On March 5th, 2018, Mikio Itou, former manga assistant for Hiroyuki Takei (Shaman King), Eiichiro Oda (One Piece), and Nobuhiro Watsuki (Rurouni Kenshin), started his new manga titled 月曜日のライバル -メガヒットマンガ激闘記- or in English “Monday’s Rival: Mega Hit Manga Fierce Battle Chronicles.” The manga is being released for free digitally on the Konomanga website called “このマンガがすごい！WEB” or in English “This Manga is Amazing! Web”. The website focuses on providing free manga digitally and interviews. It is a subsidy of Yosensha Publishing Co.Ltd.
The manga focuses around a group of friends who work as manga assistants for famous mangakas. Though it’s a work of fiction, the creator fell into the shoes of the cast of the manga. The first chapter focuses around a manga similar to Rurouni Kenshin and it’s creator Nobuhiro Watsuki in the extremely popular manga magazine “Weekly Shonen Galaxy.” Yoh Asakura and Hiroyuki Takei’s likeness was also hinted at for the plot of future chapters who also run in this fictional magazine. One of the main characters also features some headphones that are similar to Yoh from Shaman King.
The first chapter is currently available in Japanese via the official website and the second chapter is scheduled for March 26th.
This is not the first time that there is a manga that provides some insight into the work environment of Hiroyuki Takei. The Rurouni Kenshin -Meiji Kenkaku Romantan Official Comic Anthology featured a short manga by Suzuki Shinya (鈴木信也), the creator of Mr. Fullswing (and former assistant of Nobuhiro Watsuki) which included the same manga artist that are featured in this manga. Hiroyuki Takei also drew his own self biographical short manga called Making of Exotica which showed some of his process for creating the oneshot Exotica, which was included in the original printing of Shaman King volume 27.
