Hey-hey-hey and welcome to my read-through of Chapter 152: Synergy and New Record in which the see-saw finally swings in the boy’s favor, and I am real excited.

This is a special Monday edition because I was off celebrating July 4th, and started shooting my film in the last two weeks. We should be back to normal the Friday after next.

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Synergy and New Record Summary

Reversi

On February 23rd, Yamahisa hears murmuring and goes to see what’s happening. Ashirogi already turned in their storyboard for a new one-shot and it’s really good.

Yamahisa thinks it can’t be better than Eiji’s new one-shot Zombie Gun. Yujiro thinks the comparison is unfair. Yamahisa bugs Kosugi to take a look, but Kosugi wants just another minute to look it over.

It’s called Reversi, and Yamahisa thinks it’s about the board game (lol). Miura agrees until he realizes that Yamahisa is being literal, and then he starts explaining the plot. Yamahisa tells him to pipe down for the love of fuck so he can read.

Yamahisa thinks it’s good: it’s a battle manga combined with Ashirogi’s unique cult stylings. Even Yoshida admits that the characters are well thought-out.

Two humans wield special powers, unaware that both of their demons wish to see humanity come to an end. The black one through brainwashing, the white one thwarting those plans to let humanity die on its own. Yamahisa recognizes their strength at telling dark stories.

Yoshida agrees, but this time they’ve turned it into a legit battle manga rather than going straight for the cult stylings they’re used to.

Miura bonds with Yoshida: Nizuma did the same thing, except using cult hit stylings in addition to his mainstream battle manga stylings.

These two goobers, touching fingers, observe how Ashirogi and Eiji used each other’s strengths to evolve even further. Heishi chimes in: if there’s one thing they can say for certain, it’s that Eiji was fully aware of Ashirogi’s influence and vice versa. This is how the two works came into being. He’s confident of it.

The editors start wondering who will win this time. Kosugi doesn’t think winning or losing is the issue, since they won’t be put in the same issue regardless. If they’re put in one after the other, though, people will still compare the two by whatever rank they get. Kosugi wonders if that’s true; Aida confirms it.

Aida thinks, however, that Ashirogi’s work is a little too dark. But the editors acknowledge that that is Ashirogi’s strength and that’ll make a big difference when it comes to how it all plays out as a battle manga.

As far as everyone can tell from the storyboards, they’re already doing fine on the battle part anyway.

Heishi, not one to be ignored, commands everyone’s attention and reminds them that they have three slots for one-shots in the upcoming magazines and the deadline is tomorrow. Everyone needs to get their asses moving to find a final piece to round out these two.

Everyone passes on that onerous, if not impossible, task of finding a comparable series.

Editorial Meeting

On February 27th, the editors all marvel at how much better these two one-shots are than literally any other option. They elect not to run a third one-shot and will find different ways to fill that space.

No one is worried about Eiji’s series, but there are more concerns about Ashirogi’s ability to run a one-shot with PCP still ongoing. Aida and Hattori, however, are confident.

Heishi thinks it’d be best to label these efforts as a special project rather than as one-shots from two popular artists. He looks to Sasaki for confirmation.

Sasaki, adorably off in his own little world, admires how far these two creators have come. They’ve created some damn good pieces of manga. Damn good. Heishi calls him back to reality.

The meeting concludes, and Heishi informs both Hattoris that their one-shots are in. Hattori is grateful, and Yujiro is excited. Heishi lets everyone know they will only be running Zombie Gun and Reversi in Issues 19 and 20, respectively. He asks the editors of the unselected one-shots to polish their work and better luck next time.

Miura freaks out at getting rejected and blames himself for even bothering to submit anything.

Heishi remarks that they wanted to send the Hattoris to different departments to avoid mix-ups as a joke. Sasaki confirms, however, that Torishima was serious about that.

Everyone’s surprised by Sasaki’s good mood and wonders what it could possibly be.

No idea.

