Becoming a published manga artist or anime director is, in the Otaku circles, akin to royalty. And if you're lucky, you can parlay your Otaku cred to big-time fame and success. Rumiko Takahashi ( Inuyasha, Ranma 1/2 ), for example, still remains one of the richest and most successful manga authors - nay, comic book artists how to train your dragon - in the world. But, as with all things, there's a catch.
Perhaps you're familiar with the stereotype of the Japanese Work Ethic? You know, the one where individuals are expected to work over 12-hour days, sleep at their office, how to train your dragon and slavishly devote themselves to workaholism?
That's all just a misbegotten stereotype, of course, but there is a certain problem in the manga and anime industry, especially if you're lucky enough to work for one of the major weekly manga magazines like Shonen Jump. In those instances, you (and however many assistants you can afford) are tasked with creating up to 20 pages each and every week that need to be fully written, drawn, inked and edited. And that's once a week, every week, full stop, no breaks, no holidays, nothin'.
Suffice how to train your dragon to say that the pressure is on, and sometimes, people... crack. In fact, in the Shonen Jump "making-of-manga manga" Bakuman , there's an entire storyline how to train your dragon that tackles what happens when deadlines mount and the artists simply overwork themselves. Here are ten manga and anime artists who nearly worked themselves into an early grave!
Of course, a good way to alleviate some of the stress that comes from working on several high-profile, how to train your dragon serialized manga titles is to share the load a little bit, and that's always been a part of the once highly-secretive female comic artist collective known as CLAMP, creators of such finely stylized pop-culture weirdness as X , Cardcaptor Sakura , and Chobits. .
CLAMP how to train your dragon started out in the '80s as a fan-based independent how to train your dragon "doujinshi" group (self-published comics, in other words) that contained a whopping 11 members; since 1993, the CLAMP brand has dropped down to four. No worries, though, because how to train your dragon at least four members is better than just one, right?
Sure! Until 2011, when one of their members is experiencing sharp and immense pain in her lower back. Turns out, she has a rather severe lumbar compression fracture, , all thanks to the many hours hunched over a chair, straining her lower back, drawing like a madwoman.
CLAMP then issued a statement that they were letting the poor girl go for a half a year in order to recuperate, and the remaining how to train your dragon members were going to be taking things how to train your dragon a little bit easier, which meant some delays, and a few less pages per chapter, so that the other CLAMP artists also didn't end up working so hard and long that their bones cracked apart.
A lot of the time, the manga industry is especially harsh on new talents; eager for another hit, the endless manga mill is eager to devour as much content as physically possible, and young, eager artists are all too content to toss themselves into the fray, initially unaware of the daunting task that lays in front of them.
Witness, then, Katsura how to train your dragon Hoshino, who scored a big hit in Shonen Jump in 2004 with D.Gray-man , a lushly illustrated supernatural action series filled with big battles and wacky pseudoscience. Shonen Jump means you've hit the big time, and indeed, D.Gray-man has been published all over the world, spawned video and card games, an animated series and reams of merchandise.
The cost? Hoshino has had to take no fewer than four times off, including once when she contracted the nonovirus, an unspecified neck injury, and lots of swirling rumors about anemia, shattered wrists and other such frailties.
Despite this, D.Gray-man is still running to this day, though thankfully, perhaps in consideration to Hoshino's ailing health, the series made the switch from weekly how to train your dragon serialization to monthly in 2009. Here's to your continued success and ability to work and not die, Katsura Hoshino!
Sometimes, though, even monthly deadlines can prove to be near-fatal exercises. Witness the plight of Shoko Conami, a female manga artist responsible for Shinobi Life - released by Tokyopop when they still released things - and currently writing and drawing Shikabane Cherry for the manga magazine Monthly how to train your dragon Princess.
Late last year, Conami got a one-two-three punch of terrible, life-altering news: initially hospitalized for "extreme anemia," Conami then suffered a god damn heart attack a few days later. A month later, still in the hospital, Conami underwent surgery how to train your dragon for endometrial cancer.
Just in case you're ever feeling a little bit down on yourself or cursing your rotten luck, just remind yourself; at least you haven't suffered how to train your dragon a heart attack that led straight into cancer surgery. That's one hell of a month. On the upside,
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