Bakuman 17 – Goblin and Kindness

It’s been a while since I wrote an episode review for Bakuman, but here it is, I just did a review for episode 17! Anyways, Mashiro accepts the summer job of being Niizuma’s assistant and along with it; he met Nakai and Fukuda, his other assistants. Naki here is the old guy on his thirties while Fukuda is that white-haired guy. Enough with the character descriptions, let’s get this over with!

Asides that it is pretty rare that I use the show’s episode titles, the reason why I used it is because of two things. First, Niizuma has been quite cocky and doesn’t listen much to his editor, instead he spends time drawing the manuscript and submitting it and because of this, CROW’s rankings slowly drops after the first chapter due to it being not interesting.

This is when the Goblin part of the title comes in. Eiji has been occupied with the praises coming from those in Jack’s editorial department because he is, accordingly, a genius with the said praise stuck in his head that at the end of the episode he admitted that he turned into a “goblin.”

Second, as for the Kindness part, if not for Mashiro not observing Niizuma, the talk about popularity will not be brought up which ended up with a pseudo meeting between Mashiro, Niizuma and Fukuda just to help their Niizuma fix his problem in making CROW interesting.

As for the new characters, Nakai is one of those pro-assistants who still want to become a full-fledged manga-ka and as seen in this episode, he is envious with the youth around him, makes me pity the guy. As for Fukuda, he is cocky and somewhat a good mix between Niizuma, and that guy who likes to draw moe in some episode that I forgot. Even though he is a jerk that deserves to be punched, deep inside he is good guy who works as an assistant and as a convenience store clerk at morning.

Asides from the new characters, this is one episode in which we saw Niizuma having the needed character development. I mean, for the past few weeks, he is acting weird, doing poses (in this episode, he did Kamen Rider 1’s pose that caused me to fanwank a bit and mutter his henshin phrase, Rider… Henshin), and leave his manuscripts lying on the floor. It was fun when it lasted but what’s next? Thank God, the writers heard my wish!

Overall, it is one worthy episode to be watched. Asides that we saw Niizuma finally having the needed character growth, we met Ashirogi Muto’s possible rivals in the form of the kind-hearted Nakai and the jerk Fukuda. Finally this show is getting much more interesting due to the change of pace with our characters! Now, when we will see episodes that involve Takagi’s own personal growth?

Bakuman 17 – Goblin and Kindness

It’s been a while since I wrote an episode review for Bakuman, but here it is, I just did a review for episode 17! Anyways, Mashiro accepts the summer job of being Niizuma’s assistant and along with it; he met Nakai and Fukuda, his other assistants. Naki here is the old guy on his thirties while Fukuda is that white-haired guy. Enough with the character descriptions, let’s get this over with!

Asides that it is pretty rare that I use the show’s episode titles, the reason why I used it is because of two things. First, Niizuma has been quite cocky and doesn’t listen much to his editor, instead he spends time drawing the manuscript and submitting it and because of this, CROW’s rankings slowly drops after the first chapter due to it being not interesting.

This is when the Goblin part of the title comes in. Eiji has been occupied with the praises coming from those in Jack’s editorial department because he is, accordingly, a genius with the said praise stuck in his head that at the end of the episode he admitted that he turned into a “goblin.”

Second, as for the Kindness part, if not for Mashiro not observing Niizuma, the talk about popularity will not be brought up which ended up with a pseudo meeting between Mashiro, Niizuma and Fukuda just to help their Niizuma fix his problem in making CROW interesting.

As for the new characters, Nakai is one of those pro-assistants who still want to become a full-fledged manga-ka and as seen in this episode, he is envious with the youth around him, makes me pity the guy. As for Fukuda, he is cocky and somewhat a good mix between Niizuma, and that guy who likes to draw moe in some episode that I forgot. Even though he is a jerk that deserves to be punched, deep inside he is good guy who works as an assistant and as a convenience store clerk at morning.

Asides from the new characters, this is one episode in which we saw Niizuma having the needed character development. I mean, for the past few weeks, he is acting weird, doing poses (in this episode, he did Kamen Rider 1’s pose that caused me to fanwank a bit and mutter his henshin phrase, Rider… Henshin), and leave his manuscripts lying on the floor. It was fun when it lasted but what’s next? Thank God, the writers heard my wish!

Overall, it is one worthy episode to be watched. Asides that we saw Niizuma finally having the needed character growth, we met Ashirogi Muto’s possible rivals in the form of the kind-hearted Nakai and the jerk Fukuda. Finally this show is getting much more interesting due to the change of pace with our characters! Now, when we will see episodes that involve Takagi’s own personal growth?

Bakuman 11 – Christmas, Valentine’s and NEXT

This episode focuses on three things, our leads finishing for NEXT, their high school entrance exams and their relationship between their girls. Here’s a quick recap on the episode.

Eiji Nizuma is finishing his manga debut for NEXT and it goes for our duo in which Saiko has decided in using his old art style for the story they will submit for NEXT, namely, Money and Intelligence.

To those who don’t know the plot, it is about using infrared things in selling thoughts to people. Kinda whacked, well, the plot itself is crazy. But hey, they only need 20% of the readers for it to be considered a hit which they thought it is easy at first… until they learned that there are at least 21 titles in NEXT.

