The inside story behind the creation of "Poten Life," which was highly praised by famous manga artists

Kinoshita Shinya, who will soon be releasing a daily calendar, has many series of works.

▼Calendar on sale▼
Shinya Kinoshita's "Everyday, Poten Life 2022" Calendar

Among those works, which one would you consider to be your masterpiece? Yes, it would be "Poten Life," which began serialization in the weekly magazine "Morning" in 2008 and ran for a total of 10 volumes.
We asked Tsurugimochi Satoshi and Kinoshita Shinya (hereafter referred to without honorifics), the editors in charge at the time of the series' serialization in Morning, about how the series came to be and their memories of it !

Kinoshita: When I went to bring my work to Morning, it was Tsurugimochi-san who took a look at it.

Tsurugimochi: When someone brings in a story, the person who answers the phone happens to be the one who handles it, so it was a coincidence that we met. But it was lucky. All of the eight panels he brought with him were interesting, and when I asked him about them, he said he had dozens of completed manuscripts at home, so I suggested that we select some stories from all of them and submit them to the new writer's award. Later, while considering the balance, we selected about ten eight-panel stories and two four-page stories.

Kinoshita: When I bring in my work and there's no hope, I'm told, "Bring it back when you've drawn it again," and that's the end of it. But this time it was different, so I was happy to realize that I had made one step forward.

Tsurugimochi: We decided to submit it for the "MANGA OPEN" award in the recent Morning magazine. The judges at the time were Kaiji Kawaguchi and Kei Sadayasu. They both highly praised Kinoshita, and he was selected as the grand prize winner. It was a little different from what the editorial department had expected, so we were a little surprised (laughs).

Kinoshita: I understand. I'm the type of person who is never really into words like winning or getting first place (laughs).

Tsurugimochi: Right after that, the editor-in-chief called me and said, "Okay, let's serialize it." I was happy and said, "One page every week." I remember being dumbfounded and thinking, "What, one page?" But soon after that, I was also asked to serialize in "Morning Two," which was published as a special edition.

Kinoshita: At that time, we were able to feature it on the Morning magazine website every week.

Tsurugimochi: The serialization in the magazine was only one page, but it was immediately very popular. I had a large number of books in stock, so I was the one deciding which ones to publish in which media at each stage. Kinoshita-san just focused on drawing new material.

Kinoshita: That's right. I would have my drafts looked at every week, and if they were approved, I would ink them and finish them. I did my best to not reduce my stock.

Tsurugimochi: In Kinoshita's case, there were almost no jokes that were rejected. Only when there was a fear that some people might dislike a certain joke, would we stop it just to be safe. The jokes themselves are always funny, so there is no reason to criticize them. However, it is strange that each person has a different reaction to each joke.

Kinoshita: When I'm drawing, I'm confident and think, "This feeling is really interesting, isn't it?" and I'm sure that the reader will get that feeling, but in reality, some people may wonder, "What's interesting about this?" That judgment has to be left to the reader.

Tsurugimochi: It really depends on the person which material they are into. Even when I thought I had a great collection of material this week and published it, other editors would say, "Maybe this week was a bit off-point," and vice versa. From my perspective, I always thought, "This is funny, I'm sure everyone will laugh!" and sent it out.

Kinoshita: Even though it's such a laid-back manga, I always try to draw it with the intention of making people laugh out loud... (laughs).

Tsurugimochi: Yes, I know that (laughs). That's why even as editors, we never used words like "funny" or "surreal laughter" in the slogan or PR for the work.

Kinoshita: When I was making the daily calendar this time, I was asked to choose from the works that I like, because I wanted to know which ones to include, but I couldn't narrow it down at all. Also, if I chose yesterday and today, the lineup would probably be completely different. Even the author is in such a state, so it's only natural that readers are indecisive.

Tsurugimochi: I understand that, the feeling changes every time you read it. But being able to read it again and again with a fresh feeling is a great feature, isn't it? It's nice to see the work being reborn as a daily calendar.

Kinoshita: I hope that both those who have read it before and those reading it for the first time will enjoy it.

▼Calendar on sale▼
Shinya Kinoshita's "Everyday, Poten Life 2022" Calendar

While working at Morning editorial department, he was in charge of Kinoshita Shinya's works. He is currently working at Futabasha Manga Action editorial department.

(bonus)
We will introduce two stories from "Poten Life" that Kinoshita Shinya brought to Morning.
*Also included in the main story.