Bakuman Season 3 - 04

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The feeling of making it but not quite making it is always frustrating and that shows in this episode.

As it usually goes in the department of Weekly Shonen Jump, a manga that starts off strong is rewarded with a Drama CD or nowadays called a VOMIC to give it another boost in popularity. What follows the Drama CD isn't always a light novel - those tend to be for more popular series - but you can tell now that Ashirogi Muto have made it. Even so, making it isn't as easy as that.

If anything this is a low point for both Mashiro and Takagi, in the way they acted. Their one-track mind and incessant pestering of Hatorri about an anime shows that even if you have a popular manga series, an anime isn't as easy to obtain. Essentially, the duo are still rookies and have hardly earned the titles of established authors just because they've created a series that is selling well at the beginning. The road to a established mangaka is much tougher than that. Ashirogi's behaviour was very childish to the point where there was annoyance and that's fine, because they are still learning.

No one can blame them for their impatience and naivety, and it actually goes well with the contrast of their growth which is also highlighted in this episode. Growth doesn't always mean reaching the Shangri-La of your chosen field and that's why the episode works so well when looked at as a whole. Also I feel like the feelings of frustration that Ashirogi Muto are portraying really give us the truth behind what Takeshi Obata went through before and for a little while after Hikaru no Go.

So what does PCP not getting an anime mean Quite simply Ashirogi Muto haven't developed enough as manga artist to have their own anime yet and carrying on in true Bakuman tradition its a factual and often misunderstood fact about anime adaptations. There are plenty of series out there with high popularity that don't get anime simply because its not marketable and its not something sponsors want to endorse. This does of course mean there will be another manga that they create, but not for a while.

As the episode wrapped up, it looks like the Shiratori arc of the Bakuman manga will be animated. Maybe a signal that the rest of the manga won't be crammed into this season (hopefully) and as an upcoming arc, it'll be another test for the duo to overcome.