Bakuman 96

Oookaaay... this took... something like 7~9 hours to finish... hope you enjoy it.
They say it takes 10,000 hours to get really good at something so... if I did all of Bakuman I could say I would be "really good" at it...
Thanks to Galooza for editing as usual...

I'll get 94 done soon... kinda had a busy week.
And I think we're gonna do the Otter #11 one-shot thing too. I haven't got a raw or anything yet. I'll translate it whether mangastream does it or not though.

[Bakuman 96 Translation by Kewl0210]
Page 1:
Shuujin: Crow's in it!! A collaboration!?
Title: Bakuman
Insert: ☆"Bakuman" gets the cover of "Jump NEXT!"!! And it's double-leaved!!
☆Trea-jum Island 2010 is underway!!
Details on Page 382!!
Center Insert Text: The rule-shattering collaboration leaves them trembling!!
Natural Guy: !?
You're Psycholife, too!?
Crow: Let me explain. [These lines in the comic are obscured]
Hattori: Yeah! And this isn't just some small collaboration, they're really serious!!
The story's well put together! This is what Akina-kun intended by seducing him.
Shuujin: This stuff's unfair! They're just using the popularity of "CROW"...
Hattori: It seems that Akina-kun was earnestly requesting to go to Niizuma-kun's place almost every day.
And Niizuma-kun is in agreement, so it looks like they'll continue with this style for the next while.
Ashirogi: ...For the next while...... No, but this is seriously unfair...
Saikou: It's not unfair...
Shuujin: Eh!?
Title: Page 96 4th Place Votes and Arcs
Original Author / Ooba Tsugumi Manga / Obata Takeshi

Page 2:
Saikou: If it's to get popular, to make it interesting, then you stop at nothing to do everything you can.
We're pros, aren't we......?
Saikou: He can do it. Eiji's the one doing the drawings, after all...
When I'd heard that Eiji said he wouldn't lose to "PCP" as it is, I'd thought Iwase was naive... I underestimated her... But like Takagi said, Akina Aiko has become quite a rival...
Saikou: ......
Hattori: Yeah. I didn't take her seriously, either. I'm sorry for that.
Shuujin: I... I guess you're right... Akina Aiko... She's really something. Taking on "PCP"'s opening color issue with this...
Saikou: Can we win?
Hattori: If it's just a heavy handed collaboration trying to cater to "CROW" fans, then I don't think we have anything to be afraid of, but...
Akina-kun's story is interesting... it's amazing... There'll definitely be a flow of votes from "CROW" fans.

Page 3:
Saikou: We have to be matching "CROW" or "NATURAL" by chapter 25...
We still don't have the results or anything, but if we don't get it in this issue, there're 10 chapters left...
Among those, two we can't edit anymore, so we have 8 chapters left......
We've got to get above [crow] or [natural]. [Those are the pictures, not the words]
In terms of rank, even if we're below them but still keeping up with them, you could definitely say we're competing with them, but...
[All of the kanji under the numbers translate to "chapter"]
if we don't have the mindset that we'll undoubtedly get canceled if we don't get above them, we're screwed!
To be serialized with our heads held high, we need to get higher.
Hattori: That's right... Having had to swallow the ending of "Tanto", that's how I think you two aught to be.
Right now, we don't know how the results of this opening color will turn out,
but if there's also a possibility it makes [crow] drop... [Once again, the picture is there not the word]
No, it's disgraceful to be relying on others to mess up. Let's think of how to strengthen [PCP]. [There, it's the face not the word, too]
Ashirogi: Right!

Page 4:
Box: Friday, June 6th. The real deal results from issue 30.
Hattori: Damn. It's no good, even with the opening color...?
3rd
4th
5th
Nothing's changed... No, the vote difference between [Natural] is widening. [Picture replacing the title. It happens a lot from here, so I'll be writing it like that from here without putting a note like this in every time.]
Miura: I knew the collaboration would be a success! And it had a 4 vote difference with [crow]! Now [Natural] might be the one to go up.
Yuujirou: I ain't letting that happen!
Miura: 6th place is Takahama-kun's "Seigi no Mikata". Oh boy, oh boy, I'm the editor of 4th place and 6th place! I'm headed full-speed on the track to success.
Miura: .........He's getting a big head...
Hattori: So "Seigi no Mikata" is 6th...... A 10 vote difference between [PCP]!? I wasn't sure about a manga with that many lines in it, but it's really gone up......
It's got the judicial decisions of Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney)... The part where the case is solved, huh... If you can read it slowly, it's certainly interesting...
And right below "Seigi no Mikata", "Road Racer Giri"... We need to be cautious about this, too... Unlike with [natural], this is a fight from below...
Miura: Hattori-senpai looks pretty vexed... Makes sense, if [PCP] doesn't compete with Niizuka-kun's works, it'll be canceled..........

