Chotto Matte! (Guzu Guzu) Preview: The Making of a Manga (Read the Original first 15 Pages Here!)

This is a story about grief, and the willingness to overcome it.

The most recent sketch of these two goofballs (2024)! This was the original Patreon announcement idea

In preparation for Chotto Matte! to be released, I wanted to pick through the original content from 2016! I came up with the vague concept of a boy torn between two girls: a soft spoken, cute-type girl and an angry tsundere, sometime in middle school. I don't remember when the final idea took form, but around 2019 I started considering Chotto Matte! as a serious endeavor.

Not all the original art from 2016 has survived the cutting room floor for this brief introduction, but I figured we could check out the central characters and talk a little about what this story means to me. For starters, the title essentially means "Hey, wait up!", with "guzu guzu" being a Japanese sound effect for somebody catching their breath (get it?). I thought it was an adorably cheeky title for a story about high school kids. The kids were meant to be much younger initially, but since the core conflict of this manga is a marriage plot, it seemed kind of inappropriate, so they became older. It's still a cute title, though!

So for starters, what is this manga even about? Here's the official synopsis (note that I've ordered the surname and first name in North American fashion for ease);

Takayuki Ohno is a kind hearted and hard working boy, albeit easy to push around when he lets his good nature get the better of him. Entering his graduating year in a new town, Takayuki's baseball career is starting off on a great foot! During the last weeks of summer before classes start he meets the abrasive, demanding, and somewhat overly harsh local girl: Umeko Ando. She seems determined to turn Takayuki into her slave, and quickly sets upon making his life tough with her fiendish ways and sassy demeanor.

On the first day of school Takayuki meets the town it-girl: soft spoken and sugary sweet Ryoko Sugawara, and is immediately smitten. Begging once-good-friend of hers, Umeko, to help woo Ryoko, Takayuki finds himself embroiled in the town's drama and stewed in its secrets. The Ando siblings not only have a catastrophe of their own that demands Takayuki's help, but the trials and tribulations of navigating new friendships and complex romantic feelings is quickly becoming the backdrop of these teens' lives. Things heat up as Takayuki's quest for love goes askew, and he finds his apartment is situated between the two girls' homes one lazy afternoon- both keeping him in rapt attention day in and out!

Join our friends on their quest to find love, establish friendships, and navigate the perils of growing up in this romantic dramedy, with gaming and sports elements sure to leave you panting to keep up!

So now that you have an idea of what this manga is about- let's talk characters! Chotto Matte was meant to be a light hearted means of exploring grief. This didn't quite register to me at its inception, but the more I chipped away at the vision, the more I realized Chotto Matte was taking a pretty serious turn. When I really hunkered down to work on it, I was fresh out of the hospital after a year of my health declining. I was wheelchair bound, and close to having a permanent TPN or feeding tube; it was all-together horrible. But art is my medium and my savior, and I found myself able to rehabilitate my broken body and spirit by creating this gang of kids. I started really devoting all my time to the manga in 2019, although it may have been the end of 2018 (my post hospital memory is a little scuffed).

But no matter how long it's been, the only thing that's really changed in regards to the theming of my story is the art style! You'll notice that my attempts at manga style here are extremely juvenile, so be on the lookout for the final re design which will be available to view for free!

While the first character I had in mind was actually our second main protagonist, it was our main character Takayuki Ohno who was fleshed out to start!

Top, right: Takayuki's original concept sketches from 2016. Bottom left: Fleshed out baseball gear for the boys' team (2020)

I was going for a fresh faced, bold, and trustworthy looking high school boy. Somebody who had depth and the aura of a hardworking farmer’s son chasing a big break in the city. The town in Chotto Matte is like a character itself: there’s lots of moving parts. We explore not only our main characters’ stories, but understand them through their connections to the town’s history, and their parents’ childhoods having grown up there. Part of grief is growing older, and a lot of people struggle with generational trauma as a result of the actions of their family members, who have unresolved issues in their own past. The grief being overcome in Chotto Matte is not just the immediate, but drills to the very core of the towns peoples’ individual histories and suffering. The moral of the story is that there’s a lot happening behind closed doors- I’m just giving you the opportunity to see what’s hiding below peoples’ surface, in this case.

