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This is an article about a story. A story of growth, chasing dreams, and unthinkable experiments leading to mind-blowing results. This is the story of a Coding Manga.
First, two statements.
- Manga and Anime are peaking worldwide. Hundreds of countries, each with expanded age demographics, are jumping on the (Mugen) train that us long-time fans have been enjoying for years.
- Coding is peaking worldwide. Hundreds of countries, with people of all age demographics, genders, ethnicities, backgrounds and walks of life have more and more access to free programs, courses, and encouragement to start their programming journey.
Sound similar?
That’s what one man named Blu-kun realized. Blu-kun, who happens to reside in a space between both worlds (think Itsuki from Yu Yu Hakusho), decided to pull a Kuwabara and link the two worlds that he loves so much.
So who is this Blu-kun person? Well, it’s me. Surprise! Blu-kun here.
I’m working on a shonen manga you won’t find anywhere else. It’s called Blue Screen. I’m thankful to Silvercrowv1 for the opportunity to write about chasing my dream, what I hope to achieve, and to convince you that Blue Screen won’t just become a hit – it’ll become a phenomenon.
The backstory
First, about me. I’ve been writing and drawing since I could hold a pencil, and manga is the love of my life. Some of my favorites are Gintama, 3-Gatsu no Lion, Natsume Yuujinchou, and Higurashi (if you count VNs). I’ve followed Shonen Jump for more than a decade. After all, your inner boy (少年) never dies!
As a kid, I drew manga nonstop. By Grade 6 I’d drawn forty volumes of manga. For some reason there were Chunin exams and a talking radio in them, but that’s a story for another day. I loved drawing manga but didn’t think too much about going pro. But then I found Bakuman, one of the most inspiring manga out of the thousands I’ve read. Of course, even if I’d never heard of Bakuman, I know I’d still draw manga. But Bakuman is what lit a fire under my ass. It helped me cement my goal: “I will become a mangaka.”
Coding Arc
Then in high school, I fell in love for a second time – this time, with coding. My high school had a Coding Club with all kinds of wacky characters. I was a Hikigaya shoved in a room filled with Hayatos, not to mention Madaras, Katakuris, and Saitamas. All those quirky characters from Kuroko no Basuke or Prince of Tennis somehow existed in real life, and I got to meet them every week after school.
And all of us fought each other in dire combat, with competitive coding. Y’see, there are websites where you can face off with millions of coders from hundreds of sites, all in real time. And so, my fellow club members and I went through countless battles, intense training arcs, and worked hard to climb the leaderboard. We aimed for the nationals and even the internationals – all the while facing ever-stronger foes from powerhouse academies.
No wonder I love sports shonen (Hikaru no Go, Act-Age, Haikyuu, Slam Dunk, Ashita no Joe, you name it). I literally lived through one.
So that’s my backstory arc, and now it’s time for a timeskip. But don’t return to Sabaody yet, there’s still a bit of this article left and it’s just as good, if not better.
The Purpose
So what’s the “point” of creating Blue Screen, a manga about coding? The most important thing will always be to create an interesting manga. As a former chief editor of Shonen Jump said, “A manga just has to be interesting.” Those words are etched into my soul.
But of course, there’s more to it than that. CS education is booming, and I want to make it boom even bigger. I want kids and adults and retired elders, and people from all races, and of all socioeconomic classes; people with all kinds of varied, diverse and interesting identities to know that they too can code.
The Goal
So my first goal is, I want people to read Blue Screen, and get excited about coding! That’s my goal, and I will UNITED STATES OF SMASH that goal with All my Might.
My second goal is to show off a lot of cool coding concepts in Blue Screen, and make them interesting to every single reader! You’ll get to discover the world of programming through a one-of-a-kind lens! Just like I used to enjoy MinutePhysics and channels like that growing up, I want to provide the same kind of edutainment to my fans.
The point is, you too can love programming!
Here’s a diagram of a function that sums it all up, which we coders love so much.
TL;DR: I’m making a coding manga, and I’m inviting YOU to join my mangaka journey!
The Dream
And now, finally: I get all embarrassed and squirmy when I write about personal stuff like this, but here goes.
I’m regularly putting 10+ hours per day into creating Blue Screen, whether it’s writing, drawing, designing, communicating, managing, planning, outreach, and more. (It takes a lot of time to create a manga as a team of one!) And it feels great, because I’m chasing my dream at full speed every day. But still, you need money to keep going in this society.
So, I’ll just say it straight up. Please help me draw Blue Screen full-time. I promise I’ll continue Blue Screen until the very end (and I have a ton of great stories planned out). You’re literally making my dream come true, and there’s exclusive bonus manga, artwork, live streams, polls, and more on Patreon. It costs just the price of a coffee to become a Patron.
https://www.patreon.com/bluescreen_off Every $1 counts.
Thank you for even considering helping make my dream come true.
You can binge all of Blue Screen now!
https://mangadex.org/chapter/94a0e2f1-0891-4f9a-b4fa-b46d26d68084
Join the Blue Screen Army!
There’s all sorts of cool stuff including a voiced, animated trailer here:
https://linktr.ee/bluescreen_off
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/bluescreen_off/
I’m always happy to talk. Shoot me an email at [email protected] for any inquiries or just to say hi!
That’s all for this article. Thank you for reading.
