Torihara's Manga Remake Diary ① A new challenge in my 50s. The story of how my first manga was rejected after being trashed by an AI editor.
Hello, this is Torihara.
Around May of last year, my desire to "draw manga again" grew stronger, and I began my rehabilitation little by little.
This is a record of my struggles from that day to this.
I would be happy if those of you who are struggling to create something just like me could relate to this even a little.
The story of how my first work was easily rejected
The first thing I did after receiving coaching from Masami-san and deciding, "Okay, I'm going to draw!"
was to write down the flow of the story and character settings in a paper notebook.
And the thing that is decisively different from the past ishaving an AI to run alongside me.
When I talk to the AI about rough stories and characters without any structure, it organizes them into an easy-to-read plot.
Looking at that, I add ideas like "Let's do this more like this," and throw it back to the AI.
Through this game of catch, the story took shape.
So this is what they call a sounding boardI realized, albeit a bit late.
The atmosphere I longed for
I was aiming for a quiet and mysterious worldview like Kazumi Yamashita's "Fushigi na Shonen" (Mysterious Boy).
Below is the story I came up with
[Synopsis]
A "crane" that eats human memories is stealing the memories of a deceased daughter and her husband from a grandmother.
The grandmother, who has no memories, is nearly 70 years old but her heart remains young. Her appearance also remains young.
Her grandchild, who had always been suspicious, learns the crane's secret and tries to make her regain her memories, but...
Honestly, even as I write this now, I feel like it'sa bit plain....
But at the time, I was completely serious.
I even made a floor plan of the house in the countryside, and worked out how to express the breaking of the grandmother's magic and the distinction between before and after.
The overly kind ChatGPT, the cold-hearted Gemini
When the plot was somewhat solidified, I suddenly thought.
"Isthis...
...really interesting?"
So, I decided to show this as a project proposal to the AI "Gemini" as well.
Prompt:
"You are a skeptical editor and publishing consultant. Please judge calmly and objectively whether the project I am about to send will be commercially viable."
Amidst a mix of anticipation and anxiety, Gemini's response was...
...It was trashed.
"Who is going to read this nowadays?"
"It's too plain."
"From the perspective of a sci-fi fan, this is laughable."
I pushed back, asking, "What can I do to make it better?" and tried adding or twisting elements, but all I got in return were cold, follow-up attacks.
"These are all just superficial fixes."
"The foundation is weak."
…….
I couldn't say a word in my defense.
I had spent a considerable amount of time writing the scenario, but I tearfully decided to scrap it.
The best thing about using AI
This is the ending of the story thatwas supposed to bemy "first work of my second debut" 😭
If I had been drawing this alone, no one would have stopped me.
A story about a crane eating memories with a grandmother... looking at it calmly,
I realize, "This is not catchy at all."
Actually, the ChatGPT I used when creating the plot was incredibly kind.
"It's a beautiful and moving story!"
"You could even aim for a manga award with this!"
It praised me so much that I got carried away and kept expanding it.
But creation requires a "cold, objective perspective."
"It's not interesting, wake up"
Thanks to having someone (even if it was an AI) tell me that, my first work vanished without a trace lol
This was the first time I felt I had used AI effectively.
I mean, is ChatGPT... a con artist?
But this is where the real beginning starts.
Continued in episode 2 ↪️