Bakuman 41

**This is for Akatsuki Group use only. Thanks!
edited by c_k

Page 41: Strategizing and Patience

Insert: We can’t be satisfied with our current situation!!

Takagi: Saiko! I can change the name for the 7th chapter!! // Our 3rd chapter ranked 9th in the early reports… I think we’re screwed if our ranking stays this way. / Eiji and Hiramaru-san always get high rankings and I bet Fukuda-san and Nakai-san will rank high when they begin their series.

--

Takagi: Plus, our goal is to have our series turned into an anime. If our rankings are low already, then…

Miyoshi: Yeah… Good point…

Ogawa: They want to have an anime…? But I guess anyone with a series in JUMP would feel that way…

--

“CROW,” “Otter Number 11,” “KIYOSHI Knight,” “hideout door”… // I don’t want to lose… No, I want to continue being their rival...… // I don’t think our current name will take us to the top, / but how are you going to change it…?

P2

Takagi: I’m going to ask Miura-san to have another meeting and decide on something… Worse comes to worst, we’ll have to turn it into a battle-type story.

Saiko: If you can’t finish it by the day after tomorrow, it’s going to be tough for me to finish. Can you make it?

--

Takagi: You’re right… We have to hurry up…

<beep beep>

--

Miura: Oh? I wonder if Takagi-kun finished his name. // What!? You want to change the name!? What are you saying!!

--

Miura: Today is the deadline for the name! You should just do what we discussed.

Takagi: No.

--

Takagi: Our series is going to fail if we continue on like this. Please meet with me for a discussion.

Miura: How is it going to fail!? Listen, it’s too hard to discuss this on the cell phone so I’m going to call you from the office phone. Are you still at the work place?

Takagi: Yes.

P3

Miura: What the hell is he thinking?

Aida: What’s wrong?

Miura: Oh… Nothing… / Aida-san, “TRAP” wasn’t brought up as a potential series to cancel in the series meeting today, / was it?

Aida: It wasn’t this time but, it might in the next meeting.

--

Aida: With the 3rd chapter ranked 9th, we have no idea how it'll do 2 months from now. / It’s your job to make sure it doesn’t become a candidate to get canceled.

Miura: But “TRAP” isn't headed in the wrong direction, is it?

Aida: I think it’s on the right track as a mystery series.

Miura: Right!?

Aida: But if it doesn’t do well, there isn’t much you can do.

[Trap Manga:
Trap: There is no doubt // that this is a murder case.

Man: Who the hell are you? A detective or something!?

Trap: Not a detective. I’m a con-artist.

That night…]

--

Miura: There isn’t much I can do…? // Oh, I have to call him back.

Takagi: Hello? This is Takagi.

Miura: Takagi-kun…

Takagi: Yes?

P4

Miura: Can we meet tomorrow?

Takagi: I’d like to meet as soon as possible, but Saiko should be done with the manuscript by tomorrow so he can join us in our discussion.

Miura: Do the name the way we discussed it just in case, OK?

Takagi: Okay.

--

Miura: Pheww…

Yuujiro: Pheww…

Miura: What have you got to sigh about, Yuujiro-san?

Yuujiro: I’m in charge of Niizuma Eiji and Fukuda Shinta but, Nakai-kun’s manga is going to be serialized too. I can’t find assistants for both Niizuma and Fukuda that easily…

--

Yuujiro: What’s up with you?

Miura: The scriptwriter for “TRAP” suddenly said he wants to change the name.

Yuujiro: Well, the rankings aren’t too good.

Miura: You don’t think they’re that good?

Yuujiro: Ranking 9th in the early reports for the 3rd chapter isn't very good… I would strategize right about now if I were you.

P5

Miura: Strategize? How?

Yuujiro: How should I know? I've got my own worries to think about.

Hattori: Those guys* would never be satisfied with a 9th place ranking... They'd definitely aim higher..."
*referring to Saiko and Takagi

--

Yoshida: I would advise against a strategy to change the set-up of the story, Miura.

Miura: Huh?

--

Yoshida: That manga is the type that gradually draws readers in and climbs to the top.

--

Aida: I think the best thing to do is make the stories end like one-shots every chapter and see how it goes.

Yoshida: No no, as long as you have interesting tricks and mystery-solving, it doesn’t matter how many chapters it takes to work up the story.

Yuujiro: No no, you need a strategy to manipulate the story or else a mystery series in JUMP will fail!

--

Miura: Stop telling me different things!!

Chief: What is Miura doing?

Heishi: He seems to be struggling with the direction of how "TRAP" should go.

--

Chief: Go tell him that he should never appear nervous or disgruntled in front of the mangakas.

Heishi: Yes, sir…

P6

Heishi: You have to be more confident in yourself and never show the mangakas your inner conflicts.

Miura: Oh, yes… I know, but…

--

Miura: What do you think, Heishi-san?

Heishi: I just told you to be confident and you’re still asking me for help?

Miura: Yes.

--

Heishi: It has always been difficult for mangakas that don't rank that high to decide if they should keep going in the same direction in the hope that they'll gradually improve or to take a chance and try something crazy...

