alphabeta's review of Bakuman 152: Synergy Effect and a New Record

[alphabeta]

Bakuman 152: Synergy Effect and a New Record
A review by alphabeta

Poll Results:
Short and clear. 2 people voted for a 26-50 chapter long future, 2 for 51-100, and only a single person believes that Bakuman can continue for more than 100 chapters. Personally, I believe that Bakuman is entering, if not it’s last arc, then it’s last phase. Ashirogi finally made a mainstream manga, and Eiji is finally fighting them head-on. No matter how you look at it, this manga cannot have more than 100 chapters. The more optimistic option would be 51-100, but reaching even this amount will be hard, if Ohba doesn’t introduce new plot lines, and creates new characters. So far, 26-50 chapters is probably the most likely option there is.

Short Summary:
Both Ashirogi’s and Eiji’s one-shots arrive at the editorial department at the same time, what just screams for a round of comparison. Mainstream gone non-mainstream and the other way round. A little bit complex, but you get the hang of it. Meanwhile, it’s decided that they’ll both get published. One after another. We get a little character development from Azuki/Saikou and Hiramaru/Yoshida. And we hear the ToC results of Eiji’s new manga “Zombie Gun”. Will Ashirogi’s “Reversi” be able to beat the newly set record and what other little things happened in this week’s chapter? Find out in this review of Bakuman 152: Synergy Effect and a New Record

Deep Analysis:
Every chapter starts with the… Title. But not this one. Bakuman 152 starts with a cheap parody of a failed attempt to create an unoriginal chapter title. Seriously, how many of you people know that the Synergy Effect is a term that astrophysics use, when describing the biological process of the utronium3 fusing together with altranium72 in a high-pressure atmosphere? What’s more? How many of you people know that I don’t have a clue what Synergy Effect really means, and I just made up that whole astrophysics stuff? You see what I mean. But onto the real thing. We have 2 one-shot’s lying in front of us. Zombie Gun and Reversi from Eiji and Ashirogi respectively.

Clash of the Titans

Special Manga Edition

The first thing that you notice is obviously the realistically portrayed computer keyboard the respective titles of the one-shots. If “Zombie Gun” is pretty much obvious and self-explanatory, than Reversi actually has a deeper connection to the actual story and gives us Bakuman readers a little more insight on the story of the manga itself. Reversi, reverse, reserve, c’mon, you get what I mean

Anyway, we see the editors actually going to work, and giving their thoughts about this one-shot. I think Hattori’s absence in this group is a little odd, as he’s the editor of the mangaka who made that one-shot. I see Yuujiro, though. And if we’re already talking about editors, then another thing crossed my mind. Even though constantly portrayed as a tyrant-editor, the one who gave the deepest understanding of “Reversi” was none other than Yoshida. His analytical rundown makes me actually reconsider if Yuujiro was the best candidate for position of Team Captain. More of that later though.

hey, hey, you, you

I don’t like your girlfriend

After Heiji’s little perfomance, the scene switches to the actual meeting. Not much really happening, folks praising Ashirogi/Eiji, EIC spacing out, nothing really worth our attention. And just as fast as the meeting happened it also ended, with the decision that Reversi and Zombie Gun will be published one after another. I suppose I could focus on the fact, that it’s not only Ashirogi vs Eiji, but also Hattori vs Yuujiro, but pointing out stuff like rivavlry between editors is useless in this place, where everyone is a bakutard.

With the meeting being finally over, Hattori gives Ashirogi a call to tell them one good and one bad news. Good news. They get published in issue 21. Bad news. Eiji does the same thing in the issue before their’s. Saikou reacts with a rundown of manga creating concepts. I’m just not sure, whether he’s pointing out his strong points, or Eiji’s ones. Next, we see basically the same scene, only with the other pair of mangaka/editor this time. Small note, that Hattori called AM, while Yuujiro came to Eiji in person. Like I said, a small thing, but things like this simply can’t escape my Shinigamy Eyes!

Eiji Dynamic Entry

At least he has his feathers back

Meanwhile, we are being reminded of another mangaka/editor duo. This times it’s poor old Hiramaru, who get s a visit from Satan Yoshida himself. Like always, those two are being used for comical use, but being honest, this is starting to get boring. Seriously, Yoshida experimenting with Hiramaru will have the same effect as Sanji fainting from having a nosebleed. Once – funny, twice - so-so, three times - thank’s, I’ll pass. Not mentioning what reaction you get when you try to make the same jokes four times.

