Bakuman. / First Impressions

「壁とキス」 (Kabe to Kisu)
“Wall and Kiss”

I didn’t think Bakuman could have any significant plot twists. Since the beginning it’s been the same wash and rinse sequence of writing mangas and getting pretty close to winning, but never winning. While it didn’t feel overused, I thought it was starting to feel a little old. Which is why I was surprised to see a huge cliffhanger right at the end of the episode. Plus they covered two chapters of material, which seems like the perfect amount to not have a boring episode.

Like I said earlier, the whole process of submitting a manuscript to Hattori for some contest started to feel a little old. Even though our duo has managed to consistently improve after each of their submissions, they still weren’t getting anywhere near becoming number one. Using their latest manuscript for their shot at mainstream manga as an example, I was surprised just to see how far they plummeted. After they didn’t even make it past the first round of judging, I was afraid we’d have another arc of trying to learn the basics of manga.

But right at the half-point mark in the episode everything started to turn around. Beginning with Azuki and her fame as a seiyuu slowly gaining interest in the media and Kaya realizing her dream of wanting to become a writer, I was really starting to question where the series was heading. Plus with Takagi and Mashiro revitalized after receiving so much positive feedback over their failed mainstream manga attempt, I was surprised to see the stresses of life catch up to Takagi. His job of being a writer for Mashiro, his school work, and his commitments to Kaya — all of his responsibilities seemed to suddenly start eating away at him giving him a bad case of writers block.

The big surprises came right at the end of the episode. As Takagi decides to take a break from making manga in order to figure out how to get past his writer’s block, I never expected things to move the way they did. Takagi inviting Kaya on a date seemed innocent enough, but after his revelation of how guilty he felt for hindering our duo’s progress, I wasn’t sure what was going on in Takagi’s head anymore. Too make matters worse his guilt prevented him from voicing his opinion against Hattori’s request for Mashiro to become Nizuma’s assistant — something I don’t think a clear headed Takagi would have let happen in a million years.

With Takagi battling a handful of emotions, Kaya asking him if she’s a nuisance to him probably was the last thing he wanted to hear. While I give him props for bluntly explaining how he feels about her, it couldn’t have been at a worse point in time — when Mashiro happened to be looking as he was passing by. Seeing how Mashiro is subjecting himself to working with Nizuma in order to become a better mangaka, I bet he probably feels like he’s getting the short end of the stick right now.

* Just like how I find reading manga inside an anime as sort of ironic, it’s even worse when I’m watching an anime inside another anime! [/sarcasm]

 

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37 Comments

  4. “Since the beginning it’s been the same wash and rinse sequence of writing mangas and getting pretty close to winning, but never winning.”

    it’ll definitely feel overused and old 🙁

    momo
    Reply

    1. Well, i guess it conveys the same feeling real mangakas must feel when trying to get their work serialized. As in, not everyone scores on their first try, and they just have to keep trying over and over again

      Kentaiyoshimi
      Reply

      1. Yeah, that’s exactly right. In fact, I’m pretty sure the manga was trying to imply that he took the assistant job Show Spoiler ▼

        But yeah, you’ll notice the art gets a lot better over time with Bakuman, which seems to be the case with most, if not all, manga series actually

        Bossun
        Reply

  6. “* Just like how I find reading manga inside an anime as sort of ironic, it’s even worse when I’m watching an anime inside another anime! [/sarcasm]”

    A pet peeve of mine is how in virtually ever manga or anime one of the main characters will say at least once “It’s not like this is a manga or anime!”

    j.j.j
    Reply

  9. Mashiro, you got the terrible timing… to be honest, if I was Mashiro, I would feel really bad just as you pointed out… 🙁 that could well be the cause of the end of a great team.
    Well it would be impossible for our duo to break up, seems like things will get more interesting from this point on with the new direction 🙂
    ps. I loled so hard at Mashiro’s reaction when Kaya suggests to write a story about him and Azuki XD

    jrj
    Reply

  11. Yeah, this is about the part in the series when people start to like Eiji 😀

    Even though I didn’t really mind the slow pacing at the beginning, as this starts to get better, I can definitely understand the impatience others were feeling earlier on.

    ObsidianTK
    Reply

  13. i hope this wouldn’t effect them negatively but i that’s not going to happen but that’s only going to make the show better. But i feel like Mashiro should understand seeing them kissing and not get mad because after all they are going out and he knows Takagi is dedicated. I could understand him being jealous because i sure he wants to kiss Azuki and he feels its unfair and i dont think him being around Nizuma going to help at all since in past episodes Nizuma did believe that mashiro can make it all by himself

    pops
    Reply

  14. Awww~! <3

    Takagi is going through a rough time. I'm not terribly surprised because writer's block is definitely a subject I thought they'd cover eventually. But wow, when it hit him, it hit him hard. 🙁 Poor Takagi. I'm glad Kaya is there for him.

    Shirt
    Reply

  18. I like this series and the characters are great. I am getting tired of seeing them get psyched up for a new manga only to get shot down. I realize this is trying to show what real manga artists are like trying to get published but I think we got it by now that its hard to break into.

    I’m starting to lose interest from “can’t wait for the next episode” to “watching it because I followed it this far and wanna see how it ends”. Next phase will be “watch it only when I got nothing else to watch”.

    Karmafan
    Reply

    1. It really is just that, a show about the struggle of becoming a successful mangakai but what really got me into bakuman were the characters Show Spoiler ▼

      I dont think atleast theres an anime where there is alot of influence. Maybe a certain student council harem =P

      Bluance
      Reply

    1. I can see where it will end if they don’t get a continuation green lit. We are at chapter 21 now and it will end at chapter 34 most likely. Quite a good spot to end a first season on and I guess they set the pace of the series to do just that. It’s a bit sad though if it does end there as the next arc after that is my favourite one.

      Znail
      Reply

  21. Great episode, even though some minor scenes weren’t there I think JC Staff is doing a good job, they really tend to do horribly in transition through (at least from most shows I have seen from them) for a while I was hoping they could jump and fit in who they could. I have an idea where it may end makes the 2nd season something to wait for even better. XD

    Bluance
    Reply

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