Now for something a little different: A story where they talk about their inspiration for an in-universe work. For this, we’ll use the silly slice of life manga, Futari Escape.
About Futari Escape
Futari Escape is about two lazy bums living together. Known only as Senpai and Kohai, they try to escape reality on a regular basis. This is far easier for Senpai, who happens to be a jobless freeloader living with Kohai. Kohai however, is a manga artist who needs to put out a chapter a month. The focus of each chapter is their various escapes, which include weight loss, pretending it’s the depths of winter when it’s the middle of summer (that one ends in a hospital trip), getting locked out of their apartment, and strip hanafuda, with both sides losing all their clothes. Once again, nothing naughty occurs, which is good. This is a silly story, after all, and doesn’t need the sexy. My favorite chapter, by the way, is Senpai getting sick and Kohai less-than-competently taking care of her.
My second favorite chapter is the one where, due to a series of coincidences, Kohai wonders if Senpai ever actually existed. This includes checking her phone for pictures, trying to recall Senpai’s name, and actually crying out for her at the train station. That happens to be where she finds Senpai, who explains the first part as uploading said photos to her computer. The best part is the name thing. Senpai actually asks Kohai if she doesn’t actually know her name. Instead of answering, Kohai falls asleep.
To tie it in
The thing is these escapes do work their way into Kohai’s story. For example, the weight loss chapter, which has Kohai going from chubby to buff, is mentioned as being included in one chapter of her manga. Senpai notes that she didn’t go far for that one. And spoilers but, at the end, Kohai’s manga is cancelled. Her editor, however, suggests that she uses her own various escapes to write a new slice-of-life manga.
Yep, using her own personal experiences to write a new story. An excellent approach that I use to some extent myself. Admittedly, not full stories, but aspects of my stories do reflect my life. For example, that’s why the protagonist will routinely have a tragically dead parent in my stories.