(CR) Comic Girls

[Kakurin]

Excellent episode this week. Found a great balance between comedy and development.

[HandofFate]

thought it was funny even when Kaos was lost and panicking, she still found time to update her twitter lol

[rladls2121]

"Is this a pen?".

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by rladls2121

"Is this a pen?".

Truly will go down as one of the most romantic quotes in history!

[4th Dimension]

Maybe pen was shorthand for something and she was doing a collab with Ruka....

Man, when they started talking about how much Kaos is crap (nobody liked her stuff) it got me thinking, why is it even shame that she won't become a manga artist.
Sure she has some artistic talent, but making a manga is not just about the artstyle, and her stories have been mostly craptastic so far with not much signs of improvement. So why is she being picked for the manga dorm thing?!? She seemingly doesn't show much promise, and there are probably others that are better than her.
And is it really such a disaster if she doesn't become a manga artist now?

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by 4th Dimension

Maybe pen was shorthand for something and she was doing a collab with Ruka....

Man, when they started talking about how much Kaos is crap (nobody liked her stuff) it got me thinking, why is it even shame that she won't become a manga artist.
Sure she has some artistic talent, but making a manga is not just about the artstyle, and her stories have been mostly craptastic so far with not much signs of improvement. So why is she being picked for the manga dorm thing?!? She seemingly doesn't show much promise, and there are probably others that are better than her.
And is it really such a disaster if she doesn't become a manga artist now?

I guess the question is who's benefit are we asking this question for? Society? The manga industry? Or Kaos herself? If we're just asking for the sake of generalities does it matter of Koyume becomes a pro? How much value is in her "it his a pen?" story? Her art is better than Kaos, but you said that art isn't the only thing that matters here.

It's an entertainment medium with a fair amount of competition so you can argue there isn't much value lost if Kaos just gives up. Could argue the planet would survive if the entire manga industry collapsed.

For Kaos herself it very well may be a disaster. What else does this girl have going for her? If the one thing she's dedicated herself to, worked her butt off towards ends in utter failure where does that leave her? Becoming a shut-in? It may not matter to the world or the industry as a whole if Kaos keeps going or not. But it clearly matters a whole lot to Kaos.

We have to run with the idea that pros in that industry think there is value to her continuing on. That her resilience stands for something. There are those with more talent than her have probably thrown in the towel. There isn't much that would be lost on some grander scale if Kaos stopped here. But there is plenty to be gained if she can grow past her failings. If there is any benefit to Ruki or Tsubasa's mangas then there is benefit to what Kaos can manage if she perseveres.

[mangamuscle]

Originally Posted by 4th Dimension

And is it really such a disaster if she doesn't become a manga artist now?

I am no editor, but I think Kaos must have the one saving grace I have seen over and over in bad comic artists, she can deliver on time. Think about it, manga magazines have an order with the printer for xxx pages each week or month and if only one mangaka fails to deliver you are 16 or more pages short, printing blank pages would be a disgrace for the magazine. That is where people like Kaos are useful, what they produce might not be great, but it is good enough to fill the blank pages.

At this moment you must be thinking "but Kaos has not produced anything so far". Wrong! Kaos has failed again and again to produce her OWN manga (because she sucks at doing her own characters in an interesting story). But there is this thing called "anthologies" where she gets to write somebodies else characters, no need to create anything new, just present a one-shot funny story with well known characters in a pre-established setting.

How do I came to this conclusion? Because it seems Kaos is a self insert for the mangaka (who was born in Fukushima), who also made her debut at the tender age of 15 but seems to have been doing mostly anthologies ever since.

I do not think that what Kaos goes through is anything unique, editors each week must see pitches for new mangas from many people and most often than not they turn them down, even if the series later on becomes a hit *cough*AoT*cough* because even they do not have a crystal ball to see the future.

[Random Wanderer]

Man, seeing Kaos cry in despair like that is heartbreaking. Editor, maybe you should actually tell her what you admire about her, focusing on her good points, so she doesn't, you know, commit suicide one of these days in a fit of despair? It's clear that the repeated rejections have done some significant damage to her self-esteem. The fact that she's able to recover and keep trying is good, but the damage seems to be getting worse all the time.

On a less serious topic, Koyume's manga reminds me of an issue I've seen before, where an author attempts to create a character that's smarter than they (the author) are. A good author will go out of their way to research information from real life, so that they can write a character who genuinely comes across as really smart. A... not-so-good author will just go with "this sounds smart to me!" and produce a supposedly genius character who is actually an idiot.

[Anh_Minh]

It's cute, but I wonder if it won't cause some kind of health issue for Nyaos to always have her ear bent by her hat.

