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Around a week before his death...
He said he discovered the "know-how for a surefire-winning grownup-oriented magazine".
The hint is mizuiro.
Why was Nanbu-san that interested in this drawing?
Maybe, this drawing is a manga with "Shimoyama Incident" as its subject.
Does is it have anything to do with the legendary mangaka?
Though these had slightly rounded corners, why didn't I realize it?
It's not a manga?
It's a kamishibai.
We came here today because we want to ask if you know the artist of this picture.
That person... his were really impressive drawings.
I remember now, it was "Menjo"!
So if we meet that mangaka Menjo, we might find out the truth about Nanbu-san's death, right?
Back out now
The show will start now!
Mizuame please.
Me too.
Hey sonny, what's wrong? You okay?
What happened?
This guy is... huh?
Looks like he's bleeding...
Hey, are you alright?
You okay?
Are you alright? What happened?
He fell! He fell down the stairs!
Back out now
Enter through the narrow gate.
For wide is the gate and broad is the road that lead to destruction.
WABI-SABI SUBS PRESENTS:
YAMI NO BANSOSHA
WABI-SABI SUBS PRESENTS:
~HENSHUCHO NO JOKEN
Partner In Darkness 2: Conditions Of An Editor-In-Chief
~HENSHUCHO NO JOKEN
Partner In Darkness 2: Conditions Of An Editor-In-Chief
TRUTH
"TRUTH"
Somebody pushed you? Who was it?
Mizuno Yuki MATSUSHITA NAO Daiji Shinji FURUTA ARATA
I don't know. It happened suddenly.
Ito Shota SHIRAISHI SHUNYA Watanuki Yoshimasa KONNO HIROKI
Any idea who it was?
Maybe this one is related to it, too.
Yuki's Ex Husband NOMAGUCHI TORU Tsukamoto Shusuke HASHIZUME JUN Nanbu Kayoko (Recall) YAGI AKIKO
Tamura Kei MIZUHASHI KENJI Ishida Yoichi TANABE KENICHIRO
Takei Hayato KANAI YUTA Kawabata Tetsuji HASHIMOTO ICHIRO
Back out now
It was inserted through my apartment's door.
Miyawaki Aki YOSHIZAWA RIE Ogi Toshinori ABE SHOHEI MASAKI SHINJI NAGAI TOSHIE
I believe someone's trying to hinder this investigation.
Subtitles by WABI-SABI SUBS JP-EN Translation / Editing / Timing: EARTHCOLORS Raw Provider: VAMPIREXxX
Trying to threaten us huh...
Menjo Keizo TANAKA MIN Yajima Tomoyuki FUJIMOTO LEO
Could it have something to do with Nanbu-san's falling incident?
What if that and Ito-kun's pushing incident...
Ogi Toshikatsu HIRAIZUMI SEI Nanbu Masaharu IWAMATSU RYO
...were all done by the same person...
What?
I don't know if that's true but we can't rule out the possibility.
I'm stopping this investigation for now.
Please wait a minute!
Isn't that exactly what that person would want you to say? Then, you're giving him what he wants.
I can't afford to let this go on. It's going to be too risky from this point on.
This isn't like you... to back out.
And what are you planning to do?
Are you going to continue and put your life in danger!?
I'm only... trying to find out the truth!
I have a responsibility to protect my men.
At any rate...
I want Ito-kun off this investigation.
Please take a company leave for while.
You won't be able to work well with that arm anyway, right?
I'm sorry for getting you involved in this. Please take your time in recovering.
No matter what you say, I'll continue with this investigation.
You've found out where Ajima Fumiya's manuscript came from, right?
You ought to report it to Ajimapro.
Nanbu-san's death hasn't been solved yet.
Was it really an accident, suicide or murder?
You're going...
...way beyond the task that was requested of you.
This time, it seems you're fixated over this case.
As long as the mythical "Dropper For Hire" doesn't appear, murder isn't likely, I guess.
But Yuki-chan, that being the cause of your father's death isn't true, is it?
I want to clear up the reason why Dad died!
Will investigating it make us happy?
I want to forget already!!
Well...
...as for me...
...I wanted to find out the answer as to why Nanbu-san said mizuiro...
...before I quit.
You're quitting the company?
Well, I'm not sure yet.
