Bakuman

[kewl0210]

Remember guys, there are VERY few series that have more than 30 volumes.
Here's a list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_manga_series_by_volume_count

In the whole history of manga, there are only 127 (The list isn't complete, I could think of one or two missing off the top of my head, but it lists the majority). Most manga end before the 15 volume mark. And that's not because they weren't good, it's usually because that's where the author felt the series was meant to end. Series like One Piece, Bleach, Naruto, Dragonball and Reborn are oddities in the industry for going for so long.
A lot of authors write several long-running series, too. Rather than one for their whole career. Even ones with animes and such.

[Robby]

@THE:

For a manga about a practical career, those romantic ideas are just out of place.

@kewl0210:

Remember guys, there are VERY few series that have more than 30 volumes.
Here's a list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_manga_series_by_volume_count

Exactly. That's why its so WEIRD that Bakuman is taking this approach to it. Yes, its over the top and extra dramatic and for the sake of story, but its exaggerated to the point it doesn't make sense in a story that's otherwise as grounded as Bakuman is. This level of idealism and romance and shooting for your dreams is fine in a series about being the best ninja in the world or whatnot, and its fine in Bakuman up to a point… but somewhere there's a crossed line and its out of place.

Obviously now that the gauntlet has been thrown our heroes are going to break Eiji's streak and he'll continue his series, but does that mean he's now going to be in a perpetual streak of randomly trying to make his series great for 10 weeks in a row and then ending it, only to be bumped off by a random new series getting a special one shot or color pages or something? Obviously, now that the gauntlet has been thrown, our heroes will manage to interrupt Eiji's streak this time. So Crow is going to be perpetually circling the drain on its last legs? When there's no legit real world reason for it?

Wanting to end it on a whim just because its cool and not because its at its natural end point are just such... horribly contradictory things and it bugs the hell out of me, especially given that I've worked on long running series with a planned ending and series that had no real ending that ended abruptly.

Its just so bizarre because that's actually the OPPOSITE of wanting to end on a high note and at the best quality possible when you have that kind of concession in there. I guess its just extra offputting because, they were all trying to beat Crow and be number 1 ANYWAY, and have been for years. This new development doesn't change anything.

[Maron]

@RobbyBevard:

Especially when Eiji's mindset in this particular case is wanting to end it for the wrong reasons. He wants to end it suddenly because that would be cool and before anyone else could have a chance to match him, not because of any actual creative need or desire for it to be better, or even because he actually feels the story its at its legitimate ending point, since he's so willing and compromising to the point he says he'll do it for forever if he can't end it right now. There's no overwhelming creative or artistic merit or vision to it if he's THAT willing to waffle on it.

That's one thing about this chapter that confused me a bit that I wanted to address. Eiji always said he was going to use the right to end a manga he hates, but there has been absolutely no point where he has shown any hatred or boredom of Crow whatsoever. All of a sudden he says he hates it in this chapter, then goes on to say he really just wants to end it before it gets too dull?

[Robby]

@Maron:

Eiji always said he was going to use the right to end a manga he hates, but there has been absolutely no point where he has shown any hatred or boredom of Crow whatsoever. All of a sudden he says he hates it in this chapter, then goes on to say he really just wants to end it before it gets too dull?

Its extra odd because he in fact DID say he's really bored with Natural and not happy with it, while Crow he's trying harder than ever on.

Its also jarring because just last chapter he was told "Hey, Ashirogi is doing great because you inspired them!" and he didn't seem to care at all. And now the exact same thing is getting him all fired up? It's weird.

I think its the writers just trying to reconcile something Eiji said early on that left a big impression and was kind of dark… with the wackier nice guy character he has become.

[Hiroy]

…

...

Well, can't say I feel the same as you guys but anyway. For some reason I don't really think any of the authors would beat Crow and that's because of its popularity and Eiji's ongoing reputation to create something good. I could be wrong, but I'm going with this feeling. There are a few times in where the others authors would look at Crow and say "this is great" because it "must be great" due to how well received it is. I'll admit, I don't really think Eiji himself feels this way about his own series as he does not talk much about it. Now we have him here wanting to end his own series. Big deal. We haven't seen much of Crow and what devices it uses in terms of continuity, but there are ongoing series that can just about end at anytime over the span of 5-10 or even 20 chapters. That's usually the deal for series that are up for cancellation, but Eiji's case is different. It can't be canceled since it maintains high rankings, and would probally keep maintianing high ranking even if he tried to make it suck(which he's too prideful to do anyway).