So Takayuki, as an external character, should still retain his parents’ features. You’re going to meet a lot of side characters, and you’re going to notice that families look alike- just like in real life! The original sketch for Takayuki points out his shared eye color to his parents, as well as the direction their hair grows. 

Left: Takayuki's parents' initial concepts (2016). Right: The first sketch ever of Takayuki and Umeko together (2016)

Later on, while still experimenting with Takayuki’s style, I decided I wanted him to be less of a babe and more of an “everyman”. In this story the only stereotypical it-person is Ryoko, and I’ve actually changed that trope by making her chubby. But more on that later! I didn’t want Takayuki to have the usual anime protagonist sexyman look, so I went with somebody much more realistic looking. 

I actually looked through Japanese school uniform purchasing magazines and took note of the different models’ looks. It helped me not only develop the school’s uniform (which I wanted to be distinctive from every other anime uniform out there), but it gave me an idea of what Japanese high schoolers looked like around the pre 2010s. For a sporty and laid back look I went with short hair, open and kindly eyes to show his personality, thick brows, and a slightly darker skin tone synonymous with Japanese born in the South. As somebody who would be playing baseball all day and farming, it makes sense for him to be darker in skin tone.

In the early stages of finalizing the designs in the 2020s (or so I thought because this is still ongoing), I wasn’t practiced in drawing men, and so most of my concept sketches were based on Haikyuu and live models. Many characters in my manga have the “bara” body type that manga readers are familiar with, and this took a lot of practice to learn. You can see my initial attempts here, but keep in mind I had to trace either live models or other artists’ work found on Google as references, as I navigated creating body types that were more realistic:

Bottom: Fleshed out boys' uniform (2020). Top: Takayuki's improved form, based on images I found online of "bara" style men (2020)

 With my ideas in my head for my main characters pretty firm in the initial planning phase, I finally created my first official sketch of our titular main couple. (I’m not confirming anything- you’ll have to see if Takayuki ends up with Ryoko or Umeko yourself!)

The original, official first page of Chotto Matte! (2016) This one makes me so emotional I teared up typing this ░ಥ╭͜ʖ╮ಥ░

You can see a clear aesthetic to both of them taking shape here. I would be lying if I didn’t say I had had a vague concept of Umeko’s design in elementary school, but had always wondered in which story she might feel most at home. Initially, the story was supposed to follow a high school teacher who adopts (by subsequently marrying) one of his high school students who is homeless (the proto Umeko). The manga would chronicle her efforts to become a manga artist herself and raise her little brother, while the pair had tsundere style romantic comedy adventures. Mr Teacher would be super into Umeko, but she would not be into him until the end. She was supposed to be much taller, with a long wispy ponytail, and permanent scowl. So far the permanent scowl is all that remains.

Top: Fleshed out girls' and boy's gym uniforms, as well as the girls' general uniform (2020). Bottom: Umeko re drawn in 2020! I'm unsure if this is based on the work of somebody else, I wasn't able to find anything by reverse Googling but it's always possible because I had just started taking anime seriously haha (✖﹏✖)

While I do think the aforementioned manga has legs (although I am sure I would change the characters from high school faculty to college faculty), Umeko the teenager best belongs in a story about teenagers.

