Bakuman. / First Impressions

「不安と期待」 (Fuan to Kitai)
“Uncertainties and Expectations”

I think Takagi’s work ethic is a pretty good personification of how I feel about writing for RandomC. Keeping his focus on the specific goal he’s aiming for – and trying really, really hard in the process (and still enjoying it!). Pushing through the late night to get one more idea down on paper, this weeks episode really shined some light on how dedicated Takagi really is about becoming a mangaka. Putting sleep aside in the name of getting the name done so that the manuscript can be finished. Of course with a lack of sleep, Takagi’s mind slowly starts to show signs of wear and tear like running head first into doors. Or the other thing that really surprised me this episode – Takagi’s apparent lack of studying. Going off of the midterm results it looks like Takagi really gave up his contingency plan (studying in case he failed as a mangaka). It was great to see everyone except him worried about his third place score since it looks like Takagi clearly has his mind set to become a true mangaka. Go Takagi! Besides the focus on Takagi’s mindset, there was lots of humor stuffed into this week’s Bakuman. It’s always funny to see our duo in pain together – pain in this case meaning the anxious feeling of wanting to know how their manuscript faired. From Takagi’s hilarious freeze frame poses to his stupidly funny faces and Mashiro’s horrible attempt at forming a “divine grace has fallen upon us” scene in his imagination, there are a ton of laughs this episode.

Not to forget the other half of our duo, I felt pretty bad for Mashiro. Being the clearer headed one of our dynamic duo, it really bothered me to see him stressing so much. Constantly worrying about the quality of his artwork, afraid that it would be his art that would make their manuscript fail. While he ended up being correct (again) about his prediction, I don’t think he deserves the amount of stress he puts on himself. I personally think it comes from the fact he doesn’t talk to others about his problems and he keeps most of his emotions to himself. I guess you can’t really blame him though as the only female figures in his life don’t provide much help – his mother seems like a very serious person and Azuki refuses to verbally speak to him. While it almost felt like he was going to end up on a path to his own destruction during the short depression scene after their manuscript didn’t win the Tezuka award, Takagi being the best partner in the world manages to get Mashiro’s spirits back up with some strong words of encouragement…

All of which was blown short when Hidemitsu Ishizawa, the classmate from episode four who not only got called out by Kaya about his crap drawings but hilariously thought he could become a mangaka, came over to make fun over our duo’s loss in the competition. More specifically calling out Mashiro in front of his entire class. After criticizing Mashiro’s art style and getting him depressed once again, Takagi steps up to defend Mashiro. As Ishizawa goes on and on about Mashiro’s “horrible” art work, he even attempts to get Takagi to ditch Mashiro and become HIS writer. Even after admitting that he has never made a manuscript himself, he goes and flaunts his crappy drawings in Takagi’s face in a lame attempt to steal him. This guy must be idiotically stupid to not feel sensation of murder rushing toward him. Not only did he manage to get Takagi extremely pissed off by insulting Mashiro, but look at Azuki’s face! I think my blood was pumping just as fast as Takagi’s was, and the sheer amount of gratification that I got when he SMASHED Ishizawa’s face in was immeasurable. Combined with Takagi’s amazing “GAR” face as he demanded Ishizawa apologize to Mashiro, I think it was the most spectacular punch I’ve seen this season.

 

Preview

44 Comments

  2. The great thing about this series is that you start rooting for the protagonists because you can relate with them. You really feel every pain of failure and the rush of success. Little by little, it’s becoming one of my favorites this season.

    buh
    Reply

  3. I really want to read the “100 million…” manga if it ever become real… sounds very interesting!
    Nice catch on Azuki’s facial expression when the bastard is talking nonsense… 😀 totally did not realize that… Epic punch for the win… just like Katana/light saber wins in manga/anime 🙂
    can’t wait for next week… (so that I can relax a bit and see how things unfold further)

    jrj
    Reply

  5. Damn i’m so glad Mashiro didn’t hold him back, the punch was awesome.

    Even though Mashiro seems to be more tuned with his ‘level-headedness’ and ‘cool demeanour’, it really just means hes hiding his emotions instead of lacking them, compared to say.. our writer who cries while re-reading emotional manga 😛

    I knew he was gonna get down in the dumps but i’m glad to see they keep it real in Bakuman; Mashiro bounces back up to working on their next name, but he isn’t so completely healed that his stupid classmates jeers actually get to him, reminding him that beneath his skin he still feels responsible that their tezuka submission lost because of his art’s quality.