But yeah, that's my view. Even if Crow does end, I don't think these authors would lose their chance to compete Eiji(especially our main characters). If they do beat Crow, then heck.

[Robby]

@Hiroy:

Well, can't say I feel the same as you guys but anyway. For some reason I don't really think any of the authors would beat Crow and that's because of its popularity and Eiji's ongoing reputation to create something good. I could be wrong, but I'm going with this feeling.

Our leads have gotten 1rst place once and beaten Eiji before… and Eiji himself was number 2 to someone else (presumably One Piece) for 7 years until 5 weeks ago. Doesn't matter how good it is, its still beatable, even if by only a single vote.

[Hiroy]

True. I didn't really say that he was undefeated though. He's working a ton times harder to keep a rank 1 for a consecutive amount of weeks and this is a different battle field for the authors that all challenged him. I mean, they have never defeated Crow once before even if they tried. I don't really see how they can beat him when he's working his hardest, especially since he have kept his lead without this more aggressive work ethnic to begin with. Still, I could be wrong. This mentality to create something large and grand out of the blue could be the downfall of Crow for all I know.

[superquotpetquotrobot]

I KNEW IT!!! I KNEW IT!!! I KNEW IT!!! I knew it was Crow!!! I got the third volume of Bakuman in April, and I came up with that deduction months before this was inked. But I guess it was so easy to figure out.

[cubo]

@RobbyBevard:

Our leads have gotten 1rst place once and beaten Eiji before… and Eiji himself was number 2 to someone else (presumably One Piece) for 7 years until 5 weeks ago. Doesn't matter how good it is, its still beatable, even if by only a single vote.

Robby, I kindly disagree with you.
We already saw Ashirogi and others (except for Eiji) failing a few times, even when they tried their best.
And I don't find a real point for Bakuman's authors to mount up all this fuss to eventually get Eiji going on a few more dozens of weeks.
I also believe he will come out undefeated, finally bringing Crow to an end.

[Refii]

I agree with cubo, I think Crow will end, leading to PCP ending as well, thus they can start new series at the same time, the final series where Ashirgoi gets an anime.

It's unrealistic for a manga as popular as Crow to lose first place in an arc where its respective "Whitebeard against the Marines" is taking place (They mentioned all the characters showed up again).
I don't want to see Eiji being one of those characters that hates working on his comic, because he wanted to end it, but couldn't like Hiramaru.

[Robby]

@Refii:

I
It's unrealistic for a manga as popular as Crow to lose first place in an arc where its respective "Whitebeard against the Marines" is taking place (They mentioned all the characters showed up again).

It's also unrealistic for the author to not be able to end his series when he wants after 7 years. One way or the other this scenario is messed up.

And even the Whitebeard War had a few REALLY shitty standalone chapters in it that people did NOT like at the time, such as Oars' hat, or Ace's 20 month pregnancy, or Squado stabbing, etc. Just because you have momentum and a plan behind you doesn't mean the pacing will work out to EVERY chapter being uber fantastic.

And he only has to be beaten in one chapter. Other stories can kill a character or have two characters get together romantically at last or destroy their status quo or have color pages and the front cover or have an arc that culminates in a super exciting final chapter (which they've done before to try and strategically boost their ranking) ad do all sorts of crazy mega huge things that get fans going wild. They only have to win for one chapter… by ONE vote. They don't have to hold a streak of 10 chapters like Eiji does.

I don't want to see Eiji being one of those characters that hates working on his comic, because he wanted to end it, but couldn't like Hiramaru.

Eiji threw out the challenge for his peers to beat him. He'd be EXCITED to keep it going if it means someone can pull out a story good enough to top his. He even extended the deadline from his remaining 5 weeks needed to fill the editorial agreement, to the tale end of point of no return. He isn't bored with Crow at all, he just thinks it would be COOL to end it while it's number one, nothing more profound than that. Its uncharacteristically extremely shallow and petty for him, really. He WANTS to be beaten, that'll enthuse him even more to have competition at his level.

[Kareem Said]

@RobbyBevard:

It's also unrealistic for the author to not be able to end his series when he wants after 7 years. One way or the other this scenario is messed up.

And even the Whitebeard War had a few REALLY shitty standalone chapters in it that people did NOT like at the time, such as Oars' hat, or Ace's 20 month pregnancy, or Squado stabbing, etc. Just because you have momentum and a plan behind you doesn't mean the pacing will work out to EVERY chapter being uber fantastic.

