes down to the fact he’s used a lot as a plot device through his family and whatnot. Honestly, when I was writing and drawing the first three chapters, I kinda just winged it when it came to him as a person.”

Daichi nodded in understanding. “Alright. I’d definitely recommend ironing that out. He really needs to be expanded on, especially as the story goes on. After all, it would make readers more inclined to like him. I’ve always said that if we are to include major male characters that serve more of a role than to just look pretty for the shojo demographic, they should at least be interesting beyond their background.”

“I totally agree.” Shizuka then began taking her own notes, writing down his advice to make Kazuya more interesting. “Appearance-wise, how do my characters look?”

“They all look fine,” Daichi assured her. “You definitely did Kazuya well in the looks department. Same with his one friend right here… What was his name again?”

“His name is Yuma. I also have Ichigo’s older brother, who I haven’t introduced just yet. We gotta pull in girls somehow, after all. Having a few pretty boys will do the trick.”

“Onto the next thing I want to go over,” Daichi then continued after laughing at Shizuka’s remark. “I was thinking we could have Chapter 1 be about 60 or so pages as a premiere, and then the other chapters can be around 40. How long are your current three chapters?”

“I can work with that,” Shizuka nodded. “Currently, Chapter 1 is 62 pages. Chapter 2 is 47, though. Is that too long? I can cut some pages if you want.”

“No, no, no,” he assured her. “That’s fine. We’ll just work with it to save time. How about Chapter 3?”

“I have 32 pages done out of 41 planned.”

“Good. Stick with that from now on.”

“Sounds good to me.” Drifting to yet another topic, a curious Shizuka asked, “So, uh, how are the other winners doing?”

“The others? I haven’t heard too much about them. I mean, we did just start doing editing today, after all. Have you spoken to Furihata-sensei at all about it?”

“Not today, at least not yet. I was just curious.” She then looked over her art and remarked with a warm smile, “You know, it’s weird to hear myself be referred to as -sensei. I’ve long called other mangaka and authors that, so it’s odd hearing it used to refer to me.”

“Given your manga is going to print,” Daichi pointed out. “You should get used to it, especially if your manga really blows up in popularity.”

…

January 9, 2015

“So they wanted you to edit that much, huh?”

“Yep,” Takeo remarked as he, Shizuka, and one of the other winners, Taiki Iwakawa, all sat down at a cafè in Yokohama, where Taiki lived and worked out of. “They said that it was workable, but they wanted to make quite a few edits before it gets published starting in March.”

“There wasn’t too much they wanted me to edit for The Tale of Yuga before it premieres in April,” Taiki remarked. “They think it’s a good fit. Everyone loves a good historical action manga, after all. The only thing is…”

Shizuka, curious, asked him, “Well, what is it?”

“I haven’t told anyone else this, but there’s a hidden part of my manga that explores some of the things Japan did in the Second World War, since the story eventually goes into there for the second half.”

Takeo, curious, asked him, “Things? As in war crimes?”

“Yeah, war crimes. Yuga witnesses the beheading of several captured Chinese soldiers and starts to question things, eventually leading to him deserting the Imperial Japanese Army.”

Shizuka could now clearly see why Taiki was concerned. “Oh… I, uh… Are you worried Shimizu will have a problem with that storyline?”

“That’s my concern,” Taiki nodded. “They know the story will eventually go to the Second Sino-Japanese War, but they don’t know the full extent. I’m worried that my editor will either shoot it down, or if he lets it pass, the manga will get so much backlash that it’ll get canceled.”

Takeo asked him, “Backlash from who?”

“From people who deny what Japan did.”

Shizuka thought to herself as she sipped her coffee, “Iwakawa-san is playing a dangerous game by getting his manga involved in something that controversial. It really shouldn’t be, but people will throw a fit if it depicts the reality that Japan was the bad guy in the war. Even so, perhaps someone has to do it eventually.”

“I think you should press ahead,” Takeo assured him. “It’s your story, after all. If you have to tone some stuff down, that’s fine, but don’t remove the war crimes subplot entirely, Iwakawa-san.”

Taking a deep breath, Taiki replied to him, “You really think so?”

“Go for it,” Shizuka chimed in. “We’ll have your back.”

Chuckling, the worried mangaka told them, “Alright, but if I get in serious trouble for this, your asses will regret it.”