Why a Descendant of Tadayuki Oguri Became a Jump Gag Manga Artist (Part 5): 'Training as an Assistant to a Master of Shocking Violence Gekiga and an Unexpected First Meeting with That Fateful Gag Manga Artist'

Last time, my editor M told me, 'If you're serious about aiming for a serialized manga, you should experience being an assistant at least once,' and helped me find a workplace.
As a result, I ended up working as an assistant for Shinji Hiramatsu, a master of violent gekiga known for works like 'Doberman Deka,' 'Black Angels,' and 'Murder License Kiba.'

◾️Was it 'Yukito' who appeared at the meeting spot!?

On the day of our first meeting, I stood alone in front of the Tora-san statue at Shibamata Station, our meeting place.
Honestly, I was incredibly nervous.
This was because I had always loved Hiramatsu-sensei's work as a reader, and I was convinced that 'a master who draws such violent manga must be an incredibly scary person!'Even looking at the author's photo on the comic book flap, with thin sunglasses and a cigarette in his mouth, he looked like the quintessential Showa-era tough guy
(Pardon me!).
And another worry was my lack of drawing ability. No matter how I looked at it, my art style was completely different from his realistic gekiga style...
If I couldn't do the work well, what if he said, "Are you making a fool of manga artists? Go to hell!!
" and stabbed a pen nib into my temple like Yukito's spoke...

While I was trembling with such thoughts, wondering, 'I wonder when the senior assistant coming to pick me up will arrive?', a road racer (sports bicycle) approached from the distance. It stopped right in front of me with a sharp sound.
'...Hmm? Are you Oguri-kun?'

'Y-yes...! Oh!'The person who appeared dashingly on a road racer was none other than Shinji Hiramatsu-sensei
himself.
To my surprise, Hiramatsu-sensei had come to pick me up in person!
And at the same time, I thought, 'The bike he's riding is the same as Yukito's!!'Yes, that bicycle was the same road racer ridden by the protagonist of 'Black Angels,' Yoshihito Yukito
. Yukito's bicycle has spokes that can be removed from the wheels, which he uses as weapons to stab villains to death.

(Since he came on the same bike as Yukito... Ha! Could this be foreshadowing that he's going to stab me with a spoke...!?) I was even more terrified.
Then Hiramatsu-sensei smiled refreshingly and said, 'Well then, let's go to the studio.'

'Eh? ...Y-yes!' (Huh? He has such a kind smile!)
On the way to the studio, Hiramatsu-sensei asked me various things in a gentle tone, and I remember gradually feeling relieved, thinking, 'C-could it be that he's not such a scary teacher after all?' (It goes without saying, but the road racer was just Hiramatsu-sensei's personal property, haha).
I'll say it upfront: I was almost never scolded by Hiramatsu-sensei.
The only time was when I showed him a forest background I had drawn, and he asked, 'What did you use as a reference?' I panicked, pointed at an image I hadn't used as a reference, and said, 'T-this one...'
He looked annoyed and said firmly, 'You shouldn't lie. It's completely different!' (Sorry, that's a very weak story about being scolded...)
Yes, when you think about it, Hiramatsu-sensei's manga is about punishing villains who blaspheme against ethics. Because the way he punishes them is so violent, manga fans tend to have a scary image of him, but the hero on the side of justice always has a sound sense of ethics.Therefore, Hiramatsu-sensei himself hates lies, verbal abuse, and violence, and is an incredibly polite and humble manga artist with common sense. (I put this in bold)


As I wrote in the 4th essay, he is in a sense the exact opposite of my real father, Tadahito, who is unreasonable, prides himself on his ancestors' achievements, and acts arrogantly toward others. Meeting Hiramatsu-sensei, I felt like I had met an adult I could respect for the first time.

