lilly. she/they. aroace lesbian (or smthing like that). audhd haver. gender: ???. "do you like torichia?" don't even joke lad. chiaki kinnie (real). bishamon's housewife. luvr of ocs + music. just a place to dump all of my thoughts into.
minors do not interact. also read this post before following. other than that, just be chill and we'll be fine. though i do mute/block freely, so keep that in mind. ask box is always opened to talk!
the lack of reaction about readcomiconline's death is the true indicator of how many people just do not read comics but participate in the comics fandom
genuinely wild to me when I go to someone's house and we watch TV or listen to music or something and there are ads. I haven't seen an ad in my home since 2005. what do you mean you haven't set up multiple layers of digital infrastructure to banish corporate messaging to oblivion before it manifests? listen, this is important. this is the 21st century version of carving sigils on the wall to deny entry to demons or wearing bells to ward off the Unseelie. come on give me your router admin password and I'll show you how to cast a protective spell of Get Thee Tae Fuck, Capital
Okay, here we go! I'm gonna try and put this in order from least to most technical knowledge required. I'm not responsible if you accidentally create SkyNet etc.
Level 1: browser extensions
This one is basically impossible to get wrong, or at least to get wrong badly enough that it causes any problems.
Get Firefox, or a Firefox fork like Waterfox. If you use a fork, make sure it's one that will let you use add-ons. On a PC, pretty much any Firefox fork will take add-ons, but on mobile devices, many don't. Iceraven is one that does.
Get the add-ons uBlock Origin, YouTube Sponsorblock (if you use YouTube), and FBCleaner (if you use Facebook).
uBlock Origin comes with a built-in list of filters to block ads and trackers, but you can add your own filters to block any specific element of a website you don't like. You know those goddamn floating frames on fandom.com sites that block half the screen? Now you can zap 'em.
Sponsorblock uses crowdsourced timestamps to automatically skip sponsor spots and self-promotion in YouTube videos. Never listen to anyone say "hit like and subscribe" or "Raid Shadow Legends" again.
FBCleaner hides all content from your feed except posts from people, groups, and pages you've actually chosen to follow.
Level 2: leaving enshittified services
The software that's become standard over the years in a lot of fields is steadily selling more of your data, showing you more ads, and pushing you to buy more expensive subscriptions. Time to tell them to get fucked.
Dump Adobe apps for Affinity or Krita. Drop Microsoft for LibreOffice. Change your default search engine from Google to DuckDuckGo or Qwant. Use OpenStreetMaps instead of Google or Apple Maps.
Level 3: network-level DNS fuckery
DNS, or Domain Name Service, is the thing that tells your computer where www.website.com is actually located. By hacking your network's DNS you can force it to tell your devices that ad-hosting domains don't exist at all. Some of the steps on this one can get pretty technical, but because you're doing all the difficult stuff on a dedicated device, you can't really fuck up anything that seriously.
Get yourself a Raspberry Pi (a cheap older one like a model 3B will work just fine for this purpose), and follow a guide like this one to get it set up running AdGuard Home. AdGuard, like uBlock, has built-in filter lists, but you can also add your own if there are specific domains you want to block.
Once it's up and running, you'll need to change the DNS settings on your router to point to your AdGuard service. This is different for every router but will always start with logging into the admin panel with a password printed on a little sticker somewhere on the router.
With that done, every time a device on your home network looks for ads.website.com, it'll get back a message that says "sorry, can't find it", so it won't be able to load any ads.
Level 4: Android-specific DNS fuckery
Because AdGuard runs on your home network, it can't block ads on your phone when you're away from home - and what's worse, your phone will sometimes remember the addresses it got when you were out and about, and ads will get past your AdGuard wall even when you're home.
To avoid this, get AdAway for DNS-based ad-blocking directly on your phone. The easy, but less seamless, way of using AdAway is the "local VPN mode", which doesn't require you to do any mucking about with your phone's operating system.
