That menacing sound effect...

Ah, so Hibiki planned for Akigumo's tendencies for screwing around ahead of time.

Can't find a better assistant than these 2.

I'm not sure who that says more for.

Hibiki for skillfully planning that far ahead or Akigumo for being predictably procrastinate?

Demundo said:

Can't find a better assistant than these 2.

It's the assistant's job to keep the boss in line. I think...

Well done, Hibiki!

She's come such a long way since she was introduced to Akigumo's work by picking up a dropped one off the ground...

Random_Fanguy said:

It's the assistant's job to keep the boss in line. I think...

Hibiki is her editor. That's the position of supreme power.

Jarlath said:

Hibiki is her editor. That's the position of supreme power.

Looking from the author/artist/designer perspective, yeah, that might be so.
But looking from the editor/director/handler's perspective though.... I swear the author/artist/design was the GOD. Well, is, I guess.

After all, the one making value isn't the editor/director/handler, it's the author/artist/designer who is doing that. All we editor/director/handler could do was quality control, as in saying it's not good enough and they need to redo it. But if they can't do it right, no matter what, then we have no choice but to throw in the towel as well.
Then, on top of that, the corporate machine won't let us just throw in the towel. We have to break off the deal, see if there's anything we are going to use/a suitable deposit for the work of author/artist/designer even if we can't use anything, find a new author/artist/designer to fill in, break it down to them, redo the calculation on working time, rework the schedule, keep up with quality check and all that... Not to mention the 2 faces or as many as needed we wear to handle the author/artist/designer....

Just speaking as someone had experience of directing (as in seeing where the creative sides are going, not the project leader or manager) the set up of a few websites, development of apps and all that.

Demundo said:

Looking from the author/artist/designer perspective, yeah, that might be so.
But looking from the editor/director/handler's perspective though.... I swear the author/artist/design was the GOD. Well, is, I guess.

After all, the one making value isn't the editor/director/handler, it's the author/artist/designer who is doing that. All we editor/director/handler could do was quality control, as in saying it's not good enough and they need to redo it. But if they can't do it right, no matter what, then we have no choice but to throw in the towel as well.
Then, on top of that, the corporate machine won't let us just throw in the towel. We have to break off the deal, see if there's anything we are going to use/a suitable deposit for the work of author/artist/designer even if we can't use anything, find a new author/artist/designer to fill in, break it down to them, redo the calculation on working time, rework the schedule, keep up with quality check and all that... Not to mention the 2 faces or as many as needed we wear to handle the author/artist/designer....

Just speaking as someone had experience of directing (as in seeing where the creative sides are going, not the project leader or manager) the set up of a few websites, development of apps and all that.

Interesting, really.

My thoughts is that a lot of perspective in Japan of the editor/publishing rep bullying the artists comes from the middle to low end of the creative process. Where artist assistants and hirelings can face wrath for holding things up, and also in generally low budget works the publisher has more leeway and power to scrap ideas and let people go.

I think, or hope, that lead designers and main artists are more on even terms when speaking to the production and marketing end from their creative end. I can imagine being a freelance or a novice, going in at the bottom can be kinda scary; especially if higher ups in other departments come down on you.

And you hear stories too.

Blindga said:

Interesting, really.

My thoughts is that a lot of perspective in Japan of the editor/publishing rep bullying the artists comes from the middle to low end of the creative process. Where artist assistants and hirelings can face wrath for holding things up, and also in generally low budget works the publisher has more leeway and power to scrap ideas and let people go.

I think, or hope, that lead designers and main artists are more on even terms when speaking to the production and marketing end from their creative end. I can imagine being a freelance or a novice, going in at the bottom can be kinda scary; especially if higher ups in other departments come down on you.

And you hear stories too.

Keep in mind that when you read those stories of poor, helpless artists at the mercy of their mercilessly strict editors in the bonus pages of a manga, it's the authors writing their own self-serving side of the story, and the editors rarely get a chance to speak their side.

I mean, the editor doesn't get to pick when the magazine they're being published in comes out, so it's not like they're holding the artist's feet to the fire to get to the deadline on time for arbitrary reasons.

Blindga said:

Interesting, really.