Page 5:
Miura: Hattori-senpai.
Hattori: Wh...What?
Miura: I may be speaking out of turn, but [PCP] came in 3rd in the "put what you thought was most interesting in order of how interesting they were" questionnaire...
It got a lot of 3rd place votes, so you should watch out.
If that 3rd place becomes 4th, then the votes disappear...
Hattori: I knew all that without having you to explain it to me!
Card: Weekly Shounen Jump Issue 29 [small on top]
An invasion of people in a dream!! A galaxy goods present inviting you to the planet of allurement!! [Along the top, obscured by a bubble. I got this from the original]
Among what was in Jump issue 29, please write the number of the top three you thought were the most interesting in the order of how interesting you thought they were. [Far left, 90% cut off]
(2) PCP Kanzen Hanzai Tou [Right below the numbers]
Seikyuu no Kami John [Cut off on the bottom]
Miura: Sorry.........
Hattori: ..........
..........By the way he said it, he seemed to imply [Crow] and [natural] got a lot of 1st place votes... And that's really the actual case...
In comparison, [pcp] is really getting too many 3rd place votes... Like I thought, the vast majority of the readers, as they say makes up the core, put battle manga as their 1st place vote...
Turning 3rd place votes into 1st place votes... they both count as a vote, but...
..........
No, wait.........

Page 6:
Hattori: It's the opposite.......
Miura: Eh?
Hattori: It's the opposite.
Probably... No, definitely...
No doubt about it!!
Miura: Where're you going, senpai!?
Hattori: To a "PCP" meeting!!
Wait and see, Miura!
By "PCP"'s 25th chapter,
It'll definitely overtake "NATURAL"!
Miura: .........

Page 7:
Shuujin: I knew it, we got 5th, huh?
Hattori: No, more importantly.........
Ashirogi: Lots of 3rd place votes?
Hattori: Yes.
Okay? Listen carefully. In other words..........
Hattori: A lot of 3rd place votes means that there are a lot of people who find [PCP] third most interesting. If you look at it in terms of 3rd place votes, it's number 1!
Box: Total of 3rd place votes.
Hattori: A lot of people think [Crow] and [natural] are the 1st or 2nd most interesting, but when it comes to 3rd place votes, they have very few.
Shuujin: So there aren't so many people who think they're the 3rd most interesting.
Saikou: But doesn't that just mean we're getting beaten flat out...?
Hattori: "Be careful with manga that get lots of 3rd place votes, because if it becomes 4th, those votes disappear".
That's a line that gets repeated a lot in the editorial department.
Ashirogi: We understand the logic, so in order to change that, we...
Hattori: No! Think the other way around!
What happens if you counted 4th place votes? [Note italics]
Ashirogi: !

Page 8:
Hattori: A manga with lots of 3rd place votes would probably have a lot of 4th place votes.
Shuujin: ! If they added 4th place votes, then our rank would go up?
Saikou: !
Hattori: Yes! If you added 4th place votes to the total, then the one with the biggest growth rate would be the mangas with comparatively more 3rd place votes.
That's "PCP"!
Shuujin: So, if we can draw in readers to vote for it at 3rd place rather than leave it at 4th, we can estimate a considerable increase in our votes!
Then it could even win against [natural] and [crow]!
Hattori: It may seem cheap, but getting 3rd place votes means we can still go higher.
I don't think this seems too impossible.
What do you think?
Shuujin: .........
They don't count 4th place votes, so it's just a theory, but...
I think you're absolutely right! The problem is how to get the readers who are dropping off at 4th to be drawn into voting 3rd...