Level 5: automated media piracy
The best way to stop seeing ads on all your streaming services is to stop using streaming services. There are loads of ways to do this, but the best ones involve setting up what's called an "arr stack" (Google that for setup guides) along with nzbget and a usenet account. Most of the time you'll want to set this stuff up on a dedicated device - an old laptop gathering dust in the closet is a great option, or you can grab something used from a charity shop or a local electronics recycler.
The great thing about usenet is that unlike with torrents, you don't have to do any sharing from your computer, so you're in a lot less legal jeopardy - legally speaking, distributing pirated content is waaayyy more serious than accessing it. I pay about £3 a month for a secure, high-bandwidth usenet service.
Once you start getting your own collection of media on your own computer, use the open-source media library manager Jellyfin to browse and play things from basically any device.
Oh, and don't be a dick. Pirate all you want from big corporations, but please pay independent small-time creators for their work.
Level 6: fucking with Android
Android phones are a lot more locked-down than they used to be, but depending on the device you own you can still do a lot of messing around under the hood. Note that if you get something wrong while doing this, there is always the possibility that it will turn your device into a paperweight.
Before you buy a device, check where it sits on the Bootloader Unlock Wall of Shame. Once you've bought it, check the xda-developer forums for guides on how to unlock it and "root" it (gain admin access) with Magisk.
Once Magisk is installed, you can add modules to do all sorts of cool stuff, including using AdAway in "root mode" which makes it basically invisible.
You can also install YouTube ReVanced, which will do all the ad- and sponsor blocking stuff we took care of in your Windows browser a few paragraphs ago. Be careful: there are a lot of fake sites out there pretending they're associated with the ReVanced project which might be injecting malware into their downloads. This Reddit post has the official instructions and links.
Also, try out the modded version of Facebook from APKmoddone, which will block most of the same shit as the FBcleaner add-on from earlier. There's always a possibility that modified apps like this are doing something dodgy, but I've never had any issues with this one personally.
Level 7: fucking with Windows
This one is scary because it can seriously fuck up your shit if something goes wrong, but some really cool people have actually made it very simple to strip all the bloat, ads, and spyware out of Windows. The tool I use is ReviOS. Start reading at https://www.revi.cc/docs. Basically, you'll need to download a tool called AME Wizard and the ReviOS "playbook" that tells AME what to do. Read the documentation before you do any of this.
Level 8: switching to Linux
I'm not going to pretend this is an option for everyone. Half the software I use on a weekly basis isn't available on Linux. But if you can switch? Do it. These days, Ubuntu - one of the most popular flavours of Linux - is built with people switching from Windows in mind, and a lot of things will be pretty intuitive. It also has great documentation and a huge community you can go to for help if you're confused about stuff.
And that, friends, is a comprehensive approach to banishing the demons of capitalism from your home!
You don't even need a pihole for it anymore. You can throw "dns.adguard-dns.com" into your android phone under Network (or Connections) > Private DNS > Private DNS Provider Hostname in your Settings app. You can also set your router up to use it via the IPs:
94.140.14.14
94.140.14.15
Link to to source for that:
Create your ad-blocking DNS server that will protect your personal data, prevent tracking and allow you to control access to specific conten
That will depend on your router, just search "How to set up custom DNS for (router name & model)". You can usually find that info on a sticker on the router itself. The model name is often nonsense like CM1000.
For switching to Linux:
If you're worried about software not working, and the software isn't something with work-related requirements attached, you can usually find alternatives. Alternativeto.net is a good place to start with that.
