Hi there and welcome to my read-through of Chapter 163: Confirmation and Consent in which the central lie comes undone, and Eiji pulls a cheap trick, and I find one charming and the other obnoxious.
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Confirmation and Consent Summary
Preparing to Make a Decision
Picking up directly from the last chapter, Not-Nakano introduces the problem: Crow is concluding in the summer; does Jump want to pursue any new anime as a replacement?
Heishi thinks there isn’t really a decision to make: it’s Zombie-gun or Reversi. Not-nakano thinks it should be Zombie-gun since Crow’s built-in audience guarantees a hit.
Aida counters with Yujiro’s assessment: there isn’t enough content to adapt at this point. Aida agrees it’s too early and the anime would catch up with the manga very fast. By contrast, Reversi, with its story density, has enough content for an anime to take its time catching up.
The only problem is that it’s not geared towards kids, and that Zombie-gun has universal appeal as a series. Aida suggests that the anime team make it slightly more child-friendly. Not-nakano thinks Aida is too eager to make Reversi into an anime.
He’s not, though. Yujiro—and Nizuma, too— don’t want to make the series yet, so if it’s just between these two, then Reversi is the way to go. Not-Nakano sees the light.
Heishi asks whether Hattori has said anything about it being animated. No, he’s aware they’ve received proposals, but likely thinks it’s still a ways off. Heishi wants Hattori’s input on the situation.
Aida wants to confirm that if both Hattori and Ashirogi are cool with it, it’ll become an anime.
Heishi doesn’t outright confirm that; he wants more information so he can make a decision. Yujiro must be asked as well. Aida thinks Hattori will “jump for joy,” while Not-Nakano (I should look up this dude’s name) thinks Yujiro will say it’s premature.
Heishi orders them to ask.
Hattori’s Dilemma
Hattori is, in fact, thrilled to hear about Reversi getting an anime. Aida tries to measure expectations: they’re not decided yet, but it would be this summer after Crow’s conclusion. Hattori can barely contain himself.
Hattori thought Zombie-Gun would start for sure, but they don’t have enough chapters locked in for an anime adaptation yet. Aida agrees: Reversi is a lot denser, and so easier to adapt. Aida emphasizes that nothing has been decided yet, but he wants to confirm Hatori’s interests.
Hattori takes a moment to think about it. Aida doesn’t undrestand what the hesitation is about. Hatttori starts doing mental math on the timetables for how long it has been running. He starts thinking about whether the series will end before the anime begins. Hattori asks about Crow’s run time as anime: about 7 years.
He remembers Saiko’s wish to make a story that runs for a good time, not a long time, or some shit like that.
Hattori has a genuine crisis: the series might end before the anime starts airing; he worries about the damage they’ll all take if the series concludes before the anime even begins airing, and how reputationally damaging it could be to Ashirogi specifically. He wonders if he should push Ashirogi to keep the series running while the anime airs.
No no. They’re stubborn, so they won’t want to continue the series unless he convinces them.
Aida wants to know what’s got Hattori so serious. Hattori pulls back, he’s happy about the news, but he can’t give an immediate answer. Aida wants to know what the deal is but Hattori asks for some time.
Granted, but not a lot of it.
At Eiji Co., Ltd., Yujiro comes to confirm that Eiji is not interested in an anime for Zombie-gun just yet. No, it’s too early. Yujiro agrees; they’ll need to wait longer to adapt it. He thinks it should run for about 3 years. Eiji agrees with him.
Yujiro then lets Eiji know the likely follow-up to Crow will be Reversi.
Eiji’s mood shifts at that news: Yujiro doesn’t notice and thinks Eiji’s happy to hear that Ashirogi will get one.
Press X to Doubt.
Hattori’s Dilemma: with the boys now
At…omg, Hattori’s apartment, Hattori, chilling in a kotatsu, debates whether to tell Ashirogi about this turn of events. He knows they’re going to flip shit and demand an anime, and he knows it’s their dream to do so. But he also knows that the condition of that will prolong Reversi past its natural lifespan.
