Hey there, you’re an all star, get your game on, go play, and welcome to my read-through of Chapter 158: Dragging On and Top Speed, in which the chapter is quiet, and I’m not vibing the metafiction.

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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Dragging On and Top Speed Summary

Schwarz v. Weiss All The Way Through

Continuing right where the last chapter left off, and the second manga popularity poll (more on that below, squee), Shujin realizes that, regardless of its popularity, they have no choice but to have Schwarz v. Weiss all the way through to the end of the story.

Saiko reminds Shujin that they only dropped to third, and they can recover. Shujin continues right on panicking: the inability to replace the enemy character is a significant challenge. Hattori agrees: the usual progression for battle manga is to have the characters defeat an enemy and to introduce a new enemy once the first one is defeated. A stronger enemy appears after that, and so on.

Shujin goes further: changing the villain is comparatively easy if he isn’t popular. Nizuma just did that and got the results. In Reversi, though, the first boss is the final boss. Shujin reasons that they were too caught up in how cool the premise of two main characters was, but that practically the story can’t go further if no one likes them.

Even then, there is only so much Shujin can do narratively with the two characters before the story gets boring. This is a true weakness of the series. Shujin freaks out about whether including Weiss from the get-go was a… Weiss, idea.

Ba dum tss. I won’t show myself out.

Hattori points out that Schwarz v. Weiss is the entire draw of the story, and it has already been popular thus far; they’re just more concerned because they spent 3 weeks in first place. They’re still doing great. Saiko agrees: they can’t make that change.

Shujin placates them and acknowledges what kind of manga it is, and that he’s the writer, so it’ll be his responsibility. Hattori decides to focus on their next meeting.

Pressure to Perform

On the ride home, Shujin grumbles about how difficult being at the top is; Saiko thinks it’s self-evident, otherwise it wouldn’t be worth getting. Shujin asks about Saiko’s conversation with Miho about this work being her signature Voice Acting role.

Saiko notes that Miho has grown increasingly popular as Ai in Instant 12, so he wants Reversi to surpass that one. Shujin asks how many volumes of Instant 12 there are: 42 or 43. It has been running for more than eight years. Shujin has to create something better than that.

The two part ways.

But when Shujin returns home, he’s totally spaced out

Kaya notices her hubby being a space cadet and asks what’s on his mind. He’s ruminating over making Reversi bigger than Instant 12; how can he turn it into a flagship series; how can he make it Miho’s signature role? Kaya’s dumbfounded, but she encourages her husband to keep it up.

AS long as he stops biting his chopstick.

So cutteee

They end their meal, and Shujin returns to his room and looks at Zombie-Gun. He meditates on all the things he has to accomplish: beat Eiji, get an anime, and become a flagship series.

No biggie

He remembers vividly Hattori’s admonition that PCP will not become an anime. He doesn’t want that to happen. He also knows that it takes about a year for a manga to get an anime announcement.

How can he do this, especially with just Schwarz and Weiss? Not to mention the series has to run after they get animated. That’s when peak popularity is achieved.

Shujin’s woes increase: can he keep the story going for ten years based purely on Schwarz and Weiss? He thinks about introducing a new villain, which would be in character for Jump, but thinks it will prolong the series past its natural lifespan (woops). This is about Schwarz and Weiss, no two ways about it.

He thinks about power-ups or resurrecting with a different look. That’s also typical. He pauses: this is premature to think about now, so SHujin elects for the third option: to prolong the current battle so that Reversi will become a flagship series for Saiko and Miho’s sake. He has to make it happen.

Poor guy.

Diluting Story

On Thursday, August 13th, Shujin provides a storyboard for Saiko to work on. Saiko looks it over with a neutral expression. Shujin wants to know what he thinks.

There’s a lot of fighting in this chapter. Yeah, because it’s a mainstream story! Saiko can draw a bunch of battle sequences that’ll look really cool.

Saiko thinks something’s off. There are too many fights in the chapter when Shujin’s strength is density and mind games. If it is a mainstream story, it’s worth trying. Saiko will have it done for Hattori by tomorrow.

The next day, they get he news that Reversi has dropped to fifth place. Shujin tries to play it cool: fifth place is still cool. No need to be down. Even though they have this huge constraint on their writing, they just have to ride it out, even if their rank drops.

Uh huh. Keep cope alive, Shujin.

Saiko recognizes what’s actually going on: the main characters aren’t the problem. After three chapters of breakneck, dense storytelling, the chapters have been thinned out, clearly.

Hattori approves the final draft and asks to look at the newest chapter. He takes a look and notes that it’s good, but it’s watered down. Saiko agrees. A lot more than chapter 6, which they just got results for.

Not Fade Away

Shujin shouts that if he kept going at the pace he was, the series was going to end really fast.

