Four days after Tokyo's successful bid for the Olympics.

The Cultural Affairs Agency Building, located at 2-2-3-chome Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, is an old building built in the Meiji period, and has a romantic atmosphere unique to that era.

It's just that in the past few days, the civil servants inside have been so busy that they don't have time to care about Meiji style.

As a subordinate department of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the Agency for Cultural Affairs is responsible for the "COOL-JAPAN" strategic plan, which is an important part of the promotion of the Olympic Games.

Most of the work is done by the Cultural Activities Promotion Office under the Arts and Culture Division.

At this time, in the office of the Cultural Activities Promotion Office, several civil servants who had spent three days and nights on energy drinks and coffee were arguing over a list.

"Akiyama, should we think about this list again?"

"Think about it again! It's been rejected four times by the section chief, and it's the limit!"

"The section manager is also really, he always says 'to embody diversity' and 'to show the spirit of free creation', isn't it good to explain it clearly, so he can just name it directly. Anyway, we, the little civil servants, are all a lifetime of hard work. ”

"Don't say that. It is useless for the section chief to name names, and in the end, it will have to be approved by the council. ”

The head of the junior civil servant is the head of the section, and the head of the section is the minister, and the minister is pressed above the minister, and the deputy chief is under the control of the chief, and the head of the chief is the minister of education, culture, sports, science and technology. Even the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology is accountable to the Prime Minister.

The bureaucracy at the first level crushes people, and it is the same in any country.

So the petty civil servants fell silent.

At first, they were excited to take over the work of promoting "COOL-JAPAN" in their classrooms, and they felt that it was time to make a big difference. As long as you do a good job, it is not difficult to get promoted and make a fortune.

The first task of the class was to work with NHK to produce a documentary about the entire Toei manga industry.

The documentary is planned to be filmed in four episodes, showing the whole picture of the comic industry from the perspectives of cartoonists, magazine editorial departments, bookstore sales channels, and readers.

However, when discussing the filming of the first episode of the manga artist, something went wrong.

A 50-minute documentary is impossible to introduce all the well-known cartoonists in one go.

According to NHK, it is enough to introduce three manga artists.

As the god of Toei comics, Osamu Tezuka is definitely going to be on it. Although the old man is already in a semi-retired state, no one can shake his status in the rivers and lakes - not even Akira Toriyama.

The second place is Rumiko Takahashi.

Manga isn't just for boys, and manga artists aren't just for men.

For the sake of diversity, this heroine who can face up to Akiyoshi Toriyama was naturally selected.

However, when it came time to determine the third candidate, something went wrong.

I don't know when the news leaked, Shueisha, Shogakukan, Kodansha, Kadokawa, etc., large and small publishing groups called to recommend manga artists under their own magazines.

It's annoying, but you have to be careful.

Although as an honorable civil servant, he was not afraid of those publishing houses, but the relationship was stiffened, and it was not easy to carry out work in the future.

The Cultural Activities Promotion Room was quite efficient, and soon came up with a plan:

Led by the Agency for Cultural Affairs and in collaboration with NICONICO, an online drawing contest will be held.

Cartoonists upload their own drawing videos, which are voted on by the general public, and the first place winner is eligible to participate in the filming of the documentary.

In this way, those publishers have nothing to say.

After the plan was submitted, it was greatly praised and was considered to "make full use of the advantages of new Internet media to improve public participation".

So the little civil servants who were encouraged rolled up their sleeves and went to work in full swing.

But soon, they ran into new problems.

Holding an online painting contest, you can't have no threshold, learn from Qiu Yuanyasu to pick idols, and play the national audition, right?

This is a documentary that needs to be filmed in cooperation with NHK, linked with the promotion of the Olympics, and represents the face of Dongying, so there can't be any cats and dogs to participate, right?

So, after some discussion, it was decided to invite 20 people from many cartoonists to participate in the competition.

However, how to make this invitation list is also a very nerve-wracking thing.

Since it was decided to use the method of winning the competition to select the candidates for the documentary, it is natural that those top manga artists who pay more than 100 million yen in taxes a year cannot be invited.

The status of the rivers and lakes is there, and the work is so busy, it's okay to be directly invited to participate in the documentary shooting, if you want to participate in any online painting competition, how can you have that kung fu?

When the list was first drawn up, Akiyama and the others were very satisfied.

The invited cartoonists come from major publishing houses, and no one will be offended. It also covers a variety of genres from shonen manga, shoujo manga, to young adult manga, and it also reflects diversity.

Who knew that the section chief was not satisfied, and repeatedly asked to do it again.

Now, the poor civil servants are about to be crumbled because of the continuous high intensity of work.

"Ah, I'm going to die, I knew it was as hard as being a social animal, why did I have to take the civil service exam in the first place?"

A man with glasses complained.

"I don't want to quit my job. "Akiyama, the person in charge of the entire project, is not angry.

The entire office fell into an eerie silence.

At this time, a white and chubby boy stood up.

His name is Kaichi Asano, who graduated from Waseda University two years ago, passed the civil service exam, and entered the Agency for Cultural Affairs, which is the most junior in the office.

In a society like Dongying, where seniority is extremely serious, he can be regarded as a soft-spoken soy sauce role at work.

"What's the matter?"

"This, senior Akiyama, the section manager emphasized several times that the contestants should embody the spirit of 'free creation', which shows that we have not done enough. ”

"Where is it not enough, there are sports comics, combat comics, food comics, love comics, and even niche serious historical comics and vernacular reality comics. Our list of candidates is not enough to reflect the so-called 'free creation'?"

"Akiyama, don't get excited, listen to Asano first. Maeda, the oldest member of the office, said.

"Okay. I'm too tired, so I'm a little grumpy, Asano, don't mind. Akiyama sighed.

Asano nodded, and continued, "When we drew up the list, we took into account the diversity of the candidates, but there was a lack of enthusiasm in terms of the 'spirit of free creation'. On the list, they are all commercial cartoonists. However, in the manga industry, it is recognized that the word "freedom" can best be embodied in doujinshi. ”

Although these civil servants have a certain understanding of the manga industry, Asano is a real senior otaku with more than 18 years of experience.

It is precisely because he understands the world of comics better than others that he sees the problem from a more special and in-depth perspective.

Asano suppressed his nervousness, his hands trembled slightly, and handed over the list he had drawn up a long time ago.