Kakukaku Shikajika (Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist's Journey)

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Japanese: かくかくしかじか

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Type: Manga

Volumes: 5

Chapters: 34

Status: Finished

Published: Nov 28, 2011 to Jan 28, 2015

Genres: Award Winning, Slice of Life

Themes: Memoir, Otaku Culture, Visual Arts

Demographic: Josei

Serialization: Cocohana

Authors: Higashimura, Akiko (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.50¹ (scored by 7,642 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #152²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #673

Members: 28,381

Favorites: 1,111

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8.50

Ranked #152Popularity #673Members 28,381

MangaCocohanaHigashimura, Akiko (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /5

Chapters: /34

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Synopsis

Akiko Hayashi has soaring but strangely specific dreams: to make a successful manga debut while still in school, have her favorite actor star in its adaptation, and end up marrying him. However, she is far from having the motivation or skills to realize these hopes. When a friend introduces her to an unorthodox, backstreet art class taught by the strong-armed Kenzou Hidaka, called simply as "sensei," Akiko decides to enroll, expecting an easy ride and an automatic improvement in her art skills. To her chagrin, what she gets is something else entirely—a tough, demanding, and uncompromising teacher with absolutely no interest in manga.

But when Akiko takes up Sensei's challenge of an intense schedule, she comes to recognize how much he cares about his students and forms a close bond with him. With Sensei's guidance, Akiko learns what is necessary to become a successful mangaka as well as what it means to be an adult.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Kakukaku Shikajika is an autobiography detailing the life of author Akiko Higashimura. It consecutively ranked in the Kono Manga ga Sugoi! for the Female Readers division from 2013 through 2016. In 2015, it won the eighth Manga Taisho Award and the 19th Japan Media Arts Festival Awards Grand Prize.

The series was published in English as Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist's Journey by Seven Seas Entertainment from May 21, 2019, to July 14, 2020.

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Characters

Hidaka, Kenzou

Main

Hayashi, Akiko

Main

Futami

Supporting

Reviews

May 3, 2015

acajou

Recommended

If you have read or watched Bakuman., you might have learned a thing or two about manga. But while the series is quite insightful as far as the actual creating process from character design to storyboard to inking is concerned, it doesn't feel all that more realistic than other Shōnen Jump titles. After all, Ashirogi Muto make their big breakthrough while still in freaking high school. Granted, Bakuman. doesn't shy away from the truth that luck is a critical determinant on the way to publication. But in the end, it's a story fueled by the love of shōnen manga, and as such comes with a ... lot of that ferocious competitive drive, the inspiring rivalries, the showdowns.

Kakukaku Shikajika shares Bakuman.'s premise in that it's about the making of a mangaka. Taking the autobiographic approach, however, it tells a real story of detours, dead ends, and what makes someone slacken or persevere at different points in time. This is not to say that nothing was exaggerated for effect's sake. I'm sure a few things were, but the point remains that Kakukaku Shikajika is not so much an inspirational story as it a truthful account of one woman's life as an artist. There is some unpleasantness. It is neither glossed over nor is it over-dramatized. But while events are presented in a matter-of-factly fashion looking back from a more comfortable place, there is still a very tangible sense of embarrassment – shame even – as one reflects the choices of a younger self. The strength of Kakukaku Shikajika lies in its subtle emotionality, that tinge of regret running through the story that reaches a new intensity toward the end.

Higashimura Akiko is best known for Kuragehime which received both an anime as well as more recently, a live action adaptation. For Kakukaku Shikajika, she uses her real name Hayashi Akiko to retrace her drawing career beginning with her high school days and ending with the present, fitting some non-linear snippets in here and there. With one year left until graduation, Akiko has it all planned out. The goal is to attend the painting department of a prestigious arts college in Tokyo, make her debut as a shōjo mangaka somewhere along the way, use the earnings to pay off her tuition debt, and, upon college graduation, get married to famous actor Toyokawa Etsushi. What could go wrong, right? Phases of overconfidence, hitting creative blocks, poking fun at the ridiculousness of art school, doubts whether it is "worth it", your own as well as that of those around you, the stigma attached to drawing comics – there is a lot in here that the aspiring artists out there should be able to relate to.

But Kakukaku Shikajika also excels at depicting more universal struggles. The pivotal point of the story is the mentee-mentor relationship that forms between the author and Hidaka Kenzō, an eccentric old man who offers art classes in a tiny studio in a small town by the sea. Hard to get to if one does not have a car, Akiko is convinced by a friend that this is the place for her to be if she is serious about getting into arts college. Hidaka-sensei promptly informs an entitled Akiko that her sketches suck. He's the kind of man who will chew everyone out regardless of who they are, make them draw the same thing over and over and over until they get it just right, while hitting them with a bamboo sword. Nevertheless, he shows extraordinary acts of kindness from time to time, like when he carries an Akiko feigning sickness to the bus station. It is in retrospect that the author recognizes good motives also behind his strictness, and from resenting what he made her do goes to realizing that not only could he have been a more sympathetic teacher but she, too, could have been a better student. That willingness to think yourself into someone else's skin and ability to admit your own shortfalls is one of the most important aspects of maturity and in this regard, this is also a classic coming-of-age tale.

