Bakuman 3 - 08 - Lost in Anime

What’s this – a shounen supervillain appears in Bakuman of all places?

This is, to say the least, an interesting development. Not least because it represents a real sea change for Bakuman in the way it approaches its story. The series is expert at drawing characters who dance delicately perched between outright antagonistic and merely misguided – Yoshida, Iwase, Sasaki, Miura to name a few – but as far as I can recall this is the first time Bakuman has presented us with someone who might genuinely be called a villain. With that in mind, I have two questions foremost on my mind:

Is Nanamine Tooru based on a specific real-life mangaka?
Is Sasaki aware he’s being played and going along for business reasons, or is he snowed by Nanamine’s act?
Are Ohba and Obata even taking the position that Nanamine is completely in the wrong?

Things start out with a fairly extended picture drama of “Classroom of Truth”, with Abe Atsushi, Hino Satoshi and Koyasu Takehito providing most of the voices. And without a doubt it’s an interesting manga – yet another picture-in-picture moment for Bakuman where it presents a fake manga I wish was a real one. There are elements of Mirai Nikki and Deadman Wonderland here, but of course those are seinen manga – and there’s no doubt that CoT is a seinen manga too, like “Money and Intelligence” not really well-suited for Shounen Jack.

With the formal introduction of Nanamine (Tachibana Shinnusokue) Bakuman begins exploring some new directions. In truth, his nice-guy act rings so false from the beginning that it’s hard to believe anyone would fall for it, but then, things do fall perfectly for him when he’s assigned newbie editor Kosugi Tatsurou (Kaji Yuuki) a softball if ever one was pitched. Turns out that Nanamine has been playing a game from the beginning, knowing “Truth” would never be published in Jack, and he executes his master plan by uploading the story to the internet after Kosugi confidentially informs him that it hasn’t won “Treasure”. This forces the hand of the magazine, and gets him called onto the carpet in front of Sasaki – which is exactly what Nanamine wants.

There’s absolutely no question that Nanamine is a calculating bastard, and he crosses comfortably past some ethical lines – certainly be uploading “Truth”, and most egregiously by incorporating the ideas of online confidantes in his manga and claiming credit for them. But it’s my sincere hope that he – like almost all the Bakuman cast so far – turns out to be a complicated person rather than an outright baddie. In the first place, his admiration for Ashirogi is certainly genuine and he’s not wrong that pretty much all manga “rips off” those that came before whom the mangaka idolizes, but even more – can we say that his entire approach is wrong? I’m not convinced that the editorial staff at Jack is uniformly the best people to be deciding what gets published, and what forms it takes. For every Hattori there’s a Miura, and Sasaki himself is a man of extremely dubious judgment.

I think Nanamine may actually have hit on something here – a new way of going about the manga game that makes some very sensible changes to a system that’s basically been unchanged for 30 years despite the advances in mass communication over that time. Why not involve the public more directly in the creative process? Why shouldn’t an author have a more direct and collaborative relationship with the audience? This would obviously represent a very dire threat to the existing power structure in the industry, and it’s worth repeating that even if there’s a kernel of wisdom in his ideas, Nanamine is probably the wrong messenger. He’s clearly unethical and has no notion of the boundaries that shouldn’t be crossed, in the name of progress or anything else.

In purely practical terms, Nanamine represents a very real threat to Ashirogi Muto’s future plans. His sensibility overlaps directly with theirs, and he may be ahead of Takagi in terms of what directions to take their work in the future. He’s clearly got real talent and has no hesitation in doing whatever it takes to get ahead, and his admiration for Ashirogi surely won’t give him pause when it comes to stomping on them. But Mashiro and Takagi have always performed best when under threat (Hattori has already figured this out), and when they’re feeling righteously indignant – and with an unethical phenom trying to occupy the same creative space they are, they have every reason to feel both threatened and outraged here. I expect this development to push the two of them to their highest creative peak so far.

11 comments

Karmafan

December 4, 2012 at 2:36 am

This guy is the anti-Ashirogi.

-blacksheep

December 4, 2012 at 3:14 am

"Is Nanamine Tooru based on a specific real-life mangaka?" <- this question never crossed my mind when it comes Nanamine… but who knows.. if he is, I'd say that it would be pretty interesting.

Anyway, I've been waiting for Nanamine's appearance in the anime. Classroom of Truth is my fave manga in Bakuman and I also do wish it's real.

Anonymous

December 4, 2012 at 4:05 am

I recall there being some controversy among the manga readers when this character was introduced too. Like you say, he has some good ideas about how to improve the process of manga creation, but on the other hand he's so… villainous about it. I remember there being fears that his points wouldn't get properly addressed by the story, simply because of how he's delivering them.

Hana

December 4, 2012 at 4:16 am

"Classroom of Truth… a fake manga I wish was a real one."

Here you go…

Mashiro actually compares Classroom of Truth with Enigma (that was being published at the same time in 2010) in the manga publication.

totoum

December 4, 2012 at 6:59 am

Meh,yes mashiro compared a specific scene in enigma to a scene in classroom of truth but beyond those scenes being similar and a bit of similarity in the premise there isn't anything else in common.So I'd say calling Enigma a real life classroom of ruth is a HUGE reach.

*insert my rant abut how I think enigma wasted a perfectly good premise and how I couldn't stand the MC here*

Hana

December 4, 2012 at 7:34 am

Fair enough. Given the format of Bakuman, none of the mangas (aside from the Otter 11 one-shot) will become full realized ideas and just serve their purpose as padding for the core story of the manga and anime. So comparisons aren't apt for the most part anyway.

I'm surprised that Enigma lasted over a year since it really stumbled around, even in the first chapter.

-blacksheep

December 4, 2012 at 8:37 am

and because Mashiro compared Classroom of Truth to Enigma, I actually made the effort of reading Enigma back then… but their similarities are more of the rules and setting only…

coloredpastels

December 4, 2012 at 9:02 am

Might be stretch but I thought that Nanamine reminded me of Light from Death Note. The character change, the planning, the whole sense of righteousness in his questionable and deemed unethical actions…

Having read the manga, the story gets really interesting around here.

Hana

December 4, 2012 at 10:31 am

Not a stretch in the least, quite a few people referred to him as a Yagami Light clone since his first appearance in the manga (it must be the headphones).

As far as the manga goes, I think this arc (or its second half) is where Bakuman jumps the shark before transitioning into the rather unsubtle "we'll finish Bakuman whenever we damn well please, WSJ" arc.

Murkel

December 4, 2012 at 3:17 pm

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.

About Classroom of Truth, it often gets compared to Enigma but that's too shounen. If you truly want to read something like it, there is a manga called Ousama Game. Not only is the plot really similar, the art is extremely reminiscent of Obata's, to the point I suspect it must come from one of their old assistants.

As for Bakuman as a whole, IMO this is where it starts going downhill. These arcs in season 3 all bring interesting ideas to the table but they fail in the execution and especially in the character department.

Thatguy3331

December 9, 2012 at 3:37 am

I think you summed it up best "Its an interesting Idea, but Nanamine is the wrong messenger."

To be totally Honest while I don't mind the idea of listening to your fans, I don't believe this is the way to do it, so I'm completely on the side who thinks Nanamine is wrong. I doubt he'll be an outright baddie like that musician who tried to be a mangaka back in season 1, however I really could care less for his character sofar, since I hate his type the most.

Bakuman 3 – 08

Guardian Enzo

11 comments

Karmafan

-blacksheep

Anonymous

Hana

totoum

Hana

-blacksheep

coloredpastels

Hana

Murkel

Thatguy3331

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Hana

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