Konnichiwa motherfuckers, and welcome to my read-through of Bakuman Chapter 126: Analysis and Result, in which I do a victory lap, and talk about some nifty foreshadowing.
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Analysis and Result Summary
Too Many Cooks Captains
Kaya is shocked to learn that Ashirogi agreed to run the same story in the same issue. The boys are conspicuously non-chalant about it: he challenged them so they accepted.
Kaya reminds them he has 50 people helping. Shujin is 120% confident that they will win. Saiko thinks 120 is a bit too confident. Shujin enters “cool analytical mode”: it’s not confidence; it’s analysis—Kaya swoons (adorably).
Shujin admits that when he initially heard about Nanamine’s methods, he thought it was a good idea, to the shock of Kaya and Saiko. He reminds Saiko that he’s more open-minded about processes regardless of their professional applicability.
Before he can explain further, we cut to Nanamine who explains the release schedule of Jump to his crew: A double issue 5-6 comes out on January 4th, but he will have to turn in the final drafts up to issue 7 by the end of the year. The deadline for issue 5-6 is, therefore, December 18th.
The time bomb be tickin’.
Nobuo points out that that means they have until the 10th to pump out this chapter. Boss is confident that that’s enough time to complete the piece. Sugi reminds everyone that Ashirogi will be doing a school election story; that’s what Nanamine knows, right?
Nanamine confirms it but thinks that Ashirogi being Ashirogi, they probably won’t do some story about spilling dark secrets of the other candidates to bring them down. The chatroom start providing idea and Boss thinks it’s going to be difficult because the setup itself is so generic. The chatroom agrees to put everything on the table given the stakes.
Nanamine—in narcissist mode—thinks that this is actually the perfect number of people to work with. 50 was too much, and the complainers are all gone now. Only five people were involved in the creation of Classroom of Truth (comment on this). Everyone is locked in. This will work. He’s going to bring the rank up significantly.
Returning to Shujin: Too many captains sink a ship; things lose unity when there are too many people giving orders.
Too many cooks, too many cooks, too many cooks, too many cooks.
Kaya still doesn’t quite understand, so she asks to have it dumbed down further. Shujin politely asks her to slow her roll.
He acknowledges that Classroom of Truth was good and the One-Shot Nerves and the Accompanying Vapors was good as well. But when serialization started, that’s when things started to fall apart.
Kaya pulls a me and tries to infer the answer from incomplete data: PCP can’t lose at this point since it’s consistently in the top five. That’s not it.
Shujin explains that gathering dozens of people to gather ideas and picking out the best ideas from all of them to create a single piece of work is humanly impossible for any one person to manage. Both Saiko and Shujin admit they wouldn’t have the skill to do it. Shujin thinks it might be possible if you are a genius and have a couple of friends, but fifty random people are impossible to control.
Nanamine has lost the plot both figuratively and literally: he had breathing room and time with Classroom of Truth. He was determined to get first, but when he got second, he lost focus on succeeding and beating PCP. That said, he would have failed sooner or later even if he had gotten first.
Hattori told them that they didn’t have to do anything and he would self-destruct. If the method were to work, all fifty contributors would have to work as hard as the mangaka; they’d never have the leadership to pull it off.
Shujin extrapolates further: despite Nanamine’s claims, he’s certain he just chose fifty people who liked Classroom of Truth. At first, they’d be interested but would then rapidly lose interest and move on to something different. There would be internal quarrels, and people would eventually leave. They are volunteers and don’t have a responsibility, and they’re anonymous. So it’s easy for them to do so. Eventually the most extreme ideas become the most appealing.
Kaya wonders how Shujin can diagnose all this so accurately when it’s just speculation. Shujin points out that the proof is in the pudding: it’s all over the manga itself—a bunch of random ideas with PCP written all over. It proves that Nanamine can’t select the best ideas. Nobody can do so!
Nanamine notices that only a few people are commenting and asks what’s up. Nobuo explains that only 14 people remain, and of them, only six are active in the chat. SUGI says the writing is on the wall.
Nanamine gets a feeling, and a chatter—JJ—explains that most of the chatroom bailed when they saw the bad reviews on the internet. To save the situation, Nanamine explains that it’s still in the top ten. He then apologizes for getting sidetracked and asks for more ideas. All ideas are welcome, and he’ll decide which to use.
Nakai’s Epiphany
On November 30th, Hattori is pleased with the storybaords. He is, however, concerned with how fast they were generated. Saiko explains he wants to work on the final draft early so he can take time with the artwork. He wants to show Nanamine that they are on a totally different level.
