Chapter 3: This is Youth!
After saying goodbye to Shimizu Hakuseki, Kasannoin Ayase returned to her room. After closing the door, she took off her underwear.
There was a suspicious stain on the underpants, which was wet by something.
Kasannoin Ayase only felt that her face was burning. She took a deep breath and sighed, "Oh, I think it's a great work, his manga." Then she shook her head violently and said, "No, no, no, I was moved by my own beauty, and then my body reacted naturally. Sure enough, it was because of youth! Yes, it's all because of youth. It's definitely not because I'm lascivious!"
Naturally, Shimizu Hakuseki did not know how powerful his manga was. After sending away Kasannoin Ayase, he simply washed his face, ate a cup of noodles and then picked up the brush, sitting in front of the desk again.
He completed 12 pages of line draft overnight, and he was quite satisfied with his speed, but he never dared to relax at all.
After all, this was 1974, a time that a lot of godlike mangakas still lived in the world!
It was said that Osamu Tezuka, the "god of manga" was able to draw 13 mangas at the same time during his peak period. He slept only four hours a day and could complete 50 pages of manga in a day.
With such horrible speed of painting, his works were still guaranteed to be extremely high quality. His achievements was not like what a human could achieve!
Compared to this "god of manga", Togashi Yoshihiro, a man who preferred to play mahjong for three days rather than draw even a single page of manga should be hanged to death!
Living in this era that even the god of manga also worked so hard, Shimizu Hakuseki had no reason to relax.
"Ah, I didn't expect that drawing adult manga could be so hot-blooded. When I think about the story I’m going to draw, I feel like my blood is boiling!" With such a sigh, Shimizu Hakuseki devoted himself to his creation again.
The story of "Welcome to Tokoharu Apartment" still continued.
After the first "battle" with the apartment manager, the protagonist was out of control. The two often gathered together and "battled" in various places, unlocked various new postures and fought fiercely. At first, their "battles" were still in their home such as in the porch, in the toilet, or in the living room. Then the battles naturally developed and moved into the outdoors such as in the park, in the dressing room… etc. At the end of the battle, the two returned to their room. In a fierce battle on page 18, they forgot to close the door and were peeped at by the sister of the apartment manager outside the crack of the door.
The apartment manager's sister was very angry, but strangely, and of course, she did not interrupt the "battle" between them, but watched the whole process carefully through the crack of the door. She blushed and left a suspicious liquid outside the door. The story of the first chapter ended at this point, leaving the readers with expectations, and also left room for the development of the second chapter.
When the line draft was finished, it was time to arrange the lines.
In mangas, the movement of characters was mostly expressed by lines, mainly using the principle of motion blur. Because there were many "battle scenes" in the works, the battle between the two couldn't be static. To show the sense of motion, he needed to use the line-arranging skills in the frames of the characters. At the same time, the color of the character's hair and the shadows on his body were all needed to be done by arranging the lines.
Generally speaking, it belonged to the coloring part of the manga creation, but because most mangas were in black and white, all colors were expressed in black, white and grey. Therefore, the layout not only needed to show the motion blur of the characters' bodies but also represented the colors of the pictures.
Of course, the performance of the shadows of clothes could also be accomplished by dot papers, but Shimizu Hakuseki had no free money to buy any dot papers. Moreover, he could actually draw excellent works without dot papers, although it would take him more effort to draw. Neither Osamu Tezuka nor Toriyama Akira used dot papers, but they also drew excellent mangas.
In short, after two more nights, Shimizu Hakuseki finally finished the first chapter of "Welcome to Tokoharu Apartment".
On the afternoon of the third day, when Shimizu Hakuseki woke up from his bed, he only felt that his whole body was lazy and his heart was full of satisfaction. The kind of satisfaction that comes after a creation is finished and filled his chest.
"Are you awake? Then get up quickly. I have something to tell you."
It was Ayase's voice.
Not surprisingly, Shimizu Hakuseki saw Kasannoin Ayase in his room again. After a whole panic, he finally put on his clothes and sat opposite Kasannoin Ayase.
"Senpai, didn't you say that you will give me a week? It seems that it's not time yet."
"Yes, it's only the third day. You still have four days, so I'm not here to require you to pay the rent."
"So what's the business?"
"I'm here to review your manuscript."
"Gee?"
Kasannoin Ayase picked up the manuscript of the first chapter and tapped it with her slender fingers, and said, "Your painting skill is very good, you are a genius…"
"Hey hey, over-praise, over-praise."