Back in Saikou-palace, Shuujing gets ready to go home, and leave an exhausting Saikou behind. Already closing the door, it’s there, where he hears Saikou screaming, that Azuki got the role of the heroine. And, OMG, OMFG, it’s happening, it is really happeing, we get Azuki invovled to the actual plot. This can’t be true, the main heroine of this series, gets three panels of her face and one panel of her legs (she’s over 18 now, mind you) and the whole Bakuman community goes wild.

Azuki Miho

The dream girl of many, many otakus

We move to this chapter’s highlight. This chapters creme de la creme . Why so shy? Seriously, page 13 is the sh**, yo, baka yaro. Yeah, brother. First off, we have a close-up of a concentrated Eij and Saikou. Dat spirit in Saikou’s eyes, dat grin on Eiji’s face, dem page manuscripts, this page just screams for a fancoloring. More details on what happened on this page in the Impressions section, though.

And then it happens. April 5th. If you don’t understand what’s so special about April 5th, close this review, turn off your computer, get some fresh air, and PM me a written explanation. I’ll just say, check out my profile . Back to the actual review. Hattori gives Saikou/Shuujin a preview copy of the issue where Zombie Gun is published. Nothing really that special, half of the cover page for Eiji’s one-shot. Meeeh. Only thing worth mentioning, is the human girl, that the MC falls in love with. Don’t tell me I’m the only thinks, that she looks like a lolified version of Riruka.

Shuujin, I don’t like the look in his eyes…

“Look in his eyes”, my ass. Check out his eyebrows.

Hattori explains them that Zombie Gun is “da shit” and will probably get a “helluva amount of votes”, what leaves their Reversi as “useless shit”, and the only possibility for them to beat Eiji is to create ten thousands of shadow clones, start training, release all the shadow clones, gather all the experience and then somehow “surpass Eiji”. Seriously, this is overdoing it. Shounen manga are supposed to be easy to read, but they’re not intened for complete idiots.

On this happy note, we leave Saikou/Shuujin and come back to Shueisha, where things are hot. The changes in personal finally took place and Yuujiro is now officially a Team Captain. I admit, I LOL’ed when I saw Hattori calling Yuujiro “Team Leader” . Also, is it just me, or did Obata gave Yuujiro a new outfit, due to his promotion? Either way, he gets off to Eiji’s place to talk about the serialization. He’s slowly becoming quite the smartass, no?

Words don’t meet action?

Welcome to Bakuman

Finally arrving at Eiji’s, he doesn’t even gets the chance to say anything, when Eiji is already presenting him a serialization name. Obviously, Yuujiro doesn’t has anything to add (he’s on Team Capain level, goddammit), but even he notices that Eiji is surprisingly quite. Either Eiji has the best pokerface in the Bakuman-universe or he’s very bad at lying. I’m more for the later variant, which also means that Eiji sees Reversi as an actual thread. And that’s how it’s supposed to be. He’s becoming more of an rival, if not to say enemy. I like that. And the results of that seriousness are visible.

Just…

…as planned

692 votes. A new record in term of one-shots. Roughly 70% of all readers voted for Zombie Gun. Folks, you know what this means? Ohba is hyping up Eiji even more. But it’s actually Shuujin’s reaction that pisses me of more, than Eiji’s hype. We’ve heard his “There’s no way we can win”, so many times, and so many times they proved that they can win, that it’s becoming ridiculous. For fu**’s sake, Ohba, don’t make such a pussycat out of my favorite character . Well, it’s Saikou who makes up for Shuujin’s emo-scream. The last panel of this chapter is really something. This camera angles, showing Saikou from below, this screen tone, which gives him a “dark” feeling, this is just one of the best cliffhangers in the whole history of Bakuman. Man, I can’t wait for the next chapter.

Impressions:
I had different opinions of this chapter, both good and bad ones, and during the time of writing this review, they changed. When I first skipped through the chapter, my opinion of it wasn’t very high, if not to say straight out low. Then I started writing this review you’re reading right now, and as I had to re-read the chapter more than once, and more than twice, I came to the conclusion, that this chapter ain’t that bad, as I thought in the beginning. It’s just that Bakuman is that type of manga, that you re-read to understand what’s going on, and not to see some cool fighting scenes like in the Big 3.
This chapter’s highlights were obviously the pages of Azuki texting with Saikou and the epic page of Saikou and Eiji drawing their respective one-shots. Speaking of Azuki, actually I wouldn’t mind seeing her with a few… “changes”. I mean, errr, yeah, she’s eight years older now, but still has the same haircut, same phone, same blushes on her face and IIRC correctly she’s even wearing the same outfit as eight years ago >_>. Yeah, and the other highlight being the second page I mentioned. We’ve heard of this method being used by Eiji, when drawing Crow. Storytelling without speech bubbles. It sounds rather stupid, but when you see such pages as page 13 in this chapter you take your words back. IT IS EPIC and that’s it!

