(L) Bakuman

[Sol Falling]

If Nakai actually ends up winning Aoki over romantically, though, I'm gonna facepalm.

[Darklord_bg]

Originally Posted by Sol Falling

If Nakai actually ends up winning Aoki over romantically, though, I'm gonna facepalm.

Yeah, he is way too good for her!

[NoOneKnowS]

Originally Posted by Sol Falling

If Nakai actually ends up winning Aoki over romantically, though, I'm gonna facepalm.

Please don't let this happen.

/but gut feeling says nah! there's only one romance plot in here and it's between then masahiro and that other girl I can't remember since she shows up rarely.

[kayote]

whoa! what a chapter. i can't belive that she wanted Masahiro to see her naked. though that "lol" thing was getting annoying now that i am more aware of it. i think they might actully meet up now. and not just be on the phone. i can see him running to her house and knocking on her door. that would be a big leap for there relationship but, it might be what is needed. the romance side is starting to blossom now that they got serealised. first with Nakia and now with Masahiro.

i liked the assistent's personality. he may have pre-juged the others but, still it was nice to see that he has dreams as well.

[Sun Shine]

Its about time there was some serious developments on the romance side. Now they are getting serialized what more is there for them to suceed at apart from getting an anime? Looks like Trap is going to drop down the rankings but I reckon Hattori is going to giving them help and advice on the side, he seems to be slightly concerned about the guy whos overseeing their work at the moment.

[jzmagic]

Originally Posted by kayote

whoa! what a chapter. i can't belive that she wanted Masahiro to see her naked. though that "lol" thing was getting annoying now that i am more aware of it. i think they might actully meet up now. and not just be on the phone. i can see him running to her house and knocking on her door. that would be a big leap for there relationship but, it might be what is needed. the romance side is starting to blossom now that they got serealised. first with Nakia and now with Masahiro.

i liked the assistent's personality. he may have pre-juged the others but, still it was nice to see that he has dreams as well.

I have a feeling it's going to be something along the lines of he goes to the bedroom window of Azuki's house and yells to not give up, and she ends up stronger while both continue to try to keep their promise of not seeing each other until they succeed.

[Kafriel]

I think that TRAP will fall if they change it too much, but on the other hand 3rd place is bad for two guys who are aiming to be #1...gotta wait for that "editor's change of heart" thingy.
About the relationship, why would someone be ok with their girlfriend doing an ecchi photo shoot after seeing her naked? I'd be more angry because of it instead...and I guess LOL is the command that ends an e-mail in Bakuman.

he goes to the bedroom window of Azuki's house and yells to not give up

or sends her a rickroll

[Irenicus]

I'm not sure if I find the contrast between Azuki's deep despair, her desire for help, and her LOL e-mails to be the height of artistic catharsis, paradox, and abjection, or if I just find it really annoying.

lol.

[Sol Falling]

Heheh, the contrast is quite effective in this instance, isn't it? Now I'm pretty sure Miho does it ('lol'ing) on purpose, but as for why I've still got no idea.

Seriously, though: 'I want you to see me naked, lol' versus her tearstained face was pretty amazing. Miho's great; she's like the single spark of emotional complexity in the midst of all the shonen-ish 'gotta make the best manga'.

Well, here's the question then: why won't Miho pick up? Actually, it really seems like the fact that she can't allow herself to pick up is part of her anguish, and the fact that she's sticking to 'lol' filled emails suggests that she wants to keep projecting a certain image (Mashiro's attempts to get closer to her now are intruding on that). However, is that really wrong? Even if it causes her this much sadness? I have no idea how all this is going to be concluded.

On an unrelated note: who's Miura again?

[Cinocard]

why won't Miho pick up?

Because she's ashamed, and she's scared? At least that's how I see it.

[Darklord_bg]

Originally Posted by Sol Falling

On an unrelated note: who's Miura again?

He's their new editor.

That was a great emotional chapter. Have you guys noticed that this manga has been getting a lot more exciting lately? Once they got all the exposition information about manga-writing in the first chapters (which was still interesting, but in a different way) they are now focusing on the actual plot of the story. The last few chapters have all been very exciting.

It was really heartbreaking to see Miho break down and cry like that, though now that Mashiro know that something's wrong, I'm pretty sure he'll run to her place and figure this thing out. I'm pretty sure he'll be able to cheer her up and encourage her to continue to pursue her original dream without doing the photo book. The whole "seeing me naked" thing was kind of weird indeed.

[SageGaiGar]

I'm guessing that the LOL is the roughly the equiv of what our emote might be. So it's more nervous 'laughter' than typical. Kind of hard to translate?

[Xacual]

I thought someone earlier in the thread said it was basically getting translated as the "lol"

[LeaD36]

Originally Posted by Irenicus

I'm not sure if I find the contrast between Azuki's deep despair, her desire for help, and her LOL e-mails to be the height of artistic catharsis, paradox, and abjection, or if I just find it really annoying.