My thoughts is that a lot of perspective in Japan of the editor/publishing rep bullying the artists comes from the middle to low end of the creative process. Where artist assistants and hirelings can face wrath for holding things up, and also in generally low budget works the publisher has more leeway and power to scrap ideas and let people go.

I think, or hope, that lead designers and main artists are more on even terms when speaking to the production and marketing end from their creative end. I can imagine being a freelance or a novice, going in at the bottom can be kinda scary; especially if higher ups in other departments come down on you.

And you hear stories too.

I believe that editors have a far more important relationship with the author than slave-driver though. Lovecraft, for example, written works pails in comparison with the works he edited. I forgot which author said it, but someone said that every good writer needs a great editor behind them.

I mean Quentin Tarantino does have actors/staff say hello and have a nice dayto the editor who has to go all through the raw footage.

Blindga said:

Interesting, really.

My thoughts is that a lot of perspective in Japan of the editor/publishing rep bullying the artists comes from the middle to low end of the creative process. Where artist assistants and hirelings can face wrath for holding things up, and also in generally low budget works the publisher has more leeway and power to scrap ideas and let people go.

I think, or hope, that lead designers and main artists are more on even terms when speaking to the production and marketing end from their creative end. I can imagine being a freelance or a novice, going in at the bottom can be kinda scary; especially if higher ups in other departments come down on you.

And you hear stories too.

The image is, most of the time, either being a joke or is resulted from the creative end.

Thing is, the people on creative end never really can't say exactly how things are going to be for them to do what they do. There might be a dead line to finish by, but in the very utter freaking hell frozen end of it, no creative work can be done if the creative end doesn't finish their part. You can certainly do things half baked, like some Anime these days. And you have to deal with low quality results you can't come to term with. Or you have to push it down. → This is why Animes get filler episodes or book publications get delayed and other stuff.
If things don't end, the creative people will be rained upon with all kind of shit from the higher up, and the people overseeing gets that too. But never, ever, are the people on creative end get laid off easily. For even if there's just a little part of their work result in it, they can start a law suit on copyrights. Well, to be true though, it's more like no one else can see how things are going to be going to beside them themselves.

If you are not the main/leader though, as long as you understand the work and do good enough, you are not going to be laid off easily either. You know how to keep up. Someone new, even professional they can be, still needs time to adjust. And that time might result in what no one wants.If you are bad though, well, you know what.

Even in companies, as designers, as long as you can do it, even if you can't finish it in time, you don't get laid off. There might be a punishment for you making everything get held up when you are at fault. If the one giving requirements/directions for you to do your work is the reason though, you might even get commended for trying to keep up. I saw my fellow coworker going through that already. No one can say she did a poor job after finishing 6 web pages designs right after getting requirements and materials even if her part of the job was to end 2 days prior, thanks to a certain someone (me) forgetting to send her what was needed.

Fact is, no one truly gets to bully anyone. The ones working on ends, the overseers, the managers the middle men or even the higher ups. all their hands are tied up to the boat the moment it launches. If they are going down, everyone is going down. If they get to ports, they all get to ports. Men might go over board, but don't have that attachment to the boat, jumped boats, or simply can't hold on.

Yeah, that's what I'd personally think too. It makes sense that things go better when the company works in unison.

As someone who was in the comic book publishing industry, I'll just throw in my little two cents.

Editors have a reason to be strict, as NWSiaCB said earlier, because they can't pick when the books/works get published. The printing deadline has already been set and the editors have to make sure there's enough time for editing/correction without cutting into the printing time. Why do publishers have to print way ahead of their release schedule instead of only a few weeks in advance?

Because printing a batch of books is fuckin' time consuming. (Sorry for the swearing. It's that bad.) Not only are there be a ton of things that can go wrong at every step of the printing process, you're also competing for the right printing time slot since there are other publishers waiting in line as well. Priority printing, you say? You pay through the nose for that kind of luxury. Money doesn't grow on trees, and if your book is a bust that means you're looking at funding in the red. When you're low on funds, you have less leeway in what you can take, which further crimps your options for business options and job offers.

The latter part may apply to the upper management, but editors are one of the people who have to make sure work goes as scheduled. Otherwise, the effects can snowball out of control simply because they missed a publishing deadline and potential contracts lost due to one late publication.