News – Contest Manga Progress Log (Stopped due to Unforeseen Problems)

This page is a log about me trying to win manga contests to become a professional manga artist for Weekly Shonen Jump, Japan’s current biggest and most famous manga magazine. To get published, I’ll need to win their comic contest with an original comic. If I win, I get to be officially published as a professional artist. If I lose, I just repeat the cycle of joining contests till I win. (Note: This whole thing is stopped for now. Details below.)

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Summary

• How I got here
  Having drawn comics since I was a kid, it’s been my dream to become Jump’s manga artist since I was still in high school, so I’ve been drawing and training for it everyday ever since. Years ago, I studied Japanese and moved to Japan on a student visa specifically to make this dream come true. Unfortunately, it didn’t go well, and with my student visa almost expiring, I risked being kicked out of Japan if I don’t have a full-time job.
  So I got myself a job as a professional artist in my favourite game company. I continued joining Jump’s contests while I work, but with no luck. (Making manga AND doing a full time job is like doing TWO full time jobs, though! No time for anything!) Eventually, I managed to get myself Japanese citizenship, which means that I can stay in Japan even without a job.
  So I quit my job, lived off my savings, and focused all my time and resources to join Jump’s contests again. This page is a log of what I did during this round. (Feb 2025~Feb 2026)
• How far I got
  Over the span of 1 year, I finished and submitted 3 comics and 3 more new storyboards. I didn’t win any of the contests, but I got myself an editor in WSJ and got an illustration job for Jump GIGA. Things looked promising, but my editor suddenly disappeared without warning in Feb 2026. (No reply to any of my messages for months. I don’t know if he’s just busy or if I’ve been abandoned.)
  I can totally keep going alone, but one manga taking very long to finish and everything going into the bin if it doesn’t win is burning through my savings quickly. With victory nowhere in sight, and the fear that I might end up living under a bridge, I decided to sadly abandon this project for now. …FOR NOW!!
• What now?
  Find a way to gain financial freedom, so I can gamble my life on Jump again without fearing that I’ll end up as a homeless man in the process. I came to Japan for Jump, so I’m not considering other publishers/magazines at the moment. (One can argue that it’s easier to get in if I have prior experience in another magazine, but I don’t know. I lose all my motivation when it’s not Jump.)
  While waiting for my editor’s reply back in Feb, I had a stray thought that it’ll be cool to have a manga artist who can talk to their readers, so I started making and voicing little animated videos on YouTube for fun. I didn’t expect much, but it went a lot better than expected, so I’m now considering becoming a full-time YouTuber to support myself.
  Fun fact that before I ever started drawing, 5-year-old me wanted to become a singer, but never pursued it because my family laughed at me when I told them. Years of bullying and trauma after that sadly made me a shy and quiet person, making it even more impossible, so I never tried despite still having a longing for it. Maybe my rotten luck in comic contests is a twisted way for me to make this lost dream come true.
  Anyway, I’ll make another post about my YouTube journey and see if I’m any good with videos. Being published in Jump is a lifelong dream and is on my bucket list, so I’ll totally return to it when I can. And who knows, maybe if I get famous on YouTube first, I’ll get more chances of being published when I pitch my comic to them again. Thanks to everyone who supported me. I’ll keep doing my best!!

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Contest Manga Progress Log↓

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10th Try [Forever waiting for editor feedback]

• Project Codename: Lionheart (47 pages)
  Storyboard: 2025/11/10 – (Lots of long pauses due to my editor’s busy schedule.)
  Final Comic: (Stopped because my editor disappeared)
• Storyboard check by the editor takes 3-4 days, so I’m making this alongside Zweihänder (9th Try) to increase the speed of my production cycle. (Using the check waiting time to draw Zweihänder’s final comic so my hands are never left empty).
• 10 Nov 2025: Wrote the plot and the script.
• 14 Nov – 10 Dec: Wrote the storyboard alongside working on Zweihänder’s final comic. Reached the 3rd storyboard.
• ~31 Dec: Paused because year end’s a busy time for my editor, so he couldn’t check my work. I completed Zweihänder while waiting.
• 1-9 Jan 2026: Pausing this project to level up. I found tutorial vids on YouTube by professional mangaka, so I’m currently grinding and learning from them.
• 10 Jan – 5 Feb: Made and submitted the 4th and 5th storyboard.
• 5 Feb~: My editor gave me a feedback and I sent him the correction. He didn’t reply for a long time, but didn’t warn me about a busy schedule either, so I waited. While waiting for a reply, I made and sent him 2 more new storyboards, but a reply never came despite my multiple attempts to contact him. I don’t know if he’s just busy or if I’ve been abandoned.
• May: Three months since my editor disappeared. I’ve tried contacting him a few more times with no luck. I decided to sadly stop this project due to financial problems.