AlternativeTo lets you find apps and software for Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, iPad, Android, Android Tablets, Web Apps, Online, Windows Tab
If you're a gamer, protondb.com will let you see how well your specific game runs on Linux. Ranks are from:
Borked - Does Not Work At All, or works so poorly that you cannot play the game at all
Bronze - Sort of works, but with glitches that don't exist on Windows that affect gameplay
Silver - Works, but requires tinkering, and has glitches that don't affect gameplay, or requires heavy tinkering to get running
Gold - Works, requires mild tinkering (usually just selecting another proton version from the drop down)
Platinum - Works out of the box
Native - Is made for Linux
Other common alternatives:
Spotify: I've heard good things about Tidal, but haven't personally used it (I use a cloud storage service and local files for music)
Google drive: Nextcloud. You can find free servers on their website
Google office: OnlyOffice has a desktop/mobile app, and most of the features
Gmail: Free providers aren't common, but disroot is one of them. They also offer quite a few services. Personally I use mailbox.org, but they do cost $36 a year minimum
Google search: Disroot has a searx instance, startpage.com exists, and you'd be surprised at how far you can get by setting your default search engine to Wikipedia. Marginalia's also good, but selective about what they index (mostly indieweb stuff)
I, admittedly, run almost everything through Emacs nowadays, so there may be better alternatives now.
(Directed generally) Also remember that in most cases the problems are Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft. If you find a small project that isn't perfect, remember that those five companies are probably worse in every way imaginable. Look for an alternative, but for the love of whatever you hold dear, Google is *not* a better alternative.
"Anything else you're concerned about?" Hatori asked once again as he flipped through the plot, red highlight in hand.
"Everything’s fine for now. I’ll let you know if I there’s anything else."
"I understand. Now, please proceed with the storyboard. Thank you."
"Yes."
The person on the phone was Shindou-sensei, one of Hatori’s manga artists. They were revising the plot, and now everything seemed to come together in good shape.
When asked his opinion on a work, Hatori always tried to stay true to what the author wanted to convey, and then unravel any confusing parts in an understandable way. There were all kinds of editors; some had a producer-like mentality and gave detailed opinions on everything, while others preferred to let the artist draw as they pleased and barely intervene.
(I guess I'm somewhere in between?)
While each publishing company and editorial department had its own unique culture, individual differences among editors played a huge role in their performance.
"Well, if you need anything else..."
"...Um, Hatori-san. Have you heard the recent rumors?" Shindou hesitantly asked before Hatori could end the call.
"Rumors?" Hatori could recall a similar question somewhere recently. Looking back on his memories, he remembered it was during his last conversation with Ayukawa.
"Sorry to bother you, I wasn't sure whether to ask you or not, but I thought it might be best to let you know..."
That she started the conversation like this must have meant that, whatever the rumors were, it wasn't good news for Hatori. People were curious and easily drawn to controversial topics, so if there was any gossip around, and even more so now with the internet, it was only a matter of time before it spread.
"What kind of rumor is it?"
"Well... it's your reputation, Hatori-san. I’m pretty sure it’s all made up... Oh, of course, there is no way I actually believe something like that!"
Hatori didn’t say anything. He couldn't draw any conclusions without being told the facts, but Shindou being so reluctant to just say it meant it was something shady enough to not be talked about lightly. That must have been the reason she seemed a little off during the call.
"It's okay. I trust you, Shindou-san."
"..."
"And it would not be strange if someone was badmouthing me. Editors spread rumors about each other all the time."
Things didn’t always go smoothly when it came to interacting with others. And while it would be great if both parties could just end things amicably, sometimes resentment lingered. And it wasn’t that either party was more at fault than the other, but personal qualities still played a huge role.
(I wonder where I incurred their wrath, though...)
Being a shoujo publication, most of the artists were female, so Hatori was always careful not to offend them or unintentionally commit harassment. However, what happened with Nakahara made him realize that being too considerate wasn’t a good thing either.
He would’ve never imagine he'd become a romantic interest for someone so much younger than him; although she was probably just projecting her ideal onto Hatori, who would always put on a good face. Thankfully though, she had since changed her editor and could now focus on creating her own work.
"...Yeah, I guess whoever started it was just badmouthing you, but it was still so unpleasant! I heard it from a friend who draws for another magazine: she said that you use your friendship with Yoshikawa-sensei to do with her as you pleased, and that you owe your current position in Marukawa to that behavior.”
"Yoshi... Yoshikawa-sensei?" Surprised by the turn the conversation took, Hatori almost said ‘Yoshino’ on accident.