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

For Kaos herself it very well may be a disaster. What else does this girl have going for her? If the one thing she's dedicated herself to, worked her butt off towards ends in utter failure where does that leave her? Becoming a shut-in? It may not matter to the world or the industry as a whole if Kaos keeps going or not. But it clearly matters a whole lot to Kaos.

Failing at becoming a mangaka isn't the end of the world, though. We have three examples in that very series.

Originally Posted by Random Wanderer

Man, seeing Kaos cry in despair like that is heartbreaking. Editor, maybe you should actually tell her what you admire about her, focusing on her good points, so she doesn't, you know, commit suicide one of these days in a fit of despair? It's clear that the repeated rejections have done some significant damage to her self-esteem. The fact that she's able to recover and keep trying is good, but the damage seems to be getting worse all the time.

Yes. Though - and that's mostly on Kaos - they need to talk about what's bad (or good) in Kaos' manga. It's not enough for the editor to just have the time to say it's bad before Kaos runs away.

[BWTraveller]

Originally Posted by 4th Dimension

Maybe pen was shorthand for something and she was doing a collab with Ruka....

Man, when they started talking about how much Kaos is crap (nobody liked her stuff) it got me thinking, why is it even shame that she won't become a manga artist.
Sure she has some artistic talent, but making a manga is not just about the artstyle, and her stories have been mostly craptastic so far with not much signs of improvement. So why is she being picked for the manga dorm thing?!? She seemingly doesn't show much promise, and there are probably others that are better than her.
And is it really such a disaster if she doesn't become a manga artist now?

We only know some of her ideas and most of the items she's submitted have not been completely rejected, but rather rejected for specific glaring weaknesses, such as one having characters that are all the same and another having nothing to it besides its fascinating characters. And part of the thing is that the editor, who probably has real experience dealing with struggling beginning artists, sees legitimate potential. It's not that Kaos is a bad manga artist. She's just jumping the gun, trying to publish and make a name for herself before she's really honed her talents enough.

And yeah, I do think if anything the editor needs to work out a way to sit her down and prove to her that she has talent. Doesn't even have to be a consistent act on every manga, just sit her down and take a look back at her old rejects, showing her where each was good and where things have improved. Who knows, in doing so they might even find a good story in one spot, some great characters in another, styling choices in another place that would make it pop, and piece together the groundwork for something that actually could work.

[rladls2121]

Obvious question, why this series titled as Comic Girls?
The main characters uses the word "manga", yet not even saying a word "comic", but still the series title is Comic Girls.
So the title is really not "Manga Girls"?

This series is not really that bad to me, considering how the topics people are talking can relate to many things in real life.
Still, Kaos drooling over how happy she is with all thes cute females who is this character based on again?

[SamCurt]

Originally Posted by rladls2121

Obvious question, why this series titled as Comic Girls?

Because "manga" is their term for "comic" in general, and they knew it. So there isn't anything like the manga/comic dichotomy in the US, but "Japanese comics," "American comics" or "Belgian comics" (for bande dessinée) and the like.

[rladls2121]

Right right, now that i think about it, then the term "Girls" would not be used either as the part of its title.

[Liddo-kun]

Watched episode 8:

Best episode so far. I like the history of the adults, did not know that they were previously manga artists themselves. Sensei is cute in school uniform.

As for Kaos-sensei... I ho pe she get some form of success before this anime ends.

[rladls2121]

Koyumethod and Kaospiral.

[Infinite Zenith]

Koyume's situation is a familiar one for me, albeit for different root causes: I've said "this shirt would work fine, but it's tight in the chest" more times than I care to count.

[mangamuscle]

This episode has one of my pet peeves for anime (or should I say, for the japanese society a large), they portray Koyume as being overweight without showing ANY proof (her shirt no longer fitting is either her bust growing and/or natural body growth of a teenager). Japan is obsessed with weight. At least the message was "be natural and your body will adjust itself" instead of the usual "starve yourself even if it kills you".

Was I the only one the recognized Fuura senpai the moment she spoke? I still think she is a yokai feeding on her classmates sheer terror

[Liddo-kun]

Watched episode 9:

Koyume getting fat from all the eating.... well, she lost it in one episode anyway. Donuts are evil. ><

Oh, and Fuura sempai best girl for me. Her schoolgirl hairstyle reminds me of Kurumi Tokisaki from Date A Live. ^___^

[Kakurin]

Originally Posted by mangamuscle

Was I the only one the recognized Fuura senpai the moment she spoke?

No, you weren't.

[rladls2121]

^Actually, im the only one who did not realize she is Fuura at all.
I thought she was just an outsider who is friend of theirs.