Tokyo life starting with painting

Hosokawa Koharu has been working with Higashinoji for nearly a year, and originally thought that he had some understanding of his steady and calm temperament.

But when she heard his nonchalant tone today, she realized that she had underestimated Higashinoji's mental endurance.

No wonder he was able to win the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award. His big heart is so much more stable than some comics authors in their thirties and forties, right?

"Teacher Higashino, do you know? I just found out about this from the editor-in-chief."

It was a sigh, but Hosokawa Koharu still asked a little curiously.

"It was Mr. Ozawa from Iwakaku Publishing House who told me."

"Ozawada, no wonder." Hosokawa Koharu couldn't help but nodded, but he was still a little confused.

As the No. 1 hitman of Iwakaku Publishing House, it did not surprise Hosokawa Koharu that Ozawada was the first to know about this matter, but why did he tell Higashinoji the news? Didn't this give him a chance to prepare in advance?

Could it be that they are poaching Higashikata?

It's really possible.

After all, Iwakaku Publishing House and Mozhu Bookstore have already formed a joint venture, which is essentially a pair of trousers. In addition, they are wealthy and very influential in the industry - maybe Ozawada will actually use the love card to poach Higashino. Si this corner.

But after thinking about it, Higashinoji is not the kind of person who would surrender to the enemy without a fight. If he wanted to surrender to the enemy, he would not be able to contribute to her again.

Hosokawa Koharu's thoughts are indeed relatively mature, but she is also a woman, and naturally it is easy for her to think about things.

"It is true that Ozawa-sensei took the initiative to tell me, but he had no other intention. He just wanted to make friends with me." Higashinoji explained to Hosokawa Koharu what Ozawada said to him at that time, and finally let him Hosokawa Koharu can accept it.

Many people may think that this is a trivial matter and there is no need to explain it.

However, when working as a team, the most important thing is mutual trust. There is no need to hide such small things.

"So that's it." Hosokawa Koharu nodded, expressing his understanding and then put the matter behind him: "Teacher Higashino, do you have any countermeasures for this matter? Have you figured out what to do?"

"There is no countermeasure." Higashinoji replied with a smile: "If you insist on saying that, everyone depends on their ability."

"But Mr. Higashino, are you really okay? Unlike last time, the only opponent was Ken Komori, who was fighting in a group this time." After all, Hosokawa Koharu is a Japanese working woman, and it is still easy to think of weakness in this regard.

It is no joke that the two major companies are rivals.

It doesn't matter if the sales volume of a single volume suffers a little. The most important thing is that Tonoji doesn't get hit so hard that his spirit is flattened.

As for Hosokawa Koharu's worries, Tonoji just laughed and replied calmly: "It's okay."

This was actually a very ordinary answer, but for some reason, it left Hosokawa Koharu speechless, and then she also laughed dumbly: "That's right, after all, I am Higashino-sensei."

Just like Higashinoji and Komori Ken's one-on-one battle, Higashinoji's results always surprise Hosokawa Koharu for a long time.

He never let himself down.

It must be the same this time.

This is not an idea that a mature editor should have. Hosokawa Koharu is not mature, but this also means that she is more aggressive than a mature and conservative editor.

Many other editors would have refused Higashinoji's requests, so she was the only one who would try to understand Higashinoji's thoughts and stand behind him.

And blindly retreating will only be treated as a coward and beaten, and people will only step on those who are weaker than him.

Hosokawa Koharu doesn't want to be a weakling who is stepped on, so even if Tonoji's single-volume sales results are not very good this time, she will give him her full support!

Competition is competition. There is nothing to be afraid of. Let’s see whether you chop off my head or I chop off your dog’s head.

The teacher I am responsible for, Mr. Higashino, has set many records! It also has advantages compared with your mainstay author! If that's the case, why should I still be afraid?

She swallowed the lines of persuasion she had thought of and digested them, and then got to the point: "Teacher Higashino, you just said you wanted me to read the storyboard draft of the new comic, have you finished drawing it?"

"It's indeed finished. I've prepared storyboard drafts for the first five episodes." Higashino answered without hesitation.

The storyboard draft of "Unnatural Death" was not difficult to draw, but it was a little difficult to determine the character and learn the common sense of forensic medicine, otherwise it would not have been completed until now.

"I understand, let's do it now. Is Mr. Higashino free now? I'll be there right away."

"Well, I'm at home now." Higashino replied.

