Bakuman. / First Impressions

「嫉妬と愛」 (Shitto to Ai)
“Jealousy and Love”

The one thing that sticks out about Bakuman is how it manages to always come back and give me shivers down the back of my spine. But the best part is how the show manages to instill those shivers without using blatant power-ups or crazy plot twists. Something about the story and how it’s slowly starting to all come together is just perfect.

Something about having random arguing scenes over the essence of what a shounen manga actually is seems perfect for a show like Bakuman. The more I thought about it, the more Fukuda’s ideas held more merit. After citing shows like To LOVEru and Ichigo 100% and the embarrassment over someone actually admitting that they enjoy those kinds of mangas, his comments felt like an annoying reminder of how I feel when I try to talk about some of the series I’ve watched in the past. Try explaining why someone should watch something like Samurai Girls or KissxSis!

It felt pretty good to watch some changes in the plot finally to appear. On Nizuma’s side of things, I’m glad that both Nakai and Fukuda got to shine a little longer before Mashiro decided to quit as Nizuma’s assistant. But what really grabbed my attention was Takagi’s attitude. As I’ve commented in the past, I’ve constantly been talking about how Takagi and his relationship with Kaya would come back to haunt him. When Mashiro exploded after hearing Kaya while talking to Takagi, I never thought he would add fuel to the fire and actually start throwing verbal punches right back at him. After going as far as bringing Azuki into the conversation, I wasn’t sure about what was going through Takagi’s head.

As the episode came to a close I was fighting this feeling of suspense over what might happen to our dynamic duo. While it looks like they’ve finally found something that they can use to get them out of their rut, it feels like their relationship with their respective girlfriends are going to create another wall they’re going to have to tackle. While Mashiro seems to be on cloud nine, it seems that the time for Takagi to finally make the decision over how he is going to spend his time has come.

 

Preview

23 Comments

    2. To LoveRu is the TRUTH!

      I had a good laugh (and the same expression!) when they geeked out over it! As I was watching I also learned about the small play on the show’s title. Haha I’m so late~ ^^;

      Shirt
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  6. … being a non-manga reader, I actually thought the possibility in the plot where trouble arises between our duo… but didn’t think it would play out like this… still nice though, as they also tied in the relationship front nicely.
    the next week’s title is sure depressing though… sounds like the end of our duo :()
    I am sure they will crack this problem soon though

    jrj
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  7. Yeah, Nakai got to have one of his mad badass moments this episode 😀

    As for the way this series can make you excited, I love the way it can give you that awesome feeling of tension and excitement like an action series… And yet it has no battles and no antagonists! When characters “power up” in shounen series, the cliche is often that “your greatest enemy is yourself.” I feel that Bakuman takes that idea and distills it down to its purest essence — so that rather than being a show about being the best you can be to beat your enemies, it’s a show about simply being the best you can possibly be.

    Fukuda’s seiyuu has really grown on me as well — I wasn’t 100% sure how I felt about him last week, but he was absolutely spot-on this week.

    ObsidianTK
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  8. I feel like I’m in Mashiro’s shoes. I’ve felt that same annoyance and longing that you go through when you know your partner has things better off and seems to be “taking it easy”. I forgot how I dealt with it.. Or perhaps I still am. ^^; At the end of the episode though, when Mashiro told himself that he’d make his own name if Takagi didn’t come through, I got all excited. Not a bad idea, Mashiro. Not a bad idea..

    On a sidenote, I think Kaya’s impeccable charmbags are increasingly persuasive with each appearance.
    Takagi.. you lucked out big time y’bastard. C:<

    Shirt
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  10. When I heard Mashiro talking about how he remembers what he did draw as a child I sweat I thought they were going to make a re-visioned version of Chou He-ro Densetsu, like how Niizuma’s Crow is based off of the character he drew as a child.

    But a Mystery does make sense taking in Mashiros type of drawing and Takagis intellect. Funny how they both thought of it though at around the same time, even if they weren’t actually able to talk about it.

    ROFLWAFFLELAWL
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