The Student Surpasses The Master

At the studio, Ashirogi receives the call that Reversi will run in issue 20 on April 17th. Hattori asks to speak with Saiko. He lets Saiko know that Nizuma’s one-shot will run in issue 19 and that the audience will make comparisons.

Saiko gets focused and lists off all the things he’s going to need to wreck Nizuma’s shit – metaphorically – simplified art, easy to follow movement, speed, two-page spreads for climaxes, and panel division to create a sense of high and low.

Hattori’s surprised that Saiko is on point with his assessment and wishes him luck in coming up with the draft. Make it his best yet.

Meanwhile, Yujiro gives Nizuma the news about Zombie Gun, and Eiji’s excited to get number one with this manga. Yujiro also relays to him the news about Ashirogi’s placement int he subsequent issue. Eiji’s excited but gets circumspect when he hears the boys are going for a mainstream battle story. He wants it to be cold, and heartless. Yujiro confirms that it will still be cold and heartless, but also a battle manga.

Eiji gets pumped and ready to fight a heartless mainstream battle manga.

Meanwhile, Yoshida scolds Hiramaru for not following in Ashirogi and Eiji’s footsteps by working hard on his series and potential other works. Hiramaru expresses disappointment in himself as well. However, chronic back pain is chronic back pain. What’s a man to do?

Yoshida ain’t buying it and sees a cockroach in his bed. Hiramaru, suspiciously well, freaks out and jumps out of bed. He realizes he’s been duped, and Yoshida digs into him further for faking an injury to get out of work.

Hiramaru is upset that Yoshida lied about the cockroach, which Hiramaru despises. He was tricked. Yoshida points out that Hiramaru tricked him first. Hiramaru promises never to do it again.

Movin’ on Up now

At the studio, Shujin peaces out and tells Saiko not to push himself too hard. Saiko knows all of that but has to make sure this draft is perfect. There will be comparisons to Nizuma no matter what. They have to beat him.

At that moment, Miho texts Saiko: she’s gotten a role as a heroine for Instant 12, a popular Soccer Manga in Young Kick; she’s Ai, the team manager.

Saiko’s pleased, but Shujin wants to know why Saiko didn’t tell him about something so massive. Saiko was just told. Shujin’s surprised she would keep something like that from her boyfriend, but Saiko is pleased that she is finally good enough to get the heroine role. Shujin agrees and is glad that she’s not a heroine in another Jump property. She needs to work hard, too.

Saiko reiterates their need for an anime to get Miho as their heroine.

With that extra bit of juice, he goes to work on the final draft, but beforehand, he’s going to congratulate his girl.

Shujin heads out.

Miho receives Saiko’s adorable text, and he promises to create a truly special heroine for her.

Miho looks pleased.

Nizuma Saiko goes at it hard, preparing their final drafts for publication.

A new record

On April 5th, the boys received issue 19 with Nizuma’s one-shot. They’re surprised to see that the one-shot got center color pages and half of the cover devoted to it. They’ve never seen a one-shot get that kind of coverage. Hattori posits that it was Heishi’s first big job. Shujin thinks he’s gutsy.

Hattori goes on: the editorial team has high hopes for this series and they expect big numbers in votes for it. They can count on a serialization coming up for it as well.

Shujin thinks the editors are playing favorites, but Hattori is more optimistic: it’s just that good. He also reminds everyone of Crow’s legendary final run. If they’re frustrated by this, then use it as motivation to beat him.

The boys read the manga: it’s amazing.

On April 14th, Zombie Gun gets first place and an astounding number of votes. Even the staff are re-reading it because it’s so amazing. They all admire Nizuma.

Yujiro, sitting on his laurels, announces Nizuma’s intention to be Number One. Miura is surprised, but thinks it’s possible with this work and its quality.

Yujiro requests that he be called captain. Not letting it get to his head or anything. Yujiro happily slaps Hattori’s back and gloats that Nizuma has probably won again. Miura thinks it would be impossible for it not to be otherwise, given the vote count. Yujiro agrees and scampers away to deliver the news to Nizuma.

