This article provides a detailed account of the journey from the launch to the production of the Webtoon project “ネゴラブ”. It begins with the encounter of Shiohigari and the project members in May 2022 and includes episodes from their first meeting, the character design, and the reworking of the story, offering insights into the production process.

The “ネゴラブ” project has faced numerous challenges and discoveries from its inception to the present. The article discusses various facets of the production process, including technical difficulties and the cultural gaps among team members.

If you are interested in the behind-the-scenes work of Webtoon production and the evolving journey of a project from inception to progression, we hope you will read the article until the end and reflect on the path of this project together with us.

Chapter 1

Meeting Shiohigari and Scooter Films

Akiko Ashizuka (Producer, Scooter Films)

Speaking of which, it was two years ago when we first met Shiohigari. It was in May 2022.

Shiohigari

Ah, so it has already been two years.

Takuro Harada (CEO, Producer, Scooter Films)

Well, that was around that time. Yeah, it turned into quite an epic project.

Shiohigari

It did become an epic project.

Harada

You brought various project proposals in July 2022, right?

Shiohigari

Yes, I was invited to discuss a project called “Shiohi-Girls Bolognese”. That was in 2018 if I recall correctly. There was originally a company called DMM.futureworks where the anime was created based on my manga. It ran for about a year, and while it was a web anime on Twitter, after it ended, I found out that DMM.futureworks had disappeared and merged into Scooter Films. I had heard that through the grapevine.

Then, I received a call from the producer saying the company had changed, and they wanted me to meet the representative. So, I was invited by the producer to meet in Yotsuya in May 2022, where I first met you, Harada-san and Ashizuka-san. We exchanged greetings, and I mentioned that I had been following “Shiohi-Girls Bolognese”.

From the Buzz around Webtoons to the Launch of “ネゴラブ”

Shiohigari

During that time, we talked about webtoons, and it became clear that there was a notable buzz around them in the industry. I probably said something like, “Webtoons are really gaining momentum right now.” That probably led us to discuss doing something together.

Ashizuka

I think the discussion about the corporate character came first. We said, “It would be great to have a character like that,” and upon your agreement, we proposed creating a corporate character together, along with a later discussion about developing a webtoon project, which we started around July.

Shiohigari

Yes, right from the beginning, there were plans to work on both a webtoon and a corporate character. So in August, I came in with several materials, including “ネゴラブ” and “A Woman in Love with the Thunder Father”, among other ideas.

In one of those, I was influenced by “100 Days Until I Die” with the classic tsundere line, “It’s still 100 years too early,” and proposed a manga with a premise of gradually decreasing over 100 years leading to future generations. When I showed this idea, I got a lot of positive reactions, which brought us closer to a serialization deal. I also shared that I am friends with Kikuchi-san, and how “100 Days Until I Die” was trending on Twitter, prompting me to wonder what my own version could look like.

Shiohigari

Right, I was thinking about creating something romantic in my way. I initially planned to write my own manga and upload it on Twitter, but I was so slow at writing that it became quite bothersome, leading me to put it on the back burner. When I finally showed what I had started, I ended up presenting an eight-page draft.

Harada

It was about four pages long, surprisingly short. But it was good!

Shiohigari

Four pages? I didn’t realize it was that short. But with that feedback, I think we agreed to move forward with production.

Ashizuka

We decided to proceed, but since it was our first time producing a webtoon, we started figuring out how to approach it, especially regarding character design. We considered asking Ao, a friend of Shiohigari’s, for designs, and managed to get design roughs quickly—looking back at Discord, we got roughs as early as July.

Harada

I think we actually got started even earlier than that.

Ashizuka

The project document was dated August, but I think the first time we showed “ネゴラブ” to you was in June when you came for the second time.

Harada

I believe that too.

Shiohigari

Yes, I went in June and thought I would bring something together by the next meeting. During that first meeting, I remember Harada-san was very enthusiastic and expressed a strong desire to work together. I was quite thankful for that, but I honestly couldn’t see exactly what you wanted to do. The word “webtoon” came up several times, but I didn’t entirely grasp how deeply you wanted to pursue that direction.

