Manga Studies and Drama Theory Part 8
Part 8: "Where Can You Find Ideas?"
To give you the conclusion first, ideas are everywhere. However, the situation is different when you are in the middle of a series versus when you are starting one.
1. "After a series has begun"
You will likely have to come up with ideas every time. Since the general framework—the so-called concept of the work—is already good, you might struggle, but you can manage to come up with something. When you can no longer do so, it is better to think of it as the lifespan of that work. Even among hit works, many end around volume 25 to 30. There is a reason for this. It is because both the manga artist and the editor are exhausted after five or six years. Also, after five or six years of working together, the manga artist and editor might come up with a plan for a different manga and want to work on that instead.
If it is a baseball manga, you will naturally read all kinds of materials related to baseball. It would be great if you could find ideas there, but if not, I think you will end up using your own experiences, or even the experiences of others. A long time ago, I used an embarrassing story about a friend from high school, and he called me up, angry, saying, "Don't use my life as material!"
There is a manga called "Mr. Ajikko." My boss was in charge of it, and at one point, there was a curry competition. In the end, there was a story where the protagonist won by adding a subtle bitterness to the curry. The punchline was that he had put instant coffee in the curry. I think he probably looked around for something that would add bitterness and came up with coffee in desperation. He said, "Is this actually good?" "Of course it doesn't taste good," he replied. A few months later, I was watching a cooking show on TV, and the cooking instructor was putting instant coffee into curry. They were saying, "Yes, this is the secret ingredient." It was a stroke of luck, and apparently, it really does make it delicious.
That is how it is when you are coming up with ideas. Basically, it is often done in desperation. There is no way they are going to just bubble up all year round.
2. "A super cheap trick: Search TSUTAYA DISCAS!"
Around 2005, TSUTAYA stopped organizing works by famous directors. Before that, there were director sections. There were sections for "Akira Kurosawa," "Kihachi Okamoto," "John Ford," "Steven Spielberg," and so on. There were also shelves for masterpiece series. They are gone now. They only care about turnover, so they stock and display large quantities of the latest works and Korean dramas. I was surprised that "Seven Samurai" wasn't there. When I asked the clerk where Kurosawa went, they told me, "Oh, that's on TSUTAYA DISCAS."
At that moment, I thought, wait a minute. People under 40 today don't know anything about classic films. If that is the case, I realized that if I stole ideas from masterpieces, no one would know. If that is true, it is better to watch them now and use them as material. Recently, old masterpieces have finally started appearing on Netflix and Amazon, but there are very few of them, right? Netflix originals might be the latest thing, but everyone is watching them. However, the younger people are, the less they know about old masterpieces.
Therefore, even though it is a super cheap trick, let's watch masterpieces on TSUTAYA DISCAS. Even if they don't become material directly, Hollywood has been studying Japanese films, so it won't be useless. I think it is especially useful when you are starting a new series. After all, the drama is condensed into two hours. Even Isayama-san of "Attack on Titan" was inspired by "Jurassic Park."
3. Concrete examples of manga created thanks to video rental stores
This was inspired by a Michael Douglas movie called "Running." The fact that it doesn't have a Japanese title probably means it was a failure. I happened to find it and watched it. It seemed like it would be interesting, but it wasn't. I thought hard about why, and I realized its flaws. I corrected those and strengthened the bond between parent and child. I also used "The Champ," mentioned below, as a reference. If you have some free time, please take a look.
Incidentally, "Meimon! Takonishi Oendan" was inspired by the movie below.