Chapter 7: The Inner World of Adults
"I also know that there are many shortcomings in my manga," said Hakuseki Shimizu, "Please give me your advice."
"Haha, don't be so modest. Your painting skills are beyond my comprehension. The story is very good, although you are very young, I should call you sensei (sensei means teacher in Japanese)," said Ida, "But, Shimizu sensei, you may not know much about the manga industry, so your creation is not very well-focused, and this is what I will explain for you."
Things should start from the end of the second world war. Because Japan was a defeated country, as requested by the United States, a very strong treaty of "freedom of speech" was established, which led to a result that no one was watching and controlling the publishing industry in Japan. At that time, mangas were full of all kinds of pornographic and violent content, which would misguide teenagers. It was said that the number of juvenile delinquents increased greatly at that time.
What's more, due to the lack of rules, there was a phenomenon of "bad money expelling good money" in the manga market. Good mangakas couldn't make a living if they stuck with integrity. Are you good at drawing? Other mangakas have started to draw bikinis in their mangas; is your story vivid? The characters in other mangas have started to take off their bikinis; do you have a fantastic imagination? In other people's mangas, the protagonist and the female protagonist have started to get laid.
If the readers were rich enough to buy a lot of mangas, that wouldn't be a big problem. A well-mannered mangaka may still be able to make a living. Unfortunately, everyone was poor at that time, and young people had very little pocket money. They often needed to make a difficult choice between the manga which was pornographic and violent and the manga which had great but healthy content.
In fact, this choice wasn't difficult at all. Young people straightly chose pornographic mangas without using their brains.
Due to this, the mangakas who didn't draw pornographic mangas live in straitened circumstances. They could only choose between giving up on drawing wholesome mangas, or to keep drawing and start drawing pornographic mangas too. Isn't your protagonist wearing a bikini? Oh, in my manga, my protagonist is wearing leather clothes and holding a whip! Little kids, let the real adults teach you how dirty the adult world is!
In this way, all the mangas were very pornographic and violent, and finally, a lot of parents couldn't stand it. They began to burn books and criticize mangakas nationwide. Even Osamu Tezuka was scolded by a lot of people just because he was a famous mangaka.
This nationwide movement effectively reorganized the manga industry, and the grading system of manga emerged quietly. For many years afterward, pornographic mangas could only spread covertly.
However, that was a matter of the 1950s.
Now it’s 1974. Japan had experienced continuous rapid economic development for many years. With the continuous prosperity of the economy, everyone was rich today, all kinds of bad culture products had appeared again.
Actually, adult manga industry had been on the rise for a long time.
However, nowadays, adult mangas were strictly classified according to the grading system and couldn’t enter the mainstream market.
Strictly speaking, Japan's publishing industry today was divided into two worlds. One was the surface world basking under the sun, which was the normal publishing industry, the so-called mainstream market. Even pure literature only explored the issue of the soul.
However, under this sunny world, there was also the inner world which was not known to teenagers, which was commonly known as "the world of adults".
In the real world, it was the wine lady living in the wine shop of Ginza. In the publishing industry, it was the so-called adult publishing area.
Some bookstores would be allowed to have an area designated specifically for adults, which were required to be isolated from other areas of the bookstore. Only adults were allowed to enter and teenagers were blocked from entering. All kinds of adult mangas, erotic novels, and adult magazines were sold here. The things here were totally free and unrestrained.
In this way, these parents couldn't complain about anything, because in theory, children couldn't obtain pornographic books through normal channels, if their children got any pornographic books through abnormal channels (such as accidentally seeing his father's "collection" at home and so on), it was obviously a problem of family education, the parents’ fault.
The inner world of adults was invisible to teenagers and couldn't be publicly advertised in public newspapers and magazines, sold publicly in prominent places in stores, and talked about publicly. Only by promoting from mouth to mouth amongst good friends, they could spread in the dark side of the world.
This system had a lot of reference from the American grading system, but also combined with the national conditions of Japan, in any case, the system was running fairly well today.
"Our 'Taboo Paradise' is a magazine sold in the inner world, mainly selling in Tokyo and surrounding cities."
"I see." Shimizu Hakuseki said, "But, what's the business with my manga?"
