Hello everyone! I recently moved to Kitakyushu (it’s where I got an English teaching job) and want to pursue manga editing. Anybody have any tips? I have a background in literature and art history, so my experience kind of relates, but I would really like to be an apprentice just don’t know how to go about it. 😅 All advice is welcome! Thank you for reading, and I value your time. Here’s a hypothetical dango for you! 🍡
6 comments
日本語は上手ですか。。
Well step 1 is become near native in Japanese ability and be able to convert all your relevant knowledge into field specific language. Get that step 1 done and you’ll probably figure out step two on your own.
Wanting to be involved in the creative/writing process is a huge ask, there isn’t really an “apprenticeship” for such a thing, and you’ve got no experience in any adjacent industry. You’ve got to be able to offer something that the hundreds of thousands of Japanese people trying to break into the industry can’t, and you then need to get a contact that already has a publisher or works in the industry.
But again, that’s after getting the language chops to be able to do such a job entirely in Japanese.
1. Be fluent in Japanese (speaking/listening/reading/writing), including all the terminology of the manga industry. Remember that N1 is the jumping-off point these days, not the end point.
2. Look for a job in the industry, ANY job to get your foot in the door. Be ready to do work you don’t want to in conditions that are not great for very little pay. Your just trying to get your foot in the door. Contact people on instagram, cold-call manga houses, look for advertisements, be pushy but polite…expect to get told “no” or ignored 1000 times before you find something.
3. Start building up connections and knowledge of the industry. Eventually leverage that to get new jobs, better opportunities, etc. It will probably take a few years.
4. Probably better to be in Tokyo or at least Osaka.
5. Understand that as a foreigner, you face greater challenges on many levels. You will have to work more to achieve less. This won’t be an easy journey or a fast one.
I don’t ever want to tell anyone their dream is impossible, but I think if you haven’t already realized the insanely gargantuan amount of groundwork necessary (3000+ hours of language study just for starters) and already gotten to work on it, it’s not a good sign. By a background in art history and literature do you mean you studied one or both of those in college? I don’t think any manga company in Japan could care less about that sadly, especially if you don’t have relevant practical work experience. And on top of all of this, even if you do overcome the massive language barrier and wrangle the necessary connections to get your foot in the door, manga/animation in Japan is notoriously brutal as far as overtime and work culture goes, even by Japanese standards.
I know plenty of people who are animators here who are extremely not japanese native (their Japanese is… fine, like N2 level? One kinda N3 level). Just very badly paying.
Dunno about manga stuff as much though, my impression is that there’s not really much work for assistants if you haven’t been drawing stuff yourself and been trying to get published. Anime stuff there’s a lot of busywork for people and they need bodies, most manga is dealt with by a handful of people. And manga editing… I mean you can go onto the websites of various publishers and look at their requirements I guess? I’m sure there are shitty jobs, it’s publishing after all. Lots of low paying stuff out there. Just probably more in ad sales than in any editorial capacity.
Silent Manga Audition is currently looking for an editor. SMA is a very popular contest for many aspiring manga artists, including me!