And he only has to be beaten in one chapter. Other stories can kill a character or have two characters get together romantically at last or destroy their status quo or have color pages and the front cover or have an arc that culminates in a super exciting final chapter (which they've done before to try and strategically boost their ranking) ad do all sorts of crazy mega huge things that get fans going wild. They only have to win for one chapter… by ONE vote. They don't have to hold a streak of 10 chapters like Eiji does.

Eiji threw out the challenge for his peers to beat him. He'd be EXCITED to keep it going if it means someone can pull out a story good enough to top his. He even extended the deadline from his remaining 5 weeks needed to fill the editorial agreement, to the tale end of point of no return. He isn't bored with Crow at all, he just thinks it would be COOL to end it while it's number one, nothing more profound than that. Its uncharacteristically extremely shallow and petty for him, really. He WANTS to be beaten, that'll enthuse him even more to have competition at his level.

I actually think this kind of makes sense given Eiji's character. He wants more high quality series in Jump and wants a more entertaining competition for him, I'd imagine he's gotten bored with pretty much dominating the other mangaka and wants to have the spirit of challenge again. There are still some problems though. One is that I do think it's immature of Eiji to decide that he just wants to end his series not at the proper time for a conclusion but at the most "reaally kewl" time for the series. And a major part of Eiji's character is that he was growing more mature as the series progressed so to see him make a 15 year old level move like this is disappointing. Also while you made a good case that Eiji could be beaten in ten weeks there's also the chance he'll go on undefeated and then his series will be over. And then he'll have to work on a new series when he's admitted he has no idea what his next series will be. Which is kind of a problem. Either way you slice it Eiji (or rather Ohba's) logic doesn't particularly work out.

I'm still interested in seeing where the series goes but I can't deny that Robby's hitting the nail on the end with all of his logic with what's wrong with Eiji's decision.

[Refii]

As unrealistic as this may be, Eiji as a Shonen character wanted to place a "manly" challenge upon himself and SJ and in terms of 'manga logic' I can understand Eiji's decision (sorta).

Also, I wasn't disagreeing with you Robby, you seem to have taken it a bit personally, I was merely agreeing with cubo's idea based on the plot details we have been presented.

[Silence]

Really quickly: props to TLS, because he did call this when nobody else expected it. Credit where credit is due!

Unfortunately for Bakuman though, Eiji's reasons and the subsequent competition weren't quite as defensible as they sounded in text. At this point, yet another "competition to end all competitions" can only strike me as forced, especially given the (frankly, lame) set up it was given. I would've much preferred this turn of events without the caveats Mashiro and crew added by trying to interrupt the end of Eiji's story out of the same sort of selfishness that apparently motivated Eiji. Like Robby so eloquently put it: if Eiji wanting to end Crow is borne from some desire to maintain a "Haha, I conquered JUMP, now I'm done" winning streak, and not out of the desire to see the story end naturally and properly, then it's pretty stupid and NOT what I'd have expected from Nizuma.

We'll see where it goes, but… from this I can only frown at Eiji's being more immature than I should've expected?

[Robby]

Its also wierd because, our heroes were able to cancel THEIR book, Tanto, when it was popular, the only one they were doing, didn't have anything else planned, and given a year to come up with something new. And then after that they were given another 25 weeks to beat Eiji once with PCP.

Fukuda was able to end his series after a couple of years to move onto the motorcycle series he's doing now. Hirimaru's Otters 11 was popular, had an anime, and he HATED it… but it still kept running... and then was cancelled, despite that popularity. Aoki is on her what, third series?

Its just a really weird contradiction. If the problem is "Well, Crow is more popular than Tanto was, so canceling it is harder" then... isn't it actually counterproductive to strive to make it number one? Made all the stranger by the fact that Eiji is unhappy with Natural, but completely satisfied with Crow and happy to keep it going for years yet.

The obvious example would be if Oda, right now today, declared he was going to end OP in 20 chapters. That WOULDN'T work, because the story is only half done and theres a million hanging plot threads and people would have to talk him out of it. But if Bleach or Naruto declared they were going to end in 20 weeks... well, they could. And probably should, for that matter, they've told their stories, accomplished all the character goals and had big final arcs.

So the question is, which point is Crow at? If Crow is at its natural end... then no one, the other characters or editorial, should have any real problem with it. If Eiji is just playing a game, then its a really immature one. And depending on which of those two things it is... it completely changes the intent of what all the other leads are now attempting.