"They say you brought Yoshikawa-sensei to Emerald when she didn’t do well at the company she debuted at, and ever since you’ve been forcing her to take an unreasonable amount of work, and also other very nasty things…”
Hatori was speechless; the rumor seemed to be a lot worse than he had given it credit for. It was no wonder Shindou seemed so hesitant to talk about it. And since most people thought of Yoshino as a woman, it was likely they now made the vulgar assumption that Hatori was forcing her into a relationship.
"I denied that you were that kind of person, but since it's become a rumor, I think it's better to let you know."
"Thank you. I'll investigate the source of the rumor. Of course, it's complete nonsense."
"Y-You're right!"
"It’s true Yoshikawa-sensei and I have known each other for a very long time, so we get a bit too mean with each other sometimes. I guess someone must have overheard one of those phone calls." Naturally, Hatori wasn’t gonna tell this girl about his current relationship with Yoshino, so he decided it would be best to simply explain what may have led to the misunderstanding.
"Is that so? On the phone, you can only hear one side of the conversation..." Shindou seemed relieved by Hatori’s words. But even if she did trust Hatori, she couldn’t just ignore her friend’s concerns.
(But where did that story even come from?)
It was harsh criticism, even though Hatori was just doing his job as best as he could. But being in charge of an artist as popular as Yoshino, maybe it couldn’t be helped.
Regardless, it wasn’t good to be harbored ill will by someone whose name and face he didn't even know. And even though most of it was completely unfounded, there were bits of information mixed in that only someone on the inside would know. In particular, the fact that Yoshino and Hatori had known each other since before his debut.
It was shortly after Takano became editor-in-chief that Hatori had managed to bring Yoshino to Emerald. It was true that he had approached Yoshino when he saw him struggle, shortly after he had debuted, and at first, Yoshino hadn’t been so keen on being given a job because of his connections with a childhood friend. But Hatori certainly wasn't doing it out of obligation or pity; he knew Yoshino had a lot more potential than he was letting out, so he wanted him to draw for the magazine he worked for.
And at that, Hatori had also thought it would be best to avoid working with Yoshino, given their personal relationship. However, at the time, everyone else in the editorial department was oversaturated, so Hatori ended up taking charge of him, and things had been going that way ever since.
At the time, Hatori had introduced Yoshino to Takano, but other than that, no other employees within Marukawa had ever met Yoshino in person. In other words, whoever spread the rumor knew that they had known each other for a long time, but still thought Yoshino was a woman.
So it was unlikely it had been an assistant. The ones who frequented Yoshino's place already knew that Hatori was his childhood friend, but since they constantly met Yoshino face-to-face, they naturally knew his real gender.
Therefore, it could’ve been anyone Hatori had ever met at Marukawa, outside of the Emerald editorial department.
(...Could it be...?)
Once again, Ayukawa's behavior from the other day and the face of the person they had been talking about flashed through his mind. But he couldn’t just blindly blame the guy without further evidence.
"Can you tell me about the artist who told you all this? You don’t need to tell me any actual names, I’m not trying to pinpoint a culprit or anything.”
"It's a girl who draws at Koyosha. Apparently, another artist there heard it from their editor."
"Is that so?" Hatori’s suspicions of *him* grew stronger.
Although he was aware that he was unilaterally disliked, Hatori himself couldn't remember doing anything to warrant this kind of hatred. In fact, he had even intended to support him back when he tried to apply for a transfer to the editorial department.
"Um, if you need any more details, I could ask my friend...?"
"No, it's fine. Thank you for your concern. Instead, I'd appreciate it if you could have your storyboard finished soon."
"That sounds more like you, Hatori-san. I understand. I'll do my best so that you can see it soon."
"I'm looking forward to it." Hatori calmly hung up the phone and put the receiver back.
Being just a rumor, there was not much he could do other than treating those directly involved with him with sincerity so that they would be on his side.
"Tori, what's wrong? You seem really troubled."
"...There are some bad rumors going around about me."
"Seriously?" Kisa's expression clouded as Hatori briefly explained the situation. "That's weird, you are probably one of the most popular editors we have! Did you do something wrong?"
