Chapter 306: Exclusive Contracts Only

Shueisha was in the Chiyoda district, and Kodansha was in the Bunkyo district. The two districts were connected, with Bunkyo in the north and Chiyoda in the south. The distance between the two was close as well.

When Meng Fan left, Hiroji Wada was already awaiting him outside. An hour had already passed as Hiroji Wada arrived at his destination before telling his chauffeur to backtrack to here.

It was a hassle to eat together, so Hiroji Wada was pretty content when Meng Fan rejected his offer. However, the chauffeur wanted Meng Fan to stay. They dropped Meng Fan off at the entrance of Kodansha. When he heard Meng Fan say he didn’t need to be picked up afterwards, he was overjoyed but also very curious.

After all, he was a chauffeur from Toei Animation, a person in the anime industry. He was very informed on what was happening in the anime industry compared to most practitioners.

These Chinese people are very interesting. This guy had just been recommended by the godlike Oda into Shueisha, so he must have been doing some legitimate business inside during the last hour. But once he came out, why did he have to go to Kodansha? What was going on? Gee whiz. What is this guy trying to achieve here? How greedy.

The chauffeur kept this in mind. When Meng Fan departed the car, he did not leave immediately. He looked towards Kodansha to see a small old man run out.

“Goro Takahashi!”

The chauffeur immediately recognized this well-known, tiny old man, who had been in the industry for several years now.

Speaking of Goro Takahashi, he was known by another nickname — the king of leaks. He picked up several manga artists from Shueisha and Shogakukan where their serializations were almost destroyed. Recently, three or four of the artists he had ‘taken in’ had become famous. There were over a dozen who were rising in popularity, too.

Goro Takahashi’s status at Kodansha was by no means low. He was equivalent to a mascot of the firm. To other publishing houses, Goro Takahashi was a role model, a goal to work toward. Whenever they hear an anonymous manga artist ruined by serialization has become a target to Goro Takahsahi, they too will immediately pay more attention in hopes of poaching artists in similar situations. It was a topic of discussion.

Hence, Goro Takahashi was a very highly regarded figure in the manga industry, especially to those artists who wanted serialization. They all dreamed of being discovered by Goro Takahashi! It was so coveted that for some time, manga artists even paid money to ‘bribe’ Goro Takahashi.

“Did Goro-san recognize this Chinese person, too? But he doesn’t look like the type? Why does it feel like Goro is demonstrating respect towards this Chinese person!”

The driver was curious. He thought about it for a moment and decided to call Hiroji Wada and let him know of this situation. Hiroji Wada was in shock but very interested. He didn’t ask his chauffeur to keep spying and treated it as a source of entertainment. He wasn’t going to tell Shueisha either. He was just curious what this Chinese person was planning to do.

“Go ahead, Meng-san!”

Goro Takahashi happily led Meng Fan through Kodansha. After a while, he noticed that Meng Fan wanted to speak, so he immediately took Meng Fan into his office and handed him a cup of coffee.

“Thank you.”

Meng Fan sipped the coffee and stood up immediately when the small old man bowed down to him. He ushered Goro to sit down, then took out his manuscripts and story outlines from his bag before handing them to Goro. “Goro-san, I’m here on behalf of this manga. Would you mind reviewing it for me?”

“Sure.”

Goro Takahashi received the papers and thoroughly looked through them. Similar to Muto Kentaro, Goro was shocked. But the difference was that Muto Kentaro had been subtle, while Goro was completely open about his expression, mouth agape. He exclaimed: “Sugoi! Meng-san, did you draw all of these? Your drawing skills are incredible! This is S-level drawing! Your style is also superb!”

He looked at another page, his expression changing to a more serious tone.

“The storyboard!”

“What an incredible layout!”

To a manga artist, drawing skills are important, but there was never going to be a shortage of talented artists in the world who lacked an audience. In addition to storyline, a good manga also had one more deciding factor. That was the storyboard layout!

No matter how great the story was, or how talented the artist, if the storyboard wasn’t strong, a manga’s quality will decline significantly.

What was storyboard ability?

It’s when a story was told well, so the audience would want to keep reading!

Storyboarding skills were very important. Otherwise, excellent drawing skills would only make you an illustrator, and a great story was just a pile of rubbish!

Goro Takahashi could tell that the drawings in front of him contained superb storyboarding. It was simple, powerful, smooth, but was full of creativity. Between each drawing, his mind was able to animate each scene through the way the panels had been laid out. The effective storyboarding combined the context with the story and was so clever and magical!

What surprised Goro Takahashi the most was there was no trace of influence from any well known manga artists in the skills, style, and storyboard of the drawings presented to him.

