Young Pro Mangaka

[Suuper-san]

I was looking at some of my favourite manga series and other popular titles to see how old the authors were when they started to write them, and it was a bit of a wake up call for me, especially the younger ones.

Rounding the years roughly, this is how old the authors were when making these series:
FMA - 27
Bleach - 24
Naruto - 25
Rave Master - 23
^same author, Fairy Tail - 29
One Piece - 22
Rurouni Kenshin - 24
History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi - 25 (probably)
Nichijou - 29
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - 27
Lucky Star - 26
Kimi ni Todoke - 30

I know that for around 6 years I didn't have writing a manga as a main goal or even having art as a career option, and I deliberately kept it as a background hobby for longer than I "should have", given my current desires.

I'm not saying that if you're older you can't write manga (there's plenty of stuff written by older people that brilliant), but this is, amongst other things, the level of a pro mangaka. Yes they trained and went to art school and apprenticed under an already pro mangaka, so they've got a lot going for them.

Basically, to me, this relates to my desired life output and what I want to do in terms of quantity, for my entire life.

I definitely want to be a good artist by the time I hit 30 (2 years to go :|), only just because it's a round number and viewed as a checkpoint of sorts by a lot of people, and timing-wise I might just scrape in :P

I'm not saying their ages should be a target for aspiring manga writers, but merely that this is what is achievable if you put your mind to it, are dedicated and focused.

Here are some "older" artists that have equally started writing popular works (possibly as their second/third series)

Nanatsu no Taizai - 35
Ore Monogatari!! - 40
World Trigger - 32
Detective Conan - 31
Black Clover - 31

As a side point most of these artists have written one-shots that you've never heard of and serials that got cancelled through lack of popularity etc, so it's not like they had it easy, they had to work hard to get where they are and deal with disappointment and setbacks as well.

Basically, keep at your goal, if you're young, make good use of your time, if you're older, make good use of your time. That's all.

Onwards and upwards.

[KeanFox]

Generally speaking. Do not let goals blind you from opportunities. There are many roads that can lead to your goals, or perhaps lead to better places. Try to not get stuck or insist on one road. No shame in taking shortcuts or asking for help or hitching a ride(Just watch out for serial killers tho). Because no one made it big by themself.

Self-imposed handicaps are the worst thing one can do to himself. The time we have on earth is finite, to waste trying to figure it out by ourselves when somebody already did figure it out.
And yeah. don't forget to enjoy the sights, stop and smell the roses. Was the friends we made along the way.


I guess when you start early you get ahead. And when you live in a country that supports anime/manga it helps a lot.

When to comes to hard work, for every Oda there are properly one-handers guys that worked just as hard but didn't get to be successful. Masashi Kishimoto has an equally talented and skilled twin. But he doesn't get to have his own Naruto.

Plague of gripes wanted to be a writer. I think I heard him say he studied creative writing in college. I think he never imagen he will find success at 30 something, playing Dark Souls analyzing bricks placements, and drawing "not furry P word"

As for me personally, I'll be 31 32. I look back and I'm full of regrets

[Crackhead Johny]

Yukitio Kishiro of Battle Angel fame - 17. Sure the original turned into a shonen disaster but the new Mars series is back on the story telling track. Kishiro's skill at art may ruin other manga for you.
Makoto Shinkai - 32 when Voices of a Different Star released. All things considered possibly the greatest anime ever. Making it by himself carries a lot of that weight. 

All you have in life, you will purchase with your life.
You want to spend 9+ hours a day doing something while constantly asking "what's wrong with this?" and fixing the issues and you can be incredible in 2 years.
I was the best in the world/one of the best in the world while I was in College and could dedicate 9+ hours a day 365 a year to playing FPS.
Want to watch Netflix instead of practicing? Want to party all the time instead? To spend time with family? Staring at the wall thinking about how you should practice? Contemplating your story but not writing down notes? You can spend your life in different ways that do not move you forward.
It all comes down to "what is it actually worth to you?"

