Bakuman 5 – Our Manga Is Going to Be Totally Awesome

Haha, should have known we wouldn’t any real creative clashes yet. Mashiro and Takagi are still feeling out their individual talents, so they don’t have quite enough confidence in themselves to clash with each other yet. It’s more like a dual circle jerk at this point: “Oh man, you’re so awesome!” “No way, man — you’re awesome!” Which I guess makes sense. We’re all our own worst critics, and many are slow to criticize others because of wussiness. But they’re also excited about starting on a new venture, so whatever. Not like I could have written anything better at Takagi’s age, anyway.

(Although admittedly I did enjoy the blind pitcher concept because it seems like the kind of silly, unrealistic idea that could nonetheless be fun.)

Lots and lots of manga grinding later — along with some teeth gnashing at their rival — and Mashiro and Takagi are finished with their first manga to be pitched. I kind of enjoy how all their bluster disappears before they have to take the next step into doing something; takes a bit of guts for a couple of young’uns to call up a place they idolize so that they can become like their heroes. Bust down that door and shove your manga in their faces, dudes.

Not really huge on the romantic element right now, although it does provide several amusing moments with he-who-knows-all-about-girls, Takagi. That is, until he accidentally gets involved with one himself. This is where Mashiro being an unbashed romantic is a big help, since he can translate for poor, confused Takagi.

“Wait, I just told her I wanted to see her! That doesn’t mean anything, right?”

“Dude, she has a crush on you; you basically just told her you want to marry her and make loads of babies.”

“FFFFFFFFFFFFFF”

And then suddenly they’re catching each others eyes in the hallway and blushing furiously when they catch each other looking. That is basically second base for anime, isn’t it? Here’s my outline:

1st base: Meeting for the first time.

2nd base: Lots of blushing and sneaking peeks at the other person.

3rd base: OMG WE’RE TALKING TO EACH OTHER

Home run: Confession!

And then maybe some hand holding if they’re lucky . . . or some kissing if they’re feeling naughty. Just be sure to wear protection!

Couple of other things since there wasn’t that much to this episode, even though I enjoyed it:

— Takagi hopping around in his sleeping bag got a big laugh out of me for some reason. Laziness = humor.

— Mama Mashiro is depicted in a slightly better light in this episode, haha. Being a “Fine, I don’t care what you do so long as you don’t fuck up your schooling” kind of parent is a step up, at least. :p

— Now that Scamp referred to Miyoshi’s hairdo as “a parasite, I can’t get that image out of my head. Thanks.

— I’m kind of eager to see what will happen when Mashiro and Takagi actually meet Eiji Nizuma. I have a feeling their reaction to him is going to be fantastic.