Predictions:
My last predictions weren’t off. They were simply skipped. Everything that I predicted last time happened off-panel. Simple as that. As to these time’s predictions. Well, for starters we’ll find out if Saikou’s self-confidence is the real thing, or just a fake pokerfaced bluff. Personally, I don’t believe they’ll overtop Eiji’s newly set record of 692 votes. You have to remember that there are a total of 1000 votes only, meaning that if Ashirogi wants Reversi to beat Zombie Gun, they’ll have to single handedly take 70% of the votes for themselves. That ain’t your “2 out of 10 people”, that Hattori told them to reach at the very beginning of their carrier. That’s 7 out of 10. And that also leaves the other 30% for the other 19 series. If we assume that in the Bakuman-WSJ exists something like a Big 3 as well, then Reversi has to steal their votes as well. This is something only the likes of Eiji’s level can pull off. Not a random mangaka duo, that hasn’t even got an anime by their 8th year of professional manga creating. Well, that’s pretty much all. Even though Reversi won’t beat Zombie Gun in votes, it’ll be still good enough to get serialized and the real battle will start now. It goes without saying, that before Reversi will reach the moment where it gets an anime we’ll see other battles. Maybe even a third resurrection of Nanamine. I mean, He can’t just go down like that.

Head Spinners:
Hattori was in his element this chapter. You all know, what I mean. “Then surpass him!” Yeah, you see it, just as I do. I can admit, than Bakuman is a Shounen manga which runs in WSJ, I can admit that we had a few mainstream elements in Ashirogi’s fights vs Nanamine, but I cannot admit this wannabe training method. Dude, in Naruto, yes, there, you can “surpass Sasuke/Madara/Kakashi/etc.”, in Bleach you can “surpass Aizen/Gin/Tsukishima”, but no, NOT IN BAKUMAN. Not using such a plot-no-jutsu-like scheme. But my point is. Since this topic of surpassing each other was already brought up, what do you think will Ashirogi do next as to increase the popularity of their new manga? For the last few arcs they’ve constantly developed new ideas (PCP Color Page; Standalone, that isn’t a standalone; etc). There’s a limit to everything. Even in a mainstream battle manga.

Stray Observations:

1. “Nice one, a gruesome mainstream battle manga!”
2. “Now draw, you piece of crap!” I didn’t made this up, this really is in the chapter.
3. “If you’re frustrated… then surpass him!”
4. “Of course, I don’t think we’re going to surpass him… But I wonder, why not? I’m just really looking forward to next week’s results… TAKE THAT, EIJI, ZOMBIE GUN IS HELPLESS SHIT IN FRONT OF REVERSI!”

Naruto was… epic. Not just epic, but EPIC! EEEEEEEEPPICC!! Sharingan/Rinnegan, Madara’s susanoo, giant-tunguska-meteorit-no-jutsu, I’m starting to remember why Naruto was the first manga I read. Bleach on the other hand was meeh. I kinda expected more of a drama, after Tsukishima cut Byakuya. C’mon, Byakuya is supposed to be a total buddy with Tsukishima, but he still sees him as an enemy. Fail-plot-no-jutsu, really. And One Piece… don’t ask me, I’m hoping the ship will crush all of the Straw Hats and we get a new timeksip, so that Oda can remove all those epic fails that happened in this arc.

P.S.:
Aside from the little changes in the format of the review, there ain’t really anything to talk about. Either way, I did most of the changes in the Reviewer Alliance HQ, so make sure to check out that place if you’re interested in reviews, but otherwise, nothing happened. So let’s skip this formalities and switch directly to the dedications of alphabetas’s review of Bakuman 152, which go to…

R4n. For his translations of the Bakuman Spoilers, which bring hope to us all Bakutards, and ease our hard time of awaiting the scanlated chapter.

Knifeshade. For being probably one of the biggest experts around MH, when it comes down to Bakuman, and having posted some of the deepest thoughts I read about this manga.