Summary
Ashirogi Muto meet up with Miura to discuss what kind of manga their next work will be. Mashiro heavily disagrees with his editor though, and Takagi feels the same after thinking on whether he really wants to do a gag manga. Ashirogi Muto then propose to do two works, one serious and one gag to have Miura choose which one to submit for serialization, but behind his back, Ashirogi Muto also submits a work for the monthly contest, a milestone they would have no reason for entering other than the fact that it’s judged by Niizuma Eiji.
Impression
I don’t think the tension has ever been higher between Miura and Ashirogi Muto, they were both at such odds with each other that it was nearly scary to watch. Miura is usually this laid-back, jokey guy, and I can’t believe he would be so spiteful and threaten to quit if it turned out that his opinion wasn’t the best option (ie. Ashirogi Muto putting forward Hitman 10 for serialization ends up doing worse than the monthly contest manga)
I actually preferred their other option, Two of Me, in which a guy finds himself split into two and has to figure out what to do. Hitman 10 seems a bit too…I dunno, shounen? Granted, we’re talking about Shounen Jack here, but the story looks like it’s gonna be predictable.
“Niizuma’s drawing Crow, and you’re not drawing anything!” – Mashiro
Ouch, BURN! And for Mashiro to say it so openly too! It was probably a heat of the moment thing, but Ashirogi Muto felt like such rebels at that moment xD The fact that they’re putting Niizuma’s opinion above Miura’s probably hurt him a lot though.
In terms of the way things are run, I feel that the editor has FAR TOO MUCH say, or at least has too big an influence in what the author produces. In the end, I believe that the editor should have an opinion and that his opinion should be taken into account, but ultimately its the decision of the author to take the story a certain way – or at least, its their decision to draw a manga that they want to draw! If the editor becomes too controlling, it then becomes a work made by the editor and not by the mangaka. As we saw, someone like Aoki didn’t stand for it at all, and just upped and left when Shounen Jack wanted her to stick to a certain demographic.
Actually, speaking of Aoki it looks like her replacement editor has convinced her to stay on the bandwagon for the time being, as well as make an ecchi manga. Her character suddenly had this jump in development, she doesn’t seem like this emotionless person anymore who sits alone at her table…reading….or whatever she does in her spare time xD
Dude. I started watching Bakuman not too long ago… I caught up with the second season in no time O_O. This show is so freaking good!
Also, I’d like to mention how ironic it is that their serious story had a gag concept and that their gag story had a serious concept…
Bakuman is awesome indeed xD So much so that I finally gave in and read through the entire manga a few days ago, neglecting a lot of homework in the process. IT WAS SO WORTH IT.
And its very ironic, which really shows how Ashirogi Muto always manage to think outside the box and produce something epic that isn’t a mainsteam battle manga, like what they did with Trap xD