What if the quality falls off? He knows Ashirogi is right. He thinks about telling the bosses about the situation. But if the bosses know they likely won’t turn it into an anime.
Hattori thinks he should stop thinking about it and have it made into an anime without telling them about the series’ conclusion. He thinks that’s irresponsible.
Man, this feels familiar.
He tosses and turns, but he can’t sleep. He decides that he needs to tell the boys.
The next day, at the studio, he urges calm and to listen.
He also emphasizes nothing has been decided yet. But he tells them the good news. and the boys react delightfully
These precious weirdos.
They’re on the verge; they’re so happy. FINALLY.
But then Hattori rains on their parade: NOT YET. He’s only gauging interest. OF COURSE, they’re interested. Duh.
Hattori grimaces: he should have expected this. The wonder if the lack of decision has to do with their permission. They’re hard yes on this.
Hattorit tries to calm them again. A shot of a studio and PCP mug later, Hattori explains his conditions for the anime: if they do it, they have to continue working on it until the anime is over; they’ll create a great story even after the battle of Schwarz and Wesiss is over.
Saiko freaks: was that an order from the higher ups? No, there was no mandate on this, but it’s just a logical response. From the Anime Production Company’s point over they want you to keep working on the series as long gas possible. it may be dropped if it loses popularity, however…
Shujin sees the problem: their series is likely to end before the series can begin. Shujin asks if it’s definitely impossible to finish the series before the anime airs. Again, no.
Hattori gives them the real issue: if he told his bosses about the situation, they might not proceed with the anime at all. So it would be easier if the boys agreed to keep the series going until the anime ends. Or for at least a year after the anime begins, as long as it remains popular.
Hattori wants it to be animated for their sake as well.
WAIT WHATTTT
SHujin gets furious: they have an offer, why turn it down? They can’t pass this opportunity up. Shujin is willing to push the story past this final battle and come up with more stories. He can do it.
Saiko knows that he’s saying that for his and Miho’s sake. Shujin is willing to compromise on the quality to a certain degree. Hattori’s surprised and asks if he minds if the quality suffers a bit. Shujin will keep it running without killing quality. Hattori’s confused. It isn’t like him.
Hattori expected the answer: we want it to be an anime but they’ll never sacrifice the quality.
Saiko decides it’s time. This is for his personal dream.Shujin tries to stop him.
Oh shit. It’s fucking time.
IT”S FUCKING TIME LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOO
Saiko explains that he made a promise to Miho Azuki the voice actress that their work will become an anime and she would voice the heroine of it. Once that dream comes true, they’ll get married. They’re not going to get sidetracked, they won’t go on dates, and won’t even see each other except for that time when he was hospitalized.
And the VA thing. But whatever.
He knows it’s absurd (it definitely fucking is) but he’s telling the truth. Shujin persuaded him to become an artists, and at the same time his own dream came into being. that’s why he decided tow work with him. And that’s why Shujin is trying ot make that dream come true.
Hattori is flabbergasted: THAT’s the reason they’ve wanted an anime this whole time?
Saiko goes on: for that reason, he’s against Shujin’s idea fo sacrificing quality to get the work animated. He wants to complete the series first and then have it animated if anyone’s interested. Shujin gets offended at the idea his quality would drop.
Also, it’s the chance they’ve been waiting for! Stop being so idealistic and just take the offer. Even at the risk of their series quality? No way. What would Miho think of it?
Hattori does something pure and wonderful: he bursts out laughing. the boys are surprised.
He apologizes: he was wrong.
They received an offer, they should just say yes. Muto Ashirogi wants an anime, after all.
It’s Never That Easy
Hattori tells them not to worry about it. Do the series they want and end it whenever they want to. Any complaints will be Hattori’s responsibility. Saiko wants to know why he suddenly had the change of heart.
Hattori smiles to himself: it’s a good dream to have. He loves the idea of it and that he’s held it since middle school. He wants to see it achieved.
The boys are still confused: it’s a personal dream. They worry about how they’ll be perceived as not taking manga seriously.