Page 9:
Hattori: ..........
..........
I haven't quite...
thought that far into it.
No, but... With just one more step, the light'll shine in.
Ashirogi: Yes, having more 3rd place votes than 1st...
That's usually nothing to be happy about, but for us, right now, we could think of that as a way to expand our vote count. It has more value than 1st place votes.
Saikou: .........If we can just...find a way to give it a little more impact...
Hattori: ..........
Shuujin: We're just trying to turn 4's into 3's, so...
"CROW" has that style of not having many lines,
so with "NATURAL" doing a collaboration with "CROW", it's extending it's vote count.
That kind of impact?
Saikou: Like I said before, if we tried having no lines in "PCP", it would just...
Hattori: There's no way we can do that. You've already said it, but normally when a series thins out its content, it loses popularity. [Anyone read anything like that recently... maybe... I dunno... a series with the average number of words per page being "0" and the above-average line length is "It's already mine". I'll give you a hint... I'm not translating it.]
That's Niizuma-kun's "CROW", so it's a much more sound idea, but on the other hand, it's better for Takagi-kun to have more lines.
Shuujin: Eh? Didn't you say mangas with lots of lines get shunned?
Hattori: No, this week's "Seigi no Mikata" was 6th and it's a manga covered with lines, and to be perfectly honest, it was just a little bit away from even catching up to "PCP".
Ashirogi: That's cause this week's "Seigi no Mikata" was really interesting, right?
And you're saying it had lots of lines?

Page 10:
Ashirogi: It's got a ridiculous amount... [REALLY? ARE THERE A LOT? I'VE BEEN DOING THIS FOR 6 HOURS AND I'M ONLY HALF WAY THOUGH! AND I HAVEN'T EVEN HAD TO LOOK THAT MUCH UP.]
It's a court story, so that's to be expected, right...? [Text on manga is all greeked.]
Shuujin: .........
Saikou: Now that you mention it, "Jump" has quite a number of manga with lots of lines. [Let's see, Bakuman, Toriko, Gintama, Inumaru... all stuff I translate. I suppose OP and Jaguar have a decent amount, too... Maybe Kochikame... That's it though.]
Hattori: The readers read every last bit of it. Especially the ones who go so far as to send in questionnaires.
Saikou: People who don't buy it themselves, or only read 1 or 2 manga they like don't send questionnaires in much, then.
Hattori: Of course, being easy to read is crucial, but unless there are extremely few, it doesn't matter. [This week Gintama and Bakuman were in the top 5, and Bleach was like 7th. GO FIGURE.]
In the end, what matters is just if it's interesting or not.
Saikou: Are you listening to what Hattori-san is saying, Shuujin...?
Hattori: It's not just readers that are doing it to be thankful to mangas they like, there are also a lot of people who are doing it to support "Jump" as a magazine.
They choose their interesting 3 seriously, so the editorial department considers questionnaires top priority.
Saikou: I see.

Page 11:
Shuujin: ..........
Saikou: ?
Shuujin: Hattori-san, "Seigi no Mikata" is still only on chapter 5, do you know all the ranks it's had?
Hattori: Hm? Yeah.
Hattori: Chapter 1, 3rd place. Chapter 2 and 3, 7th place. Chapter 4, 9th place. And this time, which was the case-resolving compilation, 6th.
[If you guys wanna be funny, stick OBJECTION! in the that bubble on the lower left of that page]
Shuujin: Takahama-san sure is a gambler.
Even though it's the 5th chapter, he did a 3-chapter arc while still introducing characters since chapter 3.
This is still just what he presented at the serialization meeting.
Saikou: This method is normal, you can't be scared. It's a by-the-book tactic to be doing around one-chapter long stories...
Shuujin: With "TRAP", we went up with the case-resolving chapters, too.
Saikou: Yeah, most of them.
Hattori-san,
Right now, I think doing lots of one... or two chapter stories isn't going to do us any good.

Page 12:
Shuujin: Until chapter 25, we can write 6 more chapters...
Of those 6, what do you think about doing a 5-chapter story arc?
Hattori: !
[The circles still just say "chapter" with the number]
Shuujin: If the arc has a conclusion of an impactful resolution, it'll go up in rank.
That's proved by "Seigi no Mikata" and "TRAP".
Hattori: ..........
I know you'll go up if you do a good resolution.
But it's too dangerous...
If you do 1-chapter stories, you'll have 6 chances, but if you use the remaining 6 chapters for one story, then it's all just one shot...
What's more, if the arc itself isn't seen as interesting, it's over.
And you need to take into account how the rank will go down before you get to the resolution. Remember, "Seigi no Mikata" only went up in the end. If you look at each of the chapters making up the arc, 7th, 9th, and 6th, it went down by the second chapter.

