Yo-yo and welcome to my read-through of Bakuman Chapter 139: Final Chapter and Comment in which I didn’t get the ending I wanted, but I’m okay anyway.

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Scheduling Note: We’re going to be on a two-week hiatus for administrative stuff internally and will resume read-throughs starting in April or thereabouts. See ya then

Final Chapter and Comment Summary

And the winner is…

On Friday, July 29th, the final report for Issue 34 is to be released. We’re reminded that, should none of the other mangaka take first place, Nizuma will run his final chapter for Crow.

The Ashirogi team stares at their phone waiting for the news. Saiko reminds them that watching a phone won’t make it call faster.

At that moment Hattori rings. Suck it, Saiko.

Shujin picks up.

PCP Tied!

For second place.

Oh.

Crow got first with 420 votes, while PCP and Giri both got 403 votes. It was only a two vote difference in the early result. Hattori was hopeful. Giri ranked third in the early results but the exciting story about Giri winning the race using his new technique was more popular than he thought.

They lost by 17 votes.

Hattori comforts Shujin: this is the best rank they’ve received since starting PCP, aside from the first chapter of the series. They did well. Shujin thanked him but wanted to confirm that Crow was ending.

Yep: in three weeks with front color pages. They’ve just been given the go-ahead to include the dreaded final chapter language on the cover and chapter title.

Mannnnnnn

The boys sigh in disappointment. They feel like their summer has ended. They both lament how cool it is that Nizuma goes out on top and how frustrating it feels not to have beaten him.

Kaya attempts to lighten the mood. Bless her heart. They would have gotten first if Crow wasn’t around. It’s still great.

Shujin disagrees: they wouldn’t have been able to come this far without Eiji being present in their lives. Saiko remembers when they first read of him winning the Tezuka award at 15 from that manga they picked up in their third year of middle school.

From that moment, Saiko realized that there was a guy that great out there who would become their biggest rival. Saiko saw him as his personal rival whom they had to beat.

They’ve been chasing him ever since. Saiko remembers his request to keep Crow running until they get a series and Eiji’s response that he’ll likely be number one by then.

Kaya worries about them and reminds them that Eiji won’t stop making manga, right? Shujin knows that’s true but feels defeated. Saiko reminds them of what they told Eiji at their first meeting. Shujin and Saiko hang their head in shame: Eiji waited for them, and they couldn’t catch up. Now, Crow is going to end before they can even approach it. And it wasn’t canceled. It was ended perfectly.

Kaya disagrees with their gloominess: they’ve caught up.

Saiko counters: to +Natural, maybe. But not Crow. They only beat it with the first Chapter of PCP. Eiji is better as a solo creator. It was two against one, and they were still no match for him.

Not only that, they wouldn’t even have succeeded as much were it not for him.

Kaya also points out how incredible it is that, at 23 years old, Eiji ended a seven-year series in first place. It’s unreal, really.

Saiko wants to congratulate him. He also wants their series to end like that—perfectly. Shujin, too. They recognize that now that he’s done it, they have to reckon with his raw talent again. They both want to congratulate him as a manga artist, as a rival, and as his friend.

Awwww.

A Back Log

On August 9th, the sample of Issue 38 is printed. Yujiro reads it and tears up. It’s an awesome ending. Eiji thanks him. Yujiro gets emotional—particularly because of the circumstances—and thanks Eiji for the honor of being his editor and for all of his hard work.

Eiji is not quite as enthusiastic (LOL).

Yujiro reminds him that because he’s still doing +Natural, he can’t take time off, but he should be able to relax now.

Yujiro notices a new panel that Eiji is drawing. He asks if it’s for +Natural. Nope. Eiji hasn’t given it a name yet, but it’s a hero manga using chemical symbols. He’s only started with platinum and silver so far.

Yujiro’s shocked to hear that Eiji is already working on a new series. No. Eiji just feels uncomfortable when he’s not drawing. Yujiro wants to take a look anyway. He’s even more shocked to find that the story is already in progress and Eiji confirms he’s drawn around 100 pages before this.

The mental math says that’s four chapters, even if the first chapter is 50 pages. Not only that, but it’s as good as Crow.

Yujiro is pretty sure that the periodic table has been used before, not as much as the Zodiac (I’m looking at you, Saint Seiya), but he wonders if Nizma has checked. Eiji is drawing this for himself, so it doesn’t matter.

Eiji then offers him to read the full-length manga about the space cockroach he wrote that no one has read. Yujiro freaks out even more to learn about that. He asks about the length.

About 30 volumes in terms of Tankobons.

Broooooo.

Yujiro asks to see all of Eiji’s unpublished work.

