NEW GAME is a four-panel comic currently being serialized in Manga Time Kirara Carat. It is a manga about the daily working life of the game production company Eagle Jump, depicting what goes on behind the scenes in game production. The staff is mostly young female employees, making it a bright manga that dispels the dark image of the work. Due to the popularity of the original work, it was first broadcast as an anime in the summer of 2016, and ran for one season. The anime also attracted attention, and a second season was broadcast as an anime the following summer. In this article, we will introduce the original source material for the story and lines from the wildly popular NEW GAME.
The author worked at a game production company
Source: NEW GAME! ©Tokuno Shotaro, Houbunsha/NEW GAME! Production Committee
The author [Tokuno Shotaro] worked at a game production company for about three years, and the story of NEW GAME is based on the know-how he gained during that time when making games, his relationships with employees, the hardships and rewards he experienced. In the gaming industry, hardware transitions and development environments change so quickly that there was a risk that a monthly magazine would not be able to keep up and would fall behind, so the magazine decided not to cover current events in the gaming industry.
Story Direction
Source: NEW GAME! ©Tokuno Shotaro, Houbunsha/NEW GAME! Production Committee
The story is centered around the relationships between female employees, and rather than focusing on the various aspects of working life, the story is centered around how the characters respond to the situations in each episode. The story is basically told from the heroine's point of view, but it is written with the idea that by looking at the heroine from the perspective of a hierarchical relationship between a boss and a subordinate, the protagonist is reminded of his own beginnings.
Was it supposed to be a heartwarming manga about corporate slaves?
Source: NEW GAME! ©Tokuno Shotaro, Houbunsha / NEW GAME! Production Committee
The author's own experience in the game industry was harsh, and he wanted to draw based on that, so he initially intended to go with a "heartwarming corporate slave manga." However, as he continued to draw, he grew attached to the characters and saw the heartwarming interactions between employees, so he changed the style to a brighter and more fun style than he had planned. Perhaps he didn't want the cute children he was drawing to go through the same hardships as he had.
Composition that includes painful real-life experiences
Source: NEW GAME! ©Tokuno Shotaro, Houbunsha/NEW GAME! Production Committee
However, the author felt the need to write about the painful things he experienced, so vivid episodes are also reflected. Even so, he tried to keep the story from being too dark by having the characters peacefully resolve the failures he experienced in real life. It depicts the heroines happily working overtime and on holidays without conveying the misery of the actual game industry.
Influence of the original author
Source: NEW GAME! ©Shotaro Tokuno, Houbunsha/NEW GAME! Production Committee
The author says that the work that influenced him to write about the heartwarming daily life of an all-female cast was Kozueni Amano's ARIA. Furthermore, the structure of each episode is based on the aesthetic beauty of anime for girls and special effects heroes for boys.
Is there an original source for "I'll do my best today too"?
Source: NEW GAME! ©Tokuno Shotaro, Houbunsha/NEW GAME! Production Committee
When you hear NEW GAME, the first thing that comes to mind is the line that Aoba said, "Let's do our best today, too." Is there an original source for this line? No. The original source is NEW GAME. This line only appears once in the story. Furthermore, the author has stated that he has no plans to have her say this line in the future. So why has it become so famous?
A way of saying it without putting too much energy into it
Source: NEW GAME! ©Tokuno Shotaro, Houbunsha/NEW GAME! Production Committee
Why did a line that has never appeared in the game become so famous? Because the cute heroine's relatability makes people like her positive statement without putting too much energy into it. Scenes and frames in which these lines are actually being spoken are being cut out and used on Twitter and other social media. This is because, as mentioned earlier, they are very easy to use, thanks to the familiarity and likability they evoke.
Popular because of the lines
Source: NEW GAME! ©Tokuno Shotaro, Houbunsha/NEW GAME! Production Committee
As these lines, scenes, and frames spread on social media, they became known even to people who don't read manga much, and the original NEW GAME became more well-known, and the work itself began to be evaluated. In fact, it was decided to reprint the book after a delay. And it became so popular that it was temporarily difficult to obtain.
Author's Comment
As a result of this, some people have started reselling the images at high prices, and the original author has called for caution. Furthermore, the author has stated that he only drew this scene to connect the dots, and that it wasn't particularly well done, but that he was just lucky.
Winner of the Bronze Award at the 2016 Buzzword Awards
Source: NEW GAME! ©Tokuno Shotaro, Houbunsha/NEW GAME! Production Committee
It won the Bronze Award at the 2016 Anime Buzzword Awards. It beat out other strong competitors like "But I refuse" and "My brain trembles," so you can see how well-known and popular it was. It even gave birth to the phrase "zoi pose," which is when you put your fist in front of your chest when saying this line.
Voice actor Yuuki Takada's seriousness
Source: NEW GAME! ©Shotaro Tokuno, Houbunsha/NEW GAME! Production Committee
This line appears in episode 4 of the anime, and Takada, who plays Aoba, was aware of the line's popularity and practiced it on her own many times. However, she was surprised when she got it right on the first take during the actual dubbing.
New Game Source Summary
Source: NEW GAME! ©Tokuno Shotaro, Houbunsha/New Game! Production Committee
What did you think? This time, I focused more on the source of the lines than the source of the story. It's a very interesting manga, so please read it. Thank you for reading.
