Bakuman (anime version)

[Spark Of Spirit]

In a bout of being bored and killing time, I decided to see just how much the pacing improved from the last season with episode 1 of the new season.

Episode 1 of Bakuman 2 contains chapters 35, 36, and 37. There are some things omitted (mostly to keep the flow going, I'm sure they'll reemerge later), but the fact that 3 chapters of the manga is used for one episode of the show bodes well for the rest of the season. Last season would frequently try to stretch one chapter into an episode and that led to a lot of padding. Here's hoping they keep this up.

Oh yeah, what they cut include the assistants adjusting to the workplace (we meet them, though) though I'm sure that will be in the next episode and Koogy was cut entirely. To be honest, that I don't mind since he's pretty much irrelevant to the story after Colorfusical failed. Though we'll just have to see how it'll go with the season from here on.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Just reporting that the pacing was not a fluke and that episode 2 continues on with the improvements. They successfully adapted both the photobook and assistant stuff into one episode and wisely kept the relationship stuff in the background, and it seems like episode 3 will be the Nakai and Aoki stuff.

I'm really glad they didn't stick with their one chapter an episode pace. That really sucked.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So far, season 2 has been paced A LOT better than season 1 was. The plot keeps moving with very little in the way of padding, and while it still has the problem of sticking to the manga panel for panel without adding in anything new (taking advantage of being in animated form) for people who have already read the story, it at least has the advantage of adapting what I consider to be one of the more interesting parts of the manga (that being the Detective Trap arc).