I usually don’t share full panels, but this is hysterical.

Eiji has been stockpiling on his downtime while working on Crow and +Natural like a successful Henry Darger. He had more time when he was doing Crow.

Sweet baby Jesus, Yujiro is stunned that all the manga are as good as or better than Crow. He remembers that the Editor-In-Chief wants Eiji to work on a new series as fast as possible. But he wonders…

He watches Eiji at his desk, drawing. He realizes that Eiji will continue to draw no matter what, even if he’s given time off. He doesn’t have to prod or make Eiji do anything. He recognizes it’s probably better to let him do what he wants. If he’s allowed to go at his own pace, he’ll create something even better.

He thinks further: it might even be one of the greatest manga in Jump or one of the greatest manga ever. Crow was popular, but it only received first place 20 weeks in a row.

Standards are shifting, I see.

Eiji is concerned by Yujiro’s quietness. Yujiro asks why these final drafts are not for serialization, and Eiji confirms that’s the case.

Heartwarmingly, Yujiro decides he wants to see what Eiji can come up with on his own, given time to gather more ideas and knowledge. He asks if there is anywhere that Eiji would like to go.

Eiji wants to see the Louvre, the Pyramids, and the Aurora Borealis. Baller. Yujiro thinks it might be difficult to pull off all of those, but Shueisha would be willing to fund a research trip as a thank you for his hard work and so he can broaden his horizons.

That’s so sweet. Very Japanese, but very sweet. Eiji’s look of excitement is adorable.

A Congratulations

Before they can plan further, Eiji gets an enthusiastic phone call from Fukuda about how awesome the finale wwas. Fukuda forgot to write nice work in the author comments on the TOC this week. So he thought it’d be better to congratulate him in person. Eiji doesn’t know that that means.

Yujiro explains that most of the other mangaka wrote comments to Eiji about the end of Crow.

Fukuda expresses his disappointment at being unable to beat Eiji, but admits that the way Eiji ended the series is amazing. Eiji seems more confused than anything else as Fukuda hangs up.

Yujiro shows him the table of contents, which includes nice notes from all of Team Fukuda congratulating him and thanking him for his work. Yujiro explains that it’s a common practice these days.

Ashirogi expresses gratitude for accepting their challenge.

Yujiro reasons that it must be because of the change in schedule and finds Ashirogi very earnest, although readers will have no idea what that means.

Eiji takes in the news. He thinks he should thank the people who wrote comments to him.

Yujiro doesn’t think he has to do tha–

And he’s gone.

A Battle Between Men

Shujin, Saiko, and Kaya all admire the final chapter, and the boys discuss how it’s going to win in a landslide again. PCP has fallen back to fourth, and Giri to third.

The doorbell rings, and Kaya goes to get it, thinking the assistants are early.

It’s Eiji, coming in as Eiji does, much to the boy’s surprise.

He flashes them the table of contents and mentions their mention of a challenge—yep. He thanks them: They lit a fire under him to create something even better. He came to tell them that.

Saiko and Eiji share a good-natured staring/grin contest, and then Eiji plans to bounce.

Saiko takes credit for the challenge. He throws Shujin under the bus because Shujin thinks that they will interfere with Eiji if they fight him. Saiko doesn’t think that’s true, though. They weren’t getting in his way.

Eiji agrees. It’s not true.

It was a battle between men. People who don’t understand that are boring. Kaya doesn’t understand.

Poor, boring Kaya. Shujin explains that when his plan was announced, Team Fukuda vowed never to let that happen. Eiji was so happy to hear that. Kaya pieces together that it’d be boring if they just let him win.

Shujin again discusses the rival dynamic: rivals are meant to develop each other’s skills through friendly competition and not give in to one another.

Eiji agrees and mentions that in Aomori, he always drew manga alone. But after he joined Jump, he had fans who read his work and rivals like Ashirogi who he could compete with. He’s happy to have so many people in his life and that he’s not alone anymore. He thanks them.

I’m tearing up, one sec.

Shujin explains that Eiji has also been a big encouragement to them. Saiko thinks it’s not over yet.

Eiji agrees.

The battle with Crow is over, but the battle has not concluded. Eiji agrees. They’re fated to be rivals forever. Saiko wants Eiji to create his next work immediately so they can beat him.

Eiji stops them: they will not be able to beat the next work he creates. Saiko disagrees, and Shujin asks what he means. Eiji will give them the honor of telling them first.

He isn’t just going to write the best manga in Jump, he will write the best manga ever.