The others think he doesn’t sound very captainly.

Yujiro gets to Nizuma’s apartment and asks to get ready to make storyboards for Zombie Gun’s series. Nizuma gives him the storyboards. Yujiro’s impressed that he can’t even identify areas for improvement. That said, he needs to refine it as much as possible before submitting it for serialization.

Nizuma’s is oddly laconic. Yujiro asks why.

Unsmiling, Eiji announces he’s happy and burning inside as he looks at Reversi.

Oh shit.

The boys are astonished to learn that Zombie Gun got 692 votes… holy shit. It’s an all-time record for a one-shot. The boys are convinced they’ll never be able to win against that.

They both anticipated first place and that wit would become a series, but now they’re not confident they’ll be able to win against him. It’s going to make their one-shot look bad.

Saiko, however, smiles to himself.

He explains that this is how the final confrontation with Nizuma should be. As his rival, he’s happy to know that he’s winning so intensely. Shujin agrees: if Nizuma didn’t do well their victory would be kind of meaningless.

Saiko reminds him that their own results haven’t been released yet. Shujin’s surprised to hear that Saiko seems confident that they can beat his literal world record.

Saiko isn’t confident about it, but, for some reason, he can’t wait to find out the results of next week’s match.

On that hopeful note, the chapter – and Volume – concludes.

Panel of the Week (It’s Back!)

Synergy and New Record Reaction

Bringing this special edition of the Panel of the Week, I do want to comment on just how good the art was in this chapter. I think now that we’re genuinely in the endgame and we’re approaching the climactic battle with Eiji for realzies, Obata is also giving it his all as an artist.

And this double spread that isn’t technically a double spread is fucking masterful man. The side with Miho evokes a sense of quiet anticipation with the stars filling up the negative space as she gets Saiko’s motivation. There’s a clear sense of depth and pacing.

Only for it to be totally complemented on the next page by a flurry of action. There’s so much going on in the next pages as the panel literally flies from the two rivals that it threatens to overwhelm the eye, but we can see a real battle starting between these two, and this is combat. So it makes sense that this visual disarray would be the perfect vehicle to communicate two mangaka at their peak of ability duking it out.

It’s really just super visually dynamic. I also love the complementary darkness and light, and the general layout of these two sequences. They pair nicely, and it’s overall just very very pretty.

Anyway, let’s get to the exciting part:

They’re going to tie or win

Yeahhhhh, so it might seem like…I dunno, kinda trite and boring, but as time goes on, you develop a sense of narrative rhythm as you read a story which gives you your own sixth sense for when good or bad things happen and this setup is so clearly that Reversi is going to win, at best, or tie, at worst with Zombie Gun that I can’t help but be giddy.

We’ve been on a roll since one of my new favorite arcs ended, and I’m so excited that I can finally see my own predictions coming true with Reversi, the Death Note like series coming to the fore. It’s almost like knowing how to write a story gives you a sense for these things.

As for how I know that Reversi is going to be a major upset to Zombie Gun?

Well, a few things.

The biggest and most obvious one is that Yujiro is in good spirits: even though he has every reason to be in good spirits, it’s a classic narrative “don’t count your chickens before they hatch” scenario, and Yujiro has fallen for it. And the narrative wants you to at least buy that Yujiro’s right by giving Eiji the record.

But then there’s his meeting with Nizuma at the end of the chapter, which is the real giveaway.

Even though it’s a trope in the story at this point, Nizuma has the sixth sense, and we’ve only seen him get this serious one other time: when he wanted to cancel Crow.

And there are two panels I included in this read-through that say what he really thinks: he glares at Reversi.

He knows that his goal of being the number one artist in the world is legitimately under threat now, and he’s going to have to do everything he can to beat the boys. Although that might not be in the cards.

When Nizuma gets serious, it means that things are in trouble. It’s part of the narrative seesaw that happens with a lot of serialized stories:

The Narrative See-Saw

Narratives are predicated on things that are good happening to the protagonists or the focus of the story at any given time, or bad things happening to the protagonists or the focus of the narrative. And you can usually tell who is about to lose by how confident they are that they are going to win before the ending of the story.