But depending on how the president will decide on the matter...
...I will seriously consider what action to take.
What about you... Have you met with the kamishibai expert?
Yes. The one who made the drawing...
...was named Menjo Keizo.
But he doesn't know anything about him.
Menjo Keizo... Doesn't ring a bell.
He seemed to have caused some kind of incident before. I'll look for him based on that info.
I'll investigate it thoroughly.
Alright.
Try to be careful.
Please contact me as soon as you sense danger.
Hey, guys... listen...
To publish a hit magazine... To increase the number of magazine copies...
Do you know what's the difference between them?
What's with that sudden question...
Daigo-san and I were talking about this before...
He says it seems they're totally different things....
Do you know the answer?
They seem to be same, aren't they?
I think...
Nanbu-san said something similar.
"It should only be after we revamp the magazine that we try to make a big hit."
Those who publish the current magazines for grown-up readers...
Especially those from the biweekly ones, including the well-established ones...
...forget what a biweekly magazine should be like.
That's one of the main reasons why sales of manga have dropped.
You have to remember the concept of the first magazine issue, or else it's no good.
Nanbu-san was really harsh to us...
...but he was the same as Daigo-san with regards to manga itself.
Hello, Mizuno speaking.
My name is Tsukamoto.
The... junior colleague of Nanbu-san at Houosha.
Why don't you also try talking... to the mama of a bar in Shinjuku?
His mistress.
She must still be there so if you ask Tsukamoto-san, maybe he'll give you her contact details.
Hello. Sorry for going out of your way to call me.
No, it's okay. I finally found out the details you were asking for.
So you came here after retiring from Houosha?
Yes. I'm teaching a training course for manga artists at this university.
I'm teaching using the title "Former Manga Editor".
Retired Manga Editor Tsukamoto Shusuke
I see.
According to Nanbu-san's wife, you were the junior colleague who was closest to him.
Well, I guess you could say that.
Nanbu-san was that old guy who was easily misunderstood.
I worked under him for 25 years.
Did you two fight?
Of course we did.
That guy was rude as hell.
You don't understand manga at all!
Okay, okay.
Just quit, will ya!
We fought each time he got drunk.
That hurts, ya know!
Really?
But the next day...
He'd treat me as if nothing happened.
There were times he even apologized.
Did you respect him?
Of course, I did.
Well, I'm sure some said he was a despicable person, right?
But Nanbu-san, you see...
I don't know when he slept, but he was always studying manga.
Studying?
Well for example, those best selling magazines for youth, young men, and juveniles...
...and the manga that they're serializing...
...he was collecting the data on how many frames were there on each page.
Data?
Come with me for second.
Well, as you know, in a manga...
Each page is mostly... divided into three panels like this.
So this one panel has one frame... while the others can have four frames at most.
He was trying to find out the average number of frames used in three magazines.
In other words, he was trying to find out the trend of whether today's reader is focusing on the story...
...or more on the pictures.
I'm surprised. That Nanbu-san is more of a sensible person than I thought.
Yeah, I guess he has great talent when it comes to that.
But, he was a person who cherishes such logical parts.
He was a hard worker.
But then...
That old guy... whose somewhat grumpy self...
...would feel like appearing all of a sudden again.
And when that happened, he'd definitely spout nasty things.
Like what?
Nanbu-san would often do this thing...
Imitate the character of the manga that the other party is in charge of.
You know...
They often have signature poses, right?
Note: an old gag pose used when you're surprised
Like um... "Shei"?
Yes, yes. That kind of pose.
He did something like that to intentionally provoke the other person.
And it seems those he provoked were already being teased about it.
I'm not really sure but some do get offended.
Here's the thing you were asking about Nanbu-san... the address of that person...
Watanabe Haruko-san said that she's managing a shop...
But it seems she'll be quitting soon.
Thank you for your help.
Watanuki: On Leave
Daigo-san, about the new serialization of the salaryman story...
...is it really okay to push through with it?
'Cause the other day you rejected Watanuki's manuscript.
I read your name.
Aside from some areas that need fixing, I think it's pretty good over-all.
You really think so!?
I'll make sure to carry out the plans of promising editors.
So rest assured it's going to be serialized.
Besides, it's one of Nanbu-san's plans for the relaunching of the magazine.