The boys are truly stunned by this announcement. But Eiji decides to get going and will see them again. Kaya is shocked by how cool he is. Shujin thinks it’s an exaggeration. Saiko reminds Shujin taht their inital goal was to becoem the best mangaka in japan, right?

On that truly lovely note, the chapter ends.

Final Chapter and Comment Reaction

What a Lovely Chapter

My prediction streak has been shit lately, so I’m going to chalk up my comments on the last chapter as spiritually right, even though I was totally wrong in the most important count. They did tie, just not with the one they needed to.

I was truly not anticipating the boys losing to Eiji. I’m back to Eiji because the battle mode is over, and his series is over *le sadness*, so now he’s just regular Eiji.

But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Yujiro’s logistics element was a red herring to make you think they would win. And it’s Shonen, right? The heroes always win in a shonen battle except when it’s narratively significant that they lose. The stakes were high, and here we are.

That said, Manga is ultimately one of the more speculative industries. There isn’t any concrete power scaling in the court of public opinion, and as this chapter highlighted in great detail (and which we will go over), Eiji just fucking loves manga to an absurd degree. In this case, a superhuman degree.

I kind of stand by my earlier assertion that this conclusion is abrupt and anti-climactic. However, the point of this arc was not to be climactic, so I fell a bit for Ohba’s bait-and-switch there. Now that I remember how much of a gap there is in the release schedule, I have to wonder if the copycat arc was a bit more on the nose about where Ohba and Obata are emotionally with this arc.

I don’t know whether it’s genius or not, or if there was some editorial interfering – which can also happen, especially in Ohba and Obata’s case. But I don’t think it is. They just wanted to highlight the fundamental wholesomeness of the rival dynamic in real life. And maybe they’re also kinda running out of steam a bit.

And we’ve gone over it enough that we don’t really need to do it again here, sorely tempted as I am, but yes, Rivals are the best kind of friends: the ones that push you to be better than you are by being better than you are. Assuming you are not being petty and weird about that fact but using that as inspiration to improve yourself.

And this mini-arc—I hesitate to call it a full arc—although Ohba’s gone full mask-off about the length of certain arcs only being a few chapters at this point, especially with the copycat—wasn’t really supposed to be the final battle.

Speaking of:

The “Foreshadowing”

Now, as I’ve read on, I’ve become increasingly aware that I will often miss obvious foreshadowing and sometimes get false positives. But this arc felt designed to confound expectations.

I knew it was too early for his battle, which should have been a hint that this isn’t the final battle – and I think it’s safe to say at this point that Eiji and Ashirogi will have one last brou-haha in the future, just not sure when that will be – but even so I was exepcting that build up to lead to a more substantial payoff.

But as I think about the trajectory of this arc and the wish fulfillment it serves for the authors, this conclusion makes the most sense, if not narratively, then thematically. Eiji needs to win this round, and the boys need to feel the disappointment. He also needs to win because in the real world, just because you fight hard in art doesn’t mean you will win.

Perhaps more than any other chapter, I feel the boys’ disappointment. It is the most real feeling of sadness I’ve experienced—putting your best effort in and nothing happening.

I entered a bunch of competitions last year with a screenplay I’ve put a lot of work into, and it only placed in 2. It placed in 2 of the biggest ones in the field, but it only placed in 2.

It can suck to have that feeling of disappointment.

That said, it’s the way the game operates. You cannot control for it.

But even if Eiji was destined to win the entire time, there’s another quirk: we need to have that true victory by the rival about three-quarters of the way through the story so we can feel a bit hopeless as we head toward the climax. It’s a classic three-act structure.

Now, manga is not usually good at three-act structure because it is designed to be read week to week and has its own narrative rhythm. But sometimes manga will have a three-act structure. MHA has a three-act structure, and this is setting us up for the final arcs.

Do I think Eiji is going to make the greatest manga ever? He could, but that felt like a grace note for the end of the arc.

This doesn’t feel like a true all hope is lost moment – which is what that beat is called – because.

Eiji is the Wholesomest

Yeah, his victory is earned, and I’m glad he finally won. I kept thinking of how unsatisfying it would be if he didn’t win, but I want the boys to win so I can live vicariously through them.

And when he did win, it was a little deflating. But now we have a dude going out with a more or less perfect run. And this is why I’m so glad they retconned his character and made him an enthusiastic, talented loner rather than a straight asshole.

I wonder how much of that character change is motivated by the revelation in this chapter of how lonely Eiji is. Eiji is not a gifted communicator, at least in the sense that he reads as being on the spectrum and kind of all over the place. He is a lot.

