Hi, I'm planning to do my own manga someday. Just want to first learn how to do thumbnails to plan out a manga first.

How do you thumbnail? Care to post your own examples?

hey guys, maybe you might find this interesting.

so kodansha started up that international manga contest and it looked so good, like a great stand-out contest among all the others that i felt compelled to enter it somehow someway.

i documented my journey throughout it and what i did in my manga-making process so i hope u like it!

THE 6TH WISH

THE BEGINNING — KUJO WARUI

During Japan's Sengoku period, a mysterious human is born with six arms, six legs, six eyes, and six ears. Nobody knows his true name, and because of his terrifying appearance, he eventually becomes known as Kujo Warui. Obsessed with immortality, Warui believes that his spiritual essence, or rei, can be transferred into a suitable vessel. He approaches Daiki Okazaki, considered one of the greatest blacksmiths in Japan, and together they develop a plan to create that vessel.

Warui massacres six million people and brings their corpses to Daiki. Daiki and approximately 10,000 workers spend nearly 70 years compressing the rei of those six million people into a cube (roughly twice the size of a Rubik's Cube). This artifact eventually becomes known as the Kihōbako. For the final step, Warui kills himself and has his body placed inside the cube while his heart is still alive. The moment his body and the six million souls merge, the cube becomes conscious. Six eyes appear across its faces, and the enormous heat generated by the transformation instantly kills Daiki and his entire crew. The Kihōbako is born.

However, the Kihōbako is not a separate creature. The Kihōbako is Warui himself. Warui possesses roughly 99.9% of the cube's power, while the six million souls collectively possess the remaining 0.1%. Each eye of the Kihōbako can grant one wish, and whenever a wish is granted, one eye breaks(each eye is on one side of the cibe). The person making the wish receives exactly what they asked for, but every wish carries an equivalent charge. Furthermore, because Warui is the Kihōbako, every time another person makes a wish, Warui receives a wish as well.

THE FIRST WISH — THE BIRTH OF POWERHOLDERS

During the Sengoku period, the head of the Toyotomi clan(Katsuru Toyotomi)becomes one of the most powerful men in Japan but realizes that absolute dominance remains beyond his reach. He approaches the Kihōbako and makes the first wish: "Make me the most powerful man in the world." The Kihōbako grants his wish, but the equivalent charge is devastating. His entire army will be lost, and he will die with regret and one of the most painful deaths.

Warui receives his corresponding wish and chooses the ability to fly and teleport, finally allowing him to move after centuries trapped within the Kihōbako. Meanwhile, the Toyotomi leader has five children, each inheriting one fundamental power: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, and Cosmos. Cosmos is the strongest of the five, causing its wielder to disappear from the family. Over generations, these five bloodlines spread throughout humanity, eventually creating the Powerholders.

Power inheritance is not perfectly predictable. There is a 49% chance of inheriting the father's power, a 49% chance of inheriting the mother's power, a 2% chance of developing a new variation, An extraordinarily rare mutation can even result in someone inheriting two completely new powers. Some Powerholders eventually develop Ancestor Awakenings, allowing them to access the powers possessed by their strongest ancestors. Over the centuries, these bloodlines spread until roughly 1% of humanity possesses supernatural abilities, creating the group known as the Powerholders.

But the Toyotomi leader's story ends in irony. He is eventually killed by his own son, the Powerholder of Cosmos. The man who wished to become the most powerful person alive is ultimately killed by the very power created through his own bloodline.

THE SECOND WISH — THE CREATION OF ANOMALIES

The Toyotomi clan eventually dominates Japan for roughly 150 years, destroying most opposing clans. The head of the Tokugawa clan Akuma Tokugawa, realizing that there is no realistic way to defeat the Toyotomi through conventional means, turns to the Kihōbako and makes the second wish. He wishes for Powerholders and ordinary humans to naturally become allies, creating an instinct within Powerholders to protect humanity rather than harm it.

The wish succeeds and helps bring the Sengoku period to an end, creating an era of peace between humans and Powerholders. But the equivalent charge is enormous.

Akuma himself becomes the first Anomaly.

His body and rei undergo a complete transformation, turning him into something that is no longer human. He becomes the Demon God, the most powerful Anomaly to ever exist.

But the Demon God does not simply become an Anomaly.

He becomes the origin of all Anomalies.

That day Akuma would convert all his clan members into Anomalies.

Using his newly acquired abilities, the Demon God begins creating the different forms of Anomalies. From him emerge the Yokai, Oni, Tengu, Yorai, the seven Ashuras, and countless other forms of supernatural creatures. Every major Anomaly species can ultimately trace its existence back to the Demon God.