He pondered at the drawings for a long time but not as long as Muto Kentaro. It took him about forty or so minutes to withdraw his eyes from the manga and the storyboard and to refocus his attention on Meng Fan. His gaze was burning. “Meng-san, where do you plan to serialize your manga?”

Before Meng Fan could respond, he continued: “If Meng-san trusts me and allows me to be the editor in charge, I promise, I can make this publish on ‘Weekly Shōnen Magazine’!”

“Weekly Shōnen Magazine” was the largest manga company under Kodansha enterprises. It was one of the three largest shōnen magazine establishments, next to “Weekly Shōnen Jump” and “Weekly Shōnen Sunday.”

There was another reason besides the quality and potential of the manga that allowed Goro Takahashi to give Meng Fan this offer so hastily. That was gratitude.

“Weekly Shōnen M’s” publication rate wasn’t as great as “Weekly Shōnen J,” nor was its serialization ranking. But serialization was still scarce, and there were several manga artists awaiting the serialization of their work!

Muto Kantaro also believed that the manga “Legend of the Mountains and Seas” could make Weekly Shōnen, but that was just acknowledgment. He didn’t confirm that it would happen for sure, and even if it made the cut, he would have to wait for a serialization position. Even with Oda san’s recommendation, Meng Fan could only meet with Muto Kantaro in advance to discuss terms and conditions.

Of course, if Oda had taken Meng Fan personally instead of providing a letter, the result would be very different. But when it came to Goro Takahashi, Meng Fan received a completely different treatment.

Goro was grateful because Meng Fan had saved his life, and he genuinely respected his character and was attracted to his charm. Plus, with the quality of the manga presented, he was naturally willing to do all he can to fight for Meng Fan, even if it meant sacrificing his own profit and displace his resources. He would help Meng Fan to the end!

He did not even consider the fact that Meng Fan was a Chinese person or what not.

Meng Fan heard this and smiled at Goro thankfully. He then got to the point and spoke out his request. “Goro-san, please hear me out before you make your decision.”

“It’s no secret that I came to Japan because of my manga. I was originally aiming for Shueisha, especially after I received the recommendation from Oda-san. But Shueisha did not accept my requests. I have the same conditions towards Kodansha as well. I want to sign a contract, and give your company in Japan all the copyrights to my manga, including manga serialization, network serialization, and solo publications, as well as miscellaneous merchandise.”

“But for the animation copyrights… I am happy to hand it to your company as well, even though it might be a long time in the future. But I must clarify in advance, I request that a Chinese production studio participate in the production of the animation…”

“Collaboration agreement?”

Goro heard this and creased his brow, smiling bitterly. “Meng-san, this is very difficult for me! If it was an exclusive contract, I can give you the best treatment for any other request! But if it’s not exclusive, I could give up my life and still won’t be able to get you onto ‘Weekly Shōnen Magazine!”

Meng Fan knew Goro Takahashi was telling the truth and sighed. He was too idealistic! He then asked: “Would it be possible if it’s not Weekly Shōnen, but another magazine instead?”

“Another magazine? That would be a pity… Meng-san… Ah, nevermind. I know if you are willing to accept an exclusive contract, you would have signed with Shueisha already.” Goro Takahashi continued. “As for other manga publishers, they have several collaborative projects, so it won’t be a problem. Meng-san, what other requests do you have? If so, let me know. I’ll take your requests up above to discuss. If they allow it, I’ll contact you to discuss the details. How does that sound?”

Meng Fan nodded and told him the rest of his requests. Goro Takahashi listened as he took note. Every once in a while, he would look up to confirm some points.

Once Meng Fan finished, Goro Takahashi looked at the requests he’d written down and sighed in his mind. If this was any other person, he would have flipped the table long ago.

Even if his manga was excellent, Japan was a society that highly valued societal status that followed many formalities.

“Meng-san, please wait a moment.”

Goro Takahashi left the room, daring to take these requests with him. Aside from coming out alive with this outstanding manga, he had another request.

Kodansha was the first firm out of the big three to enter the Huaxia market and collaborate with Chinese companies. Especially recently with the Huaxia manga market expanding so rapidly. Their collaborations have become more common, and aside from creating a mutual platform, they also established the first branch of their company within Huaxia.

This was Kodansha’s first branch in a foreign country and also the first wholly-owned Japanese company in Huaxia.

Kodansha publishing corporation had been frequently exchanging negotiations with Huaxia and the Chinese publishing industry regarding copyright and trade in recent years.

If this prospect did not exist, Goro Takahashi would have persuaded Meng Fan to adjust some of his requests. Now, he would wait and see.

Goro Takahashi was very willing to help Meng Fan!