After resting for a while, Rin went home.
Although he already had some ideas, they weren't quite clear yet, so he temporarily set the thought aside in the back of his mind.
More importantly, it was a bit too early to consider these issues now.
After all, his manga hadn't even begun its official serialization yet, let alone an anime adaptation.
The upside, however, was that in the considerable amount of time between now and any potential anime adaptation, he could carefully think through the problems and solve them step by step without being too rushed.
For now, the focus was still on the serialization.
...
Upon hearing that Akira's manga studio had been set up, Hisashi arrived at his studio first thing the next morning.
"The assistants have been contacted. Here is their general information."
"Great."
Akira took the resumes from Hisashi and read them carefully—
The first was named Tanaka Daisuke, a young man in his early 30s and a professional manga assistant; he would serve as the lead assistant this time.
The second was Miyazaki Hayato, around 22 years old, a rookie Manga Artist.
The third was Terashima Shota, around 21 years old, also a rookie Manga Artist.
"...Tanaka's salary requirement is 15,000 yen per day, while the other two are 7,000 yen. What do you think?"
"I'm fine with that."
Akira nodded readily, then couldn't help but ask:
"But is the salary for rookie assistants really that low?"
His wage when he worked part-time was 8,000 yen a day, but that was actually 1,000 yen per hour for an eight-hour workday.
That didn't even include the occasional subsidies he received from Kayo.
Meanwhile, the 7,000 yen per day for rookie assistants actually involved workdays that were basically over 10 hours long, often reaching 15 hours or even working through the night.
From a purely wage-based perspective, being a rookie assistant was truly worse than just finding a random part-time job.
"There's no helping it; that's just how the industry is."
Hisashi was already accustomed to this, but after scanning the living room, he still couldn't help but sigh:
"Besides, it's not easy for a Manga Artist who just started serialization. After all, not everyone can get a contract with terms as generous as yours."
In other words, Akira's situation was a complete exception among exceptions and had almost no reference value.
Back to the main topic.
Only after the Manga Artist finishes the storyboard, finalizes the content with the editor, and confirms no further changes are needed, do the manga assistants step in to work. They work about 3 to 4 days a week.
Using the salary levels mentioned above as a reference, hiring three assistants would cost approximately 300,000 yen a month.
As mentioned before, the manuscript fee for a Manga Artist just starting serialization is 10,000 yen per black-and-white page.
Calculating based on 20 pages a week, the monthly manuscript fee is roughly 800,000 yen.
Besides paying the assistants' salaries, this 800,000 yen also needs to cover rent, utilities, replacement supplies, and food for himself and the assistants during work hours.
After adding up all the various expenses, for a Manga Artist just starting serialization, there's basically nothing left of the monthly manuscript fee.
Sometimes, they might even have to pay out of their own pocket.
"Huh?!"
Hearing Hisashi's calculations, Akira nearly lost it on the spot.
Good grief, so after working himself to death pulling all-nighters to draw manga, he might not earn a single cent at the end of the month and instead have to pay to work?!
No wonder the pay for rookie assistants was so low; it was because the Manga Artists themselves had no money.
In comparison, although rookie assistants earned little, they were at least actually making money.
This is ridiculous!
But thinking about this, he also felt extremely fortunate.
Fortunately, his contract terms were decent; otherwise, after a busy month, looking back to find he owed tens of thousands of yen would feel like the sky was falling.
This is truly a damnable capitalist society!
Seeing this, Hisashi said with a wry smile:
"It can't be helped; the whole industry is like this."
"For a Manga Artist, if you want to make money, you have to maintain good rankings and wait until you have enough chapters to release a tankobon."
In fact, not just for the Manga Artist, but for Shonen Jump as well, the tankobon is where the bulk of the profit lies.
Because of the competition with other magazines, the current price for a copy of Shonen Jump is only 220 yen, which is so cheap there's almost no profit margin.
It's the same for other manga magazines.
Therefore, a Manga Artist who has just started serialization and cannot yet release a tankobon—meaning they haven't brought profit to the magazine—naturally won't make much money.
Want to make money?
Then you have to work hard to improve your rankings and release tankobon; otherwise, you'll just be eliminated.
Although he had long heard that the Japanese manga industry was fiercely competitive and plagued by 'involution,' experiencing even this tip of the iceberg personally made him sigh:
It's just too competitive!
But back to the assistants themselves, there was another reason why rookie assistants' wages were relatively low besides the situation mentioned earlier—
Most of these rookie assistants were also newcomers to the industry. They worked for serialized Manga Artists not just as employees, but also as apprentices.
The vast majority of famous Manga Artists in the industry today had experiences during their rookie days of learning from and assisting a serialized Manga Artist.
Of course, extremely special genius Manga Artists like Akira were exceptions.
As for Miyazaki Hayato and Terashima Shota, who were assisting Akira this time, both were rookie Manga Artists under other editors and had debuted through the Monthly Award.
There are many rookie Manga Artists like them, but in reality, very few eventually become successful.
"Anyway, if there are no other issues, let's start drawing the storyboard for Fate/stay night chapter four today. It would be best to finish it within two days."
Hisashi reminded him seriously:
"Of course, you might be a bit slow at the start, but I hope you can adapt to this pace as soon as possible. At least adapt before the manuscripts for the first three chapters are used up."
"Otherwise, things will become very dangerous."
"Yeah, I understand."
Akira nodded in understanding.
However, he didn't seem to need to worry about the problem the other man mentioned. Come to think of it, Hisashi didn't seem to know just how fast his manga creation speed actually was.
Anyway—
"Actually, I've already finished the storyboard for chapter four. Do you want to take a look now?"
He pointed to his workbench and smiled at Hisashi.
"Finished?"
Hisashi said with some surprise:
"Did you draw it beforehand?"
"No, I drew it over the last few days while moving."
"I see."
Hisashi nodded, not yet realizing the implications.
"Alright, let's have a look then."