Bakuman S2 07 – 08
No one does tense like Bakuman.
~The more Hiramaru comes out in these episodes, the more similarities I see between him and I. So much in fact, that if I had to choose which two characters I’d be in an anime, it’d be Tsukimi from Kuragehime and Hiramaru. I’m not sure whether I should be worried about this or not….All I know is I definitely need my own Yoshida to threaten me to work harder.
Continuing from last episode, Miura, after seeing Azuki helping Mashiro keep drawing even while he’s in pain, promises to try and convince the editor-in-chief once again to not allow the hiatus of TRAP. Takagi soon pushes Miura out so the couple can have some alone time, where the two talk about their feelings on finally seeing each other and being apart once Mashiro’s discharged from the hospital.
Hiramaru, Yoshida, and Fukuda decide to visit Mashiro, but their happy visit it cut short once the Editor-in-Chief makes his appearance. With everyone regusing to leave the room, he announces that TRAP will be on hiatus until April, when Ashirogi will graduate from high school. Everyone is in an uproar over the decision, even Hattori and Yuujirou at the editorial office; Mashiro even more so when the Chief says his reason is because his uncle, Kawaguchi Tarou, died.
Meanwhile, Fukuda visits Niizuma to tell him about the situation, and he is just as angry as the rest. They decide that since they’re making TRAP take a break, then they will as well. Fukuda calls the rest of them team, even Hiramaru, and agree to join them in a boycott to get the Editor-in-Cheif to withdraw his decision. Yuujriou is then called and he tells their respective editors about it. Aida, Yoshida, Yuujirou, Hattori, and Miura decide to secretly meet them at a nearby family restaurant to take on the group.
Once there, the editors press the team with questions such as how they’re going to keep their assistants and whether they know that this kind of action will make Ashirogi unhappy. They had already decided not to let Ashirogi know and Niizuma has enough money to pay for the assistants. Hattori then asks if they’d resume drawing if the Chief Editor would at lest have the hiatus last until Mashiro gets discharged from the hospital. Fukuda still doesn’t agree and wants to tell the Chief Editor himself about this, but Aida says they’ll do it themselves.
That night, Aida and Yoshida notify the Chief Editor about the boycott. However, he firmly tells them that it’s a settled matter. Hattori comes in, telling him his idea from the restaurant, but he still doesn’t budge, only telling them to not let the manuscripts fall behind. Back at the hospital, Ashirogi still have a lot of hope to change the decision while Miura has to keep his knowledge of the boycott to himself. Azuki makes her daily visit, this time giving Mashiro a good luck charm for his surgey, despite it being 99% successful. The topic of kissing comes along, thanks to Kaya, and the shy lovers admit they actually don’t think about it.
The boycott holds out as Jack’s next issue is published without the four author’s stories, quickly getting Ashirogi’s attention. Miura comes clean about the details, instantly stirring up the two enough to have him call Niizuma and Fukuda to the hospital to personally tell them they will be fine with a hiatus until Mashiro’s discharge. Fukuda finally agrees, along with Niizuma, and Yuujirou brings their manuscripts to the Chief Editor, who unfortunately still won’t change his decision. Miura gets an idea for one last attempt as he looks through Mashiro’s latest manuscript and hearing Ashirogi’s conversation about the 10 chapters already made. As soon as Mashiro walks out of the hospital, he, Takagi, and Miura head straight to the editorial department. They face the Chief Editor, pleading their case with their evidence not only Mashiro’s full recovery, but his quality manuscripts that seemed to improve every week despite being in the hospital. Mashiro even talks about his uncle, who said you need physical strength, emotional strength, and guts for serialization. With that, the Chief Editor finally proclaims that he’ll begin TRAP’s serialization again as quickly as he can.
The three celebrate this turn of events with a teary-eyed Hattori even giving the boys a hug~.
You know all is well when Hattori is crying tears of joy.
End thoughts: Those bit parts of Azuki and Mashiro together are quite difficult to screencap and summarize (especially when there’s other things a little more important to mention) because it’s mostly blushy faces, long stares away from each other, and stuttering confessions. I still find them so cute, but they give their moments such a cheesy atmosphere. It’s the animation really with their big, glittery eyes and that constant little blush on their cheeks. I can’t help but laugh at those moments. Aside from those moments, everything else felt so TENSE. It was this constant on-the-edge feeling that would just not settle until Ashirogi got their hiatus taken off successfully. I definitely didn’t agree with the hiatus until April decision. I understand his concern for Mashiro and his mother’s feelings, but to say it’s basically because he was a relative to Kawaguchi Tarou made it seem really unreasonable. Hattori’s suggestion to end the hiatus when Mashiro got out of the hospital was way more reasonable.
Among all those failed attempts to overturn the decision, we all know whose was the awesomest: Team Fukuda’s. When they came together for the boycott, I was so excited! It reminded me a lot of their charge into the editorial department because of KOOGY asking his fans to vote for him. This time though my girl Aoki actually came along and set Nakai straight, telling him he wasn’t man enough for this, HA. He was seriously pissing me off thinking of his own manga so quickly like that. At least hesitate and think about Ashirogi for just those few seconds (Mashiro even helped motivate him to try and get a serilzation). Speaking of people who get on my nerves, Miura still does. His mind is too flexible sometimes; first he was agreeing with the editor-in-chief, and then he was agreeing with Mashiro and Takagi to keep working. Miura can never stick firmly to one side when it comes to a crisis. He just follows the moment, like in a previous episode he kept going back and forth with the other editors’ opinions on whether TRAP should stay as a mystery or change its story a bit. I may be just used to stubborn characters, but it does annoy me when I catch it. All in all, it was a good, tense past two episodes with a slight dash of boring when a decent portion of the episodes had that try-to-remove-the-hiatus-and-fail scene and Mashiro+Azuki blush moments. Now I’m just curious to see how this whole situation will affect TRAP, if it does at all~.
Preview:
Now that Mashiro is better and their serialization is back up, has all their bad luck finally gone away, at least for the time being? And how is the rest of Team Fukuda dealing with their own serializations? Until next week then~!!
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 338 comments
This anime makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! Glad to see TRAP back in action. Wish CROW was an actually manga, it looks like it would be fun to read.
POWUH: 800-899 and Flying Sage with 856 comments
I’m glad this section drew to a close. It was interesting to see the dispute in Jack at all levels, and I like Mashiro drawing in the hospital, and I even liked that Azuki came to the hospital and supported Mashiro in his time of need. The part that bothered me was just the lack of forward momentum; someone would complain about letting them work again, and the answer was always no. If that had gone on much longer, it would have gotten pretty annoying. So, yay! I’m glad Trap is going to be published once again.