On December 5th, Nanamine and the chatroom agree to start work on the new draft. It’s “Perfect”. He promises to crush PCP.
Uh-huh.
On December 11th, Nakai reads the manga and sees that What You Need is all the way in the back of the magazine. He also sees the writing on the wall. He takes a bite of pizza and then hears the door ring. The editor arrives. Nakai overhears the conversation: What You Need has come in 16th place again, consistently double digits. Nanamine is up against the wall.
Nanamine promises to get back up to speed with Chapter Eleven.
Nakai realizes that the series is doomed, and worse, his special treatment will conclude (oy). He can’t go back home, and he’ll have to live on the streets.
A female assistant, Yuki, leaves—which Nakai forgets. As Yuki leaves, Nakai invites her to get something to eat; she not quite politely rejects him: she doesn’t want people to get the wrong idea and think he’s her creepy father.
Ugh.
Nakai thinks of ways to protect his lifestyle, then remembers Nanamine’s chatroom and realizes they need to develop a better story as the artwork is superlative. But he doesn’t know how to get into the room with the computer since Nanamine locks the door.
The Last Meeting of the Year
On December 29th – the last meeting of the year – Hattori provides advance copies of the double issue that will come out on the 4th. He lets them know the plot is identical, so the votes will only go one way or another. Readers will vote for the better work.
Saiko points out that it could be due to Shujin’s explanation, but What You Need is exactly what Shujin said it was. Hattori is intrigued by Shujin’s insight and asks for the skinny.
Shujin gives him the tl;dr: for the method he’s employing to work properly, he would have to employ loyal angels of equal intelligence and be god. Hattori agrees.
Brutally savage.
Saiko imagines Nanamine as god.
Meanwhile, boss, SUGI, and Nobuo – a teen girl with her friends – all host *another* secret meeting between them. take20 tells them the truth about Nanamine’s ranking: 2nd last. They all realize that Nanmine has been lying to them and acknowledge that PCP is the better series. SUGI is annoyed because, even though he’s doing this for fun, he does take the process seriously and doesn’t like being lied to. Kenchan notices that there are only nine people left, and all of them participate in the secret chat more than the actual one.
The boss remembers there were only 5 people for Classroom of Truth, but Take20 explains that they all left when other people showed up (LOL). Nobuo makes a joke about coming up with better ideas (LOL).
None of them particularly care about the rank since it’s not “their manga.” Nobuo laughs at how mean they all are (LOL).
They agree that they like watching the dumpster fire that is Nanamine. The responsible and smart people who aren’t trolls have already left (LOL). They all want to know the real results of the head-to-head battle.
They all want the “truth” from a user Liarmine (one of the original chatters). They’re all predicting it’s going to do terribly (LOL).
Doom and Gloom
The final report for the double issue is released on January 8th. Shujin is a hot mess, unsure how they are actually going to do; Saiko and Kaya freak out at his lack of confidence, so he switches to a “they’ll be fine” (probably).
Back in the not-secret chat, everyone’s excited to learn the final results. Nanamne explains he’ll learn the results when his editor gets there. It’ll be an hour until then, though, so he’ll turn off his computer. he assures them he’ll have good news for them.
Nakai listens outside for him to leave the room.
He goes to the copy machine and jams it with a ton of paper to make sure that Nanamine will be stuck for a while. He lets Nanamine know that the copy machine is jammed and that he needs to get the final draft to the editors. Nanamine is good with machines, right? Nanamine’s irritated by how many sheets of paper are stuck in the machine, and Nakai sneaks into his secret room.
Nakai begs everyone in the chat room to keep quiet. boss asks who is speaking. Nakai begs for quiet and explains who he is. He gives them the truth about the ranking at 16th place and how he is likely to be canceled soon; the chatroom needs to get their shit together to do something about the situation.
take20 pegs it as Nakai immediately (LOL). The others are shocked and pissed that he lied to them. Nakai confirms who he is and asks them to erase what they just wrote.
This motherfucking technologically illiterate motherfucker.
In a move that is truly a Nakai move to end all of them, he successfully convinces the entire chat room to bail on Nanamine at the same exact moment. Nakai freaks out and gets even more freaked out when n
NANAMINE STANDS RIGHT BEHIND HIM KAPOW.
Nanamine asks him what he’s doing, so Nakai tries to explain, but Nanamine sees that the entire chat room has officially died, and everybody is gone.
Nakai panics, but the editor arrives before Nanamine can do something, likely criminal. Kosugi arrives, and Nakai makes a graceless exit.
