Yo, and welcome to my read-through of Chapter 156: Leeway and Hell in which I am gleeful about a chapter that I could hate if it were done much worse.
If you’re not caught up, please use this index here to do so. There are no spoilers past the current chapter.
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Leeway and Hell Summary
Famous Last Words
On May 15th at the studio, Hattori confirms that they’ve completed their storyboards for PCP in Hissho Jump already. SHujin confirms it while Saiko draws contentedly.
Hattori expresses his admiration for completing the transition to middle school and the graduation so fast, even given the extremely tight deadlines they are working under. Hattori approves of the storyboards finishing off the weekly magazine and approves the boards. Shujin’s grateful to hear that.
Meanwhile, Hattori lays out Saiko’s workload: PCP’s weekly wrap-up, PCP’s monthly series, AND Reversi’s first chapter means three pieces at the same time. Is he going to be okay?
Saiko hits him with a goofy grin that gives me absolutely zero faith that Saiko will be okay.
With a glint in his eye (down the sound effect), he explains how good a place they are currently in: they have completed storyboards for Reversi and they have a week break between the last chapter of PCP and the first chapter of Reversi. He’s been working the schedule out: 4 weeks of 19 pages and 45 pages for the monthly, so 121 pages a month overall, or 30 pages a week. Yikes.
Also, hey, my math was right!
If Saiko can’t do this, he should just give up. Agree to disagree, Saiko, buddy.
Hattori agrees that it’s going to be tough, but Saiko thinks he’ll be fine; he worked on a whole ass one-shot while doing his weekly series, he’ll have enough leeway as long as he takes no breaks.
Uhhhh, run that by me one more time, Saiko?
Hattori also has a needle scratch moment, but reckons that as long as he can get the color pages, which are due around the same time, done in a timely fashion, he should be okay.
Shujin openly wonders if Saiko will actually be okay with 30 pages a week, but Saiko deflects: they both have more pages to work on now.
At about the exact moment, Saiko puts the pen down and decides to call it an early day at ten pm. Shujin wonders why he’s taking the breather, and Saiko explains that Ogawa is coming tomorrow and that’s going to be the first day of the new cohort of assistants.
Takin’ Charge
Ogawa arrives the next day and immediately re-arranges the orientation so that four desks can fit comfortably, with some alternative seating on the side of the studio still available.
Moriya wonders who this person is, rearranging desks and giving orders despite just arriving. he seems like an assistant, but Moriya, Kato, and Orihara have seniority over him.
Ogawa asks Saiko for his schedule for the pages.
It’s tough.
Saiko is confident that he’ll be okay. The schedule for May allots 31 pages for the first two weeks + one color page; 30 pages for the final week, and 13 pages of Reversi over the course of all three weeks. For June, the first week will be the final chapter of PCP, plus 3 color pages for PCP, and finishing off the first chapter of Hissho.
The second week of June is devoted to Reversi, with a slowdown of Hissho to accommodate its monthly schedule, but it still ends up being 30 pages a week.
Ogawa does the mental math: that’s eight pages per person across four assistants working from Tuesday to Thursday. That’s three pages a day. That will be cutting it to the quick.
Saiko explains further that because of their efficiency, he was able to let the workers off on Thursday, but with the added work, they’ll have to transition to a full schedule of work, including Friday.
Ogawa pushes back: he has his other job with Shonen Three on Friday. Saiko understands, but the rest of the team is fine coming in on Friday since that was literally in their contract.
Saiko has another notification/request: as he adjusts to his new schedule, there is a likelihood that he won’t be able to finish inking by Friday. He would appreciate it if they could come in on Saturdays as well, for which he will pay extra. Ogawa again scolds Saiko: he needs to be adequately informed about these things in advance. Saiko apologizes, but Orihara, Kato, and Moriya all offer to come in; Moriya will even do it despite his own work (lol).
Saiko’s pleased as a peach to hear that? Their daily workload will be the same.
Chief Assistant
Moriya privately objects to the fact that Ogawa will be doing the same workload as they, but only for three days a week, especially as Ogawa lets Saiko know that as long as the pencils get in on time, he can give standing orders for when he’s out doing his other job.
Ogawa also gives Saiko a pointer: because Reversi has a very “refined” art style, the background work will also need to be sharper and more distinct than PCP. Saiko agrees, and Ogawa offers to instruct the others on how to make changes using the rough outlines of backgrounds. It should be a quick change.