I'm interested in reading it.
Nanbu-san... asked me something...
...when he was working on his plan.
Hey, Tamura.
Yes?
What do you think is the message that Brave is sending out to its readers?
Well, I think...
The readers are "loser salarymen"...
...or "people who already gave up on the road to success," right?
When Brave was first published, it was a magazine geared towards manual workers like in a ramen shop, which during its heyday released more than a million copies.
But I've noticed that such a concept was changed.
So...
What is the manga magazine trying to tell those losers?
For those people...
...the magazine breathes life into them, right?
He smiled which meant he agreed with you?
I think that's what it probably meant.
Then he said, "What constitutes an adult... we have to rethink about it."
"What constitutes an adult," huh...
I repeated the question the same way, too.
Then, he asked about my commuting time.
And?
I told him, when I go home without overtime, it takes 45 minutes to get from the office to my house...
He told me try to see how many Brave works I can read in that span of minutes.
So how many?
When I got on a crowded train, I read five.
Alright. Thanks.
Yes, thank you.
I see!
So that's why it's mizuiro!
Menjo... Menjo...
I think around 20 years ago... that person was involved in an incident himself.
His name was written as Menjo Keizo.
There it is!
Fell From His Own Building Company President in Serious Condition
"At around 9 pm on the 28th...
...a company owner in Adachi-ku,Tokyo, Menjo Keizo-san (65)...
...had reportedly fallen from the roof of the company building.
According to the police, he landed on a shrubbery directly under the Menjo Building, facing the road.
He was taken to a hospital and was in serious condition.
According to the Adachi Western Police Station, there was an eyewitness report...
...that there was another person other than President Menjo on top of the building.
They are investigating thoroughly on the possibility of it as an accident and a crime."
An accident and a crime...
Company President Who Fell From Building Has Regained Consciousness
Male Company President (65)
Why wasn't his name printed here?
Could the reporter have gotten wind of the nature of the incident...
...and probably thought there was a possibility that Menjo could become a suspect?
Company President Who Fell From His Own Building Disguised To Collect Insurance!?
...Company President Menjo Keizo-san (65) who fell from a building...
This one mentioned his name...
"The police are investigating carefully whether there was no involvement of an outsider.
So far, when President Menjo was questioned by the police...
...he answered, "I have no memory of the time I fell" but, in an unexpected turn...
...he admitted that he himself told the person who trespassed on his rooftop to push him off the building."
He told him to push him off...
Insurance money fraud?
Yes.
Apparently, Menjo was burdened with a heavy debt...
So I thought he placed a life insurance on himself, and pretended to have been killed, in order to pay his debts.
I see.
I also looked into his career.
"President Menjo...
...a former kamishibai writer/artist and a manga artist turned company owner...
...gave up his literary career in order to succeed his family business."
Is he still alive?
I'll go to his company-owned building in Adachi Ward and find out.
I don't think I'll ever see the actual person.
It's dangerous to go alone...
I'll go with you, too. I'm available tomorrow.
Alright. Tomorrow it is, then.
From: Miyawaki Aki To: Mizuno Yuki
*She's addressing her in a cold, formal tone
Yuki-sama*, even if this is a much worrisome matter, I've decided to sell the house since there is no other choice.
Since the house is under both our names...
I'd like you to meet with the buyers in Sendai...
Please tell me when you can come.
It's "Yuki".
Hello.
Sis...
Thanks for everything you've done.
When will you be able to come to Sendai?
Since there's work I can't put on hold right now...
...maybe you could wait a bit more?
Unbelievable...
Do you know how hard it is to sell the house?
If one has decided to sell, speed is important.
Don't just talk about your schedule, think of what I'm going through over here!
Sorry.
But if possible, I really don't mind that you do anything that you like with it...
Oh, Daigo.
Nanbu-san.
Battle OPS seems to be a hit, huh.
Thankfully.
But... it ain't manga.
Since you're prioritizing the story, the characters are weak...
As a typical manga, there are no large-scale tricks either.
"The end", right?
If I give up now, I'll regret it forever!!!
I'm going!!
Hey, Daigo-san. How long am I going to wait...
Sorry!
Some trouble occurred in the editorial department!
I'll be a bit late. I don't know whether he's reliable but I asked him to fill in for me.