LOL.

if you want to make it decent, atleast match the quote with your embedded joke, i changed it for you

[Sol Falling]

Originally Posted by SageGaiGar

I'm guessing that the LOL is the roughly the equiv of what our emote might be. So it's more nervous 'laughter' than typical. Kind of hard to translate?

Nah, I'm pretty sure it's the equivalent of 'w' (Japanese 'lol'), which translates perfectly. The thing about it being nervous laughter doesn't really work 'cause she does it in all her emails, even normal everyday ones (and not just to Mashiro either).

Originally Posted by Cinocard

Because she's ashamed, and she's scared? At least that's how I see it.

Ashamed and scared of talking to Mashiro? I dunno. One thing to note is that she already did talk to Mashiro once. What's the difference now? Well, it's true the general emotional circumstances are very different, but the conclusion to their previous call ('let's not talk on the phone too much') I think also plays into it (I mean, the reasoning behind that, not the casual agreement).


With regards to the 'I want you to see me naked, lol', I gotta admit I am a pervert, 'cause frankly I didn't find it weird so much as really appealing. Not so much the 'naked girl, ooh!' thing, whose pervert factor would be rather juvenile, but the idea of graceful, innocent, text-messaging only Miho offering it up willingly. I suppose this makes Mashiro a better person than me because we both picked up on Miho's abandonment and vulnerability but in his case it got him concerned for her. Still though, that just made Miho's crying face hit me all that much harder, which I think was what really made this chapter pretty awesome.

[kayote]

^^i do agree that her crying face was very dramatic as all of the past chapters have led up to this point.

all of them are still kids and are still developing emotionally. the impact of that is they still don't really know how to handle all of these situtations. Perticurly in Miho's case it was her that kept it going. Mashiro's resolution was not absolute all the time. she put him back on the path. so for her this must be espically hard as before she was moving away and getting sucess, however now it's Mashiro who has made the biggest leap as well as the fact that her manager(or whoever that guy was) dose't even think she is good enough.

at the age they all are now all of that put together puts a lot of strain emotionally and Miho not being able to talk about it to the one she wants to talk about it with adds a lot more feelings that can't be solved.

[cry]

i hope she'll open herself to mashiro...

[ZODDGUTS]

Originally Posted by Irenicus

I'm not sure if I find the contrast between Azuki's deep despair, her desire for help, and her LOL e-mails to be the height of artistic catharsis, paradox, and abjection, or if I just find it really annoying.

lol.

I find the whole relationship/romance part of the manga to be the worst part. I rather want the manga to concentrate on the manga-ka characters since most of them are pretty interesting, Azuki on the other hand is a rather bland character plus the whole relationship between Azuki and Mashiro seems so fake and childish.

[Darklord_bg]

Damn, the latest chapter was amazing...I thought that it would be all about Miho coming out of her slump, but the later half introduced a whole new aspect to the story. I love how this manga manages to resolve one issue only to introduce a new problem and keep us waiting until the next chapter.

Miho was really annoying me in the beginning with not wanting to pick up the phone - she almost caused Trap to get canceled - given the events in the 2nd part of the chapter, I wouldn't be surprised if that were the outcome if Mashiro screwed up the manuscript. It's good that the level-headed Takagi snapped her out of her indecision and caused her to call Mashiro. At the same time, though, it was pretty nice to see Mashiro getting so worried about her and to see how deep inside his heart, he puts her in 1st place, before even his dream. Being honest about the photo book was also a big plus for him in my book.

Anyway, I'm glad the whole situation got resolved and things got back on track. The second part of the story introduced a whole new obstacle - the chance of being canceled. This is where the difference between the dreamers and realists comes to show. The new editor is clearly a small fry who is just satisfied with the bare minimum. It was really nice seeing Hattori being surprised about the 9th place. IT shows that he really knows Mashiro and Takagi well and knows they wouldn't be satisfied with just that. The dorky assistant and Mashiro clearly agree with Hattori, since they are big dreamers and aim high, while Takagi and the new editor are more realistic. In order to survive in this business though, you have to always push the envelope and stay on top - just being content with the minimum doesn't cut it. I'm glad Takagi decided to change at the end.

On a different note, congratulations to Fukuda and Nakai for getting serialized. Things are really going to get crazy now with all of them being rivals. I bet at least one of them will get canceled before chapter 3. My bet is on Kyoshi Knight - it seems just like the standard run-of-the-mill shounen.

[kayote]

^^^Bleach is standard "run-of-the-mill" Shounan and it's still going strong.

the chapter was very good. again where other mangas may have tried to make more of the situtation Bakuman resisted that urge and kept going. it was nice to see the reaction of all when they got serialized as well. Nakai was like a little girl. fell sorry for Eiji in that he has to get new assistents and it must be good as well cause all his assistants keep getting serialized.

can't wait to see them all battle it out in the coming chapters.