Working Girls Story (Patreon)

In an ideal world, this Patreon would be earning the minimum 1k a month and I’d be doing 10-12 pager chapters of Working Girls working towards completion of Volume 1. If Working Girls was a manga, it’d be about a small Tokyo office deciding to modernize and deal with International ”stuff” where a small group of new hires translate documents and be part of important meetings as English translators. They also teach and advise regular employees on how to improve their English.

If you’re still reading, below is a brief overview of what I envision Working Girls to be about:

The premise would be about an ex-Yakuza Wakagashira (an Oyabun’s right hand man) trying to turn over a new leaf in accordance to his old Oyabun’s wishes. Understanding that the modern business world is a rapidly changing and cruel, dog-eat-dog environment, he decides to utilize his years of experience to adapt, survive and overcome his new environment. With the help of the few loyal men who decided to stay with him, he decides to go legit and starts his own business, a small firm dealing with International “stuff”. They started a small office but even before they could settle in, they run into one very crucial detail: None of them can speak English.

So they put up hiring positions for English Teachers, Translators and Advisers.

Meanwhile not everything is fine and dandy, other Yakuza groups are quietly observing, wary of the old, ex Wakagashira’s “going legit“ scheme. After all, a Yakuza will always be a Yakuza. The old dog could be planning something. The police‘s Organized Crime Division, is also aware of what’s happening and started a special task force to infiltrate this operation. To find out what the old ex-Wakagashira is scheming. The old dog could be planning something.

The new hires start coming in and they couldnt believe all these highly qualified, seemingly super model women will be their new English Translators and Advisers.

Each chapter is basically about ex-Yakuzas, actual Yakuzas and undercover operators of the Police’s Organized Crime Division trying to learn/teach English while also trying hard not to blow their covers. It would be funny and wacky. A hilarious and clever Cat and Mouse game at face value but right under the surface, there’d be scheming, lies and manipulation as everyone isnt who they seem to be. Everyone has their own agenda for pretending to be regular, hard-working office ladies and salarymen. Both the rival Yakuza and the Police have one goal in mind: to infiltrate, investigate and dismantle the old Wakagashira’s operation.

Volume 1 would explore themes like: Death and Rebirth, Trust and Betrayal, Forgiveness and Revenge.

While answering human drama questions like: Is Harmony between two oppossing ideals possible?  Is there redemption for cold blooded killers? Can true love bloom in an invisible battlefield between secret enemies? Can one forgive someone responsible for a loved one’s death? How do you pronounce Worcestershire Sauce?

What is also not known is that Working Girls is actually a prequel to an older work of mine, 300 Perfect Game which in turn is also a prequel to another work of mine, Gutz Daze. I’ll stop here as to not spoil anything further but what I wanted to point out is that this isnt just a random comic idea, its a whole thing that I have started working and  developing since 2011.

I used to be depressed about the thought of not being to tell this story but over the years, I’ve come to accept that it is what it is. There’s plenty of interesting stories out there. What Im trying to tell isnt anything new but It would sure be fun if I get a chance to afford a worry-less circumstance to get funding so I can afford to work on telling these stories but as the wise Mariya Takeuchi once said: “Count what you have now, don’t count what you don't have.“

Thanks for reading and cheers!

NICE