Shujin cites Hattori’s belief in its ability to hit flagship status – a manga that represents the magazine – as his defense for slowing down: Dragon Ball, Slam Dunk, Rurouni Kenshin, Naruto, Bleach. The flagships have all run for years and sold millions of copies.

Hattori agrees, those are all flagship series. He also points to Saiko’s own desire for a flagship series. He wanted something that would become so successful it would run for a long time, right? Saiko did say those are two things he wants: signature series and an anime. He did not, however, say he wanted the series to run for a long time.

Look who is a lawyer, now.

Shujin asks whether Saiko is really okay ending it short, say 100 chapters.

I wonder where this is going.

Saiko thinks that’s chill, as long as it’s good. While Saiko recognizes that getting a long-term series that is also super popular would be best, he doesn’t think that’s the only thing that determines flagship status or whether it’s a masterpiece. Reversi is not that kind of story.

He thinks there is nothing wrong with a series that dashes from beginning to end at top speed.

Saiko notes that if he told the story in the way that Shujin was best at, the story wouldn’t end up very long. Shujin uses that for defense: manga need to last a year to become an anime. It’d be meaningless if the series wasn’t running in Jump until the anime starts.

Saiko disagrees: the quality of the work takes precedence

Saiko goes for the jugular: if they wanted to remain between third and tenth place, selling 500K graphic novels, they should have stuck with PCP. They begged editorial to make PCP for a reason. They’re aiming for the top spot.

Saiko wants them to aim for the top and end in the most perfect possible way. Shujin can do that with Reversi. If it ends fast, that’s not an issue.

Shujin prepares to resist, but Hattori intervenes: he understands both sides, but he also doesn’t think a series with an anime is better than any other manga; he wants the series to be a flagship series, even if only for a little while. He wants it to remain in the top three that whole time, though.

He also scolds Shujin a bit: those big series that become flagships that ran for a long time only did so by making sure every chapter was a banger and that they would top the popularity charts with them. They didn’t care about creating a series that would run for a long time.

Hattori won’t let Shujin get a word in: maybe Shujin’s smart enough to calculate a way to beat those odds, though. He asks what the two want to do with the storyboard; he’ll give it a try if they want…

But shujin offers to do another version.

Azu-Kyun Night

Shujin rewrites his storyboard and wonders if Saiko really is okay with all of this. Kaya lets him know that Miho’s radio program is starting, and she wants to listen to it with him.

Miho introduces herself and the radio program “Azu-Kyun Night” while Miho yaps about the program, Kaya admires how much like a voice actress she sounds.

While he listens to Miho’s podcast, he thinks about Saiko’s wishes to make Reversi Miho’s signature work and to get an anime so he can finally get married. But Saiko’s lobbying his ardest for them to do the best possible job.

He decides to call Saiko, who is currently in the bliss of having listened to his girlfriend on a radio program. He thinks it’s about Azu-kyun Night, but Shujin has business to discuss: does he really not care if Reversi is a short series?

Saiko tells him, again, that it’s fine. Shujin admits that he’s already envisioned the end of Schwarz and Weiss’s battle. The very last scene; after that, he won’t feel like working on it anymore. He doesn’t want to introduce new enemies and all that. Saiko understands and thinks they’ll move onto their next work after that. He can do it.

Shujin notes, however, that if things go the way he wants, the series won’t even reach fifty chapters, most likely. Saiko reiterates: create the best possible work; that’s what they’ve done with PCP and Detective Trap.

Casually disregarding Tanto, good call.

Shujin sees the light. Saiko reiterates his faith in his friend. Saiko believes he can craft a compelling story week by week and conclude it the way he wants to. He’s the writer after all.

Press X to Doubt

Shujin watches the stars. Saiko thinks that if he keeps working on Reversi, it will become a masterpiece. He orders Shujin to create a series that everyone will accept; the results will come, regardless of the length.

Shujin asks if he thinks it’ll be animated.

Saiko reminds him that he has to do so that Miho can get the part. This is the first time Saiko has formally asked him but he needs Shujin to make Reversi a masterpiece for him and Azuki, but also for him.

Shujin takes a beat to relish the good feeling and thanks Saiko.

Shujin vows not to write a single unneeded word or a single unnecessary thing. He’ll put everything he has into it and promises to rush through the series at top speed.

On that very autobiographical note, the chapter concludes.

Dragging On and Top Speed Reaction

And now a note on the Popularity Poll

Before we get into the reaction popular – this chapter was an unexpected doozy – let’s talk about the fun little fluff at the beginning: The POPULARITY POLL.

I feel like it’s not shocking that PCP won the contest, but I will admit that the fact that Classroom of Truth placed second is actually pretty amusing. If only because it speaks to the readership of this particular series, who are in it for the dark, morally questionable stuff.