"No that I can remember"
"What kind of rumor is it?"
"They say I'm taking advantage of Yoshikawa-sensei and treating her badly."
"What's that? That's bullshit! If anything, I’d say you’re the one who’s been treated badly!”
"...I guess."
Being Yoshino’s editor, Hatori had gone through his fair share of rough times, like losing contact right before a deadline or receiving faxes saying ‘Please don’t look for me’ whenever Yoshino disappeared.
"So, what are you going to do?"
"For now, I'll just have to wait and see."
"This will be difficult to fix it if we don't know where it came from..."
"Yeah, I know." And while he had a vague idea of where the rumor came from, Hatori couldn't act on any unreliable information. If he did, wouldn’t be any better than the person spreading lies about him in the first place.
"And I mean, with an artist as popular as Yoshikawa-sensei, the company would immediately replace you if you ever made a mistake. Anyone within the industry would realize how ridiculous these rumors are if they just thought about it."
To a publishing company, authors are like business partners; and like in any company, if a staff member ever made a mistake when dealing with a partner, it was only natural to have that person replaced. Not to mention, it was actually quite hard for one single editor to personally keep an artist under their control.
But even more so in an industry like this, baseless information spread easily if it was entertaining enough. And while bad rumors could spread quicker than in the blink of an eye, clearing one's name usually took a lot longer.
Regardless, Kisa's words made Hatori feel a little better.
"I'll let you know it if I hear anything. But don't worry about it. Anyone who knows you would know it's a lie.”
"I hope so."
Just as he had said, it was a matter of waiting for the matter to be settled, so there was no point in worrying about it too much. But even knowing that, Hatori couldn't contain his irritation.
***
"Welcome back!"
"Yoshino. What are you doing here?"
It was hard to concentrate being so irritated, so Hatori finished his duties later that night. Usually, he'd head straight to Yoshino's place after work like he did every Friday, but this time he felt so frayed he didn't feel like it. The last thing he wanted was to end up taking his frustration out on him.
Of course, he had contacted him on his way out, so it was a shock to see him there anyways. Hatori hadn't even thought about food, and as soon as he saw Yoshino's face, he remembered he himself hadn’t had anything to eat since lunch.
"What's wrong? You seem down."
"When was I ever up?"
"But I mean more than usual! You look really gloomy. Did something happen at work?"
Yoshino was usually insensitive to the subtleties of other people's emotions, but on rare occasions he could be strangely sharp. More than once he had said careless things that upset Hatori, but never to the point of actually crossing a line.
So this was most likely just a gut feeling.
"Nothing."
(That's a lie.)
Although, to be fair, nothing had really happened *at* work, so it wasn’t exactly a lie… Hatori could only chuckle bitterly at his own excuse.
"You wouldn't be making that face if nothing happened! Even I can tell when you’re actually in a bad mood.”
"Really?"
"We've been together since we were born! I know there is some stuff you can't tell me, but you should vent your frustrations every once in a while. I'm not sure I can give you any good advice, but at least I could listen..." Having talked on impulse, Yoshino’s initially loud voice gradually tapered off as he talked. "I know I’m always the one relying on you, but I want to help you too." Perhaps by this point he had lost all confidence, as the embarrassment was now all over his face.
(………………I see.)
Normally, Hatori would not let this kind of thing affect his mood. But he had now realized that his irritation wasn't even due to any ill will directed at himself, but rather directed at Yoshino.
"I know! Let's go eat out. I'll treat you."
"Right now?"
"You always cook for me, it doesn’t harm to go out every once in a while. By the looks of it, you haven't even had a proper meal today."
"Yeah, that's true, but..."
"I thought so. Come on, let's get going then. It's hard to be in a good mood when you're hungry."
"...Don't you just want the fried cartilage from the usual izakaya?"
"How did you know I was gonna take you there?"
"It's written all over your face." After all, Yoshino could be very transparent when it came to food.
"Well, you like it too, don't you?"
"Yeah, I guess."
"Ok, I'll go get my coat, hang on!"