[Silence]

It's a misfire.

Yeah, Eiji's Crow has always hugged the top of the rankings, but… if making it number one was only a matter of putting in a bit more effort so he could call it quits -- and not out of a natural desire to make the best story it could possibly be, I can only sit back and scratch my head at the Eiji I thought I knew. He's been boredly trudging along all this time? He hates Crow? He's just been dicking around for how long? I understand him not cancelling Natural, because it's not just his work, he's not all that invested in it, and lighting a fire under Iwase after all this time isn't something Eiji seems like he'd be interested in... but the explanation we're given for this turn of events is just full of holes. As a result, there're holes in this "challenge to beat Crow once and for all!"

What is Crow to Eiji, exactly? What is JUMP to Eiji? One wonders, with doubt being cast on the one character who seemed to get it best.

[Robby]

Thats the thing. Eiji ALWAYS seems super enthused to be doing Crow, doing storyboards in 20 minutes with characters that just went WHOOSH in his head, and he can do it in 3 days and always makes a big deal about how much he loves drawing and enjoys what he's doing. And it was effortless for him to rise to the top. He was in the number 2 and 3 spots for years… without really trying apparently! All good things in a superior rival (but would be exceedingly boring to watch in a lead.)

So, 5 weeks ago he decides its time to start doing 2nd and 3rd drafts on his book to make it even better, the best it can be after being frustrated by the number 1 guy for so long (presumably One Piece)... just so he can cancel it? So he WASN'T trying his best all along?

Either he's bored with Crow or he's not, and it's just... confusing that the outcome can go either way with him not caring, apparently. Also frustrating that he isn't throwing this same challenge to the number 2 guy who he only just narrowly passed recently. Its the shonen logic getting in the way of the real world groundedness of it all I guess. Kind of like our lead artist promising to marry a girl he's never been on a date with after working for 10 years to get an anime that may never come.

[Silence]

It's the indifference of it all that gets me, and makes this so hard to understand. That he could be drawing Crow forever or that he could be done tomorrow. Whichever! Like after taking the crown of JUMP, nothing else matters. …But he took it with a manga he hates? What the hell? But if the others keep him doing Crow forever, he doesn't mind? With the declaration of "I won't let you quit?" No objections?

Normally Eiji is the first one to galvanize his rivals to try and best him. But here you definitely don't get the feeling that Team Fukuda interfering was his intention. Is he just that confident that they can't beat him? Or does he not care?

I can't make heads or it, presented as is.

Is it that we put unfair weight on the idea of a story "ending when it should" when for these authors, for whom cancellation is a weekly worry, what's next is a matter larger than life?

[Robby]

Yeah. Could go on about this all day… there's already a few walls of text on the matter. (sorry) It's just so... so... I dunno, plot driven rather than character driven, I guess is the issue I'm having with it, and the ambivilence one way or the other doesn't make any SENSE.

The bank robbery may have bugged the crap out of Thousand Lion, but the character derailment and lack of real world buisness logic and passion, the cornerstones of this series, is driving me nuts.

@Silence:

Is it that we put unfair weight on the idea of a story "ending when it should" when for these authors, for whom cancellation is a weekly worry, what's next is a matter larger than life?

They make a point about how "there's no guarantee Eiji's next thing would be a success", but given that he has, apparently effortlessly, reached the number 2 spot without even trying while running 2 series at once, and had 2 animes, and the entire rest of the cast is on their second or third series, I can't see him NOT being successful with his next story. Might have a couple of one shot misses, but… And if nothing else, he can always do "Crow Returns", other manga franchises have done it. Lupin, Gunsmith Cats, Trigun, etc. And Natural is even part of the same universe, so he could obviously do another story in that world, even if it isn't Crow centric.

Hell, even Toriyama was once famous for Dr. Slump, it was number 1, and then went on to create Dragonball. (with a lot of little one shots inbetween.)

[TLC]

@RobbyBevard:

Yeah. Could go on about this all day… there's already a few walls of text on the matter. (sorry) It's just so... so... I dunno, plot driven rather than character driven, I guess is the issue I'm having with it, and the ambivilence one way or the other doesn't make any SENSE.

The bank robbery may have bugged the crap out of Thousand Lion, but the character derailment and lack of real world buisness logic and passion, the cornerstones of this series, is driving me nuts.

Hey, don't get me wrong. I'm happy I'm right but I wasn't expecting this. I figured Eiji meant his own series was his fun little joke or wacky pointless insurance when his series was ready to finish anyway not something this serious (and contradictory).

