Summary
Miura starts supporting Mashiro’s decision to continue drawing, but the Chief Editor at Jack will not change his mind about the Trap hiatus. After further discussion, due to Mashiro being related to the late Kawaguchi Tarou, the Chief Editor decides to hiatus Detective Trap until April, after Mashiro and Takagi have graduated. Feeling an immense sense of unfairness, Fukuda bands together with Nakai, Aoki, Niizuma and Hiramaru to boycott against Shounen Jack, refusing to draw for them.
Impression
Seven episodes in, and I’m still impressed at the improvement in pacing compared to the first season. I feel like so much has happened in such a short amount of time, and if the rest of this two-cour series will be like that too then I’m looking forward to it.
This week shit really goes down, and the real implication of a hiatus is revealed – whereas last week, all of us assumed Mashiro would take up drawing again once he was discharged, here the Chief Editor is putting Detective Trap on hiatus until Mashiro and Takagi graduate, which will be in April for them. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t have the memory span to keep interest in a relatively new series for multiple months. In a nutshell, this hiatus is the quickest method for Ashirogi Muto to lose popularity, and the fact they’d just gained readers is even harsher.
The Editing dept thought that Niizuma was a success, so they allowed this high school serialization project to go on, but it was a load of COMPLETE BULLSHIT that Mashiro was forbidden to draw until April, JUST because he was related to Kawaguchi Tarou. His uncle was a significantly older guy, who may have already been stressed for a long time – Mashiro is a high school kid for god’s sake! I myself stay up way past midnight when the situation calls for it, and sure, the next day I’m knackered, but in no way am I even close to dying. The Chief Editor guy had better have some proper explanation for all of this. And a personal sob story won’t cut it. It doesn’t even make much sense financially, since Jack would earn more money by having Detective Trap serialized.
We also see that Ashirogi Muto’s rival mangakas have a sense of honour and justice, and aren’t exploiting Mashiro’s illness for their own personal gain, i.e. boosting their own manga’s popularity. Well, except for Hiramaru, who’s using this rebellion as an excuse to stop drawing. But even he disagreed with the Chief Editor’s view. Surprisingly, even Aoki agreed to boycott against Shounen Jack, and Nakai then followed too. While the boycotting series (Otter 11, Hideout Door, Kiyoshi Knight and Crow) aren’t big A-list names yet, apart from Crow maybe, they have strength in numbers in the sense that Jack will take a huge hit if 5 of their mangakas just up and leave from their job. On a bigger scale, think about what would happen if suddenly the Naruto, Bleach and One Piece mangakas all just left and stopped drawing. Yeah, the editors would have to answer all their new hate mail by the thousands.
I have this feeling that though the editors going to meet the rebels next week have to technically stop them as part of their job, they didn’t seem too happy with the Chief Editors decision either, and they may be planning a little boycott of their own perhaps?
PS. I was reminded of what Niizuma said about the Detective Trap heroine looking exactly like Azuki by what Mashiro was drawing below of the colour-spread they’re getting. Come to think of it, the Trap protagonist looks rather like himself…