Top: The first drawing of Umeko-ever! (2016) Bottom: Doodle of Umeko with an alternate hairstyle (sorry for the nosebleed Takayuki!) (2016)

Umeko’s character is one of my absolute favorites- I can’t help but insert this style of character into everything I write. It’s not that tsunderes appeal to me, per say, but I just love the concept of a disgruntled girl who hides her feelings behind sarcasm. I’m a bit of a bully (my partner can tell you that) who likes to tease their significant other, so maybe that’s why! I wanted Umeko to soften throughout the story: creating a character who begins as closed-off and overly harsh, but who slowly blossoms through her friendships into a fiercely devoted and reliable friend. Umeko is in many ways the embodiment of the lesson of Chotto Matte: the willingness to change softens us and creates more resilient, meaningful connections that enrich our lives.

Top: Umeko's older brother (and canon chaos bisexual) Orochi! Based on images found on Google (2020). Rightmost: One of the first "official" feeling portraits of Umeko I ever did on Procreate (2020). Bottom: Umeko's more silly rival (and one of my favorite side characters) Keina Hokiri! Notice here I was dabbling in life-like body types, in this case Keina is a pear shape! (2020)

Umeko is beautiful, in my eyes. She represents my ultimate teenage fantasy: to be accepted despite a stony exterior by her peers. But on a surface level, she’s also very conventionally attractive. I wanted to create a character who looked like the Japanese beauty ideal in pop culture- and I accidentally did that with Umeko. I looked at the women on block prints with thin mouths, refined eyebrows and high arches, and heavy-lidded, dreamy slanted eyes. Umeko is very picturesque with fly away hairs and thin, long limbs (despite her tiny stature). I thought that this person would be Ryoko, but to my surprise it was my second main character!

A random doodle of Umeko (2024)

And what better counterpart to a beautiful girl than a conventionally attractive high school boy? This is where I got to insert my heartthrob character: Iwao Nishimura.

Bottom: Iwao's first concept from 2016! Top: In the early stages of completely re-drawing everybody (shoutout Google and live models!) I decided Iwao's silhouette should be stick-thin, and imposing. Perhaps that has emotional foreshadowing cough-cough-cough (2020)

Iwao is, in many ways, Umeko’s foil. He’s also the counterpart to Ryoko in Takayuki’s world. While Takayuki wrestles with the obviously growing relationship between himself and Umeko, he can’t hide his initial feelings for Ryoko as his crush only worsens. In Umeko’s corner, she and Iwao are engaged to be married by force, but she has to contend with her secretly brewing feelings for Takayuki. Both have the same delightfully devious issue that teenagers tend to have: which of your two heartthrobs stays “just a friend”, and which do you make a move on? It’s easy to love our friends, but what happens when you’re in love with your friends?

Iwao of course has a lot of surprises for us in store that I won’t share with you yet. But he’s my favorite tsundere of them all: aloof, a magnet for teen girls, seemingly a magnet for trouble, sarcastic, cunning, intelligent, and good at all that he does. He rivals Umeko like a boy version of herself (but somehow even more insufferable). The two are star crossed...rivals?

While Umeko blends in with the town where she lives, Iwao (despite having striking similarity to her) starkly contrasts it. His color scheme doesn’t quite “go” in the same way Takayuki can chameleon into the place where he lives and resembles a native. Iwao’s look is overly polished, overly sharp, and not jovial or healthy. His expressions are displeased, harsh, bossy. He wears glasses with pointed edges, his past is a bit of a mystery, he simply doesn’t “fit” with the ambiance of the town. 

In relation to other secondary characters, like Takayuki’s best friend Hinata Tanaka, Iwao sticks out like a sore thumb. And he is! Iwao’s presence disrupts Takayuki’s and Umeko’s lives. He’s a reminder of what lies in wait for Umeko: marriage in a different town- the harshness of the city and adult life. But his resemblance to Umeko brings up a good point: would he perhaps be able to melt into the town’s scenery? Become one of them? Adopt their aesthetic, the way Umeko has, despite seeming so different (and indifferent) to the world around her?

Hinata on the other hand was one of my favorite characters to design. Notice the roundness the townspeople tend to have. Hinata has a soft and demure demeanor. He’s generally shy, soft spoken, and understanding, so his character design reflects it!

