Gekiga Girls and Panzer Author Says He Shouldn’t Have Made the Manga
As a multimedia franchise, Girls & Panzer debuted in 2012, spawning various manga, light novel adaptations, games, and many products. However, there might be one Girls & Panzer manga you’ve never heard of.
Between 2017 and 2021, the manga Gekiga Girls and Panzer was published, featuring art by veteran mangaka Kobayashi Motofumi. The manga had a total of only 18 chapters and was published in CoroCoro Aniki, standing out for having one of the most unique art styles in the Girls & Panzer franchise.
Kobayashi Motofumi is an artist who debuted in 1975 as an illustrator. He worked as a salaried employee before quitting his job to become a full-time mangaka.
Gekiga Girls and Panzer Author Says He Shouldn’t Have Made the Manga
Motofumi published several manga until, in 2017, he was called to create Gekiga Girls and Panzer. Recently, he revealed a fact about his time drawing this manga.
Kobayashi Motofumi has a profile on the Mond website, where people can ask questions and he responds. A fan asked Motofumi something about the manga Gekiga Girls and Panzer.
His answer was surprising. He said the publisher printed 10,000 copies of the manga in its first print run, followed by two reprints of 4,000 copies each, totaling 18,000 copies.
Motofumi explained that most of the royalties from the manga went to Bandai, which left him quite irritated. He said around 70% of the money went to Bandai and, if he had known this beforehand, “he wouldn’t have drawn the manga.”
Motofumi’s Declaration Sparked Several Comments:
- “And the product failed.”
- “Are you someone who doesn’t read contracts?”
- “It’s hard to believe that a reasonable company wouldn’t have a contract…”
- “In the end, you’re wearing someone else’s clothes.”
- “You should have asked at the beginning, lol.”
- “Aren’t manga royalties usually around 10%?”
- “Royalties are normally 8-10%, but is 70% of that taken as a licensing fee?”
- “Is this industry based on verbal agreements without contracts?”
- “No, it’s your fault.”
- “You’re over 70 years old and signed without reading the contract properly?”
- “If they were going to take so much, there should have been some prior notice.”
- “Shouldn’t the distribution of money be discussed before the contract?”
- “This isn’t possible unless you didn’t even see the contract…”
- “You didn’t read the contract?”
- “Why didn’t you know?”
- “Isn’t there a contract or anything?”
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