Here, I will be writing stuff about progress in the development of my own series, “Jinsei no Minna” (literally “Life’s Everybody”). I know that the correct way to say it would be “Minna no Jinsei” (“Everybody’s Life”), but I came up with the name when I didn’t really know much Japanese and before I knew it it was too late to change it. But in a way, “Life’s Everybody” is a good way to put it, because the main topic of my comic is not specifically the individual lives of my characters, but all the individuals that are alive. If that makes sense? It does to me.

A summary:

The year is 2036. In 2010, a remedy has been developed that enables people who die young to evolve into an alternate form and live out their lives and fulfill the dreams they could not make true before they passed away. It is a way to stop death in a unnatural way, and there are a lot of people who are against it. The remedy, created under a project called ‘ Yume no Tenshi’ (‘Dream Angel’) has allowed these alternate creatures to live amongst the normal people, with the same rights.

As the first person to have undergone the remedy, mysterious Yume-sama is now principal of the school she always wanted to build. ‘Yume High School’ is a school that is meant for students who have had a shocking/traumatizing occurence in their youth. The main purpose is that these students come to find each other and may develop even deeper bonds and friendships than they would have in a normal high school. The understanding of each other’s pain is what brings the students closer to one another.

“Jinsei no Minna” is about a group of friends who have partly known each other from earlier on, who all start in their first year at ‘Yume High’. Though it is difficult (I’ll admit it myself)  to pick one particular main character out of the group of friends, I have chosen shy and socially isolated Chihiro Aoyama as a main character, mostly because what she has been through and the shame she still feels make her both strong as weak at the same time and I find that very interesting to write about.

I find it really interesting to look at people’s individual stories, things they have been through and how those events have made people to who they are today. I put a lot of my own thoughts and experiences into my story, and I have to say each character has one or two of traits that I am familiar with myself. I hope my comic will once be read by somebody (or more somebodies) and positively criticised.

A short summary of the group of friends (I will keep it short!): Siblings socially awkward Chihiro, weak health Kasuya, 10-year old genius Akane, childhood-friends-but-often-fighting Emiko and Takeshi, sweet Mina and her mysterious cousin Satoshi, always-frolicking-but-oh-so-dense Yura, and lonely-poor-parental-relationship Haruhi. The rest of the characters is mainly the rest of the classmates and the homeroom teacher.

When I started drawing “Jinsei no Minna”, I did not have much experience drawing a whole comic and so the drawing style is slightly unprofessional and not really eye-satisfying. Because I began to improve while drawing volumes 2 and 3, I’ve been wondering if I should re-draw the first volume. But on the other hand, there are several images in the first volume that I am really satisfied with. I’ve started drawing the first few pages again and really prefer the way I drew the second version. So, who knows, if I ever have the time, I will maybe make a ‘version 2 of volume 1′.

For an introduction to each one of my characters, click on the link below :

List of characters in Jinsei no Minna

I think it is already obvious that I love making up projects :3 I really dive deep into the backgrounds and individual stories of my characters, so I’ve thought of a new project called ‘Project Background’. See it as files for each character’s past, family history and reasons behind their characteristics.

Project Background

Spin-off stories