A well-known Japanese manga artist was once harshly criticized by an editor for taking too long to draw! Even an ordinary person can draw 30 pages in a day, while a professional manga artist cannot!

Ask those who engage in comic creation how many pages they can finish in a day if they go all out. The renowned Japanese manga artist Tetsuya Chiba once recalled that he was scolded by an editor for drawing too slowly. That editor claimed that an average person could draw “20 to 30 pages” in a day, but no matter what, he could never reach that speed; drawing 7 pages in a day was already his limit.

This reminiscence sparked heated discussions among netizens, who unanimously expressed that drawing 7 pages in a day is already considered highly productive. Now, let’s take a look back at how manga artists of that era created their works.

Stop joking. I might never have the chance to say something like this to someone in this lifetime.

The seasoned manga editor Kenta Ogino, who has been responsible for the serialization of works such as “A Certain Scientific Railgun,” recently posted a single-panel comic storyboard on social platform X and expressed that some of the dialogue in the comic was a bit ridiculous.

 The comic depicts an editor scolding a comic artist for drawing too slowly:

「Ordinary people can at least draw 20 to 30 pages a day if they try a little! What on earth are you doing? 」

This statement immediately sparked a heated discussion among netizens, with many complaining that this editor’s request was too exaggerated. Nowadays, even for serialized works in weekly publications, it is already quite good to complete “20 to 30 pages” each week, let alone finishing such a workload in one day.

 In fact, this comic is based on the memoirs of the manga artist Tetsuya Chiba.

 One of Tetsuya Chiba’s representative works is “Little Fist King.”

Tetsuya Chiba’s memoir published in 2021 is “Footprints: Tetsuya Chiba’s Collection of Short Stories.”

This memoir reviews various stages of Tetsuya Chiba’s life through several short comics, which also touch upon his interactions with other famous manga artists.

The talked-about manga comes from the memoir’s piece titled “Tomogaki“.

In the story of “Tomogaki“, it describes Chiba Tetsuya’s experience in the 1950s to 1960s, when he was required by a publisher to live with other manga artists and writers for easier management.

Near the Kodansha publisher’s headquarters, there was a Western-style house called “Old Mitsui Takayoshi Residence“, which housed many writers and manga artists.

Chiba Tetsuya recalled that well-known writers such as Endo Shusaku, Yoshikuni Junzaburo, and Takami Jun lived here.

 The cartoonists include:

Famous for “Space Battleship Yamato” and “Galaxy Express 999,” Leiji Matsumoto (Matsumoto Sei) is known alongside Takeshi Takemura, famous for “Courageous Bell.”

He is even hailed as the “God of Manga,” Osamu Tezuka

Chiba Toshiya stated that among these manga artists, his speed is considered the slowest, and he is the one who is most often scolded by the editors.

Editor: 「Are you kidding me? You’ve only drawn 7 pages since this morning!? What are we supposed to do about this? 」

 The blame from the editor includes that controversial statement:

Editor: 「Ordinary people can draw at least 20 to 30 pages in a day if they put in a little effort! What are you actually doing? 」

At that time, Chiba Toshiya was only 20 years old, and his assistant was his 16-year-old brother, Chiba Akishin. Later, Chiba Akishin also became a manga artist. When Chiba Toshiya was scolded, Chiba Akishin tried to defend his brother.

Akishin: 「It’s because my brother wanted to make the ending more perfect and modified some unsatisfactory parts, so that’s why he was drawing slowly.」

But the editor could not accept this explanation and continued to accuse Chiba Tetsuya of lacking professional awareness.

Editor: 「Since you are a professional manga artist and are already nearing the deadline, you should not focus on details, but rather complete the manuscript first, right? Am I wrong!? When will you be able to abandon this amateur mentality? 」

Regarding the statement “Ordinary people can draw 20 to 30 pages in a day“, Japanese netizens responded:

What ordinary, anyone could be called a superman…（；´Д｀）

「What he calls ordinary is actually legendary level. 」

「Who can achieve that besides Osamu Tezuka? 」

「Aside from Rohan at the edge of the shore, the only one I know who can do this is Rumiko Takahashi. 」

「If I could draw 20 to 30 pages in a day, I could take six days off a week for serialization. In the past, just trying to draw 5 pages of a manga required me to stay up for two nights. 」

「Are you sure it’s not on pages 2 or 3? (Confused) 」

「Lines that would leave even comic editors dumbfounded. 」

Isn’t it impossible to do even as a draft?

Do you think your manga skills have reached the level of an ordinary person?