Bakuman

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Ashirogi was almost on a winning-streak there, but Eiji proves his experience and skill as a mangaka is still unmatched since he was able to quickly turn the tables on them once again.

That said, I disagree with the notion that having only 1 main antagonist throughout the entire run of a manga should be viewed as a weakness. It all depends on how good the characterization is. If its handled by talented writing, you can keep a story with only 1 antagonist interesting for hundreds of chapters, though it does take a lot of talent. On the contrary, I find switching in and out of antagonists from one to another to be a cheap tactic that most modern shonen mangaka use because they lack the skill or talent to keep an interesting villain around, and when results indicate that people are getting tired of one villain, they simply switch out for a new one. That isn't always the case of course, as people like Eichiro Oda and Yoshihiro Togashi switch between villains as well, yet most of their villains are quite effective and memorable and could be interesting for a longer period of time, but they just switch to something new for both story reasons and because they feel like experimenting with a new type of villain. Even then, at least they have some memorable villains, rather than the ones that get tossed aside and never mentioned again, and ones that the readers will forget as soon as they've been written out of the manga.

In Eiji's case, I assume that he is skilled enough to write good and memorable villains for battle manga, even if he eventually has to switch to a new one after every arc or so. That said, if Ashirogi capitalizes on it, they can make the timeless rivalry between their main protagonist and antagonist seem like something much more epic than the typical hero and villain relationship that can easily be contained within a single story arc, and instead make it seem like its so big that it needs the entirety of the manga to show just how much these characters bring to the table. I guess that what I'm trying to say is that in the long-run, it may work to their advantage, as I could easily see their villain becoming as notoriously memorable to Japanese audiences as classic DBZ or Fist of the North Star villains, which in Japan are still popular to this day and are quoted by many fans, from what I've come to understand.

[Spark Of Spirit]

It looks like Reversi will need a shake up sooner than later. Mashiro is right, their weakness is that little seed of predictability in the two main characters, so they definitely have to do something to shake it up.

Great chapter, and I like where this arc is going.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, it seems that the general idea of this chapter was that Saiko and Shujin basically realized that quality is way more important than quality. In that regard, the story can still be great and memorable without having to be hundreds of chapters long like hugely popular and successful shonen manga among the likes of series like Dragon Ball and One Piece. I thought it was a pretty obvious conclusion to anyone who values good writing and story-telling over just being popular, but its great to see that they realize this, all the same.

Also, is it just me or was the author also sort of cleverly giving his own form of self-commentary on the process of having written Death Note? I mean, think about it: Reversi is basically the same general concept of dual protagonists (the battle between Schwarz and Weiss is obviously an homage to the battle between Light and L). Also, I think that this sort of reflects when a certain something happened in the story of Death Note, which I won't spoil (even though everyone who reads this thread would probably already know it, anyways), and the author swapped out one protagonist for another in order to prolong the story, though as a result sacrificed a good deal of quality in the process, as well (and I say this as someone who still likes the 2nd arc for what it is). So, I think what Ashirogi is doing here is keeping the story consistent above all else, even at the cost of being short, rather than dragging it out longer than it needs to go on just so that they can have something as trivial as a longer anime.

Seeing how they are going for a masterpiece rather than something that's merely just popular, I am now REALLY excited to see how they end up handling this series from this point on, especially since it looks like Shujin already has a good deal of it planned out.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, just to commentate on the last few chapters since nobody else has for the past few weeks, it looks like Reversi and Zombie Gun are pretty neck and neck in terms of popularity, but not in the way that you would expect. While 1 of the 2 series will prevail greatly on one front, the other will surpass it on the other front. That is to say, when Reversi was ranked as the most popular currently running manga in Jump, Zombie Gun outdid it by selling way more copies with its first volume. In the most recent chapter (which was mostly filler, but at least the end of it was relevant to the story), Zombie Gun overtook Reversi in the rankings, but Reversi ended up outselling its 2nd volume, so really in that respect while one overtakes the other on one front or the other, they are both pretty much neck and neck in their battle for popularity since they each at least hold the top spot on one category.

