Because of Mashiro’s all nighter practicing manga, he keeps falling asleep during a test.

After school he and Takagi visit the studio together where Mashiro gives a little lesson on drawing manga and the wide range of pens that can be used. Mashiro’s already made many drawings and to Takagi they’re amazing, but apparently they’re just not manga quality.

Then Mashiro explains more about the manuscript making process. Start with a rough sketch based on the name, then add in characters and backgrounds in pen and then use a screen tone to paint in the black areas. To make manga when you’re not a genius, you need three things, pride, effort and luck. So they start each putting their own efforts in, Mashiro by drawing more and Takagi by reading all the manga that’s in the studio. Because of all nighters again both Mashiro and Takagi are struggling to stay awake in class.

They go to pick up a few things at a store and notice the winner of the Tezuka award is none other than Niizuma Eiji, fifteen years old. But Takagi has confidence they’ll beat him.

Next day at school they walk past a class and sees a guy showing off his manga, he is Ishizawa, but his talents are only drawing faces facing one direction as pointed out by Kaya Miyoshi, Azuki’s best friend.

Thinking hard about future careers, Mashiro decides to go to a poor high school because he wants as much time drawing manga. Even if that means going to a separate school to Azuki, he’ll still do it, he believes in her. Takagi then decides to go to the same school as well as it’ll be easier with the two in the same school.

After hearing that Eiji probably already has an editor because he won that award, Takagi becomes more determined and wants to finish something over the summer break and submit it to an editor. This gets Mashiro fired up as well and he agrees.

On their way back they see Azuki, her mum and sister coming the other way down a street. Takagi encourages Mashiro to ask for Azuki’s email but he’s too shy and says he wants to pretend he hasn’t noticed them. Though that’s not really possible and Azuki notices them but hides behind her mum. Even still, they walk past and pretend not to know each other. But neither of them could resist a glance at each other as they walk pass.

We end with a short scene of Niizuma as he draws his manga.

Some more character names added to the fray then. Ishizama, who probably won’t get much screen time seeing as he’s just a show off who can’t actually draw manga properly and is decades away from professional manga if he ever draws any, as Kaya Miyoshi kindly pointed out for us. This is her second appearance which should mean we’ll be seeing more of her next episode, if not very soon, I mean she’s in the opening sequence for one thing. And then there’s Eiji Niizuma who’s mentioned in name and a short scene at the end, which should mean he’ll appear more, otherwise there wouldn’t be much point in having him at the end.

Speaking of Kaya, I was expecting her hair to be red, and it’s far from red on the anime, wonder what’s with that? Or am I forgetting something… that might be it… Either way, I remember Kaya’s hair being orange/red at one point definitely. And speaking of Niizuma, I get why Mashiro would be pissed off at him, guess that’s what geniuses tend to do. Them and their raw talent… But, I have to say, he at least put a lot of effort into it. Especially at an age where games and slacking off is all you want to do. Then again, maybe geniuses just won’t play games because they find them boring.

This has been a rather interesting episode I’d say. I’ve never thought about or ever dreamed of drawing manga, so when Mashiro explained all those things it was quite educational. I found it quite fun too and it didn’t matter that it didn’t have much to do with the main storyline.

I admired Mashiro’s determination on manga, but pulling an all-nighter just for drawing which could be picked up the next day, seemed a bit too much to me. Right before a test too, at that time I thought he really doesn’t want to study anymore and I was right when he said he planned to go to a poor high school. But I never expected Takagi to want to join him, even if it’s more convenient to be at the same school Takagi would be wasting his education. And I thought he was the smart one, it’s never wrong to plan to fail, that’s what life is, you always have a safety net just in case, for those rainy days you could say. Oh well, I guess it does show how determined he is.

So… manga drawing properly starts next episode? I sure hope so, really want to see the editor in anime form, those who read the manga, you know who I’m talking about. Well, not too bothered yet, it’s still early days, this series has twenty five episodes, got a long way to go and I’m gonna enjoy it all.