For the purpose of finding out how people in mainstream battle mangas feel, Takagi asks to fight Kaya without holding back. As you would expect, Takagi is badly beaten up. Mashiro is preparing by copying 100 pages each from ten works of battle manga to get used to it.

Kaya comes by and tells Mashiro that Azuki’s been failing auditions which he doesn’t know about. Apparently the two don’t want to tell each other anything until they’ve succeeded. So Mashiro texts Azuki about their NEXT debut not being very great but will work harder.

At the editorial department the latest serialization meeting ends and Eiji’s Yellow Hit’s going to be serialized. Yujiro gets 2 assistants for him, Nakai and this other nameless guy… When he goes to pick up Eiji’s colour pages he gets a big shock as Eiji’s only drawn the first chapter for Crow, not Yellow Hit.

At the editorial department Hattori gets a shock of his own with Takagi and Mashiro’s new name being mainstream. He argues relentlessly that this isn’t the way for them to get serialised. But they’re interrupted by a call from Yujiro that roused the entire department including the editor-in-chief. Who finds out that Eiji didn’t draw Yellow Hit and asks for Crow to be brought to him along with Eiji.

Takagi and Mashiro finally see the genius with their own eyes and consider him a rival. It seems the editor-in-chief wants to serialise Crow and asks how chapter 2 and 3 are. When Yujiro’s about to ask Eiji he disappears. He’s greeting Ashirogi Muto and saying how he enjoyed their manga and spouting things about being friends and comrades.

Yujiro finds him and asks if he has the names of chapter 2 and 3. He doesn’t, but he can draw them within an hour. So he sets down his sketchpad in front of Takagi and Mashiro and gets to work with amazing speed finishing within thirty minutes!

Even still, Takagi and Mashiro stick with mainstream. Hattori gives up and tells them that they have half a year to get a name he approves of, otherwise they do what he wants or he steps down as their editor.


First of all, yes I am back, finished my last exam yesterday. Five exams in total, four went well, the last one wasn’t so well… but no worries it’s only half of a course, I’m planning to work harder this semester to make up for it. But for today and tomorrow I need to catch up on blogs. Or try to, I will eventually, just may take a while, luckily the first week of a semester usually means no work so I’ll catch up within the week. One other thing, if I’m gonna do a lot of these blogs successively they may be short as I’m trying to do them quickly, but I’ll try my best not to rush them. Anyway, I’m back so enjoy my blogs again. ^^

Ooo an ultimatum, for some reason it seemed strange that Hattori would give an ultimatum of sorts. He seemed like a patient, kind person who gives people chances. So I thought he’d give them a chance with mainstream, though he did in the end but it was after such a heated argument. That was another thing, never expected him to shout so loud in the editorial department like that. Thought he was one who could keep his temper under control.

Well Ashirogi Muto’s been give the chance to prove themselves in mainstream, but I don’t think they’ll get anything to rival Eiji. They’ll try and fail and then go back to cult hits. Though, maybe not, but I really doubt they’ll get a mainstream hit. Wonder if they’ll compromise somehow like a cult hit with elements of mainstream battle or something. Well we’ll wait and see.

Is it just me or did a line in the opening change slightly. I wasn’t really paying attention to it, but it wasn’t the same. I don’t usually listen to opening and endings… I only listen to them during the first episode and maybe the second unless I like them a lot, like a few from this season which I’ll do music blogs about at a later date. But usually I just skip them or leave them on without paying attention.

Continuing on, I think I find myself liking Kaya more and more. And yes it is because she beat Takagi up so easily. She reminds me of Tomoyo from Clannad just shows how awesome strong women are. Unfortunately I’m not strong at all…

So with their latest mainstream manga idea I was thinking no that’s not good at all. The story they came up with is way too cliché, it’s like it’s got no originality at all. I mean, it’s the kind of story a newcomer would draw thinking it’s good when the plotline has been used who knows how many times. It’s just not interesting, it’ll bore people, it’s true that if a cliché is done well then it can work, I mean they’re clichés for a reason. But Ashirogi Muto certainly didn’t do this one well enough to impress. No one will read it, unless they like that recycled storyline with different characters who are distinctively similar.

Okay, interesting development. I wonder what it means to see the genius for themselves. Will it be the push they need to come up with something great? Perhaps, but I don’t see it happening in mainstream. Especially when Eiji even said he found their cult hit interesting, just shows how much talent they have there, not mainstream. We’ll see what they can come up with then. But I can be sure this is gonna be an important part of their development as mangakas.