Bakuman

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

That was a good ending. Its a shame we didn't get to see any other characters besides Mashiro and Azuki, but at the same time being that getting married was their main goal, it makes sense to end the series with just that since that was really the only main thing left to be resolved by the end.

At the end of the chapter it indicated that both Ohba and Obata will still be working together for whatever piece they come up with next, which I'm personally glad about because I want to see what awesome ideas and stories that this pair can come up with next. As far as I'm concerned they are 2 for 2 in terms of making great series (Death Note being the 1st, and this series obviously being the 2nd). Its clear that Death Note wasn't just a fluke and these guys really do have amazing talent as mangaka, so I really hope it doesn't take them too long to come up with another great weekly series for me any many others to follow and enjoy.

Just for the record, now that its completely done, I do honestly still find Death Note to be my favorite of their 2 main works, but Bakuman is high on quality and is easily a great series worthy of being written by the same author and drawn by the same artist.

[Spark Of Spirit]

That was a great ending, but I would have liked Nanamine to finally learn his lesson, or at least see his reaction to Reversi's ending beyond that weird panel. That said, it's easily one of my favorite manga, and the ending cemented it as much.

Unfortunately, now that the best manga in Jump has ended, there's little to look forward to every week from it.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, at least until Ohba comes up with his next manga, whatever it turns out to be.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I'll definitely be waiting for that one.

After Bakuman they have to be overflowing with ideas.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'd still love to see them make a full series out of Money and Intelligence, except to tweak it to incorporate in ideas from some of the other series that they came up with in Bakuman as well.

Also, I believe I brought this up before, but do you think that a lot of what was in Bakuman may have also cleverly been the author's personal commentary and take on the state of shonen manga in general? I always felt that there were points in the series where the authors were using this manga to criticize certain aspects of how manga were being made or how editors could at times negatively influence the quality of a manga against the wishes of the author.

In regards to this last arc of the manga, I felt that Reversi's ending may have had something to do with Death Note. The whole set-up of 2 great minds battling each other was ripped straight out of Death Note and was an obvious homage to that earlier work of theirs, but what really got my attention was how it ended after a short run with the resolution of the conflict between the 2 main characters, despite Ashirogi having to really go against the editorial department to have the right to end their series when they wanted to and the way that they wanted to do it. I felt that maybe Death Note may have originally been planned to end with Light and L taking each other out or something to that effect, but since it was at the height of its popularity in Jump towards the end of the L arc, it could be possible that Ohba and Obata were forced to continue the series (or rather, pressured into it) by the higher-ups and Jump due to its popularity. The line where the Editor-in-Chief says that Ashirogi must keep the story going even if it turns terrible kind of cemented that whole idea into my head, but its just a little theory on my part with no factual evidence to back it up. I was just wondering if I was the only one who interpreted that whole Reversi ending ordeal in that way.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I had a feeling it was a meant as a reflection on the state of Japan's entertainment industry in general. Pretty much every problem outside of their own was usually due to an issue that had to do with how things are run. Basically, when everyone works together, things go great, and when they don't... we get things like soulless musicians trying to buy their way as an artist, spoiled kids trying to corrupt an industry, fans losing their minds of things that aren't their business, and the difference between living your dream (Detective Trap, PCP, and Reversi), and working your dream (basically everything they did with Miura). They covered a lot in under 200 chapters, and I'm glad they were able to.

Reversi was definitely symbolic of Death Note. I also think what they were trying to say was that they wanted to end it with part 1 (though I doubt it would have ended with Light getting away) and that some times a story just can't be dragged on.

I actually hope that Jump understands that and just lets them have their stories by as long or as short as needed from now on.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

To be honest, I'm among the small crowd that didn't hate the 2nd arc of Death Note, and despite it clearly being inferior to the first arc it felt like the author was still putting in a lot of genuine effort into making it as good as possible, even though it was downright impossible to even come close to touching the L arc in quality and pacing. That said, I felt that the series definitely would have benefited if it had ended at the L arc with a different ending than the one we got for it, and that's definitely the vibe I got from this last arc of Bakuman in regards to them ending Reversi.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yeah, when they were talking about ways to extend Reversi, they just knew whatever they did would not be as good as what came before so it would be best to end it. While Death Note didn't really suffer for it, it also didn't really need to be dragged on but obviously they were told they needed to.

In the long run, it's best to just let the piece by what it's naturally meant to be. I bet people would be talking about Reversi for years, and it only ran 49 chapters. Yet, for instance, Cowboy Bebop was 26 episodes and yet people still enjoy it today. There was a lot of interesting stuff like that in Bakuman, and I'm really glad they were able to explore it.

I also think it helped them both improve as artist and writer having to do all those different genres and art styles, so their next piece could really be anything. 

[Daxdiv]

I'm still in that camp of people that think that Death Note ran for as long as it did was just so it could reach 108 chapters due to the connotations that number has in Japan and Buddhism. In New Years in Japan, they ring a bell 108 times to represent the number of temptations one must resist to reach nirvana. Which is fitting for a story like Death Note and a character like Light and his goals of creating a utopia.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

That's true, I believe that they could tackle any genre, but to be honest I think they are well-suited to making darker and more fast-paced manga like Death Note. I found Bakuman to be a more light-hearted series and in contrast took its time in terms of pacing, which it could do since it was a slice of life series. After reading Bakuman and seeing the great ideas they presented in it for darker series with more serious narratives, I'm pretty pumped to see them tackle something along the lines of Death Note's darker tone. It'd be good for them to mix up the genres that they tackle, but I knowing how talented they are in writing darker shonen manga, that's kind of what I want to see from them again. That said, I'll read whatever manga they write next no matter what genre it is.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Spoiler Alert....for like....the 2 people on this board who might not know it, if it even IS that number....

I'm still in that camp of people that think that Death Note ran for as long as it did was just so it could reach 108 chapters due to the connotations that number has in Japan and Buddhism. In New Years in Japan, they ring a bell 108 times to represent the number of temptations one must resist to reach nirvana. Which is fitting for a story like Death Note and a character like Light and his goals of creating a utopia.

Well, maybe that could be true, but in that case Light didn't quite reach that nirvana since he died in chapter 107. Sucks for him.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I'd like to see them make a straightforward shonen like Reversi (but not the same thing, obviously). If only because I'd love a good battle manga on par with Yu Yu Hakusho pre-final arc or Rurouni Kenshin. Lord knows we need something less formulaic than the current stuff in Jump.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, if Bakuman is any indication of the real author and artist behind it and Death Note, they may not be doing mainstream shonen since they probably aren't well suited to it. Their talents seem to lie more in telling stories like Death Note or stories about writing stories like Death Note and mainstream shonen manga and other genres as well. Actaully writing a mainstream shonen manga would be a totally different ordeal, but it'd certainly be interesting to see if they could really pull it off.

Or, If they really want to give the genre a good kick in the pants that it needs, they could make the obligatory "deconstruction" series of the genre. Sort of like the "Watchmen" of shonen manga, if you will. That's something that I feel they are talented enough to pull off, and it would be a great blow to every uninspired and cliche series that plagues the genre today.

[Spark Of Spirit]

One thing that confirmed to me that they could try anything was their extensive love of manga throughout Bakuman and how they treat the story potential it has. Not just name-dropping Phoenix, Ashita No Joe, and Slam Dunk, but how different they are and how important they all were.

They tried to expand a lot too. They tried romance with the Azuki/Mashiro thing and Aoki Ko's stuff, they tried hot-blooded shonen with Fukuda, gag manga with Hiramaru, mainstream with Eiji and Iwase, specialization with Takahama, and dark material with Nanamine. Not to mention sci-fi, mystery, and fantasy with Ashirogi Muto. They showed many different viewpoints and styles, and in the end I think it will help them in the future.

So I think at this point they could do anything.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I was thinking that its possible that we might get an epilogue chapter of sorts when the actual final volume releases, sort of like an omake feature for those who actually buy it. I believe they did that for Death Note when they re-released a special edition version of the final volume, or something to that effect (where we got an epilogue chapter with Near and got to learn of his and Mello's past experience "meeting" with L).

Perhaps the epilogue chapter might just be some wrap-up material for the other side-characters, or at least Nanamine or Shizuka, neither of whom really had proper closure to their character arcs, IMO.