Man, the studio’s really popping lately, huh?
Moriya stops the litany of advice. He asks Ogawa politely what the fuck: they’ve been working her longer than he has as assistants.
Ogaway immediately apologizes, mistaking Moriya for the chief assistant. Moriya backs down; he’s not the chief assistant. Ogawa wonders who the chief is, then?
The boys explain they don’t have one.
Ogawa puts the kibosh on that: without a chief assistant, it will be pure chaos. Saiko apologizes to Moriya: Ogawa has a lot of experience as an assistant and as a chief, so they’re promoting him to chief.
Moriya accedes to the battlefield promotion, although he’s privately irked that the guy who gets to leave on Thursday is taking charge like this.
Ogawa then apologizes for his didactic manner. He’s just used to giving people instructions, and he couldn’t help it when he saw the schedule; he would love to be their chief assistant.
Orihara and Kato are immediately grateful, and Moriya begrudgingly joins the new structure. They all decide to get down to business with Saiko’s primary concern being Ogawa and Moriya’s ability to play nice.
Delays
On May 23rd, Tuesday, Orihara and other assistants acknowledge how well Ogawa has whipped them into shape as assistants and artists. Even Moriya privately acknowledges he’s improved as a result. Ogawa, however, notices that Saiko has fallen behind.
Saiko explains that it took longer than anticipated to redesign the characters for PCP’s transition to middle school, as well as the character designs for new students and uniforms.
Orihara and Kato are cheerful and think they’ll do fine. Ogawa privately notices that they haven’t been following the schedule closely, fueling greater concerns. He notes that it would be normal for people who haven’t experienced “True Deadline Hell” before not to pay attention.
Ogaway instructs Saiko to pick up the pace as the assistants leaves for the evening. Saiko narrates that they were unable to catch up to the schedule this week.
Late in the evening, Saiko draws by himself, and he’s concerned about his progress: Hissho’s PCP is due on June 16, and Reversi on the 19th, and he’s so behind he now has to work on both at the same time. But he’s not only concerned with getting pages out, but also with radically improving and iterating over his previous work. He has to outdo himself to beat Eiji. He also reminds himself o the standard set: beating Eiji a second time not to mention making PCP Hissho’s flagship series. Both series are going to get color pages on the front of the magazine, so he has to make those pages unforgettable.
But he hasn’t even come up with compositions for the spreads, yet. He dips his G-pen and ponders the designs.
Can You Really Do This?
On June 13th, Ogawa mentions that they’re going to be in trouble at the current rate and tells Saiko they have to take drastic action now. Shujin overhears trouble, and everyone else looks to Saiko.
Ogawa clarifies: for Hissho PCP, of the 45 pages, they’ve only completed three color pages and 16 pages. As for the 56-page Reversi, they’ve only completed three color pages and 16 pages. That’s 26 more pages for PCP and 41 for Reversi (sweet baby Jesus). Ogawa wants to know if Saiko can realistically meet those deadlines.
He can’t, but anyway.
Saiko realizes he devoted too much time to the color page and didn’t make as much progress as planned.
Oh god, that sounds familiar.
Ogawa goes further: even if PCP is finished on time, there will still be the 41 pages of Reversi to complete in 3 days (woof), and that is only if Saiko finishes inking his pages. That’s 67 pages in a single week.
Holy fuck.
Shujin asks why Saiko didn’t tell him sooner that he was so behind; he had no idea.
Saiko – now visibly exhausted – explains that he knows they’re behind, but calculating the page differential is not going to get the pages done. He has to keep working.
Uh oh.
Shujin wonders if they shouldn’t get some temporary assistants to help with the pages.
Saiko refuses. Regardless of how many assistants they have, unless he finishes inking, they’re not going to be of any use. Plus, they begged for two series and promised we could do it, so they can’t ask Mr. Hattori for help now.
That’s…wrong, but whatever, dude.
Shujin gets it, but he’s also concerned (understandably).
Saiko will finish on time even if that means he doesn’t get any sleep. He’s not going to lower the quality of the series, and he won’t miss the deadline.
I do not like where this is going.
Shujin reminds him he has…I’m sorry, SIX days until publication; is he planning to go without sleep that long? Saiko defends himself: he’s getting better at transitioning the artwork of PCP and Reversi.
