Bakuman

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Damn....692 votes!

I don't want to sound negative when it comes to Ashirogi, but in this case even they downright admitted in this chapter that they aren'g going to be able to top that no matter how good they made Reversi. And honestly, I'll be surprised if they can even accumulate half the amount of votes that Eiji got for his manga, further supporting my thoughts that Eiji had the better idea (or at least he's still clearly a more talented mangaka in terms of making popular series when compared to Ashirogi). That said, I do have a feeling that if Ashirogi can get Reversi published, it would have a good shot of being their most "popular" series and have the best chance of getting a TV serialized anime adaptation.

Of course, even so, I can't help but keep thinking that I hope they don't give up on PCP if their new series becomes popular, because honestly, whether they get an anime or not PCP is too good and too fresh of an idea for them to just end it just because they have something else that becomes more popular. But, its not too unlikely to happen as I have a strong feeling that they won't be able to deal with the pressure of handling 2 serializations at once for too long, making them have to choose between which series they can afford to drop and which series is more important for them to continue with. That's just my prediction of future events, though.

[Spark Of Spirit]

The way Yoshida described Reversi added a new layer to it for me, so I'm not sure. I think we might be in for a surprise. But beating Eiji's record seems a little far fetched, yet I can't help but think this will be a battle when they're serialized.

As for PCP; I don't see it going anywhere. Having two series going in Jump at the same time will be a lot of work, but so far they're the only ones in the series to do it (Eiji only draws Natural so it only half counts) and I think of that as something they're going to have to deal with. We may be at the climax of the series here.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, in that regard Ashirogi doing 2 series is only roughly equivalent to what Eiji was doing when he was doing both Crow and +Natural. Don't forget that the main problem is that it takes a lot of time to draw out 2 series (more time than it takes to come up with the stories for them), so even if Eiji was only drawing +Natural he was still taking a considerable amount of time out of his schedule (when he wasn't drawing Crow) to draw for that series, but he could still pull it off with his level of experience and his unbelievable amount of stamina, no doubt due to his relatively young age and generally hyperactive nature. As for Ashirogi, they were only able to manage doing a one-shot at the same time as doing a regular serialized work, and unlike Eiji they are a 2-man team so up until now Mashiro has only ever been in-charge of artwork (except for that romance one-shot that he did, but even then Takagi had to end up helping him on it), and Takagi has only ever been in charge of story, so if you even things out by dividing the work among them, they've been doing considerably less work than Eiji up until now, and if they get a 2nd full serialization going, the individual amount of work they would be doing would roughly be equal to what Eiji did by himself, but not really top it (with Takagi writing 2 series at one and with Mashiro drawing 2 series at once).

[Sketch]

I marathoned the living daylights out of this manga starting from the beginning and I just finish 152 earlier today. Man... it takes a while to read manga sometimes.

Anyhoo this series is getting more and more interesting as it goes along. It's a little overly dramatic about every day things but I guess that's part of the appeal.

I'm starting to wonder how long it might run. It kind of feels like if one thing or another thing didn't happen they would have achieved their goal by now which is a bit frustrating because I'm rooting for them but it's always inspiring to see them have such determination.

I think I notice a date implying the series is taking place in the year 2016 or 2017 where they are now. It would make sense that it's in the future especially if the early chapters took place in around the time the manga began. That way they can pretend this is how things turn out and it would explain why the fictional mangas were theoretically beating One Piece, Naruto, Toriko and other titles that are popular right now.

I also wonder how close to the actual process of ranking series and determining which series continue or end this manga is depicting because say if it's accurate and was accurate back in the 90s it would explain why Toriyama kept going with Dragon Ball despite having points when he could have ended it. If the manga was still popular the editorial staff wouldn't allow the author to quit which makes the situation with Tanto and later Crow very unique instances but I wonder if there were some like that.