    (Ishizawa’s lame psuedo-moe drawings = FAIL. Its just like Azuki’s friend said in an earlier ep, “Why don’t you draw the character in a different pose than their head facing forward??”)

    GG.

    Dawn
    Reply

  10. “As Ishizawa goes on and on about Mashiro’s “horrible” art work, he even attempts to get Takagi to ditch Mashiro and become HIS artist.”

    Shouldn’t it be writer as Mashiro is the artist and Takagi is the writer and Ishikawa fancies himself an artist which would mean he is lacking a writer?

    Koroshiya
    Reply

  14. Holy craap he punch him good. I had so many laughs and cheers during this episode. I was just as excited and let down as our two protagonists were during the tense phonecall scenes. xD

    I wonder what Azuki was gonna do if Takagi didn’t deck that guy?

    Shirt
    Reply

  18. Maybe it’s just me, but I thought the way they implemented the ending song really added to the emotion of the awesome punching song. Also “he even attempts to get Takagi to ditch Mashiro and become HIS artist.” Should Takagi ditch Mashiro to become HIS writer or author?

    Bossun
    Reply

    1. I don’t think hope is the right word for it. Seeing as how hope kind of has the connotation that they’re in some dire situation or something. After some further research since I woke up feeling much better today I changed it to “Uncertainties and Expectations”
      That’s me going off of subbers + dictionary + other things.

      Takaii
      Reply

      1. Thank you for your response.
        Actually, I’m not a native English speaker. I can’t say the good word with
        full confidence. But ‘Expectation’ is neutral word and much appropriate for
        this situation.
        I’m forward to see your articles.

        mikuniku
        Reply

    2. I’d venture that the sense of “kitai” is, ‘I’m counting on you, don’t let me down. I’m expecting something good from you; don’t disappoint.’ That has to be understood with the context it appears in, but that’s how I’d explain it in general… from years of seeing it in context.

      Jeremiah Bourque
      Reply

  22. Put images 34 – 37 together and it looks like you get what Takagi thinks about moe characters.
    Side note: Falcon Punch meme I feel is to cliche, Takagi put a dent on his reputation and Japan is a small world lets hope it doesn’t come back to bite him later.

    Bluance
    Reply

    1. I concur lol. I was like “WTF seriously?” when I saw this XD

      uh oh MM alert here

      Nice episode anyways, and good catch on azuki’s expression when he insulted Mashiro. Totally didn’t notice it, I was so caught up in the tense xD

      Nhelraios
      Reply

  24. I LOVED the ending punch scene, great catch Takaii on Atsuki’s expression! I totally missed that when I watched this episode last night. Also, the stupid Ishizawa’s “sidekick” friend beside him was super irritating too with the smug remarks…

    dw31
    Reply

    2. I agree with you. Me too sees wonderful homoerotic overtones. It MAY be intensional, because boys got heterosexual love interests, and they are friends, so let them do all friendly things like hand hold and playing, please the female audience=) I actually enjoy seeing their interaction, their friendship. I rarely remember an anime about guy friends who act so nice with each other.

      Janey
      Reply

  27. Shujin just pushed himself in to one of my fav character for this whole year. This show is one of the few shows that feel real to me that i can actually see this happening. I’m loving everything bout this show its not often that a character does exactly what am I’m thinking. this is turning out to be better then i thought is not one of those easy Cinderella story’s and the characters are down to earth i just wish Mashiro would be a little less of a bitch(excuse my french) just a little bit

    pops
    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *