Bakuman Page 81

Yea Miura, think for yourself for once...

「 81 – Adventure and Persuasion 」After KTM was surprisingly overlooked in favour of True Human, Ashirogi are nervous about what else they could do to improve on it. To their surprise though, Miura thinks they should start fresh with a new manga. What is this shocking new angle?

Bakuman「 バクマン」

Let's go to the other room and have hot, freaky sex - "OK"

Page 81 – Adventure and Persuasion
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Summary: Mashiro thinks Miura really has changed, since he is not as hung up with getting serialized ASAP like he was in the past. Shuujin isn’t as confident though since he doesn’t know if he can come up with anything better than KTM. Mashiro thinks that they should just keep with the KTM manga, and look more towards refining it further. At the Jump offices, Miura is still questioning the decision to place True Human ahead of KTM, but Hattori takes him aside to discuss things further. He then proposes that they get Ashirogi to do a name for a mainstream manga, which utterly shocks Miura given how much of an advocate Hattori had been for the two doing non-mainstream. Miura continues to question him but Hattori tells him that it’s only his advice, so the decision still lies on Miura to give it a shot.

Elsewhere, Yamahisa congratulates Shizuka on finally getting serialized, and goes on to explain the details that he will need to go through with his new assistants etc. Shizuka takes the opportunity to thank him, although he made it sound like they were actually ending rather than starting, as he is still very awkward in social situations. Back at his home, Miura is wondering what he would propose for the duo to pursue but after looking through some of their previous work, he reaches an epiphany. The next day, unsurprisingly Ashirogi are shocked at his suggestion to not develop on KTM. They were more shocked when he proposes that they attempt to do a mainstream fantasy manga with a side of humor. Shuujin is obviously shocked at this turnaround but Mashiro calmly asks why he wants them to do this. He responds by saying that they’ve never seriously tried it and after seeing his determination, Mashiro finally obliges and trusts his verdict.

At Niizuma’s, Hattori finds out that Yujiro had informed Niizuma of Ashirogi’s developments. Wondering if Hattori had lowered the bar for the duo to beat him, he asks him to ask Iwase for a rewrite of the latest name, since it was really lacking in comparison to her last few. At their meeting Hattori brings this up but Iwase is still intent on finding out why Hattori does not like her. In the end, Hattori concedes and challenges her to change his perception through these meetings, which she instantly agrees to. At Ashirogi’s, Shuujin has just finished the name of their new Fantasy manga, and to his and Mashiro’s surprise, Miyoshi really liked how simple and straight-forward it is to follow. Thinking that this was the angle that they’ve been ignoring up to now, they worked on it further and got the OK from Miura for the first chapter.

By October, they had finished the three chapters and got Miura to submit it for the 2nd serialization meeting. To their surprise however, Miura soon informs them that the manga didn’t even get accepted into the meeting. Miura said that it was good and all but apparently the upper-brass thought that it wasn’t up to their usual high standards so they overlooked it again this time. With only one meeting left before they have to leave JUMP forever, Shuujin is evidently shocked and amazed at how casual Miura is. In the end, they agreed to meet up again the next day to discuss things further. At the meeting, they were in for a shock as Miura didn’t just come in by himself, but instead brought along Hattori. He reveals that he has been working with Hattori all along, something which Mashiro had started to pick up on due to Miura’s sudden change in attitude. Hattori instantly states though that since this was their final shot, they really need to up their game. He adds further that they do not need their advice anymore and instead use all the knowledge they have gained over the past few years to come up with something themselves that will really knock Niizuma off his perch.

My Thoughts: A pretty straightforward chapter, which essentially repeats most of last week’s plot but instead focusing a different angle. I was surprised to see Hattori propose that they do mainstream fantasy though, since I remember how bland and lacklustre their last few efforts in that genre were. If I recall correctly, their last attempt for serialization under the mainstream category focused on an angel who fell in love with a human girl. Not really original since I’ve actually heard that premise done in plenty of series before.

They didn’t exactly reveal much of this chapter’s attempts but even though the premise too seemed pretty generic, they did learn another important lesson through Miyoshi. Something that they may have not really considered in the past, they now know that it is imperial to not alienate the readers from their manga and to help make it as simple and easy as possible to read. With this little development, I’m pretty sure that it will go a long way in helping them create the ultimate manga in time for the next meeting. While KTM had all the pieces for a cult classic, it didn’t really seem to be that easy to follow and with this battle manga acting as a stepping stone, they can blend both the intricacies of a deep story along with the fun and flow of a typical battle manga. If they don’t, they’ll just be following that fellow Koogy who is just crazy out of his mind with the out-of-this-world stories.

I can now see that they’re next attempt will definitely be a blend of cult and mainstream though, since Hattori himself stated that they have all the pieces now to create a successful manga. If this means that they’re gonna create a whole new genre on it’s own, I don’t know but it seems like they will need to in order to overcome Niizuma and Iwase. I’m really excited for the next few chapters since this seems to be the final manga that will propel them to greatness. They have pretty much covered everything other than sport manga so their experience and flexibility should do them good in creating a groundbreaking series. Sadly, this may mean that Bakuman will probably be ending in like a year or so since it won’t take that long for them to create a manga, get it serialized, become a hit and into an anime. I hope we get to explore Azuki’s angle a bit, maybe get her into an arc of her own as she tries to become a voice actor but I doubt that would last too long or be much of a hit. Hopefully it will be a fun ride till then.

Oh, and Iwase is still really gunning for Hattori. I’m surprised that there isn’t one person who is capable of wooing her in her university, since there should be at least one person who can communicate with her at an intellectual level (and look better and younger than Hattori). She does seem smitten though but I hope Hattori will do his best to keep her at arm’s length. It just seems creepy to see them together in that way. Also, I wonder how True Human will fare. Hopefully not too good so it could help Hattori and Miura’s argument to not follow through with KTM.