The cinnamon roll himself! These are both original sketches from 2016

He initially had rounded glasses, a rounded jawline, and was shorter. He was the baseball team’s star pitcher, coming from an all girls family with feisty, fiery women, Hinata was the cool to their heat. As time went on, I realized the characters looked a little juvenile, and wanting them to more resemble older teens, Hinata underwent a transformation as well. 

Top: A manga panel from the original vers (2016). Bottom: Hinata's re draw in 2020

I scrapped his glasses but kept his roundness. Hinata has a bit of pudginess to him. He’s soft, with downturned brows and eyes, and a placid expression. He’s a little tanned, and fits in well amongst the town’s ambiance. 

Oh yeah! The town!

The town in the manga! (2016)

I wanted the town, fictionally set in Gifu prefecture, to have a nostalgic feeling to it. Originally there was no baseball sub plot- this was a manga exclusively about gaming. Specifically, the story took place before the 2010s, and so the tech was a little more primitive (I was a young teen in the 2010s myself!). I scrapped this idea, as I wanted the flashback installments to have a retro, but not overly out of date vibe, to whereas a younger audience wouldn't understand the cultural cues. The story certainly takes place before 2015, at some fictional point in time, but the gaming element has been reduced to have a more plot-centric story.

My Canva moodboard for the town (2023)

I had it in my mind that the town should be by the sea, so I looked into real Japanese prefectures and towns with a similar ambiance. Gifu has an almost Lord of The Rings Hobbit-houses feeling to it. It’s very misty, with lush greenery, and a wide open sky. It reminds me of summers as a kid, where I would Google rural Japan and just sit for hours scrolling through pictures. I had a fascination specifically with Japanese urbex explorers, and consumed all the media I possibly could; this was the early days of the Internet, so there was less than you’d think.

The seaside town is sleepy, with sand and stone and forests, a beautiful local shrine, modern and antiquated buildings, and long winding streets where our characters can frolic freely. I love drawing storefronts, so giving the fictional town a bustling city center with shops was paramount to its design. You might be surprised by the interesting characters we meet there as well!

The setting, I think, should have as much character as the people who populate your stories. I’m a big believer in spirit of the place: a Roman concept that locations have their own spirit or mind. When you enter somebody’s house you experience the ambiance and aura of their personal life, so why shouldn’t that house and its ambiance be considered to have a personality? We have a symbiotic relationship as humans with the areas we inhabit: we make it our own, landscapes shape how we build our societies and organize our daily lives. 

Top: A recent sketch of Umeko I was going to save for Patreon (2024). Bottom: My Post-It note...notes? (2016)

When I started drawing this manga, I had no idea how to go about it. I did some research, but ultimately settled on doing it my own way. While I’m still afraid to see what challenges await me producing this digitally, I had a pretty decent system going for myself on paper. I would plan my comic blocks by image on a Post It, and write down the numbered lines on another Post It. This way when it came time to draw I could bang out my illustrations in a comprehensive order, and worry about putting in text later. 

In terms of the storyline of the manga, I keep detailed notes! I have a Google folder of images, drawings, and text where each “episode” of the manga is outlined. Whenever I think of something I have a notepad by my bed (no seriously!) and often when I awake in the morning I write down what I dreamt of or thought of. Sometimes it’s really random scribbles, and other times it’s decent, comprehensive ideas. But Chotto Matte is always evolving in my mind, and it makes it all the more exciting. 

I hope you enjoy the following 15 pages of the original manuscript to Chotto Matte! (Guzu Guzu), and I hope you’re as excited as I am to see this journey unfold. As usual, all manga content will be free and hosted on the free Patreon tier, as well as my website, where you can access all the chapters as they come out!

Due to Wix's limited processing capabilities, please download the PDF of the original 15 pages to read them!

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