"Well, since our magazine is a magazine for adults, then we have to hold a responsible attitude," explained Ida. "In your manga, the protagonist is a teenager, generally speaking, the age of the protagonist is the age of the target readers. Since you set the protagonist as a teenager, you definitely want to get more teenager readers. We don't support this tendency. At least, we should oppose it on the surface."
Shimizu Hakuseki nodded, "Oh, I didn't notice that. So, do I need to modify the content?"
"No, no, it's not necessary. I'm just telling you about the attitude of our magazine. In fact, this attitude is the same in other adult magazines. We have to show that we don't welcome teenage readers, but in fact, the biggest profit point for us is from teenage readers," said Ida. "Welcome to Tokoharu Apartment is a great masterpiece, naturally it's not necessary to modify it, just keep going. However, in your next manga, we hope you can take into account the age of the protagonist.
"Ok… so, what age of the protagonist is the most appropriate?"
"To be honest, I hope that the protagonist in your next manga will be a middle-aged man. This presetting can effectively broaden your readership. Many middle-aged men don't like to seeing young protagonists. They subconsciously look down on young people, but young people, ha ha, they don't care if your protagonist is a middle-aged man."
Yes, teenagers are all beasts driven by desire, and they were satisfied as long as there were beautiful naked girls in the mangas.
"Reasonable! Your advice really benefits me a lot! Then in my second manga, the protagonist will be a middle-aged man."
"I'm sorry to have put forward excessive demands."
"It doesn't matter. It seems interesting to let the protagonist be an obese middle-aged man."
Instantly, the name of Takeda Hiromitsu flashed through his brains.
Ok, in the next manga, there wouldn't be just "normal battles", but also the "training" from the fat middle-aged man, and the ahegao (also called O-Face and "Oro-Face") you haven't seen before!"
"Apart from the age of the protagonist, there is another problem."
"I'm listening."
"That's the story. The content is not… well, strong enough. If you are only aimed at young readers, it's more than enough. However, as I said before, our target readers are all adults. Our magazines will be placed in a large number of similar magazines and novels. In this case, your current story seems a little too pure."
Ah, come again, question my actual power to be a pervert.
"Because it's just my first manga, I don't want to go too far."
"Oh, I see. I knew that Shimizu sensei will not be so simple, then, can we discuss the follow-up scenario of your current manga?"
"No problem."
"First of all, how many chapters will be in the story?"
"My plan is about 6 to 7 chapters."
"Understand, and then, about the story, it is clear that the protagonist will start to pursue the apartment manager's sister, right?"
"Yes."
"That is to say, the female protagonists of the two chapters are both young girls. Do you have a preference for young girls?"
"Who doesn't like young girls?"
"What about the third chapter?"
"3p."
Editor Ida got excited. "3p? The protagonist, the apartment manager, and her sister? Oh, oh, it's exciting to think about that, I was still worried at first. Now it seems that Shimizu sensei deserves the name of genius."
"Ha ha, don't flatter me."
"Will there be new roles in the fourth chapter?"
"Yes, of course. Well, do you have any idea? Just say it."
"I'm just worried about you adding another young girl. As I said before, our magazine is for adults, so I personally hope that you can add a mature female role."
"Understood. A mature female role is needed."
"Don’t misunderstand me, it's not a requirement, I don't mean to make it sound like a requirement," said Ida Shinji. "It's just my immature opinion, and you are the person who holds the painting brush."
For others, it may be troublesome, but for Shimizu Hakuseki, it's not a big deal.
At this moment, Katsurai Yoshiaki's mangas suddenly flashed through his mind.
"No, it's no trouble at all. Why don't we add the mother? The mother of the apartment manager and her sister." said Shimizu Hakuseki.
Ida's body trembled excitedly. He asked in a trembling voice, "Wait, mother?"
"Yes."
"This, this is even more exciting than getting laid with two sisters… the whole family big box?!"
Suddenly, the table tilted and seemed to be propped up by something. Ida said excitedly, "This is too much. It's a violation of ethics!"
"Isn't it the goal to add a mother? Isn't the violation of ethics normal in the free adult manga world?"
Strange, why is the table suddenly tilting?
Ida Shinji's face changed and he could hardly believe his eyes. The young man in front of him could speak such shameless words calmly!
Editor Ida could almost feel the rushing power of dirty inside this boy's body. Is he really a teenager?
In this world, there really exists such a genius! Ouch, wait a minute. I seem to have touched the table again.