Harada

From the hazy memories, I feel like we undeniably wanted to create webtoon projects at the time, but I was also a bit torn on whether Shiohigari was with us on that idea, and if so, whether we were in sync with each other. There is probably a difference between what people expect from typical webtoons, and what we want to achieve. Yet, we were definitely excited about exploring this further. You could say we were pretty eager to push for more webtoon titles.

Shiohigari

Yeah, it was definitely exploratory. I was also in a position where I couldn’t ask too much detail regarding the plans from that producer, so I kept thinking about doing a sequel to “Shiohi-Girls Bolognese” since that was always on my mind during the DMM.futureworks era. So I assumed I was walking into a discussion about a sequel, only to find it was about webtoons instead.

Ashizuka

Yes, I remember. There was a point when we were thinking about creating a karuta game using the “Shiohi-Girls”.

Shiohigari

Right, we even considered creating a full deck of cards for that purpose.

Harada

Yeah, that was discussed. Behind the scenes, we presented the karuta idea quite earnestly without Shiohigari being aware.

Shiohigari

The idea was that voice actors would read out the cards, something that several of the original staff members were passionate about from the early stages of “Bolognese.”

Ashizuka

And the reason connecting back to karuta was also due to the fact that your style somewhat resembles waka poetry.

Harada

Then the love letter was written.

Shiohigari

Ah, that’s right. Eventually, we decided to create a webtoon, and that was probably around July. While Ao was working on the designs, I started creating text for the stories—essentially the early drafts. I showcased several episodes and requested feedback on what worked and what didn’t, going into a phase of development.

Ashizuka

By the way, I think I wasn’t CC’ed on that love letter to Shiohigari.

Shiohigari

Then, I presented my ideas as text structure, while also developing a comprehensive vision for how the final story would flow. At that point, my protagonist, who appeared pretty cool, felt misaligned with what you suggested regarding character portrayal.

Instead of seeing things my way, you seemed to prefer something like, “Wouldn’t it be better if it was like this?” which also left me rather unclear about my personal character designs since I generally favor less individualized characters. I enjoy anonymity in my characters, like Haruki Murakami’s protagonists, and this style doesn’t deeply delve into complex character settings.

So when it came to character settings, I realized I needed to collaborate more closely with the rest of the team, as they are seasoned folks in anime. There was indeed some misalignment.

As discussions went on, I very much felt lost for several weeks trying to figure things out, carving out my doubts. In the middle of this struggle, I received the love letter from Harada-san.

It seemed like he could sense my uncertainty and sent me this very passionate note, highlighting all the qualities he loved about me and how he wanted those translated into the story. I appreciated it deeply and replied with a “Thank you!” and “How about this idea?” and, fortunately, he responded positively.

Ashizuka

The reason Shiohigari was hesitating was likely because of confusion on the producer side, with three producers present; each had their vision on what a romcom could be like. They might have said things like, “I think it’s about a romcom.” Each one had their version of what it should be, leading to Shiohigari needing to navigate through all that feedback to find a common essence.

Shiohigari

Yes, right! So initially, it was troublesome to understand each other’s tones while balancing every input. I think I also discussed with producers through several discussions about working on a sequel to “Shiohi-Girls” and how it would blend with this new venture.

Ashizuka

Then bringing Ao on board for character design also became a significant part of our approach, but we still struggled to find a fitting character design, leaning towards characters that might end up resembling something from Adachi Mitsuru. Shiohigari referenced several frames from his works to get inspiration, but we just couldn’t seem to capture that essence consistently.

Harada

It was tough. We faced quite a challenge with character designs.

Ashizuka

That’s the kernel of the issue! It seems like Shiohigari’s current work captures that Adachi Mitsuru essence in the scripts, while we faced the hell of difficulties translating that into art.

Harada

Honestly, it was a bit painful for me too. But I remember discovering my own love letter, and boy, that was intense.

Shiohigari

Yeah, it was intense!

Chapter 2

Thanks to Harada-san’s Passionate Messages, the Production of “ネゴラブ” Advances

Yuki Sakoda (Interviewer)

While trying to get closer to creating Adachi Mitsuru characters and facing frustration, there were moments of misalignment in opinions. I believe this was a significant sequence where Harada sent a passionate message. As a result, what we have now seems to resemble the characters that everyone was initially seeking. Would you say that has been achieved?

