Akiko Higashimura was told by an editor after they saw a manuscript sent from the Miyazaki Central Post Office that it was "far too poor and not at a level that could be published in a magazine."

I love bookstores.

However, it seems that "local bookstores" are disappearing from our communities one after another.

When I returned to Miyazaki, I was shocked to find that Tanaka Shoten, which used to be on Ichibangai in Miyazaki City, was gone.

In Akiko Higashimura's manga "Kaku-Kaku-Shika-Jika," there is a scene where she buys books at Tanaka Shoten on Ichibangai.

There is also a scene at the Mister Donut on Ichibangai.

The Mister Donut on Ichibangai is still there today, but the disappearance of Tanaka Shoten has left a scar on my heart.

Even so, there are two large bookstores near Miyazaki Station, so I always go to one of them on my days off.

I would like to introduce a book I encountered there.

The title is "Bots: The 'Hated' Work Style of Shonen Jump's Legendary Editor-in-Chief" (Shogakukan Shueisha Productions).

The author is Kazuhiko Torishima, also known as Dr. Mashirito.

He is a legendary Shonen Jump editor-in-chief, and his greatest achievement was discovering Akira Toriyama, the creator of "Dr. Slump" and "Dragon Ball."

Toriyama debuted at the age of 23 with a work called "Wonder Island."

Torishima, the Jump editor, was 25.

He declared to Toriyama, "You were by far the least popular. To put it bluntly, you were at the bottom!"

Until he produced his next work, "Dr. Slump," 500 pages of his manuscripts were rejected.

He is a man who was called "Mashirito" (Torishima spelled backward) by many manga artists, and later feared as a demon editor-in-chief.

I also remembered the character Dr. Mashirito because he appeared so often in Jump when I was reading Dr. Slump.

Toriyama wrote about that year when 500 pages were rejected, saying, "It was quite educational and interesting. I am not one to give up."

I thought he was an editor-in-chief who tormented manga artists, but it was completely different, and I realized once again that it is not good to jump to conclusions.

To manga artists with no talent, he would tell them like a demon to give up on becoming a manga artist and get another job.

The truth seems to be that he kindly told them for their own sake that since they were still young, they would be better off in another profession.

Until he joined Shueisha, Torishima had hardly ever read manga.

He didn't even know Weekly Shonen Jump existed until he was assigned to the editorial department.

Torishima questioned the policies of the Jump editorial department.

He also hated Jump manga.

He didn't like the atmosphere of the editorial department either.

So, he often went to the Shogakukan reference room.

"Being able to come into contact with manga other than Jump was a big deal," Torishima says.

Tsukasa Kamogawa, who had a huge hit with "Macaroni Horenso" in Shonen Champion, and Kimio Yanagisawa, who had a huge hit with "Tonda Couple" in Shonen Magazine, were driven away, leaving only boring serials in Jump.

He apparently told this to his superiors!

Torishima had seen many manga artists disappear from the public stage and become unable to make a living.

Manga artists were disappearing for the convenience of the editorial department.

If you can't make authors and creators happy, the company won't make money in the end.

He always thought that the readers who buy and read manga and the authors who create manga were more important than the magazine, and he clashed with his superiors.

Shonen Jump recorded the highest circulation in history at 6.53 million copies.

The editorial department was desperate to increase sales.

Torishima says, "For the sake of magazine circulation, all management was wrong, and staff, works, and authors were sacrificed."

Torishima, who was looked down upon by his superiors, left the Weekly Jump editorial department and was transferred to the department for the launch of V Jump.

The person who became the editor-in-chief of Weekly Jump was a junior three years below Torishima.

However, Jump's circulation gradually declined.

After the serialization of Dragon Ball ended, that trend was absolute.

Readers gradually drifted away from a magazine that no longer had manga worth reading.

During such a time, Torishima was called back as the editor-in-chief of Jump.

He kept refusing, but the order was issued.

Returning to his old stomping grounds and becoming the editor-in-chief of Weekly Jump, what I felt was that the manga being published was old, and it was like a pachinko parlor having a grand reopening.

Nothing that readers would feel was new was being provided.

When thinking about the reasons for the drop in sales and countermeasures, I decided to return to the policy of the first Weekly Jump editor-in-chief and threw away all the projects that had already been decided and prepared for serialization.

By the way, the first editor-in-chief's policy was as follows:

1. Newcomer Principle: Newcomers have fresh sensibilities. Moreover, manuscript fees are cheap. However, their skills are immature.

2. Three-Legged Race Principle: Therefore, to get readers to read a newcomer's work, it is necessary to create it in a three-legged race with an editor.

3. Questionnaire Principle: Put the readers' voices first. Decide whether to continue a serialization based on the results of reader questionnaires.

Torishima's criticism is harsh.

Until now, editors had an author's temperament, and there were those who wanted to become authors.

Editors who want to become authors are all fakes.

Don't be an editor who uses manga artists to do author-wannabe things; become an editor who brings various talents into the world.

Editing and publishing companies are not great.

Who has the money?

Who is paying the money?

The readers who pay are the most important.

It is the manga artists who are working without sleeping.

The editor in charge must protect the lives of these manga artists.

Torishima was always thinking about things that would bring income to manga artists.

He also pioneered the "content business," which is now common.

At the time of Dr. Slump Arale-chan, no content fees were generated for the original author, Akira Toriyama, for anime or various merchandise.

Based on that bitter experience, when it came to Dragon Ball, he set up a system so that content fees would go to the original author.

Furthermore, for the production of Dragon Quest, he placed orders directly with Akira Toriyama, preventing any skimming of content fees.

The work of a publishing company, roughly speaking, is to process the content (manuscripts) created by the original author into magazines and books and sell them to readers.

It is a typical middleman company.

Even if you increase the circulation of a magazine, the price of the magazine itself is low, so there is almost no profit.

Rather, by creating and selling comics that compile the content (manuscripts) published in the magazine, royalties are generated for the author, and they prosper.

Also, readers are happy because they can read them all together.

Torishima's goals were only two.

To find talented manga artists.

To make readers happy.

I hated the Jump editorial department, which was full of editors who thought they were great while acting like novelists in a middleman company, and I couldn't stand it.

With such a spirited person returning as editor-in-chief, the company developed.

Akiko Higashimura of Kaku-Kaku-Shika-Jika was discovered by an editor named Umeoka at Shueisha.

In the manga, he appears under the name "U-oka-san," and in the movie, he appears as "Oka-san."

After seeing the manuscript sent from the Miyazaki Central Post Office, she was told over the phone that it was "far too poor and not at a level that could be published in a magazine."

Akiko Higashimura, while being rejected many times, did not give up and finished the manuscript, and it was finally published in a magazine.

Her fate changed because an editor discovered the talent of Akiko Higashimura, who lived in Miyazaki, far away from Tokyo.

I felt that there are all kinds of people among manga editors.

I thought it was good that there were editors like Dr. Mashirito and U-oka-san.