Now as a lot of the people you list construct "Naruto Bleach Z" anime/manga. You can copy and paste that, EZ mode.
Just set up your spread sheet or database and write down each character and their power.
Build your list of cliche recycled lines from all of them. "I'm doing this for my friends!", "I can't give up!", etc.
With enough time building this you could easily train Machine Learning to just keep cranking out shonen manga/anime.
The one thing that elevates the best of Shonen above the worst/average is that you are not writing a fighting manga. You are writing a puzzle/mystery manga. By that I mean that each encounter should be a puzzle where one character has to figure out a way to win. On the garbage side just power up, gain a level, learn a new technique. On the top level solve the puzzle. On the very worst side.. retcon.
So I do not like or respect many of the people on your list as all they are doing is copying and pasting other things they have seen. This is far more acceptable in Japan than it is other places as Doshinji goes to show.

Worst comes to worst, when you retire you will have a lot of free time and fly fishing and golf look really boring.

[KatDeMilo]

My ship has sailed 😂

[Suuper-san]

@KatDeMilo ahahaha not at all, you can be anything you want at any age, especially an artist! just gotta put the time and effort into learning the skill, that's all.

@Johny

It all comes down to "what is it actually worth to you?"

100%, basically make sure that what you're spending your time on, is what you want to be spending your time on :P

The one thing that elevates the best of Shonen above the worst/average is that you are not writing a fighting manga. You are writing a puzzle/mystery manga.

This is very true, and it's why I find writing good action so difficult, because I'm no good at that puzzle-writing aspect.

So I do not like or respect many of the people on your list as all they are doing is copying and pasting other things they have seen.

To be honest, almost every story, at its core, is the same as another idea, there are no unique stories. However there are plenty of ways to not write a massive clump of cliches.

My list is indeed full of heavily cliched work.
However if you judge by success and popularity, book sales etc, then my list isn't "bad works". As you say, it depends on what you want to be, popular OR unique? if you ask me, Marvell and DC all look the same to me but look how popular they are spamming out films.  "if it works, why change it?" comes to mind. Most pro artists are, as the name implies, professional. they are doing it for the money. and so why risk doing something uncertain when you can follow the Naruto/Bleach clone and it works. simple risk/gain problem.

Also for the record my list is not my favourite shows, but rather well known shows that other people will have heard of. I wanted to make my post relatable to others and not pick my own favourites and obscure manga. But I do like some of them :P

[KatDeMilo]

My friend, I draw 35 hours a week work 40 plus. Ain't got no more time hahaha

No being real. Pro is off the table. Its just for fun, I am very aware of my cards. I love to be supportive of others though :)

[Suuper-san]

that's mega impressive time put into art! better than me at the moment, long term I average about 20 hours a week (gotta try harder now!)
I would say your art quality is already a professional level though, you're doing high quality manga pages already so I think it's just doing what you want with your skill now?
making money is always a bit of a pain as it involves marketing and a bit of business sense as well, but if it's something you want to do, I wouldn't sign it off as impossible. but as you say, you know yourself best, both what you want and what is possible. all the best :)

kinda same for me I dont know if I want to properly make money but I just wanna make tons of art :P

[KatDeMilo]

One of the good things from having art as a hobby and a half decent day job is you can buy all the art things you want and you don't have to resort to NSFW fanart to pay the bills.

Hmn I have to keep to a full schedule because my time isn't as productive. Due to energy levels and focus levels after work.
So 35 hours feels more like 20 decent hours. :E

I'm okay at drawing but I have yet to click with visual communicating. I was told by a publisher I'm actually very talented at panel design which gave me a little yay. However I know I can't do sequential art yet. The good thing is I can see that. Will take many years to get a hang on that I feel. I'll get there.

I'm not willing to sacrifice what I want to do for what I know sells. Stubbornly set on my goal and got a day job to support it xD I also support my partner going through uni so... I'm the money maker who puts the roof over our heads and pays for dinner.

