Summary Key Points:

[spoiler]

• Shujin is approached by Miyoshi, and it appears that both Mihoshi and Shujin are interested in each other
• Shujin and Saiko finish their first manga, “Two Earths”
• The boys call Shounen Jump, as the episode ends

[/spoiler]

Opinions: (A)

Now this is more of what I’m looking for! This was a pretty strong episode, with a good dose of comedy, drama and manga working. In comparison to last week’s episode, this episode felt very chunky and plentiful in the amount of content and information it provided.

I really enjoyed the focus on Shujin and Miyoshi and the start of an eventual romance between them. I really enjoyed how they hinted at Shujin actually liking Miyoshi as well, this is one element I felt the manga didn’t handle properly, but more on this in the eventual episodes where this comes again. Nuff said, it was nice seeing Saiko and Azuki being good friends and egging on their  friends to get together. I really liked the small bites of romance in this episode, because it didn’t feel like they were overshadowing the main plot, which was, of course, the boys spending a summer working on their first manga.

Their first manga, Two Earths, was definitely well shown in the anime. I really enjoyed the extra artwork and how the making of said manga was animated. Seeing Shujin work hard on a name, and then seeing Saiko draw it once, and then scrap it after seeing Nizumi Eji’s work was quite cool. Again, Saiko’s drive to be better than anyone and not fall behind is definitely one of the traits that make his character very likeable and admirable. Seeing Shujin work hard on both the story and then help with the name was also great. I think at its heart, the team of Saiko and Shujin really works, and that’s what makes the moments that they share so enjoyable.

I really enjoyed them trying to do the whole “FUSION” thing from DBZ, as I found that to be quite funny and a bit silly when I saw it ages ago. Added to that, the  whole play on words with “Sion” and “Jan” was pretty funny. I find it a bit stupid that Shounen Jump is called “Jack” in the anime, I really don’t get why they have to do this either. I mean, it blatantly Jump, especially when they’re showing a picture of bleach on the cover! If this is an attempt to be funny, I really don’t find it all that amusing. And on the topic of funny, we also got to see Azuki being imagined in a Maid’s dress and Saiko frantically whiting said image out of his mind XD It was good stuff all around, and the scenes were really brought to life from the manga.

I definitely feel like the story for Bakuman is a lot more interesting by simply being in animated form. Speaking of animation, I have been quite defensive on the animation quality for this show. I really didn’t think it was horrible, but this episode definitely made me rethink my opinions on that. The animation, or art, in some frames and scenes was downright ugly and choppy, and I definitely saw a stark dip in the animation quality this week.

J.C Staff has been pretty good about maintaining a decent production value for their shows as of late, so its really disappointing to see them fail a bit with one of my most beloved mangas. Hopefully this doesn’t become a trend, and is more of a one time thing.

I also felt like the use of music was definitely very well done in this episode. I really am enjoying the light, small tunes that pop up and a feeling of joy to some of the finer moments the boys experience. All in all, a great episode, even if it was a bit rough around the edges animation wise.

Preview:

Saiko and Shujin show of their manga at the Shounen Jump office. But it doesn’t seem like its going to go all that well! XD