The irritation from before seemed like a lie now. At times like these, Yoshino's presence was truly appreciated.
***
"Brrrr, it's cold." Yoshino shivered, buffeted by the north wind.
"Why didn't you bring a scarf?"
"The izakaya is not too far, I didn’t think I would need one."
Even though Yoshino often complained about the cold, he neglected taking proper precautions himself, which became a pain when he inevitably ended up catching a cold.
And Hatori was the one who suffered from it the most: if it happened during some spare time, nursing Yoshino back to health could even be fun; but if it happened during a deadline, it was nothing but anxiety.
"Geez... Come on, use mine."
"But then you’ll get cold."
"I'm not as sensitive to heat or cold as you are. And it'd be a problem if you got sick right now."
"I'll borrow it then."
Not wanting to accidentally create a romantic scene in public, Hatori simply handed the scarf to Yoshino, who then wrapped it around his neck and buried his face in it.
"It smells like Tori."
"...Obviously." The casual comment startled Hatori, and getting so upset over something like that made him feel like a middle schooler.
Suddenly, a man bumped into them. Hatori tried to avoid him, but the man seemed to lose his balance and blocked their path.
"Let's take a different route." Frowning at this sudden nuisance, Hatori subtly shielded Yoshino.
"Uh, yeah."
It seemed like a detour would get them to their destination faster than forcing their way past this man. But just as Hatori turned his gaze to a different route, a raspy voice called out to him.
"Huh? I knew I had seen that face somewhere before: it's Hatori."
"Mitani.” Startled by the voice, Hatori turned around.
The guy looked a lot more unkempt than Hatori remembered: his worn-out coat didn’t seem to have been taken proper care of, and his leather shoes were covered in scratches. As far as Hatori remembered, Mitani was the type of person to always pay the utmost attention to his clothes, often making snide remarks on this regard about Hatori, who wore a suit everyday despite being assigned to the editorial department.
So what on earth happened?
"Still dressed like a jerk, huh? What, are you still a sub-editor?"
"Let's go, Yoshino."
"Huh? What?"
The last thing Hatori wanted was to get involved with Mitani. But just as he tried to leave, Mitani grabbed him by the shoulder and stopped him.
"You are running away? I guess you’ve always been good at that!"
"Haven’t you had too much to drink?" Hatori calmly brushed off Mitani's hand.
"That’s none of your business. And just so you know, if I've had nothing good going for me it’s because of you."
"How is it my fault?" Hatori had intended to ignore him and walk away, but Mitani's words stood out to him.
"If it hadn’t been for you, I would've been assigned to the editorial department from the beginning instead of having to take that long detour. You ended up there even though you didn't even care for it! And yet you keep wearing that suit as if you were in sales. How annoying!"
"The company is the one who decides where they assign you. What say could I have on that, as a new hire?"
And at that, not even veterans could get much of a say on whether they kept their current position or not, unless they had some sort of influence over HR. At best, all one could really do was make a good impression during interviews.
"But if you hadn’t been there, I would have been the one in that position! And then, when I finally thought they were gonna approve my transfer request, they dumped me into fucking Japun! When I specifically said I wanted to work on a newsletter magazine! Do you know how annoying it is to be stuck on a job you don’t want to do?”
"But you were so happy when you were transferred to Japun! You even said you'd work hard to become editor-in-chief. So why did you quit so soon?"
"Shut up! I wasn’t gonna work with a bunch of idiots who wouldn't understand my vision! I had my own shit to deal with, and they kept nagging about that damned manuscript. As if one or two pages was such a big deal! The artist can just draw them again…”
"...You didn’t lose a manuscript, did you?" Even though it had nothing to do with him, just thinking of what would he do if such a thing happened to him made Hatori’s blood run cold.
"I had the guy redraw it, it was okay in the end. Nothing of value was lost anyways, and the redraw was even better."
"That's not the problem!" Hatori unconsciously raised his voice, without any consideration for the people around him. It made him feel dizzy, to think someone could hold so little respect to the editorial profession.