Anomalies possess natural instincts that drive them toward humans. They can affect humans and transform humans into Anomalies, while consuming humans extends their own lifespans. Humanity therefore becomes their natural prey, forcing the Powerholders to become humanity's protectors.

The very wish intended to make Powerholders and ordinary humans allies has therefore created the greatest threat that both groups will have to face.

Akuma had wished to bring peace.

Instead, he became the Demon God and created an entire species that would wage war against humanity for centuries.

As centuries pass, humanity becomes so focused on surviving the Anomalies that the Kihōbako gradually disappears from collective memory. The mysterious cube becomes nothing more than a forgotten legend. Meanwhile, Warui receives his second wish: the ability to remain asleep for as long as he wants. After more than 200 years of consciousness, Warui finally becomes exhausted with existence and enters a long sleep.

THE THIRD WISH — THE SPECTATORS

During the middle of the Edo period, a wealthy and extraordinarily intelligent merchant acquires the Kihōbako. However, the cube remains dormant for 20 years before finally awakening. When it does, the merchant makes the third wish: she wants the ability to see her entire future, from her birth until the exact moment of her death.

Her wish becomes hereditary. Her descendants inherit the same ability and eventually become known as the Spectators. Every Spectator is born already knowing the events of their own life, from birth until death, but they cannot see beyond their own death. Their lives become predetermined stories that they are forced to watch unfold while still experiencing them firsthand.

The equivalent charge was that the Spectators will be an ally to Warui and warui will only be with them until the next wish is made.

The merchant receives her wish, while Warui receives his equivalent wish: the ability to travel through the past and future while remaining in the present. Warui can explore different points throughout time, but he cannot alter history unless the current wish-taker gives him permission. This gives Warui access to the timeline itself, but not complete control over it.

THE FOURTH WISH — THE SPECTATORS' HEADQUARTERS

Near the end of the Edo period, the Spectators make the fourth wish. They need a place from which they can conduct their missions, so they wish for a headquarters with seemingly infinite space and effectively unlimited food, money, resources, and living space. From the outside, the building appears to be nothing more than an ordinary office building, but inside, its dimensions are seemingly infinite.

The headquarters carries one terrifying rule: anyone who enters without permission dies instantly. Warui's equivalent charge is that he gains complete control over everyone permitted to enter the building.

Warui's own wish is even stranger. He wishes for the ability to give one person, at any random point in history, superhuman powers and intelligence. Using his time-travel ability, he travels back to his own birth and grants those abilities to himself while he is still inside his mother's womb. This creates a closed loop in Warui's history. His unnatural appearance had caused people to believe he was a demon, and he eventually receives the name Warui because of his demonic appearance. His existence has effectively created itself.

Warui is not simply evil. He is extraordinarily intelligent, calculating, patient, and capable of thinking across centuries rather than years. His personality is partly inspired by the idea of Ravana: a highly intelligent and powerful being whose greatest weakness is ultimately connected to his own certainty and pride.

THE MODERN ERA

Eventually, the world reaches the era in which the actual story takes place. Everything that came before forms the hidden history behind the modern world. Powerholders, Anomalies, Spectators, humans, and Warui have all been influencing history for centuries.

The modern protagonist is Kenji Sumimoto, the last known descendant of the Sumimoto clan and the last Ink Powerholder remaining on the planet. The Sumimoto clan was once an extraordinarily powerful Powerholder bloodline, but during the Edo period it was wiped out by a horde of Anomalies. The destruction of the clan left some as the final surviving descendants through whom the Ink Power remained alive.(kenji was born in the modern era)

Kenji initially has very little understanding of his Ink abilities. He begins the story unable to recognize the true potential of his power, but over time he becomes increasingly skilled with it and grows deeply attached to his ability. His fighting style develops throughout the story, beginning with relatively simple applications such as firing Ink as projectiles and eventually progressing into much more advanced techniques.

Kenji can manipulate Ink to shape his hands into sword-like weapons and can eventually manipulate Ink throughout his entire body. Achieving a completely Ink-based body requires an enormous amount of mastery and control. He also possesses faster regeneration than ordinary Powerholders, allowing him to recover from injuries more quickly than most of them.

Kenji's greatest connection to the history of the Sumimoto clan comes through his Ancestor Awakenings. One of the most important figures in his bloodline is Shinji Sumimoto, an ancestor whose inherited Ink power became the foundation upon which the Sumimoto clan's reputation and strength were built. Shinji was not the literal founder of the Sumimoto clan, but his extraordinary mastery of his inherited Ink abilities established him as one of the most feared Powerholders in history. He became legendary for defeating five Ashuras alone in a 1v5 battle.

Through his Ancestor Awakenings, Kenji can eventually access aspects of the powers and abilities developed by powerful members of his bloodline, including Shinji. However, Kenji's journey is not simply about becoming another Shinji. As he develops his understanding of Ink, he gradually discovers his own ways of using the power and eventually creates an identity as a Powerholder separate from the legacy of his ancestors.

