Bakuman – 21

More competition? OF COURSE.

~When it comes to getting merchandise, I honestly don’t care much for figurines. I’ll buy posters, t-shirts, plushie dolls, keychains, and even necklaces, but for me, figurines are too expensive for such a simple use as decorating my room (posters are ten times cheaper). YET, I have come across a figurine that I am seriously willing to pay 56 dollars for, and that is this Takagi Nendroid figurine. IT’S JUST TOO CUTE.  Plus they have this picture of his Nendroid figurine with Mashiro’s version, fist-bumping each other, and I literally spazzed OUT.  I’m dying over here just thinking about it, especially since it comes out in April *A* Anyone wanna buy it for my birthday? Anyways, enough of things I will never be able to afford (HA)!

Poor Mashiro has been worn out from creating a chapter every two weeks in order to keep up with Hattori’s deal. On their way to a meeting with him, he spots Nakai talking with a girl. Nakai sees them, and Mashiro and Takagi join the two. He introduces the girl as Aoki Ko, the runner up in ‘Story King’ the year before. She need someone to do the art for her story, and Nakai stepped in.

Aoki bluntly tells the two she personally didn’t like their story, and goes into on what kind of stories she writes. Nakai mentions that Fukuda made it into competition as well, his one-shot being the first entry to be published. He tells them that the order in which they publish the entries are in how well they think it’ll do, in which case Fukuda’s is the one they’re betting will win. They discuss the entries, except their own, until Takagi and Mashiro leave for their meeting.

At the meeting, Hattori tells them he’ll start preparing them for serialization now, and that they don’t necessarily have to be first in the Golden Future Cup since the questionnaires are a bit different this time around. They have a special option to ‘like’ or ‘not like’ an entry, and consider both the ‘like’ percentage and the rank to determine the winner. The usual enthusiasm to beat Eiji and get serialized ensues, with Hattori jumping in.

Meanwhile, the musician Koogy is holding a concert, where he has an announcement to tell his fans….

The next day Mashiro gets a call from an angry Fukuda asking him if he read the day’s paper. He hasn’t, and instead turns on the tv. Koogy in on, saying he’s taking a break from music to become a manga artist, announcing his name Makaino Koji, the artist to the fourth entry in the Golden Future Cup. Fukuda tells him that he’s pissed because now his fans will go to vote for him on the questionaires, and is thinking of going to the Editorial Department to complain.

Takagi and Mashiro discuss going with them, and the four meet up in front of the Shuiesha building, ready to give the Editorial Department a piece of their mind~.

End thoughts: First off, I’m really mad at the fact they only showed Hyde for what? TEN SECONDS? Why do they make a semi-big deal about this and only show him for so little? I was so excited too…

Well, at least we got some new characters/competition, which I’m really happy about since I love them both. FEMALE COMPETITION FROM AOKI, OH YEAH! Aoki really does remind me of Iwase: calm, cool, but not as fierce-looking. I also love the fact she was very blunt when it came to her opinions on the others’ one-shots. It makes her more interesting, if that makes any sense. Did anyone else feel Nakai was being a kiss-ass, or is he just smitten with her? Either way, he was annoying me (MAN UP, man). As for Koogy, I really like the guy, but then he does that stunt to get his fans to vote for him, and I’m like, “NOOOOO YOU BASTARD!”. As a Jrock/Kpop fangirl, I wouldn’t even do that for my favorite idols (not even Taemin you guys); my respect for manga artists is too high after watching this show.

I am kind of hoping for a Bakuman OST, or some special music thing for the series, just because I want the song Koogy was playing in that concert sequence, which I thought was really awesome. They actually did a pretty good job with the animation on that, especially with the colored light sticks and the crowd.

If anyone’s been keeping track, we only have about three episodes left of Bakuman, which has already got me thinking on how they’re actually going to end the series. I originally felt like it was a bit too early to be speculating anything because the show hadn’t seem to reach any sort of climax yet, but with Koogy coming along, I think it may be heading that way now. The only thing I’m worried about is that they’re going to end the show on a cliff hanger since there is going to be a second season premiering this year (I believe). I swear I’ll kill J.C Staff if that happens…~

Preview:

Looks like some serious shit may go down as the group heads to the Editorial Department to protest Koogy’s actions. And will the blunt but darling Aoki and the ever-crazy Eiji come join them too? Personally I hope so, heh. I MISS EIJI ALREADY ;3; Until next week then~!

About Hoshi

A tired, over-dramatic 20 year old college student who likes manga and cheesy Korean boy bands. Prone to succumb to laziness and refuse to work for hours on end.