The assistants – and particularly Ogawa – watch in mild horror at his determination. Regardless of whether Saiko finishes inking, there will not be enough assistants to finish working on he chapter.
Saiko notices the time: 11:49, he orders his assistants to make sure to leave to catch the last train home, and he’ll do as much as he can by tomorrow.
Ogawa preps to leave with everybody, but Kato, Orihara, and Moriya decide to follow in their fearless leader’s footsteps: they will draw until they’re finished. If Saiko draws, they draw too.
Ogawa looks guilty, but still elects to go and offers to come as early as he can.
Kato makes an absolutely shit tier joke about the fact that you can pull shit like this when you’re not married, even though she still wants to get married soon.
Yikes, sis.
Hell
The next day, Ogawa returns and sees everyone still working. They worked through the whole night. They are now thoroughly sleep-deprived.
At that instant Kaya and Shujin return with energy drinks for everyone. All the assistants get one. Shujin asks how the draft is coming.
Saiko will keep working until he’s done.
Shujin and Kaya are going to help with the blacking and whiteouts, so they need to hand them whatever they can.
Ogawa examines what’s done: Siako is still focused on PCP and has made no progress on Reversi. He is working on an unsustainable schedule, and it will be impossible to finish. He informs Saiko that he won’t get Reversi done, but in a true case of Severe Humor, Saiko says, in the most ominous way possible, ‘I’ll complete it.’
Ogawa elects to start on backgrounds and Random Characters. He asks for those to be left to the assistants while Saiko focuses on the central characters.
Ogawa orders everyone to hand over panels with backgrounds to him: everyone is to work on what they are in charge of on every page, every panel at once.
Everyone goes into hyper mode, churning page after page after page.
However, Ogawa still has to go home at the end of the day with a lot of work left to be done. He recommends that everybody go home and get some rest so they can work more efficiently. But the assistants – now entirely in shadow are going to stay and finish. They don’t want to waste any time coming and going.
Moriya, now a hardened veteran of hell, explains: efficiency doesn’t matter. Even at their current rate, they’ve fallen behind, and they are literally getting started as soon as Saiko finishes inking. It will be impossible to catch up at this rate.
Ogawa sees the writing on the wall: they’re not going to be able to finish either way. He revises that: it’ll be up to Saiko, who, he admits, has increased his drawing speed incredibly.
Ogawa tells Saiko that if he finishes PCP, he’ll never get Reversi done in three days when we get this all-timer of a panel:
Ogawa decides to give up and leave.
Moriya announces what he knows Ogawa is thinking: they’re not going to be able to finish. But still, in spite of that, Ogawa is leaving. Saiko calls out Moriya; This is his fault, so if there is anyone to complain to, it is him. Moriya apologizes, and Ogawa leaves, horrified by the whole situation.
The other assistants – at, fuck me, three in the morning – bitch about how coldhearted Ogawa is. They chalk it up to the fact that he’s a professional assistant; they also recognise that he does all the work he’s assigned, and it’s twice as much as they can churn out. Kato notes that they do slow down without him there.
Saiko, now a blob on his desk, sees the truth: he doesn’t have enough people to put the finishing touches on the pages.
They hear a bell, and Kaya answers the door:
Ogawa comes with two temporary assistants: Okino and Miyakawa. They’ll come during the night to assist.
Saiko seems to see God, and Ogawa explains that he spent the last two nights looking for skilled assistant friends to pinch-hit and was able to get these two. As Chief Assistant, the final drafts are his responsibility. They have enough people to finish he job. Okino will work in the kitchen, and Miyakawa will go to the bathroom. Ogawa will come tonight after his work at Shonen Three, just this once. It is now up to Saiko to do his part.
His equally bedraggled assistants look like they’ve seen water in the desert.
Moriya thanks Chief Ogawa personally. But, Ogawa scolds Saiko gently: his wife gets angry when he doesn’t come home at night.
Saiko apologizes and falls back, on the verge of death, it seems.
He narrates that he was able to complete the draft on time, but he felt like a failure for causing so much trouble and vows never to let it happen again, as the chapter concludes:
Leeway and Hell Reaction
Jesus Christ
This chapter was a lot in like 15 different specific ways, and it was simultaneously a great chapter and one of the more frustrating chapters recently. But not as frustrating as the arc it’s subtly calling back to, and there are several reasons why, despite my frustrations, it might be an all-timer chapter.