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9th Try

• Project Codename: Zweihänder (47 pages) [FAILED]
  Storyboard: 2025/9/30 – 2025/10/21 + additional revisions
  Final comic: 2025/11/18 – 2025/12/31
• Working with my editor this time. Hope I can improve lots and make something awesome! He told me to make 47 pages oneshots from now on since that’s the page count if it gets in the magazine.
• 30 Sep – 21 Oct: Made the storyboard and got an OK from my editor at the 4th version. (Warning that even if the editor OK-ed it, it’s because it’s the best I can do right now. It does NOT guarantee winning the contest, so let’s keep doing our best till the end!)
• 21 Oct: Finished character designs.
• 22 Oct – 6 Nov: Took a break to finish some unfinished business.
• 7-10 Nov: Studied the structure and opening of 10 movies to see if I can improve my storytelling skills.
• 14-18 Nov: Used the things I learned from the movies to fix the draft again and make the opening scenes easier to understand. My editor said I improved a lot. Yay!
• 18 Nov – 31 Dec: Drew the final comic. Watched tutorials by professional mangaka on YouTube along the way and fixed my paneling as much as I can accordingly.
• 31 Dec: Sent the comic to Weekly Shonen Jump’s 105th monthly newcomer contest.
• Results: Failed. Let’s keep improving!

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8th Try

• Project Codename: Motorcycle (31 pages) [FAILED]
  2025/7/8 – 2025/8/31
• 8 Jul: Finished the plot.
• 9 Jul: Finished the script.
• 10-14 Jul: Finished the storyboard.
• 14-19 Jul: Studied how to draw mecha and motorcycles. This story has a futuristic setting, but I’ve never drawn futuristic stuff before, so I’m really going out of my comfort zone!
• 20-26 Jul: Finished all character, weapon and motorcycle designs.
• 27 Jul – 31 Aug: Made the final comic. Planning to go to Russia in September to study the Russian language and culture out of curiosity, so I was also self-studying Russian on and off to prepare for the trip. Also caught a cold during the final week of this project, so it was chaos!
• 19 Aug: Phoned Weekly Shonen Jump‘s editorial department to set up a date to show them my comic (持ち込み). It’s a meeting where they’ll assign me an editor who’ll give me professional feedback on my storyboards if they think I have potential in the industry. We’ll meet up on 17 Sep after I return from Russia.
• 31 Aug-14 Sep: Went to Russia to study in a language school and returned to Tokyo.
• 17 Sep: Went to Shueisha’s office building in Tokyo to meet Jump’s editor. I brought Balalaika (1st Try), Motorcyle (this comic), and the storyboard of my next comic. The editor quite liked my work, so we’ll be working together to win contests from now on!
  (The editor said that Motorcycle was nice and I improved a lot after Balalaika. The new storyboard got rejected though, so I’ll make another one from scratch.)
• 29 Sep: Sent this comic to Weekly Shonen Jump’s 110th Tezuka Award.
• Results: Failed, but this manga got me my editor in Shonen Jump, so I’ll count it as a win!
  My editor also gave me an illustration job for Jump GIGA, so I got to appear in the magazine a bit. Let’s keep going!

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7th Try

• Project Codename: Balalaika (55 pages) [FAILED]
  2025/2/25 – 2025/5/31
• 25 Feb: Finished the plot.
• 26 Feb – 2 Mar: Finished the script.
• 3 Mar: Finished the character designs.
• 4 Mar – 31 May: Made the storyboard and final comic. Since this comic’s based on Russian mythology and musical instruments, I did lots of research about Russian culture!
• 31 May: Sent the comic to Weekly Shonen Jump’s 98th monthly newcomer contest.
• Results: Failed. My first original comic again after a long hiatus, so I was slow since I needed to do a lot of trial and error, but it was good to help me get back in shape. Also analyzed the winners’ comics to see what I was lacking. After failing a lot in the past, I don’t feel discouraged by failure anymore now, so that’s good growth. Let’s keep going!

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Past Tries

• 6 failed past tries (2 for Weekly Shonen Jump, 1 for Jump Rookie!, 3 for other magazines) from previous years before I started the above batch. All of them are 55-page oneshots.