This is real dedication, guys. I can’t even begin to imagine what Nakai went through.
Summary
When Nakai learns that Aoki will be pairing up with Koogy to write a new manga for Jump Square, he desperately tries to convince Aoki to team up with him again on Hideout Door, pushing himself to his very limit. Meanwhile, Mashiro and Takagi are worried with how the popularity of Detective Trap is worsening.
Impression
I felt that everything went by pretty quickly this week, as if J.C Staff had the intention of cramming plot into single episodes to build up towards something later – if that’s the case, then by all means I’m looking forward to it, but if not then this episode seems a little bit rushed.
First things first – Aoki Yuriko YOU BITCH. HOW COULD YOU? First you go and AGREE to work with a guy with an inflated ego such as Koogy instead of amending Hideout Door just a little bit, then when Nakai tries to win you back, you SIT in your warm apartment while he FREEZES in the cold? If you’d ignored him or responded sooner, at least he’d have a reply. But NOOOO, you take in the manuscripts he posts to you, and ponder over their awesomeness, all while watching him bet his future as a mangaka on Hideout Door, from the safety of your window. Only at the end did you redeem yourself. BUT JUST A BIT ¬¬
Nakai too. He either has a serious, big-time crush on Aoki, or he just loves writing manga until past midnight out in the freezing conditions. I dunno about you, but I’m somehow inclined to think it’s more the former than the latter. Either way, I have to admire his dedication. Fukuda, Ashirogi Muto and for some reason, Miyoshi as well (just for the hell of it I guess) all went to try to convince Nakai, but he wouldn’t budge until Aoki came along.
In a series that’s admittedly shounen, but doesn’t have any hint of the supernatural unlike Bleach or Naruto, a normal middle-aged guy sitting in a park, committed to doing something that he promised himself he’d do is just amazing, and worthy of respect. A guy like Nakai is something all procrastinators (myself included) aim to be like one day, though procrastination is a one-way road xD
Now amidst all this was Mashiro and Takagi’s problems, and though I don’t know anything about the world of mangakas other than what I learnt from Bakuman, to Ashirogi Muto getting 3rd in both the early results and the Real Deal is apparently a problem. I do get where their coming from, seeing as they always did well in stuff like Money and Intelligence or the Detective Trap oneshot, but 3rd doesn’t seem so bad (:
Then in their second chapter, they promptly dropped to 8th. Okay, now it’s bad.
Overall I really liked Nakai struggling for his beliefs and what’s important to him – my positive opinion of him has gone up a lot. I think Miura was far too optimistic about Ashirogi Muto getting 3rd, and they’ll be in serious depression next week. When you have tough competition like Crow or Otter 11, it’s best to be more cautious and build up a solid fanbase so that even when retarded plot twists happen, people will still keep reading. Yeah, looking at you Bleach. Fucking Tsukishima.