Page 13:
Shuujin: No,
I'm saying that even if we do an arc, if we draw each chapter without degrading from what we've done so far, we make it build to a really big climax at the end.
Hattori: If you use lots of chapters to achieve one plan, the freshness of the perfect crimes in each chapter will disappear.
Are you alright with that?
Starburst Circle: Resolution [Smaller ones still have "chapter"]
Hattori: Also, people who pick up the arc from the middle or read one chapter on the fly won't understand the story.
Shuujin: Just now, you said that the readers read everything thoroughly, didn't you?
Hattori: !..........
Shuujin: In one-chapter stories, nothing big can happen to Makoto and the others.
Like if they're making a bullied kid popular in class... Well, we could still do that, but doing something like what we did with switching the urinals in the boys' bathroom with wash toilets is too small.
Hattori: Because they switched out the urinals, nobody wanted to use them, so it didn't have much meaning, but when they purposely learned how they were set up and things like that, it was interesting and got 5th place, which wasn't too bad, right?

Page 14:
Shuujin: We decided 5th wasn't good enough, didn't we?
On top of there being a severe limit on what we can do in 1~2 chapter plans, from beginning to end, we can't put outside drama into them.
We've already done 15 chapters. Instead of repeating the same old pattern, wouldn't it be favorable to do a 5 or so chapter big story?
Hattori: .........B...But...
..........
Shuujin: What do you think, Saikou?
Saikou: ..........
It's certainly true that if we do an arc it'll be make-or-break... and betting everything on the climax means that we're giving up on overtaking them until the last chapter...
But...
Despite the fact that we once had a chance of reaching "CROW", this week, our distance to even "NATURAL" widened.
If we continue on the path we are on now, I don't feel we can win.
Hattori: ...........
Saikou: I think we should try doing a sink-or-swim story arc.

Page 15:
Saikou: Just as Takagi says, if we do it by making each chapter alone interesting to read while building up for the ultimate finish...
Shuujin: Yeah.
Hattori-san, please let us do it.
Saikou: I'm asking, too.
Hattori: What kind of story would you do for an arc?
Shuujin: N... No, I'll start thinking of it now.......
Mashiro's been working really hard on the pictures, now it's my turn to really work hard on the original story!
I know it seems arrogant, but it's about if we can be serialized or not... and if we're cut this time, it'll be our third, our lives as authors are riding on this. Please let us do it the way we believe we should!

Page 16-17: [WHA!? A... A DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD!?]
Hattori: Some time ago.................
I said a mangaka has to surpass their editor, didn't I?
This may very well be that time.
To be perfectly honest, I think it's too big a risk to do a story arc here. I think your rank will go down until the end and you won't be able to catch up with "NATURAL".
However, when I look at the two of you......
I think you'll make something that will exceed my expectations.
Saikou (in the background): With it just as written sentences, I can imagine!!
And then, when I make it a name, the panel divisions and presentation methods will definitely be drawn out of it! That way, with just the words on the page, I can draw freely!
And I'll be able to decide the spacing panels, too.
And Takagi knows very well how much weight chapter 1 holds...... [This is from chapter 88. Most of it's obscured.]
Hattori: Recently, with the great deal of effort you two have been putting in...
Mashiro's viewpoint of being able to imagine by having a name that's pure text...
and that form of you finding faults in your own pictures so you won't lose to Niizuma-kun,
and just now, Takagi-kun's decision of wanting to do a story arc,
they're all things you two have reached before me.
That you two have surpassed me...... I'm so happy.
I can't say you've "become great mangakas" yet, but,
you've grown incredibly..........
Takagi-kun,
Mashiro-kun...

Page 18:
Hattori: Put you whole heart into doing what you believe! I won't cut in and say, "do it this way" or "do that way", anymore.
PCP is your work!!
Ashirogi: !
Hattori-san.............
Bottom: Bakuman
...Page 96 / End
[The amount of text went WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY down. Comparatively.]

Page 19:
Ashirogi: Right!
Saikou: Let's do it!
If we don't do it how we want and we get canceled, we'll regret it.
If we do it how we believe we should, we'll win.
Hattori: Takagi-kun, if you concentrate on your skill as an original author, there's a chance you can win with a story arc.
Just maybe!
So, I'll give you all the advice I have.
If we're doing this, then we'll do it as carefully as possible, thoroughly drawing out the plan... So it'll be fine to have lots of lines!
Shuujin: Right!
With this story arc, I'll make the readers with it at 4th... no, even 5th and 6th drawn into making it within 3rd for them!!
Hattori: Okay. With this arc, we're taking on "CROW" and "NATURAL"!
Ashirogi: Right!
Side: A head-on battle!!