Day in the Life in a Japanese Manga Artist Shared House

This is a day in the life of a Japanese

manga artist living in a share house

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This is Nobi, 25 years old, living in the

outskirts of Tokyo and he's just waking

up

he's originally from Hiroshima but now

living in this unique shared house

reserved for only aspiring mangaka aka

manga artist he lives with three other

mangaka under the special program called

tokiwaso project which provides a living

space in addition to support to help

develop a manga artist's career

wow he's mixing natto mozugu seaweed and

egg kind of a unique japanese quick but

healthy meal

do you eat this often

you're so healthy

[Music]

Oh! You drink protein too?

despite not really drawing as a kid he

started creating manga a style of

Japanese comic books six years ago under

the name "Nobikitaro" he enrolled in

anabuki design college in Hiroshima

prefecture and studied manga and

illustration for two years eventually

moving to Tokyo to pursue his career as

a mangaka and recently received the

bi-annual award for upcoming mangaka

from Chiba Tetsuya the creator of the

popular manga ashinojo

good morning everyone I am back with

another day in the life a lot of you

asked me to do another manga artist so

here we are but this time i'm going to

be following an aspiring manga artist

living in a shared house let's go see

what Nobi is doing right now so I just

made it into the share house and Nobi

should be on the second floor

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Good morning!

Did you sleep well last night?

he has a deadline in one week for his

first ever publisher paid yomikiri a

complete manga story that ends in one

episode and he's still working on the

story so it makes sense why he's just a

bit stressed how far are you from

finishing

he says that one of the most challenging

and time-consuming aspects for him is

building the actual story for his manga

it usually requires many redrafts and

endless adjustments to get it flowing

perfectly for example he said it took

him two months to create his last manga

what are you doing now

in the mornings he feels that his mind

is most clear so he typically starts his

day creating manga but to ensure he

works on all aspects of his craft

throughout the day he maintains a

schedule to keep on track and motivated

and this morning it seems like he's

starting to work on his story plot for

his Yomikiri so let me quickly explain

what happens during the manga creation

process after finishing the plot he'll

work on the nemu a rough drawing layout

plan for his yomikiri which he needs

to produce for his editor it looks like

a bigger version of these tiny tiles

with a lot more detail after getting

feedback Nobi has to repeat this

process several times until the editor

approves the content at which point

he'll start working on his genko the

final manuscript that gets submitted to

the editor before publishing

he's typing random words what's that for

How many manga have you fully comepleted?

What's the name of the manga you last made?

so it looks like Nobi gonna be doing

this for a while so while he's doing

that let's do what we do and explore

this place

okay so let's see what's upstairs oh wow

look at this room

so apparently this is a free room it has

everything you need it has a bed it has

a desk and a place to put your clothes

okay so let's see if anyone is in this

room

oh that's one of his housemates can I

bother you for a sec

what are you doing right now

How long have you been living here?

Why did you decide to live here?

Is it easy working on your manga here?

Can I see your work?

What's the title?

And what's your name?

and cool these are their toilets with

that typical old-school Japanese home

styling fairly clean for a shared house

I guess Nobi is done working on his

manga for now and it seems like he's

going outside

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Where are you heading to?

as a manga artist there's a constant

level of creative output required so

Nobi thinks it's important to get out

once in a while to take inspiration from

new experiences

oh he switches backpack to the front a

typical show of courtesy in japan when

riding trains or when in other crowded

areas

nice he found a senpai aka mangaka

friend who's more experienced today they

decided to go to Akihabara because

Nobi wanted to specifically take some

photos here to use as background images

for his manga apparently they don't

necessarily need to draw all of their

backgrounds but instead use photos and

edit it in a manga production software

like clip studio Nobi what do you look

for when taking photos

What kind of photos are you taking?

in the past manga was strictly drawn

with paper and ink but in this new

digital age electronic tablets and pcs

are becoming more and more the standard

which is helping artists today produce

content more quickly and efficiently

it's lunchtime it seems that they've

decided to pick up some wagyu burgers

and find a place to eat outside so how

did you guys meet

What kind of manga do you create?

