A mentoring circle for aspirants taking it on from abroad
Hello — I'm R, the founding senior of Rutsubo.
Rutsubo is a mentoring circle we built for aspirants overseas who are aiming at Japanese manga publishing.
As a foreigner taking on the Japanese manga industry, you run into walls beyond raw drawing skill.
- How to access the information
- Naturalness of your Japanese
- How to work with an editor
- What publishers and magazines actually want
- How winning entries are evaluated
- The path from debut to serialization
- What to study and which trends to track right now
Many of these are hard to figure out on your own.
I debuted by winning the official Story division of the Tezuka Award — Weekly Shonen Jump's flagship contest (excluding the 100th-anniversary overseas division) — as a foreigner. Since then I've continued to run one-shots in Jump extra issues, three or more so far.
Drawing on this experience, Rutsubo is a hand-picked circle of artists — myself included — who as foreigners actually took on Japanese manga publishing and produced results.
Mentees get 1-on-1 coaching, feedback, and on-the-ground advice from foreign-artist seniors — and move meaningfully closer to the goal of becoming a Japanese mangaka.
We operate under codenames rather than real names
Some mentors are currently active professionals, so we keep personal identities private.
R
Tezuka Award (Story division) winner; multiple one-shots in Jump extra issues.
Hinode
Editor-minded feedback on panels, composition, and pacing.
Andy
Translates and adapts English-written pitches and scripts for Japanese magazines.
Hoshi
Tracks contest schedules and publisher trends and shares a curated summary.
Rutsubo operating policy
Online-first operation
Proofreading, line edits, and feedback are all exchanged online.
Codename policy
Some mentors are currently active professionals, so everyone here operates under a codename rather than a real name.
Membership & assignment
Mentoring runs on a membership model; we assign the appropriate mentor based on your application and the stage your work is at.
Mentor recruitment
Rutsubo is continuously recruiting mentor candidates — both from our membership and through external channels.
- Foreign-national artists
- A qualifying award in a Japanese manga contest (e.g., above the Encouragement / Special Award tier, or an equivalent track record)
- Passed an interview with the staff and internal review
Deliver experience and direction that actually moves the work.
A way to pass experience back to the next generation while building a realistic base to keep creating.