Hetappi Manga Kenkyūjo

Hetappi Manga Kenkyūjo (Japanese: 鳥山明のヘタッピマンガ研究所^?, lit. "Akira Toriyama's Hetappi, Crummy Manga Lab") is a Japanese manga series by Akira Toriyama and Akira Sakuma. It is a collection of lessons on how to create manga published between October 1982 to March 1984 in Fresh Jump, and collected into a single tankōbon released in May 1985. A sequel called Hetappi Manga Kenkyūjo R (ヘタッピマンガ研究所R) was written and illustrated by Yusuke Murata from 2008 to 2010 and by Yoshihiro Togashi in 2011.

Hetappi Manga Kenkyūjo is a source of information and advice for any artist who wants to make manga or comics. Everything is clearly explained, associated with Toriyama's humor. Akira Toriyama, as his manga counterpart, Tori-bot, teaches his young assistant Hetappi as well as the readers his techniques to create manga. Hetappi Manga Kenkyūjo explains how to draw, inking, applying frames, create animation effect, onomatopoeia, the basis of characterization and character set, how to proceed for the sake of brevity and clarity of the story, etc. all in a playful atmosphere. The book is divided into four parts.

The essential points listed in Hetappi Manga Kenkyūjo to make a successful manga are: drawing regularly (daily if possible); always start a story with the setting; large bubbles with little text and readable, thumbnails of different sizes, but with an ordered presentation that facilitates the reading order; expressive characters with different looks and personalities, and with a minimum of humor, their position and orientation must remain logic (look towards each other when they speak, fight, etc.); surprise the reader (suspense, unexpected occurrence or action, jokes [open to all], etc.), and always think primarily in reading comfort (step into the shoes of the reader).

The first part, which is also the main part, features 12 lessons originally published in Fresh Jump. It explains all the technical aspect, from the narrative aspect to the creation of characters through the technical layout. The professor Tori-bot teaches his pupil Hetappi how to create an identifiable character, how to age a character, the use of perspective, the handling of the pen, sketching, inking Kent paper, editing, layout, and storytelling. In bonus, it gives tips on how to make boards before presenting them to a publisher.

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