He wishes Kosugi a happy New Year while Kosugi asks where Nanamine is. Nakai – guilty as fuck – points him to Nanamine’s room – which is curiously open.
Kosugi enters to see Nanamine standing at his desk like a hungry ghost. Nanamine asks about his rank. What was it this week?
Kosugi doesn’t spare him: he got 19th and PCP got third place. Most people who voted for what you need also voted for PCP, but this time no one who voted for PCP voted for What You Need. PCP won 240 to 41.
Nanamine takes a beat of shocked silence, then
On a genuinely heinous note.
Laughs hysterically to himself as the chapter concludes.
Analysis and Result Reaction
Welp
I will say this: That final panel is an incredible panel. It is almost like a panel of the week. But I think it really speaks for itself. Nanamine has finally and truly lost, and he is broken.
It’s a great, albeit extremely dark, panel to include in this series.
This is, in many ways, a perfect capstone to this arc, in the sense that this has, by Bakuman standards, unrelentingly dark and unforgiving. Now that Nanamine has faced the abyss, he can’t handle it. So he laughs. It’s some Nero playing the flute while Rome burns shit.
The best part was that it was entirely self-created, and Ashirogi didn’t have to do anything to facilitate this epic downfall. It’s all Nanamine, baby.
Pride goeth before a fall, and now he hath fallen. Hell yeah.
To be honest, I’ve grown less comfortable with my bloodthirstiness in this run of chapters. Even though I have a particular disdain for narcissists – and narcissist adjacent content – I think this has awoken something ugly in me. And I don’t know how to feel about it.
But I still stand by my hope: Nanamine doesn’t actually recover from this or learn from it. The way this downfall has been designed, I think Ohba would prefer to do that, but I’m really unsure whether I will get my wish. I guess I will find out next week.
But let’s analyze why this climax works so well.
Seeds Planted
This arc, in particular, made all the flaws so obvious in Nanamine’s plan that when it finally went tits up, it felt inevitable. Even Nakai’s assist in bringing it all down felt particularly inspired.
Of particular note, however, is the reveal of the chatters having both a.) a secret chat and b.) a reveal of some of their anonymous identities. Nobuo, in particular, was a nice touch about not knowing who is on the other side of a chat (at least when this series was being written; things can be different now).
The fact that it’s a girl doing it for the Lulz is really funny (Nobuo is a guy’s name) and is a nice little, not quite sexist, bit on Ohbas part. Nobuo getting kicks out of making fun of Nanamine is about as equal opportunity as it comes.
But this is where I start to feel bad for Nanamine. As dark as the storyline surrounding him has become, at the end of the day, he is this kind of pathetic former pizza delivery boy who has become lost in a life-or-death fantasy with his greatest inspiration to become a mangaka and was going to live his dream of being a mangaka.
And he’s bungled it so profoundly and so obviously that even the chatters who have remained are only doing it for the laughs and have started talking shit behind his back.
It’s frankly just….sad. And again, my empathy may be peeking through a bit too much because I’m sure I’ve had people talk shit about me behind my back- everyone has – and knowing about it is deeply unpleasant and alienating. It’s not something you can verify.
Even if he does deserve it, from a global perspective, it’s all pathetic.
Now, like Nakai, that doesn’t make Nanamine suddenly worthy of redemption or a good person or any of that. It’s just sad, is all.
Everything you wanted in the worst possible way, except it’s me, and I wanted something dark to change the tone.
But back to the topic at hand. Everything in this arc was inevitable, from hiring Nakai to using other people. Nanamine doesn’t have a face. He relies on the world to solve his problems for him. The fact that he’s directly competing against PCP would inevitably mean that doing the same story, and a worse version, would end up biting him in the ass. He is his own victim. This is the best way for narcissists to be: they can’t give credit to anyone but themselves anyway.
Ba dum tss.
And that’s why, as it falls apart, the fact that Nanamine isn’t learning from any of it really hits home. There’s no way he could actually conceptualize a world in which he is anything less than a brilliant genius the world needs to acknowledge. So the world hits him back. Hard.
There are two interesting points this chapter brings up, however, that have some bearing on the real world of manga:
A One-Shot is not a Series
I find it interesting that Liarmine is one of the authors of Classroom of Truth. One of the neat bits about this arc that we’ll get to is how Classroom of Truth foreshadowed this entire arc, but let’s focus on two facts: he only had five people help him with Classroom of Truth, and he had more time to focus on it.