Miura: That doesn’t answer my question! I’m asking which direction to take.

--

Yuujiro: You can’t gradually improve in JUMP since every chapter is its own game that you either win or lose. So you have to strategize!

--

Yoshida: There are some series in which you can change strategies with and some that you can’t. / It’s one thing to introduce a new character, female otter number 2 in “Otter Number 11” and another to introduce a new character, heartfelt-officer HEART in “Gitantei TRAP”. // It would be a bad idea to suddenly disrupt the storyline that you’re trying to build up right now.

--

You can’t be that naive to think that you can keep going when your rankings are in the double digits!

The series might suddenly take off if you keep doing what you’re doing!

There are so many series that burn out before they get a chance to take off.

P7

Yoshida: "TRAP" is in 9th place. It's too soon to use an eccentric strategy!

Yuujiro: I think it’s different for a 3rd chapter to rank in 9th than it is for a 100th chapter to rank in 9th!

--

Yoshida: You just have a big head because “CROW” is so popular!

Miura: Hey… hey… How did I become the mediator…?

Yuujiro: You think you’re right just because “Otter” is doing well!!

--

Heishi: Ashirogi-kun is still in high school. It might be a good learning experience for them to not try anything too extreme and have it end up blowing up in their face.

Yoshida: Yeah, so they shouldn’t risk it all.

Yuujiro: Why do you superiors always have such conservative views! I think you should be willing to try all types of things if you want your series to become popular.

--

Heishi: You two are involving yourselves in other people’s business way too much!

Miura: What do I do…? // I have to make a decision as the editor in charge by tomorrow…

P8

Ogawa: We’re practically done so we’re going to call it a day. / Excuse us.

<drawing sounds>

Miyoshi: Good work today.

Takagi & Saiko: Good night.

--

Saiko: I want to call Fukuda-san to congratulate him but I wonder if he’s busy…

Miyoshi: Why don't you call and if he seems busy hang up right away.

Takagi: It’s important to care about them but we still have work to do.

--

Saiko: I know. I’ll hang up right after I congratulate him.

<beep beep>

--

Fukuda: Oh, Mashiro-kun!

Niizuma: Ohhh!

--

Saiko: Congratulations on your serialization.

Fukuda: Thanks! “TRAP” looks like it’s struggling a bit, huh?

P9

Saiko: Struggling…? So they know about our rankings and they think our 9th place early reports aren’t that good… // Eiji has always been in the top 5 from the beginning and he ranked 3rd in this week’s early reports too…

--

Saiko: Is Nakai-san there?

Fukuda: Yeah, he’s shaving in the bathroom because he’s about to go have a meeting with his editor and Miss Aoki. I’ll go get him.

--

Nakai: Thank you, thank you! I’m a 35-year-old rookie, but it’s great I got this far.

Saiko: Yeah, good luck to us all!

--

Nakai: We were just reminiscing about the time we said that all of us were going to change JUMP and now we all have our own series! // Do you remember that?

--

Saiko: We’re going to change JUMP… // Niizuma Eiji… He’s one of the most popular mangakas in JUMP… // Fukuda Shinta… Nakai Takuro, Aoki Ko… Their results in the Golden Future Cup were the same as ours… It took some more time for them to get serialized but they’ve powered up and will rank higher than us for sure… How can we do better? Do we have to make our story a battle-type?

P10

Niizuma: Ashirogi-sensei!

Saiko: Eiji?

--

Niizuma: “Gitantei TRAP” is a very good series. It's not JUMP-like and I like that.

--

Saiko: He likes that it’s not JUMP-like?

Niizuma: Takagi-sensei’s stories are well-written. I’m so surprised by them!

--

Saiko: Thank you very much…

--

Saiko: Eiji says your stories are very well-written.

Miyoshi: Yeah, they are.

Takagi: It sounds a bit like Eiji's making a wisecrack since his series is ranked 3rd... Anyway, what are we going to do about chapter 7?

--

Saiko: I guess making it battle-style will make it popular...

Takagi: Yeah, I guess so.

P11

The following day…

--

Miura: This is written in the way that we discussed… No, it’s better than what we discussed.

--

Miura: So why do you want to change this?

Takagi: We want our rankings to be better.

Miura: Don’t be cocky.

--

Saiko: Miura-san…

--

Miura: You guys ranked 9th in the final results and that’s more than enough. If you suddenly change direction, you’ll probably fail. // You should think about keeping your ranking steady than aiming higher.

P12

Takagi: What are you saying!? That makes no sense! Shouldn’t we constantly aim higher!?

Miura: “TRAP” is not that type of manga!

--

Miura: We should slowly establish it as a notable mystery manga. So we just have to sit tight.

Takagi: I don’t agree with that. Our rankings will just keep going down this way.

--

Miura: So what if it goes down a bit? / Stop being paranoid!

--

Miura: I have an idea.

Takagi: What’s that?

--

Miura: Why don't we stop finding out the ranking results? // We can’t keep getting influenced by the rankings. You have to be able to concentrate on the names.

P13

Miura: This is only my second year doing this job but I’ve seen rookie mangakas fail because they stressed out over the rankings. // Rankings weren't reported to the mangakas in the past, / but as mangakas found out that there were these rankings, they naturally became interested in finding out the results.