Kenji's Ink power also has significant limitations. His energy is dependent on the amount of Ink he drinks and the food he consumes, meaning his stamina and combat capabilities are directly connected to his physical resources. At the beginning of the story, he is also unfamiliar with his own abilities, limiting what he can accomplish despite the enormous potential of his bloodline. Most importantly, almost every Anomaly has a reason to target him because of the history of the Sumimoto clan, making Kenji one of the most hunted Powerholders in existence.

Kenji's most important progression comes through his Ancestor Awakenings.

Kenji cannot fully awaken his ancestor's power whenever he wants. His Ancestor Awakening develops gradually, and he can only access different percentages of the awakening depending on his mastery and current condition. The awakening can progress through stages such as 20%, 40%, 60%,80% and eventually 100%.

At 20%, Kenji gains access to a limited portion of Shinji Sumimoto's power and abilities. His body also begins to partially take on Shinji's physical form. The greater the percentage of the awakening, the more Kenji's body changes to resemble Shinji.(40% doing somewhat same)

At 60%, Kenji's control and output increase significantly, allowing more advanced Ink manipulation and stronger techniques while his body continues to shift further toward Shinji's form.(his body becomes more shinji than kenji also the same happens in 80% but a little better)

At 100%, Kenji reaches the complete awakening of Shinji's ancestral power. His body fully takes on Shinji's form for the duration of the awakening, representing the maximum amount of Shinji's power that Kenji can access.

However, even 100% does not mean that Kenji permanently becomes Shinji. The awakening is still Kenji accessing the power of his ancestor through his own body. His own consciousness, experiences, fighting style, and understanding of Ink remain his own.

The awakening also cannot simply be activated whenever Kenji wants. His ability to reach each stage depends on his mastery, condition, and ability to withstand the ancestral power. This prevents Kenji from simply beginning every battle at 100% and makes the higher stages something he must gradually earn throughout his development.

This becomes an important part of Kenji's development. At first, his Ancestor Awakening represents the overwhelming legacy of someone far stronger and more experienced than him. As Kenji grows, however, he gradually stops viewing Shinji's power as something he must simply imitate. He begins combining the techniques and knowledge inherited from Shinji with his own understanding of Ink.

Kenji's ultimate progression therefore isn't simply about reaching 100% more quickly. It is about learning to control increasingly larger portions of his ancestral power without losing his own identity.

His journey is ultimately the journey of the final Sumimoto descendant learning to turn a power inherited from the past into something uniquely his own.

The Spectators continue to obey Warui and secretly control the Anomalies according to his orders. Eventually, the Powerholders realize that eliminating the Spectators would severely weaken the Anomalies strategy. But there is one major obstacle: no Powerholder can enter the Spectators headquarters without being killed instantly.

Except for three.

Warui personally permits three major Powerholders to enter: Tokiyoma Toyotomi, the strongest Powerholder, Kenji Sumimoto, and a major side character. Their permission appears strange, but Warui already knows exactly what he is doing. He understands that allowing these three inside will eventually create the chain of events necessary for the future he desires.

The three enter the headquarters, and the Powerholders eventually eliminate the Spectators. With their central command structure destroyed, the Anomalies lose their strategic coordination. But Warui allows the Spectators to die because their destruction is not a failure of his plan. It is part of it.

KENJI AND THE DEMON GOD

Eventually, the conflict escalates beyond anything humanity has experienced before. The Demon God becomes directly involved and ultimately takes control of the protagonist's body. Kenji is consumed, but his soul remains alive within the battlefield.

The Demon God realizes that the chaos surrounding the Powerholders and Anomalies has created an opportunity. With the protagonist's body under his control and the conflict reaching its peak, he approaches the Kihōbako and makes the fifth wish.

THE FIFTH WISH — THE FINAL BATTLE

The Demon God's wish creates an enormous barrier around the battlefield. Inside it are all the Powerholders and the Demon God's Anomaly army who all have been teleported inside the barrier. The barrier cannot be broken, and nobody can escape. It will remain until only one entity is left alive within it.

The equivalent charge costs the Demon God 10% of his own power and 25% of his Anomaly army. In return, Warui receives his corresponding wish: permission to travel into the past and manipulate the minds of certain groups.

Warui uses this opportunity to manipulate important historical figures and groups connected to Daiki and his blacksmith crew, the Spectators, his own clan, and other key events throughout history. He ensures that the people and groups surrounding his existence remain loyal to him and that critical events unfold according to his plan. This reveals that many events throughout history were not coincidences at all. Warui had been manipulating the chain of history for centuries.

