Bakuman Page 74

「 74 – Classmates and Conflicts 」The manga world is exploding when Niizuma’s new project “Natural” bursts onto the scene. With the super collaboration of Hattori, Niizuma and Iwase, the other mangakas are feeling the pressure as they need to step up their game to even stand a chance against the phenomenon. How will Tanto fare in the midst of all this?

Bakuman「 バクマン」

Page 74 – Classmates and Conflicts
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Summary: The New Year party comes to an end but Hiramaru still wants to keep it going well into the afterparty. He asks Team Fukuda whether they want to join him but was instantly rejected as some of the team were still minors. Niizuma wants to continue working on his new manga Natural and reveals that he was forced into coming to the party. He said that he’d rather work on the manga and this lit a fire in Team Fukuda, as everyone rushed back home to work leaving Hiramaru all alone.

Back at Niizuma’s, he has already finished worked on the latest Crow and is now hard at work on the name for chapter 7 of Natural. As usual, Hattori had nothing to add since the name was already perfect. This gave Niizuma the opportunity to ask why Hattori was rooting for Ashirogi so much. Hattori answers by saying that he believes the duo would end up being the pillars of Jump, much like Niizuma is. Surprisingly, Niizuma agrees but says that he would not lose to them.

At Ashirogi’s, a new assistant is introduced to the group, who will now work alongside Takahama. The new guy Orihara is an energetic aspiring-mangaka, who previously had an honorable mention in the Tezuka Award. With his help, they were able to finish with the manuscripts, at which point the new Jump along with Natural’s debut made it’s arrival. Miura brings Ashirogi a copy and the duo agree that Natural is definitely a major threat, with the potential to spawn games, card games and a huge following ala Pokemon. To make matters worse, the Jump issue has sold out even though it just got released. Word of mouth had gotten out that the new series was insanely good  so everyone rushed in to get a look, giving Natural a solid first place in the final rankings. This coupled with the news that Hiramaru’s Otters had gotten greenlit for an anime as well as the rest of Team Fukuda firmly entrenched in the top 10 spots only made Ashirogi more determined to win out the battle.

Using Natural and Tanto as the initiative, Yamahisa is also able to get a rise out of the recluse Shizuka, who is also fired up after Yamahisa says that it’s not easy for someone like him to get anywhere without putting in the effort. With Natural’s stock on the high and with the pressure of Tanto’s debut, Ashirogi realises that Hattori holds the key to everyone’s success, as they start to see through Hattori’s cold shoulder at the New Year party.

My Thoughts: Damn, Natural really is the bee’s knees. I knew it was really good but to evoke the kind of reaction it had this chapter was astounding. Everyone is flabbergasted at the story, and the potential of it all just makes it that much harder for me to see how well Tanto will do now. Of course, both mangas seem to have precedence in the industry, such as Pokemon for Natural and Doraemon for Tanto. I don’t mind Tanto so much but it really pains me to see how hard it is for Shujin to make up new gags for the chapters. This is only the 4th chapter and he’s already hit the proverbial wall. Thankfully Mashiro is catching up on this, although whether he can help him or not is a different matter altogether.

The good thing about Natural though is that it is great enough to get a rise out of everyone, including someone who we never thought had the fight in them. Shizuka nows seems to be sincerely pissed after Yamahisa called him out, which is a great thing since he doesn’t seem to have done anything after getting rejected at the last serial meeting. For his series to be singled out for praise by both Niizuma and Shujin, he has all the potential in the world to make it big. Thankfully now we get to see what he is truly capable of once fired up. I hope this is a change for the better, since he did arrogantly view the manga world as nothing more than a game.

As for the new editor Orihara, he seems a lot like a younger and zippier Miura. He has an insane amount of enthusiasm and is hella talkative, which is great since the atmosphere at the moment is really tense. He’s a complete 180 from Takahama but he is a genuine fan of the craft, so my first impression of him is that he will be a pretty cool character as long as he doesn’t douche it up like Nakai did in the past. The fact that he is talented enough to get an honourable mention in the Tezuka Award shows that he has potential in the industry, so who knows what will happen in the future. What I would like to see though is how Takahama reacts to him. I’m guessing that the two would get along, since Orihara has the determination to dream big, something that the other assistants didn’t have when he was helping out with TRAP.

I did like how both Niizuma and Hattori view Ashirogi as highly as they did. It’s great to see this budding rivalry now at full swing. It’s not dormant like in the past, where Niizuma was always in awe of Ashirogi. Now, he views them as true rivals and also acts like it too, making it more than a one-sided thing. The interesting thing though is that this is a very different initiative than the one Iwase has. Iwase aims to get one up on Shujin, although she probably has good intentions in her heart. Hopefully this little tidbit will get some exposure in the future, as it would be quite interesting to find a chip in Natural’s armor. I really do hope that Tanto is able to cope with Natural, as well as the rest of Team Fukuda. Everyone is firmly in the top 10 now and I fear for Tanto’s results come next week. Who knows though, there might be a great reception for Tanto, seeing as Jump currently lacks something that caters to that audience. Next week, we will know the results and judging by that result, it will either help or kill Shujin’s resolve and writer’s block. I’m hoping for the former.

/ 4 Commentsleave a comment /

• ghostlightning says:

  February 19, 2010

  ARGH WHY DID WE NOT GET TO SEE TANTO’S RESULTS THIS WEEEEEK???

  The mix of characters right now is great, and it’s really rewarding to see Hattori so involved again. It’s quite a feat, this manga how it keeps me so interested given my utter lack of interest in a gag manga — I still want Tanto to do well. I do feel that this will get cancelled sooner than later, then Ashirogi Muto’s ultimate manga will come out — the one that has the perfect character fro Azuki to do when it becomes an anime!
  .-= ghostlightning´s last blog ..Revolutionary Girl Utena: A Diary of the Akio Car Arc Lived =-.

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  • Bass says:

    February 19, 2010

    Lol prolly cos the focus this week seemed to be on Natural, so Tanto's success (or shortcoming) will be the key plot point next week.

    But yea, totally agree on the inevitable cancellation bit. I just don't see a gag manga winning over something phenomenal like Natural so the next one is gonna be hella killer XD

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• Benny says:

  February 19, 2010

  Bazza, your blogs are seriously sexy. This is even better looking than the last one :D

  Regarding the chapter, Orihara looks like he'll be an interesting guy to have on the team. With only two assistants so far I wouldn't mind seeing Shizuka join them. After being rejected first time out and seeing Yamahisa dragging him out of his shell in this chapter, I think it would be a logical place for him to start. He could obviously bounce straight back in himself but regardless of how talented he's supposed to be, I'd like to see him (or Yamahisa suggesting) learning from Ashirogi first.

  It was also good to see Hattori and Eiji displaying an identical "manga genius trait" lol. Regardless, it doesn't seem to me that Ashirogi are anywhere near Eiji's level at the moment.

  Reply
  • Bass says:

    February 19, 2010

    Lol thanks dude. I still think you should write for us if you have the time XP

    Shizuka being on the team will be pretty awesome. I'd love to see their interaction. It's gonna be real awkward given how quiet he is. You think he would change enough to work with or under people like that? He did seem to be very angry towards the end there.

    And yea, Ashirogi is still far from Eiji's level
    My recent post Bakuman Page 74

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