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Did you love to draw as a child? If you’re a girl, chances are you went through a phase of being infatuated with drawing pictures of princesses wearing fluffy gowns and diamond tiaras. (Sorry, I wasn’t quite sure what little boys would be crazy about drawing.) Well, for those of you who haven’t quite grown out of that phase, a special little kit that comes free with a recent issue of a popular girls’ comic magazine may make you squeal with delight. In fact, it’s been a hot topic on the Japanese Internet and even has professional manga-ka (comic artists) interested and impressed. The topic of all this attention? It’s the “Super Mighty Comic Artist Set (Super Saikyo Manga-ka Set)” brought to you by the comic magazine Nakayoshi.

Word has been getting around that this manga (comic) drawing kit, which is a supplement to the March edition of Nakayoshi magazine, is too awesome to be a freebie. Granted, in a country where manga is big business and part of the cultural mainstream, children’s manga drawing kits that come with magazines is not unusual. But this one really does stand out in terms of content and quality.

photo by @yumemon

 photo by @kuti7nashi

The kit comes complete with:
- 48-page “The Perfect How-To-Draw Manga Booklet”
- Profile Notebook for Portrait Drawing (includes 20 “profile sheets”)
- Sparkly Correction Pen
- Drawing Stencils (five types)
- Screentone sheets designed by actual artists of popular manga series
- Manga Manuscript Paper (four sheets)
- Traceable Manga Manuscripts drawn by professional artists (two sheets)
- Practice Sheet for Drawing Human Figures and Faces (four sheets)

They even created a cute little YouTube video describing the kit’s content.

Below we have some close-up pictures of the kit’s contents:

▼Some Manga Manuscript Paper

▼Screentone sheets for adding shades and patterns

▼Stencils in various shapes

▼Trace to your heart’s content!

Indeed, the kit seems to cover all the basics of drawing manga. The “How-To-Draw-Manga Booklet” not only teaches you how to develop a plot and draw different characters, but apparently even tells you how you can submit your work to a publisher. With all the practice you can get from the kit, it really goes beyond being a simple play tool for children. Here are what some established professional comic artists have said about it:

“The Nakayoshi Manga-ka Set looks fantastic. This is some serious stuff. If you really practice according to the kit, you’ll definitely improve your drawing skills. Goodness, this is impressive!” (Comment by Keiko Nishi)
“The kit definitely looks interesting … I would love to improve my drawing…” (Comment by Yuki Suetsugu)
“I seriously want this…” (Comment by Tomoko Yamashita)
“I think I’ll play at ‘pretending’ to be a manga-ka with this kit.” (Comment by Lily Hoshino)

Yes, these are the comments of actual manga-ka, and they seem quite enthralled by the kit. It’s not surprising that ordinary adults have also been posting remarks like “This looks like so much fun. They won’t call the police if a grown man buys this, will they?” or “Maybe in 15 years some comic artist will be saying that it all started with a kit that came with Nakayoshi magazine.”

Even Shuho Sato, the author/artist of popular manga “Burakku Jyakku ni Yoroshiku“ (“Say Hello To Black Jack”)  couldn’t resist playing with the “traceable manga manuscripts”, as he shows Internet viewers on his blog:

What starts as an ordinary girl’s comic manuscript… ▼

changes into this…. ▼

and eventually ends up like this! (Well, he was obviously just having fun here, but you can still see some signs of his usual drawing style.) ▼
(Above three photos by: Sato Shuho Channel)

As can be expected, many people are trying to get their hands on the “Super Mighty Comic Artist Set” and the Nakayoshi magazine is selling fast. Originally priced at 580 yen ($6.20), the magazine is currently being offered on Amazon Japan’s marketplace  for about 1,000 yen ($10.70).

So,we hope owners of the kit have a grand time honing their manga drawing skills, whether for fun or practical training. And kudos to the folks at Nakayoshi for creating such an attractive freebie!

Source: Netallica (Japanese)
YouTube

Top Image: YouTube