Tragedy and an unexpected gift from heaven

With only a couple of weeks remaining before my graduation ceremony, my father passed away of a heart attack, at the young age of 54.

Having grown up in a safe and sheltered environment, I was dealt my first major shock in life. My father was a physicist, which is one of the reasons why I went on that path. Since the time I was a kid, he and I had worked on many projects together, and, as a person who worked passionately on his ideas, he understood well the need for me to switch careers and pursue what’s ultimately most meaningful to me.

I thought grad school was tough (especially after deciding not to continue on that path) and that everything would be rosy once I was done with it, but it ended up being a hard time that followed for our family. It also reemphasized the importance of making the most out of life, as it is a limited time that is given to each of us.

But then, a little miracle happened. I got an email from Otsuka-san, an editor in the science department at Kodansha (a large publishing company in Japan), asking me if I wanted to work on some science books together. It turns out that he had read my father’s obituary (my father being a prominent scientist) in the Asahi newspaper that included a little blurb about me. Earlier, the writer of the obituary thought my career change kind of curious, so had interviewed me on my manga aspirations and included that in the writeup. Who knew that this would actually make a connection!

At first Otsuka-san asked that I do a dozen illustrations for a new science book series he’s starting. I said I’d be more than happy to do that. I figured this would be a great way to get some practice and start building up a portfolio. Then he asked if I had any samples of my work that he could check out.

I’m thinking, “Uh oh...”

Now I’m getting nervous. I’ve been stuck in the lab for the past seven years so I hadn’t done much in terms of drawing for a while. In a panicked frenzy, I made a few pages of what I thought would be found in a book on evolution and emailed them to him.

His reply was positive, and suggested that we skip the illustrations thing and do a 220 page all-manga science book. He added that I can choose the topic and come up with the content.

I was floored. I had never even made a 17 page manga short story. The last time I even drew a few pictures in sequence was probably a decade ago, sometime in college. But not willing to pass up a great opportunity, I said with acted confidence,

“No problem!”

This was definitely an answer first, worry about it later kind of situation. Thus started my first major project.