Tokyo: Earth Online Manga Artist.

Chapter 83 A New Short Story Paying Tribute to Myself? (First Update! Please Subscribe!!)

Eri Aragaki quickly replied, "Hello, Mr. Hayashi."

Lin Shiping and she then sat down.

Masaya Sakurai moved the coffee cup on the table aside to make room for Eri Aragaki's backpack, then asked, "Teacher, what kind of coffee would you like? I'll order it for you."

"Then I'll have a mocha."

Eri Aragaki thought for a moment and ordered a mocha.

Although she doesn't like coffee, this is a coffee shop after all.

Let's order a mocha coffee, which is more like a dessert.

"Hello, I'd like a mocha, please."

Masaya Sakurai waved to the waiter and ordered another mocha.

"OK----"

The waiter nodded and left.

After ordering coffee, Eri Aragaki took out this week's Attack on Titan manuscript from her backpack, neatly sealing the kraft paper document bag with thread, and pushed it onto the table to Masaya Sakurai.

"Mr. Sakurai, this is this week's manuscript."

Eri Aragaki immediately gestured.

Although the primary purpose of this meeting was to discuss short manga with Hayashi Shiping, Attack on Titan was also mentioned.

The manuscript is obviously not to be forgotten either.

The deadline is the deadline; it won't be postponed just because you have other things to discuss.

Sakurai Masaya took the file folder containing the manuscript, untied the clasp, and pulled out a stack of drawings.

He flipped through the pages quickly, glancing at each one to confirm that the page numbers were in the correct order and that the pages had no obvious defects or stains.

After checking, he put the drawing back into the file bag and then into his briefcase.

The main reason is that he trusts Eri Aragaki a lot; at least so far, Eri Aragaki is an excellent student in his eyes.

"Okay, thank you for your hard work, teacher. Now, let's talk about short comics with Lin."

Masaya Sakurai immediately said.

Lin Shiping had been waiting for a long time and was already impatient.

He pushed the coffee cup in front of him to the side, leaned forward slightly, and placed his hands on the table with his arms crossed.

"Riko-sensei, let's talk about the short comic strip at the end of the month—"

He said with great anticipation, "I heard you already have an idea?"

"Um.

""

Eri Aragaki nodded, then took another file folder out of her backpack.

This file folder is different from the previous one; it's made of transparent plastic, so you can see directly that it contains several pages of drawings.

She opened the file folder, took out the storyboard, handed it over, and said, "Well, this is one of my ideas. I recently drew the storyboard. Mr. Lin, please take a look."

Lin Shiping was somewhat excited. As he reached out to take it, he asked, "What is the name of this short comic? Have you decided on one yet, teacher?"

Eri Aragaki nodded and said, "It's already been named, it's called 'Goodbye Eri'."

Yes, she copied one of Fujimoto Itsuki's two most famous short manga, "Goodbye Eri".

After finishing "Fire Fist," Fujimoto Tatsuki published two short stories in "Weekly Shonen Jump+": "Looking Back Suddenly" and "Goodbye Eri."

Both are recognized as masterpieces in the world of short comics, especially "Goodbye Eri," which is considered by many readers and critics to be a short masterpiece that can be compared with long-form masterpieces.

This is one of the easier short comics to start with.

She probably thought that by copying Attack on Titan, she was destined to be well-off and pay off her debts sooner or later. She also thought that once Attack on Titan was adapted into an anime, she could appease the Republic market and make her stance clear.

So financial freedom is only a matter of time, and she doesn't want to cut off the path to wealth for those who come after her.

However, many famous short comics were actually the precursors to many long-form comics before they were serialized.

As mentioned before, Shueisha often encourages manga artists to expand their short manga series into long-running manga if the response is positive.

For example, Rurouni Kenshin and Death Note both started as short stories as a trial run.

Many famous works followed this pattern, such as Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen, Mob Psycho 100, and Spy Family—basically, short stories that received good feedback were turned into long stories.

If Eri Aragaki plagiarized those short stories, it would be the same as plagiarizing their future novels, which is not the outcome she wants.

She then chose from the few short manga works that were not later serialized as long-running manga, and after much thought, she chose "Goodbye Eri".

Fujimoto Tsuki's short stories are independent and complete; once they're finished, they're done, and there are no sequels or expansions into longer stories.

It was because she loved the work "Sayonara Erii" in her previous life. The narrative style that intertwined reality and illusion, the blurred boundaries between film and memory, and the final twist all left a deep impression on her.

It's also a way of paying homage to her own name in this life, which shows a bit of her own quirky sense of humor.

Lin Shiping and Sakurai Masaya were both taken aback when they heard the name.

Goodbye—Eri?

Could it be that Eri Aragaki is drawing her own story?

Are there any manga adaptations similar to "Bakuman" about pursuing one's dreams?

It's not unprecedented in JUMP to adapt one's own real-life experiences into manga; Bakuman itself was adapted by Tsugumi Ohba and Kenjiro Koga based on their own experiences drawing manga.

But the title "Goodbye Erii" doesn't sound like a painting of pursuing dreams, but rather like a painting of saying goodbye.

"Wait a minute, teacher, let me take a look."

Lin Shiping became serious at this moment. He put away his previous excited expression, held the storyboard in his hands, and began to read the first page.

He just felt something was off at first, though he didn't know why.

The story seems to begin with a boy named Yuta filming his terminally ill mother's final days with a camera or something similar.

The opening was so bland and almost devoid of tension that it was the complete opposite of the double-page spread of "Wu Song," which featured Wu Song fighting a tiger on the very first page.

But he didn't care and continued to immerse himself in the story of the comic storyboard.

Although storyboard drafts may be very rudimentary, professional comic editors don't care about that.

Moreover, in Lin Shiping's opinion, Aragaki Eri's storyboard was not actually that rudimentary.

This is because Eri Aragaki's drawing skills have improved so quickly that even when she's not drawing seriously, just sketching a storyboard, it looks quite good.

It's like how top students can just casually write something in an exam and still get better scores than average students.

However, the opening of "Goodbye Eri" was so bland that Lin Shiping found it somewhat inexplicable, but he still continued watching.

As it turns out, halfway through the film, when Yuta was about to see his mother one last time, he ran away, seemingly because he didn't want to face the reality of his mother's passing.