Editors are human, it's natural for them to make mistakes every once in a while; but to try to downplay it as if their actions couldn’t greatly affect an artist was straight up vile.
“Oh, miss me with that bullshit! Are you gonna lecture me like Kirishima did? As if you had to put in any real effort! All you have to do is leech off Chiharu Yoshikawa to get whatever you want!”
Obviously Mitani had no clue that the person hanging out with Hatori was none other than Chiharu Yoshikawa herself. And even though he didn’t want Yoshino to hear these words, Hatori couldn’t do much but remain silent.
And even though he knew Mitani was just venting at him, it was still rather shocking to hear such abusive words from someone he knew.
"How did you even manage to get to her? You're popular with women, aren't you? Of course, good-looking guys like you don't have to struggle, they have it easy. I had to work hard, and yet I was never rewarded!”
And that’s when it hit him: Mitani's words were oddly similar to the rumors Shindou had told him about. So was Hatori’s gut feeling right all along…?
"Are you the one spreading those rumors about me?"
“They are not rumors, they are facts. I’m just protecting innocent artists from getting caught up with the likes of you.”
"I knew it..." In a way, it kinda hurt to have his suspicions confirmed.
"I figured you'd find out about it eventually, but that was quick. What? Did an artist you tried to lure in turn you down? Serves you right, better to be left unknown than to be on your leash!”
"How can you say something like that about an artist?"
"I'm just the one handling them, they are the ones who keep writing shit that won’t sell!"
"They aren’t tools."
"At least tools don’t complain or try to run away! Of course things are so much easier when you can just snag a decent artist like you did. It’s easy money, right?"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"You people don’t leave us any decent artists, and yet you try to make it look like it’s my fault! It’s not fair! Even Kirishima has some big names under his belt, of course he would leave the leftovers to newbies like me…"
Hatori felt a wave of disgust at Mitani’s words. It was indignant to think an editor could have this attitude.
(Was he always this despicable...?)
When they had joined Marukawa as new graduates, Mitani talked enthusiastically of his dreams, of how he wanted to bring stories that everyone could find interesting. Where in the way did he end up like this?
Not only the relationship between editors and manga artists, but society as a whole is built upon respect. Without mutual respect, things just can't function. People work together for better results: Manga artists exist to create their own stories, not to boost an editor’s performance or to do whatever their editor fancies.
How does someone forget something as basic as that?
To spread rumors on a fellow colleague simply as an act of unfounded revenge should be out of the question for any self-respecting editor, as should be to put the entire blame on the artist when things end up going wrong. If Mitani had any resentment harbored towards Hatori, for whatever reason, he should have directed that energy into bettering himself.
"Oh, fuck off with that!" Yoshino shouted, taking over Hatori, who couldn’t even speak from the anger.
"Yoshino...?"
"I don't give a crap about who you think you are, but don't you dare talk down on this guy as if you knew what he goes through! He gets up early every morning and works his ass off until he collapses. What part of that sounds like easy money to you!?"
"What is it with you? This is none of your business!” Mitani casted a quizzical look at Yoshino, who had stepped in between Hatori and him to make such a bold statement.
"You are the one meddling! Just looking from the sidelines and saying whatever! Editors like you are the reason manga artists have it so hard!"
"W-What do you know about authors?"
"Because I'm a manga artist too! I understand their feelings better than you ever will! And I know there's no way I could ever create an interesting story with an editor like you!”
"What...?"
“Tori is a serious, responsible, caring, talented, and top-notch editor who values his artists more than anything, and he would never shift the blame on others like you do! And I swear, if I find out you keep talking shit about him, I’ll never let you get away with it!"
Mitani seemed taken aback by Yoshino's sudden outburst, and Hatori himself was so shocked he couldn't even move.
He'd never seen Yoshino so angry before; while it was true his emotions tended to fluctuate, Yoshino was generally tolerant to frustration up to some degree. He had never taken his anger out on another person for no apparent reason, but right now he was doing it, for Hatori’s sake nonetheless.
"You’re only doing this out of envy! But if you keep blaming others for your problems, nothing's ever going to work out for you."