It's a shame Detective Trap didn't last long. I would have liked to see them do more with it. PCP is a cool concept though and I'm getting excited to see what's going on with Riversi as well. The actual mangaka doing this series come up with a lot of cool ideas for manga within it. That makes the whole story all the more impressive.

Having such real world concerns preventing them from turning PCP into an anime makes sense but it's still pretty frustrating. I mean I honestly kept expecting that out of the blue they'd be told PCP was going to become an anime because they got at least 1 offer but Takagi and Moritaka never knew about it. I suppose it might have ended that way if the series ended earlier but if it had we may never have seen what came after so I guess it's a good thing it didn't happen and probably never will. They also might have gotten an anime if they stuck with Tanto for a long time but I suppose at the time they were more concerned with beating Eiji.

The rivalry in this series gets a bit excessive IMO but that's shounen for you and seeing characters battle it out is pretty thrilling at least most of the time.

There have been a lot of interesting twists along the way. It's an increasingly impressive story.

So now that I'm all caught up I can't wait to see where it goes next.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Nice impressions, and I agree with you. The main things I enjoy about Bakuman is how it basically manages to ooze shonen from it in about every aspect of the story, while at the same time being about shonen. It could very well just slide into slice of life territory, but the pace and characters never let up making it such fun to read. It's currently my favorite still running manga by far. I always figured a manga like this couldn't last so long, but it's truly unpredictable in how the plot develops and because it's so engaging I almost never get bored reading.

I assume the last manga that Eiji overtook to "become" #1 near Crow's end was probably One Piece. Naruto would have been long over by then, and Bleach never ranks that high, so it's pretty safe to assume he was probably overtaking a winding down One Piece.

As for the current events, Ashirogi managed to outrank Eiji for the first time ever. It's not even a tie, as Eiji got more promotion and even a cover spread for it and still managed to lose (albeit slightly) to them, so I can see his frustration as he's never actually lost to them before. But in a business sense, they can't turn down Reversi seeing as it actually broke the record for a one shot and is by one of their star authors, so the solution they came to was actually pretty clever.

Though as someone who reads a few monthly mangas.... it can be agonizing to wait for new chapters. AND it will take a LOT longer for an anime to be made.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Personally I think that PCP should have been taken to Heishi and become a monthly series since Reversi would clearly become more popular than it if it ran on a weekly basis. Then again, that would probably cause a huge fan back-lash to people who are fans of PCP, even if it was being replaced in WSJ by a series by the very same author and artist. Well, at least now there is a certified way for Ashirogi to be able to do 2 series at once, since I still stand by my belief that they would have eventually cracked under the pressure of having to do 2 weekly series at once. This alternative at least ensures that they can do both series without tiring out and still have plenty of time to come up with interesting ideas for both, rather than having one (or even both) series suffer due to a lack of time for story planning or for drawing out manuscripts.

[Sketch]

Yeah I think PCP probably should become the once a month series but the fan back-lash would be a concern.

It's going to take years to get an anime for Reversi which is disappointing but at least years go by pretty quick for Bakuman.

I wonder if Eiji will refuse to make a weekly series so he can compete in the same magazine as Ashirogi which wont make the magazine happy because they want a new hit from Eiji as soon as possible.

I'm really happy they beat Eiji. It really could have gone either way but I consider this the better outcome and makes the story more interesting. It's nice to see a win for Ashirogi every once in a while.

I was so moved when they got #1 with PCP and Moritaka took the chart to his uncle's grave and you just can't help but root for these guys after all they've been through.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Well, looks like what everyone was hoping for will happen! PCP will be moved and Reversi will be in Jump!

There might be some backlash, but it's probably better for the series since they did state at one time they wanted to move it into Middle School, and a change in format would most likely distinguish it further in a new magazine. Reversi is good for both Ashirogi and the magazine, as well as for Eiji as well, so it's good to see it get that focus. It will also take far less time for it to get an anime, so that's really good for them, too.