But let’s get this out of the way: This chapter was fucking dense.
I think if you didn’t know anything about manga and wanted to see a mangaka at the peak of their craft, you could show them this chapter, and they wouldn’t understand what you were on about.
It’s dramatic, but pretty understated; it’s funny, but it’s not laugh out loud funny – okay the saiko panels were comedy gold – it has a rehashed plot element from a previous arc – and a rehashed character – but, for my money, this is one of the most effective and best chapters of Bakuman as a demonstration of craft, even if it’s still a frustrating chapter in the arch story.
And that’s for a few reasons.
But the biggest one is everyone’s favorite buzzword in this read-through. Well, my favorite buzzword. It’s my blog and I’ll say it whenever I can.
This was one of the most Meta-fictive chapters in all of Bakuman.
I know that’s a high fucking bar, so let me explain
The Detailed Artwork
Now, even though a regular reader could subconsciously pick up on this if they’re reading it, they probably wouldn’t be singing high praises for the art in this chapter. But I think the art of this chapter makes it unique among the latest string of Bakuman chapters.
As we are well aware by this point in the read-through, the series will constantly use plot points to comment on its narrative: we have a morally ambiguous character who teaches the protagonists how to commit better crimes, bam! Nanamine’s back. Oh, we’re going to have all the characters engage in a romance tournament arc? BAM, Hiramaru’s going to court Aoki successfully.
Whether big or small, Bakuman’s chief conceit is that it is telling you what is happening behind the scenes of its own creation at any given time, while also dramatizing it.
And the mention of Reversi’s background is the metafictive clue to what this chapter is going to be a love letter to: Assistants.
Panel for panel, this is one of the richest drawn chapters in the entire series. On almost every page, we get full backgrounds of the studio. And that is meant to mimic the new art style of Reversi, which has detailed “Crisp” backgrounds
Typically, Bakuman is pretty spare with its use of backgrounds. While the backgrounds are obviously there – as well as establishing shots and various shot lengths and styles – they generally keep the studio shots pretty static or familiar, and rely more heavily on the white space of character close-ups. They usually stick to a few angles and keep the line mileage – the number of lines per panel – pretty light.
But this chapter is balls to the wall with its backgrounds. We have dynamic angles of the drawing desk. We have the studio appear in full on almost every page. And this is with full screentones, lines, whiteouts, gradients, hatching, the whole works.
And that’s even more evident in the use of blacks.
We haven’t seen this level of blacks and beta color since before the screentone debacle in PCP‘s early run in the 80s. They are going hard on the details of the art.
And that’s because it mirrors the subject of this chapter, and the unique narrative conceit of:
Assistants
I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in the studio when this chapter was being drafted, and what Ohba and Obata communicated to their assistants when they made this chapter. Part of me wonders if they got temporary assistants who specialized in drawing backgrounds like Okino and Miyakawa to make sure the art was super detailed.
Because the standard here is much higher not only for background, but for details, the panel layouts are more expressive, the art style is more baroque. There are novel shot compositions.
And look, this series is a masterclass in manga art if you know what you’re looking for. It’s not Berserk, but it also doesn’t need to be. But it usually doesn’t go this hard with its art. Especially regarding Saiko’s slow degradation throughout the chapter as the chapter progresses.
So I have to imagine that they instructed their assistants to go dummy hard. It is also possible that they hired more assistants so that Obata’s full potential could be realized, as now that they’re in the endgame of the story, they want the art to reflect the heights of the battle into which they’ve entered —a tactic the series has consistently employed.
But this does an excellent job of showing how important the assistants are to making a manga successful, and especially well-administered assistants.
Although I didn’t comment on it, I was surprised that they only hired Ogawa as an assistant, and I wondered why. However, it is now clear that this was a narrative choice for chapters like this.
This felt in many ways like a bottle episode of a series where it’s confined to a single space to save on budget, but because it’s a manga, it has the opposite effect, because they have to hire more labor and do more work to get the job done.
And it does make the chapter tonally quite weird. Because it’s so super focused on Saiko’s descent into hell, and overestimating his ability to get the job done, and it’s really written from Ogawa’s perspectives, broadly speaking. Hence, the beats are a little unusual within he context of the story.
But I admire the ambition. And I think, in addition to giving us a lot of insight into the importance of a well-staffed support team, which this demonstrated well, it also shows us what else goes into making a manga that gets overlooked by the public.