So it’s not entirely surprising that he felt alienated back home, where his love of manga was a weird quirk rather than a passion. and I have the stuff to say about doing things for yourself – we’ll discuss that a little further down – but I do want to highlight that maybe he chilled out because he had other people in his life.

I don’t think that’s actually the case, I think they changed him as they wrote him because the more you write a character the more you learn about them and you come to see them differently, and also grow fonder of them. And then Eiji just naturally evolved from there.

But it’s a nice little headcanon, so choose to view it that way. Alleviating loneliness opens him up and makes him more palatable. But I will say that not being lonely can have a powerful positive effect on personality. I’m speaking, again, from personal experience.

But yeah, Eiji’s delightful because his passion is sincere, and he wants the best for other people. I think that’s also why the fact that everyone is glad that he wins, even when it’s not narratively satisfying, still, ultimately, works in this context. He’s not a dick. He’s a little indifferent to things that aren’t manga, but he’s validating, encouraging, and actively working on the thing he loves.

Those qualities bring people to you. I’ve seen it.

As for art for art’s sake

Art for Arts Sake

Now, his having a backlog that is insane is not going to happen in real life. With that said, I think this is a good time to note the struggle of the true artist.

One of the important elements of being an artist and one of the most essential habits of getting good at art and making it your lifestyle is having a passion for it even when you’re not being compensated for it—doing it because you love it.

We see it here: Eiji has a pathological need to draw, which significantly informs his behavior. He would do it even if he wasn’t being paid for it, which is one of the reasons he’s so good. It’s actually something that separates the biggest artists from everyone else: They constantly create.

Picasso made 12,000 paintings in his lifetime. Some people write thousands of songs. Brian Wilson is constantly creating. That is the key of all the creators who succeed: they do it constantly. Prince, David Bowie, everyone. Output matters more than skill. Because output begets it.

And, lately, I’ve been writing up a storm. I don’t know if I’ll have a crazy backlog of thousands of songs and poems to that degree, but I’m going to do my damnedest. But having the time to just pump out comical volumes of songs is time-consuming.

But I think it’s worth noting that doing it just for yourself can also be isolating. The fact that Eiji was lonely until he went to Jump highlights the limits of his passion for art. Not that it stops him, but I think it’s worth remembering that plenty of people burn out if they aren’t acknowledged or cared for in the process of creating their art.

Now, I’ve been doing this read-through for about 6 years at this point, a little under, and I really do enjoy it. But I would be lying if I said that sometimes it was hard to be motivated to finish. I am disciplined, and I want to see it through, but I can feel that isolation that Eiji refers to obliquely.

But I have to do it, so I do—along with other arts. I do it because it brings me fulfillment, and sometimes, that’s more important than not being lonely.

In any event, it was cute seeing Eiji get the respect he’s earned and be more or less indifferent to it because he was Henry Darggering it up. I would love to have that kind of self-actualization. Just draw, draw, draw.

Henry Darger was an outsider artist who was unknown in his lifetime but became well known when a huge stockpile of drawings and a 15,000-page story were discovered in his apartment.

And I think the boys want that too because.

They are the earnestest

Aside from Yujiro being such a cinnamon roll in this chapter, it was really wonderful to see. The little offer of a “research trip” made me feel all warm inside. The most heartwarming element was the boys.

I think the fact that Team Fukuda was involved is good; it gave a sense of stakes. But really drilling in on the boys’ relationship with Eiji made this work. I also like that their reaction is not just admiration and appreciation for their friend but also disappointment and selfishness. And with that little reader note, they are also quite earnest, as Yujiro says.

The boys have come a long way because they have friends. This is on the Jump masthead, and it’s one of the key components of successful Jump manga, but here is where it feels particularly justified.

You cannot get anywhere on your own. Even if you are very talented, and to see the boys recognize that they need that friction to grow – even if it sucks – was mature.

I also like that the series didn’t make this defeat feel as existential as it could. It could have because, in some way, it is, but just like they’re willing to be patient with the pursuit of their next manga—the greatest of all time? lol, probably not—they also recognize that this is something to admire, even if it hurts.

It feels mature.

I hope I can be the same way going forward.

I don’t know what’s going to happen next, but this was a nice little arc.

Just a little abrupt

Stray Thoughts

–Yujiro’s realization of Eiji’s internal motivation was cute but surprising. I feel like he would have known about thousands of finished manga pages. That said, I love how he developed his relationships and respect for Eiji in this chapter.

–The comments were all cute. And I know this is a thing now, so this is art imitating life. How nice.

–Space Cockroach sounds incredible, not gonna lie.

–Kaya was a little ditzier than usual in this chapter, but I’m going to give it a pass because I’m in a contemplative state

Until next time,

Peace