I think we are both pretty dedicated people from what ive gathered. I really hope you go for it and go all out and don't ever stop! I can live through others dreams xD

[Suuper-san]

yup I'm not going down a NSFW route, it's not for me.

yeah focus after work isn't too great for me as well, i often take a 30-60 minute nap to mentally distance myself from work and recover some energy. the bonus is I only work 2 days a week so that doesn't affect me too much.
yes it's quite useful to have a normal job to pay the bills and then you can focus on your art without worry, so that's probably something that I wont change for a long time.

knowing your strengths and weaknesses is indeed incredibly useful, in fact it's imperative for progress. I'm not really great at anything except high output ehehehe I sort of focused on end-game mentality before working on skill :P

I certainly hope I can keep going, the last few years have been a crescendo of productivity and milestones, so  I'm hopeful for my long term goals :)
and you too I'm sure will get there

[Crackhead Johny]

My friend, I draw 35 hours a week work 40 plus. Ain't got no more time hahaha

No being real. Pro is off the table. Its just for fun, I am very aware of my cards. I love to be supportive of others though :)

So what is the issue?
I did 1 quarter of life drawing in college and after 1 quarter of 9 hr/day I went from low grade stick men to low grade photo realism.
I never visualized before this so having images pop in my brain was disconcerting. So that was it for drawing for me.
Those flashes are now gone and all I know image wise is text.

I do consider sitting down and learning to manga at pro/acceptable level. Probably take at least a year.
I would hate that year so much. Endless drawing and suffering.
I remember the trucker who volunteered at the anime room..  Old school Kishiro beats his quality (and everyone elses) so does Old school Otomo.. Not many other do though. He had time on the road to do this is my guess. Just a guess.

If you are still drawing big eyed unicorns and Bratz dolls after a year riding the graphite, the problem is you. Start getting super critical of your work and keep working on the issues. It hurts but grind it out.
this is why great artists are always torn between loving and hating their own work.

[KatDeMilo]

My friend, I draw 35 hours a week work 40 plus. Ain't got no more time hahaha

No being real. Pro is off the table. Its just for fun, I am very aware of my cards. I love to be supportive of others though :)

So what is the issue?
I did 1 quarter of life drawing in college and after 1 quarter of 9 hr/day I went from low grade stick men to low grade photo realism.
I never visualized before this so having images pop in my brain was disconcerting. So that was it for drawing for me.
Those flashes are now gone and all I know image wise is text.

I do consider sitting down and learning to manga at pro/acceptable level. Probably take at least a year.
I would hate that year so much. Endless drawing and suffering.
I remember the trucker who volunteered at the anime room..  Old school Kishiro beats his quality (and everyone elses) so does Old school Otomo.. Not many other do though. He had time on the road to do this is my guess. Just a guess.

If you are still drawing big eyed unicorns and Bratz dolls after a year riding the graphite, the problem is you. Start getting super critical of your work and keep working on the issues. It hurts but grind it out.
this is why great artists are always torn between loving and hating their own work.

What is the problem?
Maybe I don't want to :/ I enjoy doing what I do and encouraging others.
But thanks I guess?

Plus pro-level in at least a year. You must be very very talented. I definitely could not do that. Its a shame you don't want to.

Goodluck with whatever you do then.

[Coryn]

There's nothing wrong with not going pro, even if you have the ability to. What matters most is that you're enjoying yourself. If you're drawing or writing just for the love of the game, more power to you. That's the official MR word.

[KatDeMilo]

There's nothing wrong with not going pro, even if you have the ability to. What matters most is that you're enjoying yourself. If you're drawing or writing just for the love of the game, more power to you. That's the official MR word.

Do it for the love of it. For sure
 

[watanabe_ringo]

I do agree that it seems like the ages skew younger, and it can seem scary when people are getting older and not where they "want to be". I think no matter what just keep working towards your craft and be present with your work! best of luck!