"I don't know what low-level ‘artist’ you are supposed to be, but you don’t get to talk to me like you’re shit... I don’t have time for this." Perhaps sensing that he was losing the argument, Mitani uttered a last parting remark and ran off.
Hatori could only watch him leave in a daze, while Yoshino, still steaming with rage, stood next to him. In contrast however, seeing Yoshino complain with his fists clenched took all of Hatori's anger away.
"What's with that guy? He was the one who started picking fights! He really worked at Marukawa?"
"He was a colleague of mine, after all."
"I can't believe he got hired acting like that..."
"He wasn't like that back then."
When Mitani had first joined the company, he seemed genuinely passionate about his dreams. To Hatori, who was just getting familiarized with the workforce, the way he confidently spoke about his vision to his superiors while proudly donning brand-name clothing was even admirable.
But perhaps his clothes and big mouth were just an armor to him. Until, at some point, making those horrible statements about himself and others became the only way he had to take out his frustrations.
Regardless, if he kept on like this, he would only be a detriment for whatever company he worked on.
But at least for now, knowing the source of the rumors, all Hatori had left to do was put an end to them before they continued to spread and actually caused any harm.
"Hey, was that guy the reason you were so gloomy?"
"I guess so."
"And what's your deal? You were acting all cool now, how are you not angry?" For some reason, Yoshino’s anger now seemed to be directed towards Hatori.
"Of course I'm angry." But although he was still mad at Mitani, the shock at Yoshino's behaviour won over that, so now Hatori’s heart was filled with relief. "And what exactly did you mean by ‘not letting him get away with it’ anyways, Yoshino?"
"I didn’t really think that far ahead... I guess suing him for defamation or something like that…"
So, apparently, it had only been a spur-of-the-moment retort. Nevertheless, it just went to show how much he cared.
"Thank you for defending me. I appreciate it"
“W-well, I was pissed! All I did was say the truth." With Hatori expressing his gratitude, Yoshino suddenly became embarrassed and began muttering.
"So you really do feel that way about me?"
"W-well, maybe I was overpraising you... But most of it was still an objective assessment, I'm sure I’m not the only one who thinks that way..."
"But you do feel that way, don't you?"
"What is it with you? You were so gloomy just a moment ago." Perhaps to hide his embarrassment, Yoshino became a bit harsher towards Hatori.
But the more Yoshino scolded him, the happier it made him feel.
"You cheered me up."
"It still feels a little off..." Yoshino muttered to himself, feeling embarrassed all by himself.
“Well, I'm hungry, let's go eat something already. You said it was your treat, right?"
"Ugh, fine! I'm going to drink myself to death tonight!"
Secretly resolved to not continue bothering himself with petty things, just this once, Hatori followed Yoshino as he strode purposefully to the izakaya.
There will be newly recorded short voice dramas for Junjou Egoist this summer!
If you buy the Animate limited sets of the regular and special editions of Volume 31 of Junjou Romantica + Summer 2026 Emerald, you will receive three physical cards with serial codes to enter in Animate's PokeDrama (ポケドラ) app/web portal, where you can listen to newly recorded short voice dramas from Hiroki and Nowaki's voice actors, both of whom are reprising their roles!
The audio that comes with the regular edition of Vol. 31 will cover the events of the Egoist portion of the special edition booklet that came with Vol.30 last year.
The audio that comes with the special edition of Vol.31 will cover the events of the Egoist portion of the Vol.31 special edition booklet.
And finally, the audio that comes with this summer's Emerald issue will cover the Egoist portion of the Junjou Mix that's in Vol.27.
Additionally, when you buy any edition of Vol. 31 through Animate, you will receive one of two 4-page leaflets. The 4-page leaflet bundled with any regular edition of Vol. 31 through Animate is from Misaki's perspective, while the other 4-page leaflet bundled with the special edition of Vol. 31 through Animate is from Usagi's perspective!
In order to get the full experience, I would most definitely recommend buying each of the limited sets from Animate this time around! Links to purchase each below!
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