Recently,
the creator of the popular romantic comedy Rent-A-Girlfriend (Kanojo,
Okarishimasu) captured the attention of his readers by making a rare public
appearance. Reiji Miyajima, author and illustrator of the work,
showed his face — a rare practice among manga professionals in Japan, who
prefer to keep their personal identity strictly private — through a series of
photographs and educational materials shared by the Kakikomi practical
manga school.
The
secret to a perfect first chapter
During his
involvement as an instructor at the school, Miyajima offered direct guidance to
the new generation of artists on how to build a solid first chapter, one of the
biggest challenges when starting a serialization. The author explained that
novice cartoonists often make the mistake of trying to include too many ideas
at once. To avoid this, he stressed that it is essential to identify the
central focus and the main axis of the story from the first page.
Without that clear direction, he warned that it is very difficult to decide
which elements to discard, which ends up weakening the narrative and making the
chapter feel scattered and without focus.
"What
you like" vs. "what sells"
Miyajima's
lesson also delved into his personal creative philosophy, highlighting the
importance of knowing how to distinguish between "the things you
like" and "the things that sell." The
author detailed his thought process to precisely define what he wants to
represent in his work, structuring the plot so that the central axis does not
deviate or lose its way with the passage of time.
These tips
come backed by the overwhelming success of their own work. Serialized in the
pages of Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine since July 2017,
the manga has surpassed 15 million copies in circulation worldwide.
Currently, while the anime adaptation is in the middle of airing its fifth
season, this rare appearance by Miyajima serves as a practical testament to
how a disciplined narrative approach can sustain the success of a story
throughout nearly a decade of publication.