[Robby]

I think it wouldn't be so bad if his condition was simply "once I've been number 1 for 10 weeks, I can end my series whenever I want." as opposed to "once I've been number 1 for 10 weeks, I'm going to end my series immediately."

[Hiroy]

A failsafe plan? Doesn't sound like Eiji at all.

[TLC]

Sounds far more reasonable than him killing his own competition which he relishes. But really the bets are off on what he will or won't do as of last chapter.

[Robby]

If this all turns out to be a "LOL, I was messing with you guys to make you do better, I just didn't tell anyone the truth about it and so caused a lot of needless worrying" scheme, the way dog boy ended up going…

[Hiroy]

This is so unfair. It really is.

[TLC]

"haha, got you going guys!!!…guys?"

Eiji gets his ass kicked

[Kareem Said]

@RobbyBevard:

character derailment

Yeah that's what gets me the most is that Ohba is screwing around with Eiji's character and that pisses me off because he was my personal favorite even more than Hiramaru (who is very awesome). Now admittedly there are much worse examples of derailment that I could name but still I'm annoyed that Eiji is acting in a way that goes against much of his previous characterization.

[Gizmo]

I don't think this is out of Eiji's character. Eiji always viewed the world from the "cool shonen" angle. Wanting to leave when he's at the top seems like something he'd decide.

From what I got from the chapter, the whole "10 weeks" thing seems more like what Eiji and the editor in chief agreed upon to be at the peak of it's popularity. I view the agreement as something Eiji is placing upon himself so that he can leave without the editors trying to persuade him otherwise.

As for ending at it's natural conclusion: since we don't know Crow's story we can't really decide when that is. And that's the thing from all of them is that they just seem to be worried about making a story an arc by arc basis instead of having an overarching story, which makes sense given a manga series could die out early on. Plus Eiji is a genius and could probably come up with new plot lines within the story and still make it good.

Edit: And about the challenge thing and Eiji getting excited for it. He wants a challenge. Simple as that. It's like how Goku is looking for a worthy opponent near the end of Dragonball. Since Eiji wants to win when he's at the peak of popularity, having worthy competitors just makes the victory all the sweeter. Plus, it's cliche shonen stuff etc.

The only bad part is the lack of motivation for why Eiji decided to do this now instead of say 5 years ago or a year ago or 5 years from now. I guess he must be bored with his story but he also is OCD about having that perfect shonen ending when he's at the peak of popularity thing which is why he has that agreement?

[Refii]

Eiji has the Chapelle syndrome, nothing unrealistic about wanting to go out on top.

[herr_sebbe]

@ultimateclima:

The only bad part is the lack of motivation for why Eiji decided to do this now instead of say 5 years ago or a year ago or 5 years from now. I guess he must be bored with his story but he also is OCD about having that perfect shonen ending when he's at the peak of popularity thing which is why he has that agreement?

Because it takes time to build up enough setting to go from good to great. Depending on what kind of series it is, the readers need a certain amount of time to get to grow fond of the characters, learn the world mythology etc. before you can just up the stakes. Eiji probably decided the series had finally hit the point where everything was laid out and ready.

In doing so, he would've also reached a milestone. Having written stories myself for 13 years, I can give you my word of experience that reaching a milestone, while something to strive for, is also a danger to your interest. When you finally reach a goal you've set up for yourself, suddenly you'll find your next goal being too far into the future or non-existent. From there, it's an inner battle of determination whether you'll be able to continue or not and pushing yourself against your will might end up having you hate your own work.

From the same source of experience, I did not find Shujin's struggle unrealistic either. Writing isn't just something you sit down and do whenever you feel like it. You need to be in the right state of mind or whatever you write is at risk of being stale. School work used to be a recurring "bank robber" for me before I graduated.

I won't generalize and say this is how all authors work, because I very much doubt that. However, this is how I function, and since I'm a real human, why wouldn't Shujin's and Eiji's dilemmas be realistic?

[GoldenOrbs]

@herr_sebbe:

I won't generalize and say this is how all authors work, because I very much doubt that. However, this is how I function, and since I'm a True Human, why wouldn't Shujin's and Eiji's dilemmas be true?

Fixed it. snicker

[Sniper King]

@GoldenOrbs:

Fixed it. snicker

snicker snicker

[Refii]

This was only funny because you're both Deadpool.

[Robby]

Spoilers are out for the next chapter (but why not the actual chapter yet?) Looks like it'll actually be talking about exactly what we're talking about, so that soothes me over somewhat.