Don't go alone 'cause it's dangerous!
Later!
Wai-wait, Daigo-san!
Yuki, long time no see!
Why did you come?
Daigo-san asked me to.
Hey... you...
You're Mizuno Yuki's ex husband, aren't you?
After that, he'd sometimes call me and we go for a drive.
He's just using you as a driver, isn't he?
You look well.
You, too.
Thank you for coming to Sendai for my mother's funeral.
Of course, I was there. Although we're divorced, I was a family member, after all.
Family, huh...
You're not getting along with your sister?
Yeah.
We're currently selling our parents' house.
I see.
That's sad. Having no house to return to anymore.
You know, I've gone independent and set up my own tax accounting office.
That's great.
I realized it after our divorce.
You told me, "I have to move forward, rather than being stuck in the past".
I'll be okay here. Thanks.
I'll accompany you in your investigation.
I'll be fine by myself.
But isn't it dangerous?
Have you ever won in a fight with me before?
The truth is you have a date after this, right?
No, I don't.
You do, right?
No...
Yes, you do.
Fine, I do.
I'll be okay so go.
Thank you for today.
If anything happens, call me anytime.
No, I won't.
Well... Take care.
Okay then, you too.
Menjo Industries
"Menjo Industries..."
Yes?
Are you Menjo Keizo-san?
Could you be Menjo-san who drew kamishibai in the old days?
Who's asking?
Um...
Someone who has something to do with editing.
Come in.
Menjo... Keizo-san?
Come in.
Sit.
Here...
You don't drink?
Um... no.
The guy who came here before gulped it down in one go.
Was it Nanbu Masaharu-san?
Yeah.
This drawing...
...was it your work?
Yeah.
Nanbu-san came here to return this to you, didn't he?
Yeah.
Then, what happened?
I gave him the whole set.
You gave him the whole kamishibai set?
Yep.
I'm not interested in it anymore.
Did you hear about Nanbu-san's death?
Menjo-san, are you in there?
He's dead?
Yes.
I see.
Though he told me he'll bring with him an editor-in-charge next time...
Editor in charge?
Did he ask you to make a serial manga or something?
Menjo-san...
I grew up reading your rental manga. I'm a fan of yours.
Could we make a new manga of your original work?
Menjo-san, did you draw a manga about the Shimoyama Incident?
In other words, after you drew it as kamishibai... did you redraw it as a manga?
Yeah.
I heard that...
*Original title of GeGeGe no Kitaro
Mizuki Shigeru used your kamishibai as a model for drawing Kitaro of the Graveyard*...
And that other fellow kamishibai artists had remade your own works.
Did you use some manga as a model when drawing kamishibai?
Tezuka Osamu's New Treasure Island.
*It had only three rectangular panels per page, no frames, ideal as a model for kamishibai
We couldn't do frames in kamishibai so we only had that book*.
The angles in your drawings were ahead of its time.
Is that so?
Have you heard of the work Ayako that was drawn by Tezuka Osamu?
In Ayako, he also made Shimoyama Incident as a theme...
There's a frame there that looks just like this picture.
Wherein the angle of the tracks were drawn vertically from above.
Was it a coincidence?
Or maybe Tezuka-san saw your kamishibai before?
It would be a coincidence, I guess.
Since authors have bird's eyes.
Bird's eyes?
Like we can freely soar the skies...
...look at this scenery from above...
Once we can "see" from up there...
...we can instantly imagine it in our heads.
Anyone who has bird's eyes...
...would want to draw the railroad vertically from up above.
There's something like that huh...
By the way, do you still have that special volume of the Shimoyama Incident?
Yeah. Nanbu read it too, and said it brought back the old days.
May I read it too?
It was three volumes all in all, but I don't have the last volume.
May I read it first?
Go ahead.
Cruel Japan Vol. 1 by Menjo Keizo
*Series of non-fiction stories of incidents during the Allied Forces occupation, including the Shimoyama Incident
I drew it two years before Matsumoto Seicho's Black Mist Over Japan*.
It is as I thought.
Your drawing style can still pass enough for modern times.
Really?
What's that?
Is that a human hand?
This is bad... It says here, "Shimoyama Sadanori" "President"!!
This is President Shimoyama's dead body!?
No way...
This person is...!
I was betrayed by GHQ...