It has to be said that Japanese high schools have quite a lot of holidays, including spring break, summer vacation, winter break, and three consecutive holidays here and there, such as May Day Golden Week holidays.

Kita Yiju High School is on spring break now, which lasts for almost two weeks. The break will last until April 56th. Japanese high school students who are going to take the exam have taken the general entrance test. After passing it, they can directly enter the university to study.

"Then I'll come over right now."

Just do whatever you want. Hosokawa Koharu is barely an activist. After putting away her makeup and clothes, she left the editorial office directly and went to the Higashino family.

Higashinoji obviously didn't expect Hosokawa Koharu to be so proactive. He looked at the phone and smiled, then turned to look at the storyboard draft he put on the desktop.

Different from the last time "The Winner Is Justice", this time Higashinoji has mastered the skills of using shadows and colors, and he was in particularly good condition when drawing the draft storyboard. To put it in a slightly cheesier way, his hands are "hot".

If nothing happens, there is a high probability that it will work this time!

Higashinoji just sat at home and played games with Higashino Chihaya for almost half an hour when Hosokawa Koharu came to the door.

"Where is Mr. Higashino's manuscript?" Hosokawa Koharu asked as soon as he entered the door.

"It's on the stove table over here." Higashinoji touched Chihaya Higashino's head, stood up and walked to the stove table.

His game character was already dead, and he had just been watching Chihaya Higashino play.

"I'm sorry." Hosokawa Koharu said something polite, then picked up the storyboard draft on the table and read the title at first glance.

"Unnatural death?"

I have no idea what this title means.

Hosokawa Koharu spread out the storyboard draft and began to look at it frame by frame.

She sighed inexplicably as she looked at it.

Perhaps because Higashinoji has a background in painting, the storyboard draft he submitted is actually very complete. The characters are outlined concisely and clearly, vividly, and look very comfortable at first glance.

Like other manga authors with slightly less drawing skills, it is simply torture to read his manga storyboard drafts. You can only barely figure out the relationship between the characters. It is definitely not as comfortable as Higashinoji.

Some people may question this, saying that if you have weak painting skills, you can still be a comic book author? But this is a fact. A standard example is ONE who drew "One Punch Man". His "minimalist lines" comic works are really impressive.

But this is not the time to keep praising Higashinoji's painting skills.

Hosokawa Koharu concentrated on it and began to look at it bit by bit, especially carefully.

Forensic doctor Mikoto Misumi works at UDI (Unnatural Death Institute). Here, they receive many corpses of unknown causes of death every year.

Some are murders, some are poisonings

It is the job of Mikoto Misumi and UDI to find out the reasons for the unnatural death of these corpses and speak for the deceased.

This is a very standard mystery comic opening.

Let’s take the characters out for a walk first, and then jump into the first case at a fast pace.

Hosokawa Koharu has a very vicious eye, and he can tell at a glance that although the heroine Misumi Mikoto looks like a forensic doctor, she should play a "detective" role in this comic, and in addition to that, there are Other characters in UDI are clinical examination technician Tokai Lin Yuko and recorder Kube Rokuro.

The stage and characters are all ready.

"Forensic detective comics feel a bit niche." Hosokawa Koharu murmured to himself.

Likewise, there’s something a little bit wrong about the detective role being cast as a heroine.

Although this is not a good thing for her to say, for roles such as forensic doctors and detectives, it is better to position the gender as a male character. After all, in which Sherlock Holmes have you ever seen a female? In addition, Japanese women are already in a disadvantaged position in the workplace, which is also an important reason why women are not easily defined as the protagonists of detective comics.

But after just reading a little bit, I couldn't draw a direct conclusion, so Hosokawa Koharu continued reading.

In the first chapter, Higashino explained the meaning of the comic title "Unnatural Death" - it refers to the dead who are randomly labeled with the cause of death and sent for cremation without anatomy. Likewise, Koharu Hosokawa learned that Japan's anatomy rate is among the lowest among developed countries.

But she didn't care about this sentence. The anatomy rate has nothing to do with whether the storyline is interesting or not. As an editor, she only values ​​storytelling.

The Takano couple who came to visit the Institute of Unnatural Death stated their intention. Their son Takano Shimawatari was found dead suddenly at home. The cause of death was hastily attributed by the police to ischemic heart disease. However, the main victims of ischemic heart disease are: The Takano couple could not accept the perfunctory attitude of the police for middle-aged and elderly people who were already weak, so they commissioned UDI to conduct an autopsy investigation on Takano Shimawatari's body.