--

Takagi: Of course we want to know them. Isn’t it natural for us to use those rankings as a reference for our future chapters?

Miura: That’s what I thought up until yesterday. But having to face the rankings is a harsh reality. / You guys started saying you wanted to change the name just because you ranked 9th.

--

Saiko: It might be better if we didn’t know the rankings…

--

Takagi: But it’s impossible to not hear the rankings. / We’re friends with other mangakas so it's impossible for us not to find out how we’re doing. Plus, we can pretty much figure it out based on which page our chapter is published in the issue. / It would be a different story if the order that the mangas are published within each issue were unrelated to popularity and if no one ever found out the rankings.

--

Miura: Hmm… Then, the only thing I can say is to stop worrying about the rankings.

P14

Takagi: You said that our 7th chapter is good the way it is. Do you think it’ll gain us some popularity?

--

Miura: I don’t.

Takagi: Please stop fooling around! Then we should change it!!

--

Miura: I don’t think you’ll suddenly gain popularity but I don’t think you’ll suddenly rank really poorly either. / If you change the story now, we’ll fail and your series will be cancelled sooner than you think.

Takagi: Are you saying that you’re just trying to prolong the danger of becoming cancelled…!?

--

Miura: That is what I’m saying, to an extent. As long as you have a series, the goal is to last at least one more chapter. That’s why I think you should go with this name. // The best thing for you guys to do is to keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll be able to last longer.

--

Saiko: We thought that Miura-san was a poor editor based on Takahama-san’s story… But Miura-san is viewing “TRAP” more objectively and stricter than we are…

P15

Takagi: Drawing manga is a gamble! We should always aim higher! / Even if it fails, it’s better than failing without trying anything!

Mira: No! We should keep doing what we’re doing! Even if it means we fail!

--

Takagi: What are you saying!? We have to do anything we can! // Saiko! Say something!

--

Saiko: Drawing manga is a gamble… We either win or lose…

--

Saiko: The 1st chapter was 3rd, the second was 8th and the third was 9th… Are we winning… Or losing…

Niizuma: It's not JUMP-like and I like that. // Takagi-sensei’s stories are well-written. I’m so surprised by them!

Azuki: We should just take it step by step.

P16

Saiko: I think what Miura-san is saying is correct.

Takagi: What are you saying!?

--

Saiko: A mangaka is always gambling but once they have a series, maybe it’s no longer a gamble… / Well, even if it’s still a gamble, what Shujin’s saying is just out of / desperation. // Gamble or not, desperation will make us lose.

Takagi: Saiko! / I don’t get what you’re saying!

--

Saiko: The stories Shujin writes are very good.

Miura: Yeah, they are! / Last night I read chapters 1 through 6 a few times and I thought they were really good. // Eiji’s compliments about it not being JUMP-like was sincere. / A well established mystery manga is not JUMP-like, but there are many popular mystery series in other magazines.

P17

Saiko: So we should show people that a mystery manga can succeed in JUMP. // We’re going to grab the people that are interested in mysteries.

--

Saiko: Shujin’s stories have that ability. // If we’re going to gamble with “TRAP” then we shouldn’t take a chance by changing the storyline. // We should take our chances by trying to maintain our style and hope that we’ll get fans that way.

--

Saiko: If we can do that, we can proudly say we “changed” JUMP.

Takagi: That’s impossible! You're saying it like you're trying to increase the circulation of JUMP.

--

Miura: That’s exactly what I wanted to say! // Everyone in the editorial staff agree that your stories are good!

P18

Miura: You know how sometimes mangakas try weird things in hopes of gaining popularity, but it’s so obvious what they’re trying to do? Of course there are some mangas that succeed that way, but their popularity is usually short lived. Taking a giant risk should be our last resort.

Saiko: Okay.

--

Takagi: Alright. We’ll take our chances with what we have now.

--

Miura: Okay, good luck!

Saiko: Thank you very much.

--

Takagi: Who are you calling?

Saiko: Eiji.

--

Niizuma: What’s wrong, Ashirogi-sensei?

Saiko: I wanted to thank you. We were actually struggling with what to do with “TRAP.”

Niizuma: What were you struggling with? It’s so good.

Saiko: Your words, “It’s good,” is what saved us.

P19

Niizuma: So you're going to keep it the way it is?

Fukuda: What? They’re going to keep it the way it is even after I warned them that they’re suffering…? They’re so dumb…

--

Miura: Phewww.

Yoshida: What do you mean you can’t draw anymore!? Hiramaru-kun, you said that last week but you were able to draw the chapter! You’ll be fine… / Okay, I’m coming over!

Yuujiro: Will you take an assistant job?

Guy: Huh?

--

Aida: Were you able to convince those two to keep up the mystery-style they have going?

Miura: Yes, but it was thanks to Mashiro-kun convincing Takagi-kun to.

--

Hattori: I thought they’d freak out and decide to turn it into a battle-style manga but… They’ve all grown up a little bit… // But it doesn’t change the fact that they’re still in danger…