It’s such a common trope that you will find it in basically every story. But it’s a trope for a reason: it’s an effective tactic.

When done well, it creates this unsettling sense that victory has been counted prematurely, and when things are going well for a character really early on, and there’s a lot of story left, that means there is about to be a lot of shit thrown at them in a short period.

You don’t get the real happy ending until the very end.

But here’s a neat little kicker: this is not exclusive to the main character, but, as I said, any character who is the subject of the narrative at any given time. This occurs more in longer form storytelling and serialized narratives because usually, you will have a cast of characters who are going through their own arcs. When they are not the direct narrative focus, usually, you just get a check-in, or they disappear entirely.

For example, Hiramaru in this chapter – whose gag I actually found unambiguously funny for once – is just checking in because he’s not the focus of the story. He’s got nothing narratively important going on. So he’s really just there to check in on and make a gag out of.

But Nizuma and Ashirogi are the focus of this chapter, so the setup of when they win, when they get on this narrative seesaw matters. It’s especially telling that Yujiro is declaring victory prematurely because once Ashirogi gets on the seesaw something’s going to happen to upset that narrative.

It goes back to something I talked about super early on in this read-through, like towards the beginning: the volta. The twist, the ten. This is a feature of all major storytelling, and it is what keeps it compelling.

Because dramatic shifts in station are ultimately what keep us coming back, a story remains an unstable compound until it’s preparing to end.

And not for nothing

We’re in the endgame now boys (and gals)

Since Sasaki’s departure from the magazine seems to have officially happened, and he declares the boys must beat Eiji, we have now entered battle mode.

Do I think the boys are going to consolidate their win quickly? No. We still have about 25 chapters left of the story before we hit that point, so a lot of stuff still has to happen before Miho and Saiko can get their happily ever after.

But the way the narrative has set it up, it’s clear that the boys are ready to take on Eiji. Their bête noire and final, biggest foe. The rival. This is for all the marbles, and the fact that they’re going all out with the heart, including the art for Reversi, which looks beautiful, tells us that much.

However, there are other indicators as well: namely, the fact that Yoshida points out that Eiji and Ashirogi have identified each other’s weak points and leveraged them to become stronger. Which means that, insofar as power levels go, the boys are now on par with Eiji in terms of skill.

It’s….really satisfying.

Now, given how the last battle with Eiji went, I’m not sure how this is going to play out past the fact that I know for certain they’re going to win this opening volley. I also don’t see what other conflicts are going to come into play either – I suspected some stuff with Heishi and maybe running two manga in the magazine, or something like that – but we’re really in uncharted waters now that we’re in the final arc.

And Final arcs usually go for a little, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this battle ends up going for a longer time than the standard arc. And if its going to do that, it’s going o have to pull out all the stops.

And I am looking forward to that.

But there are two other things that guarantee a strong opening from Ashirogi:

What’s in a Name?

The other thing is that Hattori has, for Saiko specifically, seen that he has the requisite skills to beat Eiji when Saiko lists off all the things his art needs to accomplish to beat him.

But also, the name of the manga is really what tips it off: Reversi. It’s a reversal, it’s the first time Eiji will be caught flat-footed, or at least caught up to in a real, unambiguous way.

So it’s an appropriately meta name to take us into the endgame.

And the wonderful thing about this, as I write it, is how much I can feel the accumulated years of working on this series building here. All the way from the first few chapters where the boys were so eager to get a manga and get an anime, to Hattori’s advice on how to improve their art, to every up and down.

It’s been a real journey to get here, especially for me, who has been working on this for 6 years. And I feel that weight as we head into the endgame.

I’m really, really excited. And even if I’m somehow wrong, I can’t help but be pumped for the battles to come.

We’re in the endgame now, boys, let’s get it started.

Until I see you again soon.

Peace