Just like the "Berserker armor" shouldered by Kayez, and like Kentaro Miura, who cannot balance creation and life, contemporary Japanese manga artists with a strong desire to create are often unable to resist the innate "branding" that accompanies it, and they are scarred while creating the world of works.
On May 20, the news of the death of Japanese manga artist Kentaro Miura came out, and the masterpiece "Sword Wind Legend Brand Warrior", which witnessed his more than 30 years of manga artist career, once again attracted public attention.
In this dark fantasy work, the orphan Katz born in the dead body is not only tortured by the sacrifice mark, but also mentally suffers the pain of being betrayed by his adoptive father and friends, forgotten by a mentally broken lover, and his body has also lost his left wrist and right eye, and he is scarred – known as the "Black Swordsman", he seems to be the protagonist of an Oedipal tragedy.
Black Swordsman Kaz. Image: renote
In order to avenge and fight against fate, Kaz did not hesitate to wear the armor of the "Berserk "Berserk (also the original title of the game)" to fight. Thus, as the word "Berserker" confers, Katz's struggles in his work are always accompanied by mental and physical torture. And what sustains Kaz's efforts is exactly what his name refers to—the amazing mental power (Guts) that transcends physical fatigue.
But the image of Kazi bearing hardships and slaying demons is not a portrayal of Kentaro Miura's creative figure? It is precisely because of the long-term creative pressure and irregular lifestyle that Miura's arteries hardened, and eventually due to acute aortic dissociation, the blood vessels ruptured and died.
In fact, not only Miura, but also the daily routine and health of Japanese manga artists have always been worrying, and the average life expectancy is also significantly lower in Japan, a long-lived country. The creators who create and sketch the imaginary world for fans all over the world, while completing this sacred mission, also undergo the physical and mental torture of Kaiz, it is difficult not to make people feel sad.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" > Miura's struggle with "branding"</h1>
Each frame of Sword Wind Legend Branded Warrior is a work of painting and art. Image: fc2
Kentaro Miura's creative style is very delicate, and almost every storyboard in his pen can be seen as a work of painting art. In order to maintain this high-quality, high-density style of work, he must immerse himself in creation day and night. It was this immersion that had an indelible impact on his life outside of the comics and ultimately led to tragedy.
The inexhaustible religious mythological elements in Sword Wind Legend Brand warriors. Image: fc2
For example, from the comments left by Miura Kentaro at the end of the volume of the Shirazumi-she serial magazine Young Animal, some of the triggers for the manga artist's untimely death can be found - descriptions of his health in the early years:
Fell because of a high fever of 40 degrees. I remember that I only had two days off this year. (No. 12 of 1993)
I lost 5kg without doing anything, why??? (No. 21, 1993)
I haven't been out for a month and a half, and I have a holiday to go out but I have heat stroke!!! (No. 17 of 1995)
After becoming a manga artist, he was the first to take a break to go to Okinawa. 2 and a half days of the 4-day trip collapsed due to heat stroke. (No. 19 of 1998)
Only half a day off in 2 months. I haven't taken two days off in 4 years. All kinds of places on the body began to disobey the call. (No. 23 of 2004)
He fell down because of overwork. This is not a hundred-volume commemorative ceremony of "The Legend of the Leopard Head King", it is really tragic! (No. 9 of 2005)
I fell down twice a month because of a cold, for the first time in my life. (No. 5, 2007) (No recent information?) The most recent are 15 years apart)
The commentary also shows his immersion in creation and the isolation of his life:
I'll be 27 years old in July. Looking back at these 27 years, it's all about going around comics, is that okay? (No. 14 of 1993)
Every year, Whether it is Christmas or New Year's Day, I work, and occasionally I want to eat some New Year's Day dishes. (No. 3 of 1994)
I bought clothes and shoes for the New Year's party. I realized I only had two pairs of travel shoes. (No. 2, 1996)
Within a month and a half only the 2 hours of eating at the jonathan restaurant went out. Isn't this a bit of a home squat? (No. 24 of 2001)
I didn't see anyone for a long time, and I didn't even talk to anyone. (No. 7 of 2002)
I haven't answered the phone in 2 years. Or write off the phone. Estranged relationships are what motivates me to work hard at the drawing table (No. 21, 2002)
I'm about to turn 40. There is nothing in this life but comics, which is really distorted. But there is no way to turn back, keep charging forward! (No. 2 of 2006)
This year, I will continue to squat at home——! (No. 3, 2006) Squatting at home was too lonely, or gave up. (No. 4 of 2006)
Too busy, didn't go out this week. Chocolate became a valuable food supply. Thank God. (No. 6 of 2006)
From these comments, it can be seen that this immersion can be described as a kind of "sacrifice branding", which makes him maintain the same level of attention and exuberant energy, whether he draws a serial work or a picture with his hand, and eventually "consumes" his life mercilessly. Since 2006, due to the long-term torture of this "brand", his works have had to be suspended every 1-3 years. Miura's death due to an acute aortic dissociation occurred after the work entered a new period of rest in January 2021.