This is amazing. It goes beyond my expectations.
Could it be what happened was...
President Shimoyama was shocked to be betrayed by GHQ and committed suicide?
That's my version of the Shimoyama Incident.
That certainly is... an unexpected turn of the plot.
No one has ever come up with that reasoning!
Could it be you received some information about the real Shimoyama Incident?
Because I saw it.
What did you see?
Where do you think this place is?
Is this where...
Yeah...
National Railways President Shimoyama Memorial
The incident's scene is three minutes away from here.
Did you perhaps...
Did I see it, you mean?
Did you? When the president was ran over.
Maybe.
The president was seen several times at the railroad near the incident scene.
It was a well-known place for committing suicide.
"We Think It's Suicide"
The president came to visit it several times.
National Railways Announcement: 95,000 People in a Month
He was forced by GHQ to order the massive dismissal of JNR officials, wasn't he?
It wasn't a mystery as to why he chose to commit suicide all of a sudden.
That evening, I saw a man jump on the tracks...
Basing it from the hour, it was probably the president.
That would make it a suicide, wouldn't it?
What did Nanbu-san say when he heard it?
At the rate this story goes, I can see now what happened after this.
"I didn't understand it back then when I was a kid..."
"But..."
"Now I get what the President was feeling," he said.
Please let us serialize it.
Only a few of the story like this were able to be found.
Say...
How did Nanbu die?
He fell down from a building in Shinjuku.
We don't know yet the cause of death.
It was suicide, right?
The same as the president.
Being editor-in-chief is a tough job, isn't it?
Well it's tough but...
Whatever the circumstances may be, as the president of the national railways right after the war is...
Being torn between his subordinates and his superiors...
Discard his men, and run away to protect himself...
When that happens, he will really hate himself.
But the scale of rebuilding the national railways and the restructuring of 12,000 personnel is nothing like...
...the situation that Nanbu-san left behind.
Scale's got nothing to do with it.
A person will soon hate himself...
...blame himself eventually, and would want to die soon.
I will say this as his peer.
I believe Nanbu-san didn't have the nerve to jump off himself.
Then let's add an unexpected turn.
Unexpected turn?
The president also...
...wanted to die but didn't have the nerve.
Then, he may have committed suicide as suicide goes...
...but how about the angle of hiring an assassin to kill him?
What do you mean?
When you assume the office as president of the National Railways...
Sometimes your life is targeted...
You prepare yourself for the situation wherein you yourself must cut your life short.
However, you don't have the nerve to actually kill yourself.
That's when you hire a killer.
When you wish... to kill yourself...
Standing next to the tracks in the dead of the night...
The killer shoved him down... while gazing at the trains that he loved!?
It was suicide as suicide goes... but it wasn't suicide.
It was more complicated and mysterious than that.
Won't it make an interesting story?
Actually, after watching what seemed to be the president dropping on the tracks...
Another man quickly went down the bank.
Thinking about it now...
I wonder if it was really so...
Menjo-san, could it be...
...you hired a hitman...
Company President Who Fell From His Own Building Disguised To Collect Insurance!?
...to kill you?
Miss, you're one sharp cookie huh.
This foot is the punishment I got from that time.
Please tell me again about the hitman you hired.
Was there anything peculiar about his looks?
I'm like him now, dragging a limp leg...
The man who pushed you off, and the one who thrusted down President Shimoyama...
...don't you think it's the same person!?
Hey... that's a crazy theory you're coming up with!
Miss, you've brought up an interesting idea.
It's just like something you read in a manga.
Then...
Here's an information that might be useful to you...
The killer I hired...
...was a capable person, known by the alias "Dropper For Hire".
The Dropper For Hire!
That's all I remember.
Note: This is now the site where the Shimoyama Incident took place
Mizuno-san...
A while ago, why were you particular about the subject of the killer?
Ten years ago... My father who was a policeman...
...who got dragged into a scandal within his department...
...died suspiciously.
At that time, there was a rumor about a "Dropper For Hire".
Is that the reason why you were so emotionally affected when Ito fell?
Then does it mean you'll continue to chase that "Dropper For Hire" after this?
I'd like to do that.
But...
But what?
My sister no longer wants to know how my father died.
Well, that's her opinion. Why is that holding you back?
