Manga Editors - The Reason I Quit My Job as a Manga Editor Epilogue

TokoToko Editor's Misc. Note, a blog run by a female manga editor who has been in the business for over 15 years, has posted a multi-part article titled "The Reason I Quit as a Manga Editor." Below is a translation of the epilogue of the article:

The Reason I Quit My Job as a Manga Editor Epilogue

From here on, the contents aren't exclusively related to manga editors, so I'm calling it an epilogue. Ignoring all the ins and outs of the story, if you said I ran away from becoming a manga editor, you'd be right. But I don't think "running away" was really the wrong choice. (Although I did quit my job at the first publisher I worked for as though I were running away, so in a way, I might've spent most of my life running.)

However, when I told the doctor who took care of me during my leave of absence that I was working as an editor again (this was when I'd just become a manga editor), the doctor told me, "That's great."

"If you'd just quit being an editor here and gone back home to your parents, this experience would have stuck in your mind as a failure. That would have made it much harder to overcome later. It's much better to stay an editor and clear the hurdles as they come."

And, well, if you ask why I didn't go back to my parents even when I was on my leave of absence or unemployed, it's because my parents and I had fought about my becoming an editor (*cries*); if I'd gone home, left my first company without finding the next one, the possibility of my life as an editor ending right there would have been really high. It was lucky that I was taken on by my next publishing house just two weeks after quitting at my first company. It wouldn't have happened if I hadn't acted on my own, though, and it's because I've continued to take action that I've spent almost half of my working adult life with the company I'm at now. True, I found it when I ran away from my job as a manga editor, but on the road to this job there were signs that said "This way to the general magazine ->". Now, at 38, I think that "'Running away' sounds bad, but the point is that my path was laid in a different direction." In an emergency, I think it's okay if you run. Rather, I think you really should.

By the time you become aware that "something's not quite satisfactory here," the inclination has already established itself; with gravity working in their favor, things grow worse much, much faster than you could ever imagine. That sounds a bit threatening; I'm sorry. But if things are "peaceful," you shouldn't feel like there's a problem. It's precisely because the circumstances are extraordinary that running away is possible. If you keep running, you may make it to a different sort of world, and that one may be far better than the one you started in. If you think about it that way, while it may only seem as if you're resting temporarily, stopping dead isn't very good at all. Since, that way, you can't get more help from others, or raw materials and weapons to use to break out of your situation.

Yes, at this point, I've finally returned to the original subject, my feelings on "The Future for Good Children" ----!!! I divided the results into "light" and "dark," depending on whether or not there was an encounter. If there's something you can't figure out by thinking about on your own, just ask somebody else, or watch them and realize it for yourself. Also, if you can share your feelings, that's the strongest thing around. Really, that's a good ending. As far as my meeting people goes, this entry reached many more people than I'd expected it to. I followed links stealthily (or tried to), and grinned, and thought hard. Reading the comments people added, I thought, "I see, huh, you can apply these feelings to that phenomenon, too". Then, too, this all happened close to a decade ago, so it's not as though I'm crushed or anything right now; don't worry about that.

When I wrote "Isn't 'Be strong towards your enemies, but soft to your allies' kinda cool in an Ash Lynx sort of way?", I really was grinning, but there were lots of people who said they identified with that. I see; I guess that may be why Banana Fish sells. A little while ago, as I was cleaning my room, the rough manuscript from back then turned up. All the faxes I got from that writer, I've saved; I haven't thrown any away. When I looked at the date, it was exactly ten years ago.

It wasn't for long, but I was glad to have met that person. And I knew, if I continued in this line of work, I'd be able to meet them again. If there were one thing I wanted to convey to those reading this, it would be that "Those painful days were not in vain." Well, to be frank, I'm pretty sure the me then thought, snippily, "Who cares about being saved ten years later!? What about now, isn't there anything good now?"

Now then, this has gotten pretty long, so I think I'll wrap it up. To those readers who've followed along with me this far, thank you very much. And to all the writers and supervising editors and their "offspring", I wish you happiness.

In real-time, dinner is sushi! Starting tomorrow, I'll return to the regular edition. There was a lot of pressure leading up to the last part of this. Yeeeek!

Original Article
Translated by Sarah Neufeld