Bakuman Page 93

They're prolly gonna "do it" right at the wedding reception to compensate for lost time

「 93 – Center and Strongest 」Mashiro swoops into the rescue as he swiftly grabs Azukis hand to tell her that he is against her doing voice work for Natural. What is her answer and how will Iwase take to this sudden development?

Bakuman「 バクマン」

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned

Page 93 – Center and Strongest
Read Online @ MANGASTREAM

Ah, young love. At least that’s where they stand at the moment. What are they now, 18? 19? It’s good to see that holding hands can hold such meaning in this day and age, where holding hands can be done by grade schoolers trying their best to act above their weight. It was great to see that Azuki and Mashiro are still on the same wavelength though. Even when Mashiro put on his stubborn hat, inside he was steaming that Azuki even considered a role in a rival manga, just when they were starting to gain popularity with PCP (lol ain’t PCP a drug?).  It must have been a relief for him when Azuki came into the interview to withdraw herself from consideration. A swooping hero coming into the damsels rescue in such a manner can only be seen in manga and television, but it gave the couple some much needed time together. Knowing that they are still similar in mindset can at least help reassure them that this romance is something worth working towards.

Azuki is clearly trying to accelerate their relationship but knowing how stubborn Mashiro can be, decides to respect his decision on their initial promise. The hand holding was a nice gesture towards a progress though, since they gotta give us readers something to work off, as well as the extended train ride home (I wonder if they even managed to talk to each other through the journey. We all know how awkward their interactions can be at times). I find the romantic aspect of Bakuman to be a final goal type of thing much like Mashiro is, but often it’s been left behind in the dust. Of course they gotta work hard to achieve their dreams to get to the goal but once in a while this kind of thing is nice. I may be wrong but the last time something like this happened was when Mashiro was hospitalized, which looking back now is a very long time ago. Every now and again, some interaction between these two oddballs, no matter how awkward is a nice enough gift to us romantics.

Wonder how they'll celebrate when they get that anime offer

As for other aspects in the chapter, I found it concerning that PCP is slowly dropping in ranking. While 6^th place is as respectable as any, especially since they are already out of the honeymoon period for manga, going below both Trap and Natural cannot bode well for their serialization future. Hattori sees this and thankfully he was able to communicate this through with the duo, before their complacency sets in. Since they’re terms to serialization is quite complicated, the news that three new series announced at the recent meeting means that their future is still in jeopardy. They need to consistently stay in the top 3, if not the top 5 for the chief to forget their past wrong doings.

Since it’s only 4 chapters old, and the chief gave them till chapter 25 to prove their worth, there is enough time for them to improve. With Hattori as their editor, I have no doubt in my mind that they will make this work. He is one of the only editors to share Ashirogi’s determination and drive, evident in his concern after only 4 chapters. His swift act to rectify their setting complacency was timely, since it’s better to work things in slowly from a thought-out plan from the beginning, rather than doing the Miura method and suddenly insert out of character changes every week. The slow approach will be a much more natural progression and as a reader, I much prefer this approach especially when you notice what the mangaka is building up towards over time.

This reminds me of a certain "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" episode

With Takahama and Fukuda now having new series in Jump (along with Naturals impending anime), more obstacles appear and how PCP handles these newcomers in their opening weeks will show us whether PCP has it in itself to sustain a long term fight with Iwase and Niizuma. Shizuka however is on a downward trajectory as Yamahisas plan for him to socialize more backfires on him. The guy is now a raging alcoholic (okay maybe that’s an exaggeration) who spends most of his time in the strip club. As someone who lacked human interaction all his life, I guess having women throw themselves at you can be appealing but that scene where he was hugging a mannequin in the trash outside a club was priceless. His sudden change in lifestyle also has adverse effects on True Human, evident in the fact that the female population now dominates over the world. Not a bad thing sure but for a shounen manga, killing off the male population is a bit suspect. Here’s hoping that Yamahisa guides him properly this time, since more rivals for Ashirogi can only mean more future plotlines to enjoy.

At the start of the chapter, seeing Iwases psycho face made me hate her more, since the woman is clearly doing everything she can to kill off Shuujin and Mashiros dream. Since she realizes that both Miura and Niizuma are pro-Ashirogi, she takes it on herself to make sure that Azuki will never have a career as a seiyuu, especially seeing that her rivals are also more advanced in their love lives than she is. Her sudden turn after the realization that PCP may be dropped depending on Naturals success was very surprising to me, since she seems like the stereotypical villain you’d love to hate. I guess she was just blinded by jealousy but still, everything before this points to her having some very deep-seated issues. Maybe her words of encouragement are only for her own satisfaction but giving up this glorious opportunity to one up her former crush shows that she is human after all. I’d like to see more of this side to her character but since Niizuma is not the rival we once though, at least not in the truest shounen sense of the word, maybe we really do need a deranged Iwase after all.

/ 3 Commentsleave a comment /

• ghostlightning says:

  July 13, 2010

  Deranged Iwase makes everything fun. Somehow I never gave up shipping her and Shujin LOL Idk why really, I'm just retarded over Iwase hehehe

  Reply
  • Bass says:

    July 13, 2010

    Yea, she's had her fair share of psycho moments lately. I hate her as a female character, but I LOVE her as a female villain XD

    Reply
• lovelyduckie says:

  August 17, 2010

  It always surprises me to think about how Iwase's role changed in this series. In the beginning she was casuallyused as an example when the boys were talking about Azuki and how she is smart but doesn't flaunt it, and how from there it progressed to Iwase being one of their main rivals. She kind of felt like a character that would be dropped off after school ended. I feel kind of bad for her and wish her happiness, although I imagine happiness to her isn't something that will have a fairy tale ending. I look forward to seeing how she develops.

  I just got volume 1 of the official release in the mail last week ;)

  PS – Still waiting for Fukuda Aoki to hook up!

  Reply