In the Japanese manga industry, because the author of the manga "Hunter" Yoshihiro Tomiken often gives himself a "holiday" for personal reasons such as playing games, manga artists who often take a break are easily considered by fans to have "writer's anaerophesis syndrome (the disease of not wanting to draw manga)". Unlike this reason for not finding inspiration or escaping from reality, the relationship between Miura and the work, which is obsessed with creating and difficult to grasp the "degree", can be said to be a set of love-hate contradictions: on the one hand, in order to devote himself to the creation of the story world, he ruthlessly devours his own life and endangers his health; on the other hand, he wants to maintain his health through rest, but finds himself with nothing but his work, and has to return to creation again - it can also be seen from the aforementioned comments that Miura "squatted at home" for himself. Self-deprecation and ambivalence of the state of life.
Sistan – The Roman Fighter – and Sword Wind Legend Brand Warrior have similar styles. Image: animatetimes
In the April 2021 anime, there is a work similar to Miura's work: Sistan - The Roman Fighter. The original work of the anime was "The Legend of Boxing Dark", which has been serialized for more than 20 years, and the creators, Shizuya Kirai, are high school classmates with Miura and have also worked as Miura's manga assistant for a while. The two who once fought side by side also have very similar works: "Boxing Dark Legend" and "Sword Wind Legend Branded Warrior" have not only been serialized for twenty or thirty years, but the depictions of the two comics are also very delicate. In a public conversation between Kentaro Miura and Shizuya Jirai, which was released in April 2021, there was a conversation between the two who had not seen each other for more than 10 years:
Technical: My vision of the work was not even half realized. What to do?
Miura: So the next step is the battle against health.
Ji Lai: So I finally understood the fact that I couldn't finish it before my life was over.
Miura: But as long as you pay attention to maintenance in life, don't you mean that there are a hundred years? There are also people who can still work at the age of 90.
But who would have thought that Miura, who said "a hundred years of life", would leave us less than a month later. Whether it is Kira or Miura, according to their plans for the work and the current progress of the serial, even if they are healthy, they will not be able to truly finish until the two are in their 70s - the infinite pursuit of the world of manga works sometimes becomes a "brand" that accompanies the creators for life. If the author, like Miura, is unable to properly balance the relationship between life and creation, he is likely to be engulfed by this "brand".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="39" > the living conditions of Japanese manga artists</h1>
Although not every manga author is as good as Miura, who is not good at balancing the relationship between life and creation, the overall living situation of the Japanese manga industry is indeed not optimistic: the intensity of the authors' work has long exceeded the level of 996 in the north, Shanghai, and Hiroshi in China.
The work schedule of a Japanese manga weekly serial author. Image: areablue
Pictured above is the work schedule of a Japanese manga weekly serial. It is not difficult to see that cartoonists spend most of their time sitting in chairs at drawing tables. As a result, the author's time to go out is extremely limited and there is a serious lack of exercise. Due to inactivity, the body's resistance to viruses such as colds and immunity will also decline, so Miura will fall due to heat stroke when he goes out for dozens of days.
In addition, tenosynovitis, a common disease of heavy manual labor, often affects cartoonists who draw with a pen for more than ten hours a day. After the onset of tenosynovitis, just a slight movement of the finger will cause pain, and the finger with the onset of inflammation will be accompanied by fever, which is very uncomfortable. In addition to tenosynovitis, chronic diseases such as shoulder pain, headaches due to eye fatigue and lack of sleep, and hemorrhoids caused by sitting for a long time are also natural enemies of cartoonists.
Due to the fast pace of Japanese manga serials, manga artists are always overwhelmed by the pressure of the delivery period, and most manga artists do not even have time to chew and eat a good meal. Instant noodles, burgers, and bread often replace meals, and cartoonists face a long-term inability to eat meat and vegetables, which can easily lead to malnutrition and hair loss in the long run.
Staying at the painting table and painting with his hands for a long time, he could not sleep for several days in a row, and when he was hungry, he grabbed the rice ball and ate two bites casually. Image: areablue
Staying at the drawing table and painting with his hands for a long time, he could not sleep for several days, and when he was hungry, he grabbed the rice ball and ate two bites at random - as revealed in "The King of Pop", what awaits the japanese weekly manga author is this kind of life that is day and night, dark. If comics could be serialized in influential weekly magazines and one-shots would be sold, these authors might be looking forward to a dream-like future in which "works are animated, gamified, filmed, dramatized, and peripheralized." However, the premise is that they need to go through the hellish serial test first.
In the face of this test, even if it is not as sudden as Miura, but the total sleep time of the week falls below 10 hours, overwork leads to mental breakdown, depression, panic disorder, and has to take a long break from the weekly manga writers can be said to be everywhere.
According to public information, even the cartoonists behind well-known works are not easy to work. Sometimes because of popularity and attention, they tend to bear greater expectations and pressures. For example, Eiichiro Oda, the author of "One Piece", gets up at 2 o'clock and 5 o'clock every day, except for eating and working, there is basically no rest time.