he says that a publisher was looking for

an artist on their social media who

could create a manga centered around

fencing Nobi spotted it and told him about it

when did you decide to become a mangaka

one of the main reasons why Nobi asked

to meet a senpai today is he wanted to

get some advice about the plot direction

for his manga so what do you think

So what happens if your late for your deadline?

yeah, it's understandable that he wants to

start his career with credibility now

equipped with the senpai sage advice

Nobi has regained much of his focus

what are you going to do now

so Nobi found this job through his

friend on social media and now he works

for the company remotely and sometimes

at their office he usually works about

three to four hours when he works from

home but since he needs to work on his

name today he's only gonna work for

about an hour the average starting manga

artist's annual income in japan is

around two to four million yen about 17

to 35 000 us dollars so to supplement

living costs that many take on part-time

or assistant jobs

are you done?

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Do you always stand while you draw?

he's using a Wacom screen tablet

apparently Wacom is used by many manga

artists in Japan and is one of the most

popular brands for its ease of use and

precise drawing tools oh and that's his

shortcut keyboard, cool!

Where are you going Nobi

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now he has his teiki mendan a counseling

meeting with an advisor from the

tokiwaso program scheduled regularly to

discuss how his manga is developing in

addition to how he's living in the

shared house in fact there are many

young artists living in tokiwaso's

shared houses throughout Tokyo and often

mangaka starting a new career face many

roadblocks so advisors visit to share

and guide all of them in industry

knowledge and know-how so that the

artists have as many tools as possible

to help continue them on their path and

to increase their chances of success

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when Nobi hits a creative wall with

the stories or simply needs to get some

fresh air he takes a walk along the

river by his house Nobi so how's your

story coming along now

by the way are there any new ways to

earn income aside from going through

publishers

he says there are so many types of

digital manga and ebooks available these

days it's giving way to ebook agents

that will help release a mangaka's work

to hundreds of platforms for a fee at

the same time this new digital era has

also given opportunity to mangaka in

niche markets like dark manga that would

have never been approved by established

publishers

oh he's back on his tablet

what are you doing now?

in the past to build any sort of career

as a mangaka an artist's only option was

to work with a publisher to earn a

living which required them to do a

walk-in interview or get recognized by

winning an award but this practice has

slightly changed in Japan as social

media has provided mangaka alternative

ways to promote and earn a living with

their manga aspiring mangaka can now be

discovered online and some can even earn

a living by publishing their manga on

various online platforms but working

with a publisher even to this day

remains a prudent path to a lucrative career. So what did you upload?

so Nobi's been involved with an online

group of manga artists for the last two

years where every saturday a topic is

announced and each member is required to

create their own two page manga when

he's done with it he posted on twitter

and pixiv which is the largest social

media platform for manga artists and

illustrators in japan he makes a point

to update his fanbox which is like a

blog space every day by the way do you

think going to school to learn about

manga gave you an advantage

he says that the skills he learned at

school in two years can probably be

learned in half a year working as a

mangaka assistant but the largest

advantage was the opportunity to meet

other aspiring mangaka his road wasn't

easy though as he realized that many of

the other students were more talented

than him so after graduating he

realistically took a job working at an

electronic store for three years but

later seeing one of his younger

classmates get their manga published

reignited his passion to re-pursue his

mangaka career

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oh I guess he's cooking his own dinner now

and there's his housemate I guess he goI

some udon from matsuya smells so good

Nobi's fairly close to his housemates

so when there's a chance they eat

together and naturally they often

discuss manga

right now Nobi's showing him one of

his latest manga to get his feedback

it's one of the benefits of living with

other manga artists nobi says that he

appreciates living in an environment

where others share a common love for

manga while also having a different

perspective in life. So what do you think about Nobi's manga?

now that he's bathed it's time to

refocus on the plot he's been struggling

with all day

be honest do you think he can finish the

storyline

What about the Nemu? Are you gonna be okay?

so it looks like Nobi will be doing

this the rest of the night as he has to

finish this nemu by the end of the week

he'll probably go to sleep later tonight

at midnight and then after that who

knows he has the rest of the week but

that's pretty much a day in the life of

a Japanese mangaka living at a share

house let me know what you thought in

the comments and if you guys want to see

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in the next one.