"Don't be modest. You can't say anything about your painting skills and style, but they are all you have done here."
"Ah?"
"The scene is good, but there is no story in your manga!" Kasannoin Ayase said in an exasperated tone, "There is no story at all. You know, whether it is painting style or technique, they are both just a means of expression. The story is the soul of your creation!"
Shimizu Hakuseki opened his mouth wide and his whole body froze.
"The story in your manga is too simple, no, there is no story at all, there is no more in-depth elaboration and description. The motivation of the characters is not clear, there is no logic, they make love just because you want them to make love! It's not right to do that."
What's the matter? I'm just drawing an adult manga. Of course, there is no logic in the story of the adult manga. In this genre, many plots are tacit by the readers and the authors.
Just like the plots in adult kongfu stories, a common plot was that the female protagonist was poisoned, which can only be detoxified by the "combination of yin and yang', which meant sex actually. After the young protagonist killed the bad man, in order to save the female protagonist, he had to make love with the female protagonist. There was no logic at all because how could there be such a strange poison in the world? "If you don't make love after being poisoned, you will die", at any rate, these kind of positions couldn't really exist. Also, think about it carefully, what if there were no men around after being poisoned? Can the female protagonist solve the problem by herself by using her fingers?
In a word, there were too many problems to go deep into this seriously.
Why do the protagonist and the female protagonist have to make love? Because this is an adult kongfu story!
"Well, to be honest, I think you think too much, senpai."
Kasannoin Ayase was silent for a while, and a dangerous breath emanated from her body. She squinted her eyes and asked, "Oh, do you mean that I think too much? Let me see. You must be thinking that this is just an adult manga, there's no need for what I said, right?"
"Yes…"
"Well, you really disappoint me. I thought you would be an unusual person." Kasannoin Ayase showed a sad and disappointed expression. She looked like a poor woman betrayed by her lover. "Unexpectedly, you are the same as other vulgar people, Shimizu Hakuseki, I thought you were the special one," Ayase said in a mournful tone and a drop of tear slowly slipped down her face.
Shimizu Hakuseki was suddenly at a loss. Why did she suddenly cry? What is this about?
"Senpai, you, what do you mean? I'm wrong. I'm wrong. I'm really vulgar. Well, I also want to be more, err, noble, but I don't quite understand."
"Never mind, as long as you have a pursuit in your mind, there is still a rescue," Kasannoin Ayase quickly wiped the tears away as if nothing had happened, "If you look down on yourself, then who else in the world will look up to you? So, you can't deny yourself, you have to understand that you are not just drawing a simple adult manga."
"Yes, I'm not drawing a simple adult manga."
But I'm just drawing a simple adult manga! For rent and meals!
Kasannoin Ayase continued to guide him patiently and asked, "So, what are you doing?"
"What am I doing?"
"You are creating the art of soul and flesh."
"Ah, yeah, yes, I'm creating the art of soul and flesh."
"You are guiding the ignorant youths into the mysterious garden."
"Hum? Am I so great?"
"Remember, you are an artist, you are creating!"
"Yes, senpai, you are so great. When you say that, I suddenly feel that I am doing a noble and great thing."
Shimizu Hakuseki felt that he suddenly awakened to the truth. He thought that he had abandoned his sense of shame, but… it wasn't shameful at all!
"Yes, Shimizu Hakuseki, you and I are the same type of people."
"Alas?" Shimizu Hakuseki sat stunned for a while, then suddenly realized, "We are the same type of people?"
"Yes."
"Senpai, are you also drawing adult manga?"
"No," said Ayase proudly, stroking her hair. "I am a novelist and I am writing an erotic novel."
Kasannoin Ayase's movements and tone were full of the superiority.
"Novelist?"
"Yes, novelist, it's different from those of you who draw cartoons for children."
Shimizu Hakuseki was speechless. Of course, he knew that the chain of contempt was everywhere. Those who watched English dramas despised those who watched American dramas, those who watched American dramas despised those who watched Japanese dramas, those who watched Japanese dramas despised those who watched Korean dramas, and those who watched Korean dramas despised those who watched Chinese dramas.
Novelists were at the upper echelons of the food chain in Japanese culture, especially in the 1970s. Novelists belonged to the mainstream culture and were naturally qualified to despise the people who draw mangas.
But you're just an erotic novel writer. To put it bluntly, you're not much better than me. Those who retreat fifty paces have no right to laugh at those who retreat a hundred paces, why are you so proud?