I also like that they showed all the manga that appeared in the series, including Hibiki sensei’s series that was trying to overtake them, and I also loved the reader comments. I can’t tell if they’re real or not, but I kind of want them to be real, because everyone collectively playing along with having “read” their favorite series in this manga series is a level of goofy in-joke love that I adore.

Anyway, onto this chapter, which kinda left a weird taste in my mouth

When is Meta-fiction Autobiography

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I knew going into this that the series was about the authors of Death Note becoming manga, fictionalized yet heavily autobiographical. I do know some history of Ohba courtesy of a manga collector on youtube, and a lot of the stories he’s been in track with the general trajectory of the story.

But by that same token, the series has done an excellent job of creating just enough of a fictional barrier between its creators and its subject that instead of finding the content tea spilling autobiography, it is, instead, a love letter and meta-fictional peek behind the curtain into the world of manga. And in the process, it has deepened my love for the medium.

I’m working on a one-shot now. I don’t know if it will be any good or be published in VIZ, but I will write it, regardless. Gonna take a while, though. Probably longer than this read-through. I’m also still, y’know, editing my movie, which takes precedence.

But here, here is the first case where the meta-fictive component got overshadowed by the legacy of the creators’ prior series to its detriment, I believe. Not in an existentially destructive way, but in a way where, for better or worse, I have a pretty good idea of the trajectory of the final stretch of the series.

And I’m not about that.

What am I talking about?

Well.

Death Note only went for about 50 chapters

So as I discussed, at length, last chapter, you have to have a glut of enemies and spread them out over the course of your series to keep things interesting, and create rival characters and all that, and now they’re going with the thing about Death Note that is probably its most infamous dirty laundry: it was only supposed to be around 50 chapters.

Light V. L was supposed to be the whole narrative. And even watching the anime, it’s obvious that that’s the case. Given the dark content and morally dark ending, there was wiggle room to do a second act of sorts with Near and Mello, but that felt like a re-skin of the first arc, and you feel it as you engage with the story.

But Jump would not let one of their most popular series in the magazine – by a significant margin – die an ignominious early death, and so Ohba and Obata were forced to carry Death Note well past its life span (no pun intended) until it ended a full 58 chapters later and all of its goodwill was basically erased.

At least in the West.

Now, I don’t know how people in Japan took the introduction of Near and Mello, maybe it was better than the US, where the back half is more or less universally hated, but if I had to guess, the conclusion of Death Note probably wasn’t amazingly popular there, either. Outside of a more conventional ending.

And I will admit, there was enough story with Light to have a conventional ending, but it was extended unnaturally at the hands of Jump editorial.

So I unfortunately see exactly where this is going. Jump is going to force their hand – within the next few chapters – to run past the battle with Schwarz and Weiss, and they’re going to be locked into making a series they do not want to make and tank their popularity.

It could happen differently, but those are going to be the broad strokes. I also think Heishi and Aida will institute this decision because now the guard has changed and they don’t have the leeway they did with Sasaki.

And that’s a bummer.

Even though

I’ve Foreseen This happening

One of the great strengths of Bakuman is that it is able to structure most of its arcs around the intricacies of mangamaking, and we’ve covered almost everything except for getting an adaptation. From applying too much screentone, to overwork, to replacing assistants to the various awards and competitions going on behind the scenes, to the editorial calculus going behind green lights and axes.

But we haven’t gotten the extending ga story past its natural lifespan, which was the whole focus of Eiji’s arc, and what I hoped was going to be where this idea was explored in depth

And that’s not to say it doesn’t make sense narratively to coil it at the end. Despite Bakuman being a serious humor series, it still has moments of darkness – Shizuka has disappeared at this point, but his arc was horrifying – like Nakai, stalking, sexism, and a glut of other awful shit.

And there is a structural component to this as well: one of the tropiest tropes to ever trope is the final battle being against the organization that has been bankrolling you for the entire story because they turn on you.

I just…kind want it to be about Eiji and the boys, though.

And that’s the rub. Because they’re going to beat Eiji. They already have, but I want that to be the focus of the story at this juncture. I know it’s not the most realistic component, and there’s not a whole lot else they can do at this point to keep this battle interesting, but I want to focus on the final battle, a little longer than we did previously, because it’s the biggest hurdle to their success: that and their own damn behavior.

So I’m not looking forward to this. Also, because I would be disappointed if their victory came in the form of an imperfect series getting turned into an anime. That’s what really rankles; the notion that the series has to be diminished by Jump’s editorial malfeasance because it’s popular and torpedo it.