Given Kakukaku Shikajika has been fully translated, the number of people who marked it as completed came as a surprise to me. I'm writing this in hopes of being able to spark someone's interest in the manga, as it's one of the most worthwhile ones out there.

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Dec 6, 2015

ZeroHumor

Recommended

Consider Shirobako, a story that wraps the poignant insecurities of young adult career pursuit with a silly, heartwarming, and optimistic exterior. Now douse the narration with the mature reflections of an older adult looking back at their silly past, and sprinkle in evocative moments of warm nostalgia and sentimental regret.

Kakukaku Shikajika is the autobiography of now 40 year old mangaka Akiko Higashimura, and the title meaning "blah blah blah" is derived from the author's intentions of telling her life story in a natural, informal structure, lending itself to frequent tangents and moments of personal reflection. It's a story about a clueless high school girl ... blindly following through with her passion in the arts. An unmotivated arts college student finding herself incapable of doing anything productive. A self-centered young adult wrestling with an incredibly hectic life as she tries to realize her childhood dreams of becoming a successful mangaka. It's a harsh review on her numerous moments of immaturity, and a piece of subtle appreciation for all the family, friends, and peers who have supported her along the way. Most importantly, it's an absolutely incredible and moving homage to the hero of her life: the stubborn, intimidating, rash, insensitive, but most genuine and pure person she's ever known, Hidaka-sensei.

Throughout the manga, we get to see so many reflections of what makes her character a fully realized person. We are exposed to the perspectives of a student, a teacher, a miserable office worker, a mangaka, a daughter, a girl in love, a mother, and so much more. Higashimura herself is very interesting and relatable, and the characters in her life provide invaluable bits and pieces that make up the variety of her life experiences, but even more than just writing an autobiography, she passes down the insights and sentiments of her experiences down to her readers, whether in light jest or as great pieces of life advice. Work hard and work often. Keep a broad perspective. Appreciate those around you. Be ready, as life happens whether you want it to or not. Have fun going to an arts college with no clear goal and ending up very unemployed and completely unproductive for society (:D). And for all the young people out there, youth is wasted on the young most of the time, but please don't waste it. You might be wallowing in self-pity and claiming that you're being overwhelmed; you're not, and your older self will definitely laugh in bitter derision!

But worry not, this is not a boring lecture; the author never really forces her views on the readers. The persuasion factor comes more from relating to the faults of the stumbling character on paper and being hit right where it hurts the most. Aren't we all self-centered, excuse-making, and unappreciative brats who run away from our troubles in some point of our lives? That's what makes this work great; it resonates with my current college student self, and the down-to-earth moments really bring out all these emotions within me as I read through the struggles of someone so different, yet oh so similar to me.

Kakukaku Shikajika is an entertaining work that makes you laugh, cringe, and feel the feels all at once. It does detail the process of manga creation to some extent, but the real appeal of the work lies in immersing yourself in this beautiful life story. Please give this one a chance.

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Dec 16, 2018

Gundroog

Not Recommended

Kakukaku Shikajika is an incredibly frustrating manga. There core aspect of it and message it tries to send are both touching and heartfelt but it’s bogged out by so much extraneous fluff that it almost completely ruins it to me.

KS presents itself as an autobiography of Akiko Higashimura, the mangaka who wrote this. We get a rather general view of her life, all the way from childhood to her current life. Despite this, the real focus of the manga is her relationship with her art teacher, an incredibly important person in her life that for meager fees taught her art, helped her get into an ... arts college and inspired her to move forward when she herself couldn’t. In my opinion it’s also easily the best part of it. It’s very genuine and touching, she portrays her strict but caring teacher in so much detail that it’s easy to grow attached to him yourself which makes the concluding final all the more impactful.

However if you were cut down the content leave in only that part the manga would probably be only like 2 volumes long if not less, so what else is in there? Well, not much. Aside from rare trivia about manga industry I honestly can’t find much of note in this autobiography. To me a good autobiography is one that tells you about the life of an interesting person and I can’t consider this manga author to be one of them. Her life doesn’t come off as anything so exceptional that it needs to be known and while this is incredibly subjective it’s a large part of what kept me from enjoying this manga.

Higahimura liked shoujo manga, she didn’t study too good and decided to go to an arts school. She lived a carefree live during her college years and had some very average parties and past times. She worked at a boring job as one of those telephone tech support/assistants people, I can’t remember the particulars of that but basically she just sat around accepting calls all day, during that time she also started to draw manga in her spare time. When she gathered enough money through manga she quit her job and almost made it a full time thing aside from a period of time helping out at an art class. Does any of this sound interesting to you? If so maybe you’ll be able to enjoy this far more than I did but if you didn’t I hope you’ll understand why I’m so harsh, are these events really worth devoting a huge chunk of the manga to when the rest is so much more meaningful and important? The question is entirely up to whoever reads this because I don’t think you can objectively gouge how interesting someone’s life is.