If you have read manga in the last few years, you are probably familiar with The Promised Neverland. This series started out incredibly strong with its first major arc and then tapered off slowly as the series progressed until its final arc turned into a big dumb action story with a resolution most people despised.
I liked it. But I’m a simple guy. Sue me.
One of the well known facts about The Promised Neverland is that the first arc was meticulously planned by its duo of creators and it works so well because it’s a relatively contained arc with a bunch of twists, turns, and deep mind games.
But when they got to serialization and needed to move past it, they needed to think on their feet. And the results were a lot less good.
This underscores just how difficult manga actually is: you don’t have time to map out every plot point in extreme detail. You have a few weeks, at most, but realistically, just one week, since storyboards have to be finalized the week before to make publication. If you don’t have an improvisers spirit and work extra hard to keep things fresh, it’ll fall apart.
But also, to circle back to Shujin’s own point made at the beginning of the chapter: too many cooks will always ruin a stew. I’m never going to refer to it as “captains” because I’m American. And that’s not the aphorism in English.
Nanamine got ahead of himself with 50 authors, and it bit him in the ass. Instead of taking his time with a small group of creators and actually planning out the series – or working with an editor like Kosugi – he figured more = better. And Shujin is absolutely right. The more people there are contributing, the more personalities you have to wrangle, and the more messy and muddled the work ultimately becomes.
And ultimately, if you’re not getting paid to do something – and sometimes even if you are – it doesn’t shake out that there will be an equal level of emotional investment in the series’ success. Had Nanamine actually focused on people who gave a shit instead of falling for his own hype, he would have been fine.
Which brings me to Classroom of Truth, very briefly.
Classroom of Truth Foreshadows this whole arc
Although subtle, this was an incredible piece *of Jazz Hands* Meta, foreshadowing how this arc would go: The protagonist is ultimately forgettable and indistinct and must survive as the people around him get taken out one by one.
Eiji’s comments on Nanamine make him the protagonist. His chatroom gets taken out one by one until it’s just him. And then, ultimately, despite his efforts not to, he loses.
And not only that, he loses to a clone of himself who kills him. Similar to how they ran identical stories and he absolutely lost to the thing he’s trying to clone. You could even argue that Nakai is an inversion of the co-protagonist female character but let’s not get ahead of ourself.
It’s a very wonderful piece of foreshadowing. I love it dearly. I’m glad Ohba is such an effective plotter in this regard and was able to make that a piece of foreshadowing. Yay.
It also totally focuses the arc since it’s so dark. Overall, despite my emotional ambivalence towards this whole arc, it has been an incredible arc from a pure craft perspective.
And then there’s fucking Nakai.
Nakai. Nakai. Nakai
Since his reintroduction, he’s been scum. But now he’s also comic relief. Which….great? I guess. I’m really just not happy about his existence at this point in the story, and I hope he goes away.
Will he, though? God, I don’t think so. I think he’s here to stay, and that scares the crap out of me.
But I will say his being the final nail in Nanamine’s coffin was particularly poetic like attracts like, and Nakai’s venal self-preservation led to the most epic fumble in the manga so far. If this weren’t such a dark arc, I’d be getting a much bigger laugh at how epically he dropped the ball on Nanamine’s behalf.
I mean, there is a comedy of errors. There is literally being so repugnant and idiotic that simply telling the truth – in a moronic way – gets the entire scheme destroyed.
Chefs kiss. Truly heinous.
But Nanamine really doesn’t understand people, which makes sense since he has contempt for everyone who isn’t himself. So it would track that he wouldn’t think that Nakai would be in self-preservation mode, and, because Nakai actually has worked in the manga, he wouldn’t somehow piece together that Nakai would freak out upon seeing What You Need in the back of the manga.
As for Kosugi,
What will he do?
He’s going to try to make this a shonen manga. I know he is. He’s said as much, and now he has the leverage to do so. Seeing him bitch slap Nanamine with reality was, admittedly, super satisfying. But goddamn, it’s so tiring at this point.
And I’ve already made clear why I don’t want this to happen. Very adequately. But it is my express hope that Jump will not talk-no-jutsu this. I don’t want it. I want Nanamine to suffer the consequences of his actions.
Because that’s the real peril of making a dark story in a realish world: in the real world, as often as dark things don’t have any consequences, sometimes they do. And Nanamine needs actual consequences. He doesn’t need to be saved.
But I’m not sure we’re going to get that.
In any event, as much as I’ve enjoyed this arc. I’m very ready for it to be concluded. Here’s to hoping.
Until next time,
Peace