Eiichiro Oda wakes up at 2 o'clock and 5 o'clock every day, except for eating and working, and basically has no rest time. Image: areablue
Kishimoto Kishimoto, the author of Naruto, can only sleep 3 hours three days a week, although he can still get a day off on Sundays.
Kishimoto was able to get a day off on Sundays, but he still slept only 3 hours a day three days a week. Image: areablue
"Dragon Ball" author Akira Toriyama, when he drew "Alare" at the beginning of his career, also maintained a long period of continuous work, and he was too sleepy to go to sleep. This long and intense creative experience led him to set a record for painting a sentence in just one day (usually 5-7 days) when creating Dragon Ball.
"Dragon Ball" author Akira Toriyama, when he drew "Alare" at the beginning of his career, also maintained a long period of continuous work, and he was too sleepy to go to sleep. Image: areablue
Of course, there are authors who are becoming more and more diligent because of the popularity of their works, and naturally there are negative teaching materials. The comic "Mr. White Book", which depicts the "ecology" of Fuken Yoshihiro's creation, includes Fuken Yoshihiro's "ugly face": after setting a record for 20 weeks of serialization of "Hunter", the editor found that he still could not stand the pressure and interrupted the creation to pick up the gamepad.
After setting a record for 20 weeks in the Hunter series, Yoshihiro Fuken still interrupted the creation and picked up the gamepad. Image: areablue
Shigeru Mizuki, an old man in the manga industry and author of "Kitaro", has also set a "negative example" for modern manga artists: he maintains 10 hours of sleep a day when he firmly believes that sleep is good for the body. He also ate and drank heavily at the banquet hall of the publishing house, and at the same time severely reprimanded Osamu Tezuka and Shotaro Ishinomori for sacrificing sleep all night in order to create, so that they should not underestimate the power of sleep. In hindsight, Osamu Tezuka and Taro Ishinomori both died early in their 60s, but Shigeru Mizuki relied on his own good habits to paint until he was 93 years old.
Both Osamu Tezuka and Taro Ishinomori died early in their 60s, but Shigeru Mizuki relied on his own good habits to paint until he was 93 years old. Image: areablue
Although we don't want manga artists to stop playing games like rich thieves and set aside their eagerly awaited readers, Shigeru Mizuki has become a positive example for contemporary Japanese manga artists - as long as they maintain a good night's sleep and diet, manga artists can ensure their complete and healthy careers, and readers can read more of their works.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="59" > dissolve the "branding" on Japanese manga creators</h1>
Just like the "Berserker armor" shouldered by Kayez, and like Kentaro Miura, who cannot balance creation and life, contemporary Japanese manga artists with a strong desire to create are often unable to resist the innate "branding" that accompanies it, and they are scarred while creating the world of works. The increasingly competitive and accelerated pace of contemporary Japanese manga has also brought the kind of darkness that Kaiz faced to manga creators.
Kaz's tragic situation is one of the few in the anime world. Image: Twitter
In the second half of the story of "Sword Wind Legend Branded Warrior", Kaz became a "Black Swordsman" after being betrayed by his relatives and friends and fell into the trough of a lonely life, and after meeting various characters such as the wind goblin Buck, the golden Farnasse, the attendant Serpedge, the little witch Shirky, and the young Isdolo, through the mutual trust established with them, he found a partner again, and also colored his dark world.
Dark species add a variety of colors. Image: Baidubaike
If Miura, who is alone and unmarried in his life, can also reconnect with his best friend or lover like Kaiz, he may still be able to find a new balance in his life in time, and the story of "Sword Wind Legend Brand warrior" will not die prematurely. However, a fact that cannot be ignored is that, just like Kaiz gradually became tender from the iron man after meeting a new partner- Miura may be trying to use this transformation to add the spirit and fun of a healthy life to his day and night self.
Kodansha provides creators with an industrial health care support service "first call". Image: j-cast
Although the journey of "Sword Wind Legend Brand warrior" will not continue, the messages that Miura added to the second half of his story may not have been in vain: Two weeks after Miura's unfortunate death, on May 18, 2021, Kodansha announced the introduction of an industrial health care support service "first call" to manga artists and their families and assistants who contributed to its magazine, through which manga artists who could seek medical treatment online could get professional medical services without leaving their homes. The service will also continue to meet the needs of manga artists and further expand to the entire Japanese manga industry.
Manga artist Mitsuru Makimura regains her vitality through social dancing. Image: Fujinkoron
At the end of March 2021, a little earlier, 64-year-old female manga artist Makimura also talked in an online interview about how she balanced her work and life after entering menopause after the age of 50 to gain fresh vitality. The way she did it was, she tried social dancing.
Contemporary Japanese manga artists may need to leave their drawing tables and rooms from time to time to find different colors in their lives on the outside of manga and work. In the face of the cruel pressure of serialization, it is also necessary for comic publishing houses to join hands with the entire industry to establish more life security similar to "first call" and provide a better living environment for creators. Only in this way can we lift the "brand" on these contemporary "warriors" and allow them to create more creative and vitality works.