Now that the stage has been set, I'm eager for the Zombie Gun Vs. Reversi are to properly begin.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I had a feeling that this might happen. If this were to happen in real-life I would fully expect some level of fan back-lash among PCP fans for being moved to a new magazine (forcing them to subscribe to that and pay more money, or choose between it and WSJ), but I'm curious as to whether the author of this manga would address such an issue (which could still be minor in the grand scheme of things) at all. I'm guessing that it'll just be ignored, as I think people would get over it eventually.

I do think its good that Reversi will get published in WSJ, though, since it'll once again give Ashirogi the chance to directly compete with Eiji. They managed to beat him with their one-shot, but we still have no idea if they can sustain a higher ranking than him, or even keep on even grounds with him for the long-haul with a long-running weekly series. It'll be interesting to see if they can pull it off or not.

One thing that I really liked about this chapter is that it actually showed you a lot about Yujiro's character. I think that he does genuinely consider Hattori as a friend and did actually take his personal feelings into consideration to help set up this change. Of course, its obvious that he had his own personal gains from this (or rather, he was doing it for Eiji's sake to make him more motivated), which is a given, but I do also think that he genuinely also wanted Hattori to get to be the editor for Reversi after all of the hard work that he and Ashirogi put in together to make their ultimate manga to date.

Now, I really do hope that no BS unlucky incident causes this manga to fall-through or lose popularity. This one should finally get an anime, as Ashirogi REALLY deserves at least that much after all of the effort they've put in to try and get an anime series. It may mean that the series (Bakuman, itself) would end if they were successful with Reversi, but even then some other problem could come up to prolong it, like them getting an anime but Azuki not being able to get a role in it, or something to that degree. Then again, the series has been running for a long time and even if it did end with Reversi getting an anime, at least it would be ending on a high note. That's not to say that the series has even started to feel dragged out yet, and I could see it going on for a much longer time than this, but even then I wouldn't mind it ending sooner if it meant that it would end without having dipped in quality, as opposed to taking the chance of being dragged out for too long.

[Sketch]

Ooooooh man, this is great!

Moving a popular series to a new magazine is a good tactic though realistically the backlash would be problematic... but hey this is fiction and it's nice to see things fall into place every now and then.

I'm pumped to see how this pans out.

[Sketch]

Well this week is basically just a follow-up to last week's twist. Good to see more interaction between Moritaka and his grand father though.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yeah, it was a slow burn this week, but I think that's fine enough since we know what it's leading to. I'm glad they managed to get the entire set up out of the way, now it's time to go nuts!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

This episode was more about characterization than story progression, but I like these little break-chapters that have the main character interacting with each other and their friends and family. To me its a much needed refresher from the usual brisk-pacing of this manga, and it adds a bit more of a realistic and believable sort of feel to the characters and story that you don't usually get from the more over-dramatized chapters in the main story. Mashiro reading his Uncle's diary was a pretty touching scene, and I like how it really reminded him of why he's so motivated to be come a first-rate mangaka. Lets hope that he and Takagi manage to succeed in overtaking Eiji with their new series. For some reason I get the feeling that the both of them will be pretty neck-and-neck with their new series in terms of popularity.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

DAMN! The work they had to do in this chapter was downright brutal. It just goes to prove my point that they would never have been able to handle 2 long-running weekly serializations like Eiji can without losing an insane amount of sleep and jeopardizing their health. It was pretty cool to see that Ashirogi's assistants were so motivated to help them, and it was nice to see Ogawa put his experience to use and get them to finish up the manuscripts for both PCP and Reversi without going past the deadline.

Now things should be a bit smoother for them since this experience should have made Mashiro even faster at drawing than before (without sacrificing any quality, I would assume). Plus, now that PCP is going to be a monthly series, it should be considerably more manageable for them to draw 2 series at once.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yeah, that was crazy, they were basically doing THREE series at once there. But it was definitely good to see some spotlight on the assistants and Mashiro's drawing quality improving, these are the types of chapters I like. Hopefully they'll be getting the schedule all sorted up, they'll need ever spare second to take on Eiji weekly.