Bakuman 3 - 09 - Lost in Anime

For a series without special effects or combat or any supernatural powers whatsoever, Bakuman can be incredibly intense sometimes.

I have a lot of thoughts as I reflect back on this episode, starting with this one: I really want to know if the Nanaime story is based on a real person. The whole thing has a ring of truth about it, in a manga that’s littered with events and people based on real-life counterparts – if it’s strictly invention, it’s a brilliantly realistic construction. But given how well the authors understand the subject matter they’re writing about, that really isn’t a surprise.

All I know is, when you’re yelling “Stand up to him!” at a character played by Kaji Yuuki, you’re in pretty bad shape as a viewer. Seriously, the guy’s name must be first in the rolodex every time the CV says “No Balls”, and Kosugi certainly fits the bill so far. If there’s any credulity-stretching element of the Nanamine storyline so far it’s that he would have been gifted with the one editor he needed to make his plan work – I think even Miura would have had enough sense to stop before things had gotten this bad. It’s only too clear that things are going to blow up sooner or later, and in a pretty ugly way too – and that Nanamine, while he’s crafty and talented, is too young and naïve to know that yet.

The hook here is a good one. We have a guy who lives his life as a sort of Ashirogi Muto manga come to life – inspired by Money and Intelligence to try and job a system that has legitimate reasons to be criticized. As I said last week Nanamine’s core notion undeniably has merit – as Miyoshi with her relatively unbiased eye points out when Takagi somewhat recklessly tells her about it. But as I also said last week Nanamine is the wrong messenger, and that’s all the more clear after this episode. He’s already crossed well over the ethical line towards certain destruction, and the holes in his plan are big enough to drive a Shinkansen through. Apart from the fact that he’s perpetrating intellectual theft – even if the others involved know it – those others will surely turn on him when the money starts to flow, and he’ll go down in a ball of flame that would make do for the “bad end” route of Robotics;Notes. I’m amazed Kosugi can’t see that.

Of course, even if Kosugi is being steamrolled, the ever-canny Hattori Mark I clearly senses something is amiss (as does Eiji, naturally). There’s something in Nanamine’s demeanor, in the oddly vague identity of the work and the unnatural speed at which it’s being produced that sets off his alarm bells – what remains to be seen is whether he’ll take any action based on a hunch. I was skeptical that a manga called “Nervousness and the Farts it Causes” would do as well as it did, but I guess it’s easy to see it targeting the same oddly-split demographic as PCP (as Hattori rightfully points out). With Nanamine going into the next serialization meeting and likely to succeed, it seems it will be up to the master to smack down the student.

As for Ashirogi themselves, things continue to evolve towards something that sounds more and more like “Death Note”. We’re on the “unorthodox standard battle manga” template, but not we’ve added the “one idea” model – inspired by Nanamine’s committee. Takagi has – correctly in my view – realized that his characters lack depth and his manga are very story-driven, and has hit upon the inspiration to build the next one around the characters first – and to do so bringing Mashiro into the creative process much earlier. This is a wise move, as Mashiro’s manga gut is almost unerringly right, and he’s proven himself a capable writer in his own right. I can’t help but wonder, though – is anything ever going to come of those anime adaptation proposals for PCP that we saw Sasaki looking at?

9 comments

Salce

December 11, 2012 at 5:18 pm

I think that the manga that they want to do isn't like Death Note.

I mean, Death Note is an “unorthodox battles manga”, that's the first idea Takagi had.
Basically a manga about mind battles.

But now they want to do a “unorthodox standard-battles manga”. That would be a manga about actual battles, with punches, kicks and superpowers, but still unorthodox.

Certainly an interesting idea.

Murkel

December 11, 2012 at 7:00 pm

The Nanamine incident is based on something that happened in real life. I said this in the comments last week so I'll just quote myself:

"The Nanamine incident is based on a real event. The now immensely popular Shingeki no Kyojin's first attempt at serialization was in Weekly Shounen Jump but was ultimately rejected because it wasn't "shounen enough" (and as much as I like that manga, it's undeniable it has no place in WSJ). Turns out the internet somehow learned about this (I believe even the chapters were leaked but I'm not 100% sure on this) and there was quite a backlash. The series of course ended up being published in another magazine."

What I don't know (but seriously doubt) is whether SnK's author himself was their inspiration to come up with Nanamine or his work method.

Coindidentally, an anime adaptation for SnK just got announced and there is a trailer out if you want to check it out.

Hana

December 11, 2012 at 8:00 pm

The incident is one and the same, not so sure about the person (they wouldn't link an person with such shady circumstances), but I believe that I've seen "gaming the manga industry" as a plot point before. Seinen Bakuman offshoot, Koimoku, touched upon the idea of a manga system either around or after this story arc but was canceled as of late (no surprise there).

admin

December 11, 2012 at 11:34 pm

Thanks, must have missed that comment in my fog of food-borne delirium.

Hana

December 12, 2012 at 12:15 am

Wait a second, how long have you been sick? Bakuman 08 was published on December 4th, and you weren't reporting your symptoms until the 9th.

Anonymous

December 12, 2012 at 1:06 am

I don't think he was being serious about skipping Murkel's comment because of the food poisoning.

It was just a casual joke.

Nadavu

December 12, 2012 at 1:34 am

Miura is such a douche…

foon

December 13, 2012 at 4:36 am

I keep thinking that I'd approve of Nanamine's methods if he chose a different avenue of publication than the traditional print publication of Shounen Jack. For example, if he found a smaller, newer company to work with that would be open to these methods, or better yet, if he just self-published them online like a webcomic. He seems to have enough friends online that he could get the word out about his work, and could probably make a decent amount of money from ads or something.

darkkodiak

December 16, 2012 at 6:59 am

I also thought that Ashirogi Muto would ultimately make a "Death Note" manga but with the whole standard unorthodox battle manga talk, wouldn't it be more like Code Geass? Anyways, I can sympathize with Nanamine's idea on how the manga industry should evolve past the manga artist and editor format and incorporate modern tools however he's taking it to the extreme and I can only see it blowing up in his face at the end.

Bakuman 3 – 09

Guardian Enzo

9 comments

Salce

Murkel

Hana

admin

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Anonymous

Nadavu

foon

darkkodiak

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Lost in Anime

Guardian Enzo

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