Ashizuka

With respect to the manga, we haven’t quite reached that point yet. The game currently in development has reverted to the original design by Shiohigari. So ultimately, the curse of “ネゴラブ” seems to be us not surpassing Shiohigari’s original designs.

Shiohigari

Interestingly, I never had much affinity for my own illustrations either. So when I was offered to create a webtoon, I felt like I could finally tell the stories I wanted to tell.

I perceived limitations in my own artistic capabilities, hence couldn’t tackle grand stories. Quite frankly, complex actions or extensive backgrounds are not my forte, so I have struggled with those.

But, when it comes to the webtoon, since the role of the artist isn’t on me, I thought I could finally create stories freely without feeling confined by my artistic abilities, making the idea of a collaboration exhilarating.

Ashizuka

So it began with a focus on the idea of having Shiohigari tackle things he couldn’t execute solo. However, Shiohigari’s story draft was too good, making it daunting to maintain the same level of etiquette in art while conveying that vibe.

Shiohigari

From the beginning, there has been this dynamic where we fed off of each other’s ideas and evolutions, leading us to share the journey of creation.

Ashizuka

So, while it was essential to help Shiohigari’s unique mix of styles, seeing how our character and the like evolved from the artistic side started to bear fruit and made us realize we possessed an evident sense of the character’s charms.

Harada

Yes, it’s intriguing to hear how much depth lies in these nuanced changes. Initially, readers might perceive characters as somewhat juvenile in such romantic settings, which must be contextually tied to generational gaps in perception.

Shiohigari

For sure, I think the art style reflected our nostalgic view of high school romance, which perhaps appears more juvenile compared to the evolving representation in the current narratives.

Ashizuka

So when we released the beta version, Shiohigari’s work indeed transformed owing to this realization of letting each scene breathe. The way we conveyed the emotions was particularly intriguing with the character’s dialogue. That base of interactivity gives it a dynamic layer that enhances the storytelling experience.

Diving Deeper into the Challenges of “ネゴラブ” Production

Ashizuka

In terms of exploring elements of “ネゴラブ”, figuring out optimal panel sizes and margins for readability became crucial. Every meeting, Shiohigari would present draft revisions weekly, suggesting this was the approach that felt right, leading to Harada trying different layouts to see how it felt.

Sakoda

What would you say the consensus was in terms of optimized visual clarity through throughout this work—did you find layman-level sensibilities about the webtoon aesthetic emerging?

Ashizuka

During the set up, we’d generally expect to adjust wall-to-wall margins so that what lies within works fine in conveying the narrative. When we set the beta using Shiohigari’s materials beginning with what reads comfortably on a smartphone, it helped everyone track the pacing from visual pace alone, to which Harada affirmed that by the time we reached the fourth or fifth draft, we had sensed better pacing!

Shiohigari

Absolutely! Each iteration brought us closer to the ideal. Initially, we had too much length in some sections, which we trimmed, but then there were spots we found worked better extended, which made it feel more engaging while scrolling!

Harada

Exactly! In those early iterations, Shiohigari tended toward larger panels while we realized that generally, a panel should not overshadow the smartphone’s screen. This basic consensus drew out the added challenge of telling cohesive stories through carefully measured layouts.

Shiohigari

This taught me more about the generation of flow via both layout and scene structuring, something I never would have approached before embarking on this undertaking with your guidance.

Sakoda

Involving your team has dramatically evolved the designs into making them feel fitting for the narrative. While typically, there’s the chance to shy away from animation based on mere artistic inspiration, it sounded like you’ve been developing retaining flow which creates less indecision in motion and character placement throughout. With the beta version, have you both felt reassured?

Ashizuka

The stakes felt raised, as we’ve had to ground Shiohigari’s realities, making sure that backgrounds captured the unique feel of where the characters grow up. Doing location shoots added layers of authenticity. The whole team learned quite a lot through genuinely locating ourselves within these stages to elevate what previously was either neglected or assumed.

Shiohigari

This experience truly felt rewarding! Not only opening my eyes to the dimensionality of the environments we’ve drawn from, it prompted us to tactically use references as real-world balancing but also gained insight on framing scenes.

[In this link, viewers can explore our manga further.](https://skoota.jp/manga/top)

(End of Part)