But I’ve digressed on this topic long enough, a lot of other shit happened in this chapter too, which also shows how close we are to the end:

A Gentler Shujin Writer Conflict Redux-Redux

So yeah, this is a flavor of chapter we’ve gotten every so often, and while this did have some new dynamic element, I basically thought it was a rehash of Tanto, and of the Copycat arc. Oh no, Shujin’s going to get writer’s block and imperil their ranking.

Fortunately, it was resolved quickly, and in a way, quite beautifully.

Look, I’m a sucker for simple romantic beats. But this was a wonderful renewal of what makes the central relationships of this series work: Saiko and Shujin care for each other.

I’ve commented on how cute Kaya and Shujin are together because they act like an adorable, devoted, married couple, and it’s fucking cute to see just a normal ass couple doing normal ass couple things cutely. I want. I want it so bad.

But just as cute is how much Saiko and Shujin have developed into this powerful connection. That’s also completely platonic. They are friends to the bone, and they will do whatever they need to to make each other happy and creatively satisfied.

I LOVE that Saiko is actually lawyerly about the long =/= good series thing because he’s absolutely right. A lot of incredible series run no longer than 15 chapters.

Like Three Days of Happiness, which is one of my favorite manga. Only 16 chapters. But each chapter is solid fucking gold.

Then there’s stuff like Mob Psycho 100 or Chainsaw Man part 1, which weren’t super long-running series, or Bakuman, which is less than 200 chapters. Oyasumi Punpun less than 200; a lot of Viz Manga are short runs that accomplish a lot with a little run time because they are simply excellent. I still need to finish Downfall, but that was top tier. And Tokyo These Days, which I’ve read a chapter or two of.

Greatness is purely a matter of making the story as good as it can be in the right amount of pages, words, and images. No more, no less. And if it can be done concisely, mores the better.

And that is entirely separate from how long it runs. And it could be argued, the longer a series runs, the more disappointing it is apt to be. Almost no one enjoys the final arcs of Naruto, or Bleach, or Dragon Ball Z because they’ve hit the ceiling of what their story can do narratively and remain interesting. The long-running part, if anything, counters the notion that a good story needs to be long.

Then there’s One Piece, but that’s very much the exception to the rule.

So I’m all aboard the Saiko train on this one: make it super good and beat EIji. Even if it’s only for a year, beating Eiji will be enough.

Now, we know it’s not only going to be a year because of that final little nugget, but let’s dream for now.

And this actually segues nicely back into Death Note:

Death Note is Still Massive

I don’t think I can adequately overstate just how fucking successful Death Note actually is as a manga. For a series of only 12 volumes, its staying power is ridiculous. It has inspired countless memes, it has so much merch, it has movie adaptations, it has a banging Japanese musical with a rock backing track.

There is Death Note merchandise, and there is an entire subgenre of memes devoted to its zaniness.

And it also has a super successful anime that is still highly influential.

So Shujin is freaking out basically over nothing, even though I’ve been preaching the same thing. However, the reason I preach the same thing that SHujin is thinking is because, again, the structure of creating manga invites that kind of storytelling.

Going in with a story in mind, telling it, and being done is not how a week-to-week series works. You tell a story, and then you come up with a way to continue that story, until you can continue it no more, for as long as the magazine deems it a hit.

I don’t want the boys to go out like Death Note did, but I also don’t see a way for them to escape their fate.

Maybe, if they get successful enough, they’ll get a cancellation like Eiji did? This is why I hoped for EIji’s Chekhov’s cancellation to be used on Ashirogi, because it would have been very narratively satisfying to have the millstone cut from the boys’ necks after roundly beating Eiji once and for all. That would have been just. And that would have been great.

But we’re here, and we’re going to have to deal with this more unpleasant final hurdle.

As for the rest of the chapter, this was a weirdly fast chapter, and very intimate. I liked the general tenor of quiet that surrounded it. Schwarz v Weiss is very funny as a name, but I think that final part of the chapter is going to stick with me.

Two brothers, committed to each other, in a very straightforward way, yet in a very loving way.

And I’m a sucker for it because of Saiko’s direct request. Although it’s always been the subtext of the series, his directly asking for help – even if it’s risking the longevity of their series – is one of those late-stage moments of beauty that I live for. I also love how moved Shujin is by it. I love that Shujin is less freaked out about the story, and more reflective on how they’re going to proceed.

The weight is crazy, especially with the mention of Miho’s adorable fucking radio program Azu-kyun (god I can hear it in my head, it must be adorable as shit) and his growing popularity.

I can see why Shujin would be so concerned. But fortunately, he has Hattori and Saiko at his side, and they’re prepared to simply make the best work possible.

And so am I. Commit to ourselves, forget the rest, and focus on being the best, and when you get your skills in place, you can get there.

But we’re not there yet.

Until next time

Peace