I don't want to make things worse between us anymore.
There's only two of us left in the family.
Wanting to say the things that cannot be said...
It's better to let it end than letting it get worse.
I'm divorced, right?
Yes.
The reason we divorced was... well, in the end...
...the best way to explain it is, I couldn't live well together with a person...
But somewhere along the way, I started to choose not to fight with her...
...and didn't say the things I wanted to say, which was also a big factor, I think.
People are living beings who meet others and then not see them again.
Don't be afraid to part with someone.
Don't be afraid to tell your own intentions to the other party.
Besides, there's also the possibility that the outcome may be different from what you're fearing.
If you can't do it, then give it up.
Nanbu-san's death doesn't have anything to do with the "Dropper For Hire", right?
There's none, I think.
I think it's the most improbable theory so far.
I was... hoping there would be.
How about you...
What do you think about his death now?
What Menjo-san said about the president's true situation, sounded pretty convincing to me.
Yeah.
The president whom everyone thought was willfully murdered... actually committed suicide.
If unfortunate conditions piled up on Nanbu-san...
...it may be that he thought it be easier if he died.
Tamura-san.
Ito...
Where's the editor-in-chief?
He went out for a bit. By the way, you okay with your injury?
Yeah... I'm managing somehow...
Then, I'll come back again when the boss is here.
I guess I want return to work after all.
You don't have to force yourself.
Understood.
Well then.
Oh, right. I wonder if you can show me the materials later.
Right.
No matter what...
...there are some parts in the materials I can't understand...
Ito~! Ito!
I forgot about this. Here.
We all pitched in for a "get well" fund for you.
Sorry about that. But thank you!
Get well, okay?
Yes!
What's the matter?
Excuse me!
Ito?
A person will soon hate himself...
...blame himself eventually, and would want to die soon.
Hey, you! What're you doing over there?
Excuse me! Excuse me!
Um, did you see the person who fell from here?
Eh! You saw what happened that day?
I sure did.
As soon as I got on the rooftop, a person fell from over there.
I was more shocked than scared.
What about the police?
I didn't tell them anything.
Because I don't like the police. It's bad to get involved in strange things, isn't it?
Was there anyone on that rooftop at that time?
I couldn't afford to see such a thing. I was too shocked.
Of course...
But...
He was doing some kind of strange pose.
Strange pose?
He was doing this...
...when he fell backwards.
Original Work: NAGASAKI TAKASHI "Henshucho No Joken -Daigo Shinji no Hakuran Suiri File-" (Shinchosha Corp.)
Screenplay: ASO KUMIKO
Music: GRAND FUNK
Photography: YAMADA YASUDA
Lighting: WATABE YOSHIMI
Images: KANEKO AKIRA
Editing: YANAGISAWA TATSUYA
Online Editing: HIDETO MIKI
MA: HACHIYA HIROSHI
VFX: KAMADA KOSUKE
Music Producer: MOGI EIKYO
Art: YUZHU YUKIHISA
Decoration: TAKI RIKA
Organization: TOKUDA KATSUHISA
Publicity: KAKO HIROYUKI
On the Next Final Episode
I guess it was suicide after all.
In-Charge of Manga: MORI HIDEKI (Keizo Menjo) TANAKA KEIICHI (Ajima Fumiya)
It clashes with Nanbu-san's known persona that I've heard so far.
Manga Cooperation: HIRAMATSU SHINJI (Pashiri Police) TSUCHIYAMA SHIGERU (Gokumen) NIHON BUNGEISHA, LTD. ("Weekly Manga Black" Editorial Dept)
Co-Production: TOHO CO.
There are many people who don't want to reveal their true selves.
Subtitles by WABI-SABI SUBS
What's with that? To crush the bully, and support the weak!?
JP-EN Translation / Editing / Timing: EARTHCOLORS
Raw Provider: VAMPIREXxX
I'm positive that the culprit who pushed me down is in this company.
Producer: KAWADA NAOHIRO
What's the most important task for an editor?
Produce: HATORI KENICHI
Produce: KITA REIKO
We also have to give it all we got in order to win.
Director: MIKI TAKAHIRO
The one who threatened me and Ito was you, wasn't it?
A 2018 Production of: WOWOW
This is a work of fiction; people and organizations that appeared here have no connection with reality.