I happened to come across a job offer for a manga assistant.
Even though I wanted to “live an honest life,” I didn’t have any special skills or qualifications. I was thinking that it was too late to get a job at a company, when I happened to come across an advertisement that said, “Boys and girls who love manga, gather here! Age and experience not important, full-time, monthly salary from 80,000 yen. Manga artist Tanimura Hitoshi.” Are such advertisements still around?
When I saw it, I remembered, “I was good at drawing. I got so absorbed in drawing,” and I thought that this was it.
But to be honest, when I read the job posting, I thought, “Tanimura Hitoshi? Who could that be?”
So, on the day of the interview, I went to a nearby bookstore to look for Tanimura-sensei’s manga. But, for some reason, I couldn’t find it…
What should I do? I thought I could just lie and say that I read it all the time, and if I didn’t get accepted, I’d just look for another part-time job, so I went to the interview with that nonchalant attitude.
At the time, he was serializing school-themed violent comedies such as “High School Agent” and “Yokosuka OP.” Well, he’s more of a manga artist known only to those in the know.
I was asked to bring my resume and a piece of work to the interview, so I wondered what to do. I wanted to use my drawing skills, so for some reason I drew a pencil sketch of the elementary school building I graduated from. It was a plan to surprise them.
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Tanimura Productions is located at the end of the hill after exiting the south exit towards Koganei.
On the day of the interview, I was nervous for the first time in a long time. Well, I haven’t read the teacher’s work, but I took a drawing I had done and was fully prepared to go to the teacher’s home/workplace for the interview.
When I pressed the intercom, I heard a voice say “Yes!” and the door opened, and a person I really don’t know how to describe came out. Ah, a person I don’t know how to describe is really ambiguous in Japanese. Writing is difficult. I’m glad I became a manga artist (laughs).