The final battle eventually reaches its climax. Tokiyoma defeats the Demon God, and the Powerholders ultimately win the battle against the Anomaly army. But victory comes at an enormous cost. Almost every Powerholder dies, leaving Tokiyoma as the final surviving Powerholder inside the barrier. Yet the barrier still does not disappear because the Kihōbako remains trapped within it.(Demon God is still Akuma he didn't die due to eating alot of humans and having a long lifespam)

The entire final battle lasts only around one hour in real time, despite representing the culmination of centuries of history.

THE SIXTH WISH

Tokiyoma realizes that the only way to end the situation is to make the sixth and final wish. He wishes for every Powerholder who died during the battle to be brought back to life. The equivalent charge is his own life.

At the same time, Warui makes his final wish. After centuries trapped within the Kihōbako, he wants to return to human form.

The final wish is granted. Tokiyoma dies, causing the barrier to finally break for the brief moment in which he becomes the only remaining entity inside it. The Kihōbako disappears, and Warui returns to human form.

For the first time in centuries, Warui is human again.

And he believes he has won.

WARUI'S TRUE DEFEAT

Warui has spent centuries studying the future through his time-related abilities. He has already seen a future in which he survives and believes that everything has finally gone according to plan. He believes that returning to human form is the final step toward his victory.

But Warui has made one mistake.

He forgot about the six million souls inside him.

Warui possessed approximately 99.9% of the Kihōbako's power, while the six million souls collectively possessed only around 0.1%. Individually, they are insignificant compared with him. But together, they are still capable of influencing his perception.

The six million souls begin manipulating Warui's visions of the future. They feed him false glimpses and distort his understanding of what is coming. For a being who has spent centuries relying on his knowledge of the future, this becomes catastrophic.

Warui's greatest strength becomes his greatest weakness.

He believed that because he already knew how the future ended, nothing could surprise him.

But the future he thought he knew was never real.

THE ULTIMATE BATTLE

The resurrected Powerholders confront Warui, who remains overwhelmingly powerful even in human form. One by one, he defeats and kills them. Eventually, every Powerholder falls except the protagonist.

The six million souls continue disrupting Warui's perception of the future, making his predictions increasingly unreliable. The man who spent centuries manipulating history can no longer trust the future he sees.

Eventually, Warui is defeated.

But he manages to kill every remaining Powerholder except Kenji.

The protagonist becomes the final person capable of ending Warui's existence.

The man who manipulated history for centuries is finally killed by the person whose journey he unknowingly helped create, while the souls of the six million people whose deaths created him become the reason his perfect plan collapses.

It is ultimately the greatest form of karma: Warui creates himself through the deaths of six million people, only to be destroyed because those six million souls were never truly under his control.

THE END

After approximately 1,000 years of conflict, the age of the Powerholders finally comes to an end. The Spectators are gone. The Demon God is gone. Warui is defeated, and almost every Powerholder has died.

The supernatural conflict that shaped human history finally ends, and the world begins returning to something resembling normality.

But one Powerholder survives.

KENJI SUMIMOTO

And that is where the story ultimately leaves the world.

THE CENTRAL IDEA

At the heart of The 6th Wish is one simple principle: every wish has an equivalent charge. The Kihōbako does not simply grant wishes for free, nor does it necessarily punish those who make them. It gives people exactly what they ask for, but reality must compensate somewhere else.

The first wish creates the Powerholders. The second creates the Anomalies. The third creates the Spectators. The fourth creates their hidden world and completes Warui's closed loop. The fifth creates the final battlefield that brings every major force into direct conflict. The sixth resurrects the dead, returns Warui to human form, and finally brings the entire cycle to its conclusion.

The greatest irony is that Warui himself is responsible for almost everything that eventually leads to his defeat. He creates the conditions, manipulates the people, controls the timeline, studies the future, and spends centuries calculating every possible outcome. He believes he has accounted for everything.

But he cannot completely control the six million souls inside himself.

That tiny fraction of power is enough to destroy a plan that lasted centuries.

The 6th Wish is ultimately a story about power, consequence, destiny, sacrifice, manipulation, and the danger of believing that you already know how the future ends..

Ye that's it thanks for reading

Questions that you might have:

Q.Why didn't I tell more about the other characters in the framework(like the protagonist)

Ans.Well right now it's just a framework it's the history of the entire world in the shonen and the world building

Q.Isnt there a power system for the powerholders?They feel kinda left out and not developed

Ans.Still working on it share the suggestions u might have.

Q.How did the final battle even come up how did the Spectators get killed

Ans.This all will the part of the original story But in short at the 75% mark of the story the Demon king takes control of the body of the protagonist and then makes the wish to create the barrier and all ultimately leading to all of this.Since I could not explain the whole story just give the summary of the 75% mark

Feel free to ask any questions you might have