Now, as for one development that I didn't really like, it appears that the SJ editor-in-chief has to make a choice and decide whether to allow for Zombie Gun to have an anime adaptation or Reversi. What I hate about this development is how it makes it seem like its impossible for them both to get adapted. I'm not sure how anime adaptations work for SJ in real life, but aren't they profiting off of them? Wouldn't it make more sense to have them both get anime if they are both really popular? And even if for some reason they can't, why can't one just get adapted at a later date instead of only having 1 get an anime and the other never having a hope of it. At least that's the way that the manga made this situation out to seem like, and to me it feels like a really cheap way to potentially snub Ashirogi out of their well-deserved chance at an anime, once more, in order to prolong the run of this manga. I wouldn't mind them getting snubbed again if it was for a more convincing reason, and to be fair they haven't lost hope for an anime just yet, but it just seems so obvious that Zombie Gun will prevail in this situation since it would make for a longer lasting, more marketable, and probably more financially successful anime adaptation than Reversi, so I can't help but feel that Ashirogi is really getting cheated out of what they rightfully deserve, here.

[Spark Of Spirit]

It seems to early for either of them, really. But the logical choice would be Zombie Gun simply because of the author, which is probably what they'll play off of. But Reversi would be smarter since it will probably end a lot sooner than Zombie Gun will making for an easier adaption.

Oh yeah, and I hope they don't pull a "bad anime adaption ruins popularity" or something like that. It would feel too much like padding.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So it looks like Ashirogi was all geared up for an anime and then Eiji comes in to compete with them for the sake of popularity. For a second there I thought that the manga might actually go the route of finally getting Ashirogi an anime, but in this instance I think its obvious that Eiji will take that chance from them given his popularity and their shitty luck.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yeah, I liked the chapter and all but I wasn't big on the ending. Eiji seems WAY too desperate here.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, it looks like against all odds, Ashirogi secured themselves the anime deal after all. This is definitely good news, but I can't help but feel that something will still go wrong, and I'm betting on there somehow being some circumstances in which they can't get Azuki to voice the role of the heroine in the anime adaptation, or something along those lines.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Well, it looks like the arc from chapter 1 might be coming to an end soon. Ashirogi finally gets their anime deal and I'm 100% certain (barring a really cheap twist anyway) that Azuki will voice the heroine leading to them to get married. But... I'm not all that certain that it will mean the end of the story. There's is definitely more that could happen outside of this plot, so I wouldn't mind if it continued on.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, it may very well go on until they become recognized as the best mangaka in Japan, which I think was Takagi's goal from the start, and that would make sense to keep going then since marrying Azuki was obviously only Mashiro's goal. I do think it would be better for the story to end after they truly manage to surpass Eiji, though, and while I think that this piece will finally help Mashiro achieve his personal dream, I don't think that it'll be quite enough to beat Eiji in the long run.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Wow, they're really tearing into otakus. Going on about how someone's "career is finished" because they have a boyfriend and such. How these types of fans got so warped and have so much power in the industry is unbelievable, and even in Bakuman they don't seem to be much different.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, I really love how negatively they are portraying otaku culture. No, I mean seriously, I FUCKING hate people like that. I have known similar people who are extreme fans of other stuff besides anime but who generally act the same way. I decided that I want nothing to do with people like that. I really like how Bakuman tackles this issue and how some extreme fans can decide to like or dislike things for the stupidest of reasons, like a voice actress they idolize turning out to have a boyfriend or any famous person for that matter actually having a life of their own.

It also tears into how jumpy the media gets over the slightest hint of a rumor involving celebrities. You know, since no matter what country you're in, people are more interested in reading about that then hearing stuff that's actually important and could affect their daily lives.

So, if what I'm saying doesn't make it clear, I really like this chapter and thought that it handled the issues it was referring to really well. I can't wait to see how the rest of this arc plays out.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I'm glad that they're hammering the sick fan culture they have. And who better to really rip into it than Fukuda? 

Something tells me that the next chapter's really going to be harsh, and deservedly so. There's something seriously wrong with that otaku culture and the whole "purity" thing that seems so prevalent.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Fukuda just went up 100 points in my book. I really hope he tears into the otaku-masses on the radio.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, Azuki herself just declared to the public that her relationship with Mashiro is indeed fact, and not just a rumor. In a normal story everything would probably be alright after this, but considering how realistically this manga likes to portray fans overreacting to the most minor of things, I think its safe to say that shit's about to hit the fan big time in the next chapter, for better or worse.