[Urouge]

I thought the last chapter that has had discussion going on for a while now was pretty good. I like the way Eiji decided to go with it, personally. I also like how everyone else drew motivation from the idea. We knew someone would have to overtake him at some point, but it's boring unless there's an element of drama involved with it as well.

As for the question on whether it's fair that Eiji had to make this deal in order to end his manga, I don't really think that's the point. I have a feeling that they would have let him end his manga regardless of all this, though they probably would have tried to talk him out of it first (which is how it went anyway). The whole deal was just flare that Eiji added on his own to make things more interesting for him.

[Sniper King]

@RobbyBevard:

Spoilers are out for the next chapter (but why not the actual chapter yet?) Looks like it'll actually be talking about exactly what we're talking about, so that soothes me over somewhat.

I always thought that the chapters came out on Friday…o.O

[Robby]

@Sniper:

I always thought that the chapters came out on Friday…o.O

They do, but OP, Naruto, Bleach etc. managed to get theirs out by early Wednesday morning, so…

[Urouge]

That's Mangastream, though. Red Hawk gets their first scan (Beelzebub) out late Wednesday night and Bakuman is significantly more work to translate and typeset.

[Robby]

Yeah, but it was said a couple weeks ago that they'd start getting their raw sooner?

Maybe coming out on Friday IS sooner and I've already been spoiled an it used to come out Sunday/Monday.

[Urouge]

That's what allowed them to start releasing Beelz on Wednesday night instead of Friday. I'm sure Bakuman wasn't coming out on Friday back then.

[the_bump]

Latest chapter

http://manga.redhawkscans.com/?manga=Bakuman&chapter=Chapter+136&page=1#page=1

! Yoshida is the boss

[RPGJay]

Wow this was a good chapter.

I love hearing exactly how each series tries to improve their overall quality.

[Crossword]

Everyone going over how to improve their stories, and being given visual aids at that, was a great touch. Really nice, since as of late the series has kind of adopted a ''tell don't show'' policy regarding that kind of stuff in contrast to the very beginning of the story.

Howeeeverr… All of this ''he has to continue!'' talk and justifications they're throwing out are really, really starting to rub me the wrong way, since in my experience, having an artist or author, or whomever continue on with the same story past the point where it was going to end almost always results in an inferior product. It's sugarcoated in-story, and Eiji himself approves, but it strikes me as desperation.

I makes me think that in ten years when One Piece, JUMP's biggest seller, finally gets around to wrapping up, guys are going to be throwing themselves off of the Shueisha building's roof.

[Benjaman]

Great chapter! I love that they are already talking about their new series. And even tho i like the strategies of every mangaka, i really want a proper ending for Crow :P. Eiji you must win!

[Sonic Youth]

Funny chapter.

Why does the guy with the racer-manga think he can win?

[RPGJay]

@Sonic:

Funny chapter.

Why does the guy with the racer-manga think he can win?

Because he's Fukuda.

[maxterdexter]

Yoshida is THE BOSS!!!

Kind of dissapointed that nor Aoki nor the goddamn homewrecker are taking part of this.

Hiramaru writting his switch off
Mophair writting the climax case of Phoenix Wrigth
Fukuda's Changes seem bland in comparation, Things that you won't apretiate if you aren't a kid or a fan
The Duo's new character seems cool, but from an outsider's perspective is kind of bland

Cool development. Still waiting for Eiji to give a valid reason to end Crow.

[Robby]

@maxterdexter:

Yoshida is THE BOSS!!!

Kind of dissapointed that nor Aoki nor the goddamn homewrecker are taking part of this.

She seemed pretty upset by the proceedings. just cause she wasn't shown here…

It'd be funny if she ups the ante on her story and Natural takes first place and Eiji ends up beating himself.

[D-kun]

I still have my grudges on the setting but I like how it plays out with the characters interacting, their reactions, like Yoshida's evil plans, Hiramaru's Kazu-tan (what an idiot hahahaha that was really great), the new character for PCP and the other author's ideas.
Ah, I very liked the colored page.

[RPGJay]

@RobbyBevard:

She seemed pretty upset by the proceedings. just cause she wasn't shown here…

It'd be funny if she ups the ante on her story and Natural takes first place and Eiji ends up beating himself.

While I would say that I want team Ashirogi to win, I kind of want this to happen. It would give Iwase much needed character development.

Still I'd rather see Crow end.