However there’s other two major downsides to this manga. Second one is about as major to me as the first if not more and it’s about how poorly Higashimura utilizes manga as a medium. Some of the most perceptive people on the planet will able to spot a small difference between manga and normal books. In case you’re not one of those people I consulted one of them to tell me what it is. Turns out manga has visuals, it has pictures, it has panels that separate the narrative into scenes and motions much like sentences, chapters and pages do in a book. Manga allows you to SEE the story and picture the things instead of writing them. Higahimura isn’t very intent on using that aspect of manga however as pages are often filled with walls of text that doesn’t carry as much value as the volume of it would lead to believe. I wish I could embed pictures into reviews cause then I’d be able to put a nice, long gallery of panels filled with just too much text that don’t tell you much and those things build up pretty quick which makes the experience reading this rather exhausting. Like goddamn she actually dedicated about 3 pages to the process they went through at a used books store to package the goods or give them a better look, it has no effect on her life or anything else for that matter, it’s just random trivia for no reason, just cause.

It doesn’t help that art is not really outstanding either. It’s serviceable for sure and it’s not hard on the eyes but there’s also a whole lot of panels that are either completely blank or have barely anything on them or just have a screen tone. For a story so centered about art and how hard the author trained for it I’d expect a bit more. One of the most glaring examples however is how she used a badly filtered photo of a cityscape as background at least 2, maybe 3 times, one of which was on a page where she talks about drawing being the only thing she’s capable of.

Third problem I have with this manga is closely tied to events that happened at the end of 4th and throughout most of 5th volume which is the only stuff I’d consider to be a spoiler when talking about this. As such I suggest you skip this long ass paragraph unless you don’t intent to read this manga. The problem I have is the tone. At the end of volume 4 the art teacher, huge part of Akiko’s life is revealed to have cancer and we learn that he has very little left to live. This is very hard news for Higashimura and a rather relatable event to people who have lost a relative or loved one, especially to cancer. As such it’s a rather tragic and grim thing to take in. This is also the most emotionally loaded part of KS cause you can feel the author’s remorse that she couldn’t do everything she could for her teacher, didn’t treat him the way she should’ve have and laments that her past self didn’t appreciate and value him as much as she should have. There’s entire pages where it feels like she blames herself for this, asking for forgiveness from her now deceased and hoping that he can hear him the same way she can hear his voice in the times she needs him. Those moments are as sweet as they’re heartbreaking cause while you get to see how strong their bond was you also get to feel her sorrow. I’ve went a little too long without saying what’s the actual problem is but now that you see how important this development is I feel like you’ll understand me better when I say that the ramblings about unimportant things and half-assed comedy annoy me even more. Do you want to honor the memory of your teacher who played a large part in you achieving your dream or do you want to fucking tell me pretty the editor you had in Tokio was and how it was totally fun to hang out with her and your other manga author friend? I’m not even kidding moments after a hearbreaking scene on the day funeral it’s followed up by this and her talking about how her husband was so nice that he insisted she moved to another city to help her achieve her dream, a gesture she returned by dating someone else and divorcing her husband shortly after. Either way, even without this particularly jarring examples it’s just shitty to think that the whole manga revolves around such an important and sad topic but instead of committing to that we get to see so much extra info that probably didn’t need to be there at all. There’s even a part where Higashimura herself admits that she didn’t give much thought to this manga and just kinda wrote it as she went without proper planning which really shows in barren panels, lack of structure and her constantly going off to talk about some unrelated rubbish.

In conclusion what did I end up with? An autobiography that recounts countless very insignificant and mundane events. A manga that’s intent on using words more than that visuals. A story that tries to pay respect to someone while actively hindering it by switching the focus to aforementioned dull things. While there’s some very good parts in this they are so heavily bogged down by the bad ones that I can’t recommend this. Judging by the scores and opinions of my friends I’m in minority here however so if you still think this manga is intriguing, give it a go, it’s not like it’s incredibly long anyways.

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Poll: Kakukaku Shikajika Chapter 33 Discussion Stark700 - Apr 20, 2015	13 replies	by bucciest »» May 29, 2023 10:34 AM
Poll: Kakukaku Shikajika Chapter 34 Discussion Stark700 - Apr 20, 2015	39 replies	by removed-user »» Mar 23, 2023 8:52 AM
Poll: Kakukaku Shikajika Chapter 32 Discussion Stark700 - Apr 11, 2015	5 replies	by removed-user »» Mar 23, 2023 7:18 AM
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Kakukaku Shikajika
Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist's Journey
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