At this point the story officially begins.

After receiving the mission, Mikoto Misumi conducted an autopsy on Takanoshima Watari's body and found that his kidneys had symptoms of acute insufficiency. Misumi Mikoto suspected that poison caused his death, but conventional testing methods could not detect what was poisonous. Substance, just when the investigation reached a deadlock, news came again that the female colleague who worked with Takanoshima Watari also died unexpectedly, and the cause of death was also unknown.

These two cases with the same suspicion attracted the attention of the heroine Misumi Mikoto. She led her Misumi team to the home of Takanoshima Wataru to investigate, and then met Baba Riko, the first discoverer of Takanoshima Wataru's body. Sumiko later learned that Baba Road had no alibi, and she worked in the chemical department of a company, so she could easily acquire some poisonous drugs. She was most likely the suspect who killed Takanoshima Watari.

This concludes the first episode of "Unnatural Death".

After reading this first episode, Hosokawa Koharu's heart rarely fluctuated.

Because how can I put it? This reasoning process is too plain and too hasty.

It was the heroine and the forensic workers of her Misumi team who discovered the suspicion of Baba Road just by asking casually.

This conviction was too quick and made people feel like it was child's play.

A lot of great foreshadowing was left in such a hurry, which is really disappointing.

This kind of quality definitely cannot beat those comic authors from the two major publishing houses. This comic is not very good.

But how to say it.

The character creation of Misumi Mikoto is quite successful, at least it gives Hosokawa Koharu a sense of immersion.

Moreover, the conviction was so quick in the past, and it feels like there will be a reversal later.

Hosokawa Koharu has unconditional confidence in Higashinoji!

Hosokawa Koharu opened the second chapter of "Unnatural Death" and read it carefully.

Mikoto Misumi, who realized that something was wrong, launched a series of investigations on the racecourse route, but these investigations had no effect, and then there was a reversal that Hosokawa Koharu was interested in!

Baba Road is not guilty. Takanoshima Watari's death is related to some acute infectious disease in the Middle East!

Sensing the seriousness of the matter, Misumi Mikoto immediately announced this fact and told the director of UDI this inference. However, it was too late. The infectious disease had already spread, and eight people died in just a few days. More than ten people were hospitalized

The second chapter has a total of twenty-one pages, which is very packed, and the inference process can be said to be reasonable and well-founded, which made Hosokawa Koharu nod with satisfaction.

It turned out that there was no real culprit at all, but that Koyashima Wataru himself traveled to the Middle East and was infected with some kind of infectious disease.

This unexpected turn made the whole plot much more comfortable. At the same time, it also aroused Hosokawa Koharu's curiosity about the next plot.

How to finish next?

Takano Shimawatari has died, but the infectious disease is still spreading. The Takano couple soon suffered from online bullying and even received death threat letters.

This severe situation was caused by Mikoto Misumi. How can she help the Takano couple?

Hosokawa Koharu picked up the third chapter of "Unnatural Death" and felt that Higashino Tsukasa's comic was different from comics such as "The Winner is Justice" and "Midnight Ring". The more he read, the more interesting it became, as if he was not reading a comic. , but like the TV series.

At least when Higashinoji drew unit dramas such as "The Winner Is Justice" before, he solved a unit drama very directly in three episodes, unlike "Unnatural Death", which also had special foreshadowing.

The evaluation of this comic has also changed from 'not very good' to 'okay, it should be very good'.

She opened the third chapter and took a quick look.

This story tells the story of the Takano couple who were bullied by the Internet and were helpless. As they were old and lonely, they could only suffer overwhelming scorn and accusations.

The atmosphere of this episode is a bit heavy, sweeping away the calmer and more relaxed atmosphere of the previous "Unnatural Death", which is so depressing that even Hosokawa Koharu can't breathe.

But at this time, Baba Road, who was suspected of being the suspected killer, stood up and said that Takanoshima Wataru was not that kind of person. He must have been checked at the airport before returning.

Baba Road's words brought a glimmer of hope and made Hosokawa Koharu's eyes light up!

Any reversal? !

Hosokawa Koharu remained silent, but his inner evaluation of "Unnatural Death" went up a level again, from "fairly good" to "a good and good work".

Because of the reversals one after another, she was a little out of breath.

She had just turned to the next page with great anticipation, and then her face fell——

Higashinoji

It just happened to be stuck here.