Next we have Kaya and Shujin date for Christmas, then they group took their entrance exams for North High in which they passed and it is Valentine’s Day in which the two received chocolate coming from their girlfriends.

At the end of the episode, they learned that their one shot is now part of NEXT.

To sum this episode, this is basically all known anime love story specials rolled into one episode with NEXT as the main course. Based on this episode, it seems that they have covered at least 2-5 chapters of the manga seeing how fast the episode ran.

One thing that I noticed in this episode is that Kaya is getting more screen time compared to Miho but hey, considering that she is now tagging along with our duo, it is obvious that she will have more screen time!

Overall, this is one good episode, though not as good as the previous episodes but this episode adds more to the slice of life concept that this show has. This episode shows more layers on Shujin in terms of his relationship with Kaya as they dated in the Christmas episode. As for Saiko, well, he is still the same Saiko that we saw at the episode when they were doing for their Tezuka Award. As for Kaya, I am slowly getting used to her appearance in the series.

Bakuman 11 – Christmas, Valentine’s and NEXT

This episode focuses on three things, our leads finishing for NEXT, their high school entrance exams and their relationship between their girls. Here’s a quick recap on the episode.

Eiji Nizuma is finishing his manga debut for NEXT and it goes for our duo in which Saiko has decided in using his old art style for the story they will submit for NEXT, namely, Money and Intelligence.

To those who don’t know the plot, it is about using infrared things in selling thoughts to people. Kinda whacked, well, the plot itself is crazy. But hey, they only need 20% of the readers for it to be considered a hit which they thought it is easy at first… until they learned that there are at least 21 titles in NEXT.

Next we have Kaya and Shujin date for Christmas, then they group took their entrance exams for North High in which they passed and it is Valentine’s Day in which the two received chocolate coming from their girlfriends.

At the end of the episode, they learned that their one shot is now part of NEXT.

To sum this episode, this is basically all known anime love story specials rolled into one episode with NEXT as the main course. Based on this episode, it seems that they have covered at least 2-5 chapters of the manga seeing how fast the episode ran.

One thing that I noticed in this episode is that Kaya is getting more screen time compared to Miho but hey, considering that she is now tagging along with our duo, it is obvious that she will have more screen time!

Overall, this is one good episode, though not as good as the previous episodes but this episode adds more to the slice of life concept that this show has. This episode shows more layers on Shujin in terms of his relationship with Kaya as they dated in the Christmas episode. As for Saiko, well, he is still the same Saiko that we saw at the episode when they were doing for their Tezuka Award. As for Kaya, I am slowly getting used to her appearance in the series.

Bakuman Second Season Announced!

My prediction is correct.

On the upcoming 2nd/3rd issue of Weekly Shonen Jump, announces that the second season of the anime, Bakuman is on the works! To those who don't know, Bakuman is about two boys wanting to become a manga artist.

This new season will premiere on Fall 2011. Currently, the first season has just finished airing its 11th episode and it is planned that the first season will run for 25 episodes.

Source: MyAnimeList, 2channel via ANN

Considering that the source material is about 100+ chapters and as of now, they only covered 15+ chapters (which I will talk about in my review of ep 11), having a second season is likely to happen.

Bakuman Second Season Announced!

My prediction is correct.

On the upcoming 2nd/3rd issue of Weekly Shonen Jump, announces that the second season of the anime, Bakuman is on the works! To those who don't know, Bakuman is about two boys wanting to become a manga artist.

This new season will premiere on Fall 2011. Currently, the first season has just finished airing its 11th episode and it is planned that the first season will run for 25 episodes.

Source: MyAnimeList, 2channel via ANN

Considering that the source material is about 100+ chapters and as of now, they only covered 15+ chapters (which I will talk about in my review of ep 11), having a second season is likely to happen.

HYDE Guest Stars on Bakuman

Showtaro Morikubo on the left with the standee of his character, KOOGY with HYDE on the right with his standee of his Bakuman counterpart.

HYDE of the popular JRock group, VAMPS plays himself in the anime, Bakuman which is about two boys who dreams to become a manga artist. Apparently, this is HYDE's first time to do voice acting.

In this anime, he will play as the producer for KOOGY (played by Showtaro Morikubo), a musician and at the same time, a manga-ka.

One of VAMP's song, Get Up, which is in English was translated in Japanese by HYDE himself and it was used from episode 5 onwards.

The episode of HYDE's appearance will be announced in the January 17th Edition of Weekly Shonen Jump.

Source: natalie via tokyohive, Oricon via ANN

HYDE Guest Stars on Bakuman

Showtaro Morikubo on the left with the standee of his character, KOOGY with HYDE on the right with his standee of his Bakuman counterpart.

HYDE of the popular JRock group, VAMPS plays himself in the anime, Bakuman which is about two boys who dreams to become a manga artist. Apparently, this is HYDE's first time to do voice acting.

In this anime, he will play as the producer for KOOGY (played by Showtaro Morikubo), a musician and at the same time, a manga-ka.

One of VAMP's song, Get Up, which is in English was translated in Japanese by HYDE himself and it was used from episode 5 onwards.

The episode of HYDE's appearance will be announced in the January 17th Edition of Weekly Shonen Jump.

Source: natalie via tokyohive, Oricon via ANN