What isn’t Talked About
Before we get into the elephant in the room – as well as Ogawa, too – I do want to highlight the reasons Saiko fell behind, which are like, the most “in theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; in practice there is” type moments in the entire series.
Because I think people think that making a weekly manga is time-consuming, specifically because of the drawing. Drawing 19 pages a week is a time-consuming and involved endeavor, but it is not the reason manga is such a brutal, all-consuming practice.
It’s everything else.
There is the storyboard, which is actually the most time-consuming part and requires editorial approval. And since we’re talking about a duo, that means getting the story approved and then getting the compositions right.
Then there are color pages, if you have any. Those have to be made on their own separate timeline in addition to the standard pages that are expected. This was covered very well in the Crow Conclusion arc, so we don’t need to go over it here.
Then there are character designs. This is where it gets complicated.
In addition to mapping out the page layout – and making sure those layouts are top tier – you also have to design characters as they appear in the story. And since many characters are introduced week to week without a prior plan—improvisation and structure, rather than pure planning— those designs don’t come from nowhere.
So while he artist is storyboarding, editing, doing color pages, and drawing the 19 pages, they are also doing the character designs for any new characters, antagonists, sub bosses, etc.
But that’s not all, because if a plot point requires research, they will then have to research for the series – like Takahama does – and then implement that research into the storyboard to get approved.
And then they have to design the fashions of the characters. Each character has to have a unique silhouette and appealing fashion. And those fashions don’t always track to a single piece of clothes per character.
And then there is the actual inking, background work, white outs, screentone, and submission to the editor. Oh, and the volume cover art, too. And if they’re successful, they might go to conventions or be interviewed about their manga. And they might also take side commissions in the meanwhile. Sometimes, they even get to sleep and eat.
It’s… a fuck of a lot.
And that’s why the support staff is so essential, because even once all this stuff I nailed down, you still have to get the pages drawn in a week for submission to the magazine. Which is where Ogawa finally comes in.
Ogawa’s reintroduction
It’s been so long since we saw Ogawa, but I like his presence here for two reasons. The big reason is he’s a mature adult dealing with dumb children, and he’s doing his best not to flip shit on their stupidity, whole chapter, which is relatable.
But also, he engages in healthy boundary setting in an inherently unhealthy industry, and he does not fall prey to the groupthink that affects everyone else, and that is key to why this chapter, in hindsight, works the way it does.
If this were a standard shonen chapter, then Ogawa, by the end of this mini-plot, would sit down with his other assistants and grind it out, family and other obligations be damned.
But no. Ogawa is an actual adult with actual adult responsibilities. He’s willing to take one for the team and eat shit from his wife, yes, but in a way that is healthy, and considerate, and genuinely helpful.
He earns his chief assistant status and really sells how important time management is to effective manga production.
And I LOVE that at no point does he compromise his schedule for these two series. Especially in the context of Japanese culture, where insubordination or not looking like you love to work is seen as a bit of taboo.
Go Ogawa, go, keep going home to your family and second job and getting sleep and coming back and doing better than those pulling an all-nighter.
Ogawa is doing double duty. He’s the audience’s everyman. He’s observing this shit show with genuine concern, but he’s also been there on a hell week, so he’s not judging them; but he’s also realistic. He’s examining the schedule, setting the pace, and teaching everyone how to be better. However, he knows that he works best when he gets enough sleep and attends to his outside responsibilities.
So when his solution isn’t: grind it out until I win, but “find temporary help to save his mangaka’s bacon,” it’s such a baller move that respects the fact that Saiko is not checking himself and will therefore, inevitably, wreck himself. He does the mature thing, which also unintentionally saves face for Saiko, who is betting on his ability to get through this without killing himself.
Speaking of:
Ogawa keeps me from having an aneurysm at Saiko’s idiocy
Look, I am the king of overestimating the time I have for a project and a project’s needs just…look at this read-through, which is 3 years overdue. But also, Saiko, please don’t hurt yourself just to get these drafts done.
I think this chapter’s weirdness in part stems from some narrative setup – the stuff with Moriya and Ogawa is a red-herring, at least at this point that doesn’t really satisfactorily pay off by the end – but also from the fact that it’s flirting with a plotline we’ve seen before. One I personally hated. And now with Ogawa and Kato here, it’s meant to recall that explicitly.