◾️A craftsman-style workplace and talented senior assistants
I had no worries on the work front either. Because the first thing I was assigned to do at the studio wasn't drawing, but practicing drawing frame lines with a G-pen and speed lines with a round pen. The traditional Hiramatsu Pro was a workplace with an old-fashioned craftsman style, where they carefully trained assistants from the basics.
And another thing that was unexpected was that I wasn't the only new assistant; there was one other person.
That person was H-san, who was about four years older than me. H-san already had experience as an assistant for Yutaka Takahashi-sensei of 'Bonbonzaka High School Drama Club' in Jump, and was a talented person who had even won a Tezuka Award honorable mention.

Honestly, he was a complete immediate asset. His level of drawing ability was different from mine. So, either way, I was effectively the only 'newbie' in this workplace.

◾️The intensity of a pro and the secret trick of Hiramatsu Pro at midnight
At that time, Hiramatsu-sensei was serializing a manga called 'Aishura The Legend' in a Shueisha seinen manga magazine called 'Super Jump'.

Since Super Jump is a bi-weekly magazine, assistants are also called in almost every other week. I would stay at the studio for a week to work, and have a week off. For me, as a research student for Weekly Shonen Jump who had to submit storyboards for serialization regularly, getting half the month off was an ideal schedule.

However, once I started working, I witnessed the intensity of a professional manga artist.
The first shock was the cleanliness of the manuscripts.
'Are professional original manuscripts this clean!' The beauty of the pen lines was completely different from mine. (Of course it is!)
Every time a manuscript came to me for solid filling or screen tone application, I was moved as a mere fan, thinking, 'Whoa! It's an original manuscript by Shinji Hiramatsu!!'
And another shock in a different vector was Hiramatsu-sensei's lack of sleep.
We assistants usually woke up around 7:30 AM and went to bed at 12:00 AM. Before going to sleep, we would spend about an hour in the assistant room drawing our own storyboards or doing miscellaneous tasks, but even then, we were guaranteed at least 6 hours of sleep.
But Hiramatsu-sensei would continue to draw manuscripts silently in the studio alone even after the assistants returned to their rooms. No matter how you look at it, his sleep time was 3 to 4 hours. And that continued for a week.
I couldn't endure that.
'I see, Hiramatsu-sensei used to serialize in Weekly Shonen Jump. Weekly serialization is a job that requires superhuman physical strength...'

When the work reached its final stages, the deadline would approach, and the assistants' sleep time would also drop to 3 to 4 hours. Everyone would tend to doze off while working.
Then, it was customary for Hiramatsu Pro's unique 'sleep prevention trick' to be activated.

That was playing a recorded video of a racy late-night show.
Including the chief and the helper assistant, four young adult men stayed over for a week. A racy show was very effective there (lol). (As a side effect, we often stopped working because we watched the TV screen too much.)
Like that, every time after work, I would go home feeling dizzy from sleepiness and sexual desire. But the sense of fulfillment of completing a manga as a team was something I only understood after experiencing it. Not only manga techniques, but also a manga artist's schedule management, how to use assistants, and how to behave as a manga artist (Hiramatsu-sensei used polite language even to editors much younger than him. I imitate that too). Anyway, by working as an assistant at Hiramatsu Pro, I learned a lot as a manga artist.

◾️And, the encounter with that fateful gag manga artist

One day, while spending such days, H-san invited me, saying, 'We're going to have a drink with some new manga artists, do you want to come, Oguri-kun?'
I also checked the Jump new artist special issues every time, and I had always wanted to meet the up-and-coming new manga artists featured there, so I decided to participate.

When I went to that drinking party, there were 5 or 6 new manga artists of the same generation whose names I often saw in the special issues. However, there was one person among the participants who was clearly older than us and had a calm atmosphere.
When I introduced myself, he said, 'Oh, Kazumata Oguri-san? The 'Shinsetsu-kun' you had in the special issue the other day was interesting.' I was happy, thinking, 'He praised my manga! He's a good person.'

And that person was the author of the talked-about gag manga 'Makuhari,' which had just started serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump, Yasuaki Kita-sensei.

Furthermore, at this drinking party, Kita-sensei told me something. From there, the fate between me and Kita-sensei began...
(To be continued)
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