>Question 3: Everything you just said, is it about the manga world in general (including adult manga), or specifically about manga for children/teenagers?
>Torishima: What I’m saying concerns manga for all audiences, but I’m particularly thinking about manga aimed at children, because right now there’s a real problem: kids no longer read manga. Editors today claim that children can no longer follow stories broken down into panels. And I tell them: it’s not that, the paneling in your manga just isn’t good, and it’s hard to follow.
>For example, Toriyama’s manga had incredibly clear visual flow. If you take One Piece, elementary school kids should be able to read it because of how it’s broken down into panels.
>It’s not the mangakas’ fault, it’s the tanto (editorial supervisors), who don’t have strong enough technical knowledge about manga readability. One of the causes is that publishers hire people who have only ever read manga.
>If you don’t recruit people with diverse tastes, like in cinema or literature, you end up with editors whose worldview keeps shrinking as time goes on.
>For example: if you only watch TV news, you won’t know about zooms and wide shots. But if you study real cinema, you’ll have access to a whole range of camera techniques.
>Osamu Tezuka, for instance, was passionate about cinema, he knew how to use angles and would often show his characters from above. That’s why I think today’s mangaka are technically weaker than Osamu Tezuka.