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The story
A thread titled “Successful creators have been succeeding since childhood” has been gaining traction on 5ch’s “Nandemo Jikkyo G” (anything-goes live board). Starting from the premise that only a tiny fraction of creators ever make it big, posters are divided over how talent relates to age. Against the anecdotal claim that “your sensibility declines once you’re past 30,” a string of rebuttals followed, arguing that people are just “covering for lost sensibility with technical skill” and that “even people who look like late bloomers had already accomplished something in their 20s.” The discussion also raised a distinction between the “genius type,” judged purely on their own sensibility, and the “logic type,” who work to meet a client’s requests — turning it into a debate that simple talent-based arguments can’t fully settle.
What people said
Probably even less than that.
Without that groundwork built up over time, it's just not happening.
There are tons of creators out there making a perfectly normal, average living.
I'm not famous at all either, but I get by just fine.
How much do you make a month?
It varies, but take-home is roughly ¥250,000–800,000 a month (25–80 "man" in the usual 10,000-yen shorthand).
Sounds like you might actually be famous.
What do you even do to make that much?
Even Googling my name barely turns up anything.
Since when were you aiming to become a creator?
If you're talented, you can still make it starting now. If you're not, it doesn't matter how young you started, it won't help.
Seriously, just don't try to start after you're past 30.
So it really is a no-go?
Actually, your creative instincts decline before your stamina does.
Anno and Tsurumaki have both said this before too — once you're past 30, you can never match the instincts you had in your 20s.
Everyone builds their own style by 30, or 35 at the latest, and after that they just keep dressing it up in different forms, papering over the decline with accumulated experience.
The sweet spot, where declining instincts and rising skill balance out, is your late 30s.
After that, it's just downhill.
I'm past 40 now and I feel it myself.
It's fine — people who are going to make it will land at least one hit no matter when they start.
Commercial creators have to keep cranking out multiple works until they die, and since each one's expected to top the last, of course ideas run dry, and stamina drops with age (less time for thinking, taking in new input, all of that) — that's just what people are calling "decline."
Do you want to be a creator just for the validation?
If you don't sell, you can't make a living, can you?
Well, obviously.
Nobody becomes a creator without wanting some validation.
If you honestly didn't care whether anyone appreciated what you made, you'd just scribble it on the back of a flyer and leave it at that.
No way.
There's a wall between geniuses and ordinary people that can never be crossed — they're basically not even playing the same sport.
But ordinary people have their own way of competing.
That's basically what "Left-Handed Ellen" (a manga about art and talent) was about.
What kind of way of competing?
Like, who even counts as a genius here?
I don't get the standard.
If you worry about stuff like that, it just becomes noise and you can't focus.
Then just do it on the back of a flyer and carefully tuck it away in your closet.
There are two types of creators.
The one everyone pictures is the genius type — someone who makes whatever they want purely from their own sensibility, and it just happens to get recognized by everyone else.
That's your typical "artist."
On the other hand, 99.9% of creators in the world are what you'd call commercial creators — their job is to express a client's vision, bring out something's appeal, or grab people's attention.
This side is actually more about logic than sensibility.
So you can make things just by following that logic, even without being a genius.
Of course, sensibility still matters for judging good vs. bad within that logic, but it's secondary.
I'm on this side.
But really, though?
usually already accomplished something in their 20s.
They didn't just pop up out of nowhere.
Reality's harsh, huh.
You seem like the type who takes online IQ tests seriously.
The Chiikawa guy?
Like Seicho Matsumoto — he wrote his first novel at 42.
Age doesn't matter for novels.
Yeah, they always say "just get your hands moving." (i.e., stop overthinking, start doing)
Background and Key Points of the Discussion
This type of “talent is determined in childhood” argument often cites remarks from well-known anime directors like Hideaki Anno and Kazuya Tsurumaki, and their names came up in this thread too. However, the claim that “sensibility declines in your 30s” is based on individual creators’ personal impressions, not on any statistics or research. The thread split largely over a difference in framing — whether to talk about creators as monolithic “geniuses,” or as skilled professionals doing client work — and posters taking the latter view pushed back noticeably against the age-based pessimism. It’s also worth noting that since only creators who have actually made it are visible in the first place, it can look like “only people who showed promise young ever succeed,” which is arguably a form of survivorship bias.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “Successful creators have been succeeding since childhood.”
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