It’s also played for laughs.
I hated the hospital arc, and any sign that it might return makes me instantly grumpy. I also hate that Saiko is falling into an old character habit – granted unintentionally – by focusing on quality at the expense of his health.
So if the story went he way I feared it was going to go, I’d be so much angrier at this chapter than I am. But the series has matured at this point. While Saiko is imperilling himself, for sure – and the assistants don’t really prevent him from having to get 41 pages of manga done in 3 days – there is a definite sense that he’s better equipped to handle it, and that he won’t self-destruct.
Aside from being a re-hash – which the series is also mindful of – it would diminish so much of the progress of the series, especially on the cusp of the Eiji battle. And i don’t need no distractions from that.
That doesn’t mean I necessarily appreciate the humor of making fun of Saiko’s pigheadedness, leading to him being a soulless husk. It’s funny, for sure, -and one of the few cases where the idea of “serious humor” lands in a way that makes sense to me. But it’s also his health, and i don’t want him to die. Especially since we just had that whole review of Taro’s death.
So, tonally, yeah, it’s a bit weird. However, fortunately, the series is not making a point not about overwork, but about proper scheduling. because
The 7 Ps
Piss poor planning produces piss poor product. And that’s really at the heart of the conflict. Saiko is too used to things being easy, so he doesn’t account appropriately for the externalities of preparing a first chapter of 60 pages, a first chapter of 45 pages, and then 80 pages for the weekly. That is a comical volume.
And it would make sense to get a fucking set of temporary assistants in that case.
I have a feeling we *might* see Okino and Miyakawa again – both their character designs were sick (and had to be come up with this chapter!). Still, I think this chapter was really meant to be more of an aberration than the norm because Reversi’s first chapter is so much longer.
So it’s predictable that everything goes to hell in a handbasket pretty quickly.
And I like that Ogawa has the presence of mind to recognize that they are in for a hell week. He’s being reasonable about everything, because he’s been there. He’s been in a hell week himself. Sometimes deadlines can be like that, so it’s not like they don’t understand. He just wants it to be administered effectively.
And knowing that once Reversi is past its first chapter and they won’t have to do weekly chapters of PCP anymore, I feel like the schedule will naturally smooth itself out more.
But that doesn’t negate Saiko’s idiocy and bullheadedness. Granted, he’s under scrutiny from the editorial because of his previous hospitalization, but even so, Hattori recognizes he’d probably need additional assistants. To get this done.
I experienced all of this when making my film. We planned pretty rigorously, and we did pretty good overall on the shoot, but there were moments where things got cut close because of timing. And we had three night shoots in a row. That’s exhausting no matter how you cut it. But thanks to that prep work we managed to survive intact and get the shots with minimal pain.
So plan your shit, and prepare for externalities like Ogawa.
Even more importantly, the all-nighters were not portrayed as an absolute good; they were portrayed as an unfortunate necessity. It is nice to see his team of assistants so loyal, but also, Jesus Christ.
Also, that Kato joke just did not fucking land, holy shit. She’s a walking ick.
SO, why is this chapter a top-tier chapter?
Despite my reservations with it. It fully realizes Bakuman’s chief conceits about being about manga, and using the medium to explain how the sausage gets made to the fullest effect. It is simultaneously meta-fictive, realistic, funny, and detail-oriented, even if long-winded, and focuses on characters facing the tough realities of the business in which they operate with grace and candor.
It works. And it’s not super shonen, either, which is sometimes a good thing.
As for what’s happening next?
I have to imagine the Moriya Ogawa conflict might spread, but for now, it seems it will be fine. Do I think Okino and Miyakawa are here to stay? I can really tell, they could be. It’s going to be a coin toss. it was good to see Orihara and Moriya again.
However, I suspect that the assistants may become more significant players as they adjust to the schedule. And Ogawa also made an observation I’m sure is going to come up again.
Saiko’s speed has increased “incredibly”. It’s a very subtle moment, but it speaks to something worth reiterating: the more you focus on a craft, the better you get. And Saiko is laser-focused, so he’s experiencing incredible improvement. That is genuinely admirable.
I also have the strong sensation that we’re going to see whatever Eiji was planning in the next chapter. And probably a glimpse at Team Fukuda.
But that will be for next week
This read-through is too long,
So I’m peacing out,
Until next time,
peace
Also, 20 Chapters left!