Hattori vows to support their dream: anyone who rejects that dream of yours is a person with no dream.
HEY. I DON”T APPRECIATE THAT.
Anyway.
Hattori was being too adult about this. He lost that pure feeling they’ve got. They’ve got a chance to make an anime and they should just take it. No big deal.
the next day at Shueisha, Hattori gives Aida their answers: A resounding yes but Yujiro comes from behind, holding something.
The first twenty episodes of original storyboards created by Nizuma for Zombie-gun’s anime. Aida and hattori are shocked: didn’t Nizuma himself say the wasn’t interested?
He did, but upon hearing about Reversi’s anime potential, he didn’t want to lose to the boys and he expressed a desire to have Zombie-Gun animated instead.
He won’t lose
ON that *mildly* infuriating note, the chapter concludes
Confirmation and Consent Reaction
Welp.
I wasn’t expecting that. We will talk about Eiji a little later in this reaction – Jesus Christ – but first I want to talk about another late-stage story trope that I fucking adore: the reveal of the central lie.
Most stories are predicated on a misunderstanding; sometimes, it’s as dramatic as accidentally killing your father, and marrying your mother like Oedipus; sometimes it’s as small as a big-time producer stealing your IP for a stupid ’90s action movie and then going to Hollywood to steal it back.
Okay, I just watched Big Little Liar, it was a silly movie. Sue me.
In the case of Breaking Bad, it’s watching a girl die of a heroin overdose and doing nothing to stop it.
And this secret, this lie, or this thing that needs to be hidden lingers for most of the story. It has to, it will upend the status quo if it’s revealed, and then everything will go to hell in a handbasket.
And in the case of this story, it’s Saiko’s dream. We had this happen about 60 chapters ago with the PCP anime idea, and it was held off because there is a belief that the story will fall apart if the secret is revealed, which is kind of true. Because once it’s all out in the open, it can drive drama and stakes and stuff.
But once the status quo has been upended in the endgame. Once there is narratively nothing left to lose, then you deploy the reveal of this secret to the open air for everyone to see because now it can be safely implemented without killing narrative momentum.
And now the secret has been revealed to the most important person: Hattori.
And his response is gold.
HE FUCKING LAUGHED
So yeah, I’ve been ragging on this dream for years now because, quite honestly, it’s a stupid dream in the real world. Not because being ambitious and having huge goals is wrong, or suffering to bring the best out of yourself is bad, well, only kinda bad, but because it’s a dream that is counter to a healthy relationship. Which is what I want for the boy.
So I felt kinda guilty when Hattori saw the youthful vigor of the dream and decided that it was pure. Is he right?
Well, lately, I’ve been feeling this weird tension.
And it has to do with ambition.
Part of my emotional work in healing my trauma is recognizing how I use reality as a way to justify why I can’t have nice things for myself. And it’s a way to limit me from pushing myself too hard and then getting disappointed when my dreams don’t come true. And there is plenty of evidence that these huge ambitious dreams are out of my reach for x y or z reason. Especially in light of the world right now.
But also, I’ve started feeling differently.
Not in the sense that one should set objectifying dreams about loved ones. That’s still dumb.
But the idea of accepting that you have big dreams for yourself, and pursuing them doggedly, even though the overwhelming likelihood is that you won’t achieve them.
I dunno. Lately, I’ve been drinking ambition juice and feel like I can achieve my dreams. And that I can settle for better, or not settle at all and actually pursue things that matter to me.
And I am. Actively. And I’m getting more success than I anticipated
So even though I think Saiko’s dream is foolish – he could have spent a decade really getting to know Miho – I’m also more inclined to see the underlying truth of the innocence and purity of the dream. And start to feel like my anger about it was a reflection of how I think of myself, rather than any fault of the dream.
Given my past, it’s no surprise I feel the way I do.
But yeah. I love Hattori for finally going to bat for the boys without considering the ramifications and taking the fall for them. That’s real love. And it’s also an argument for why experience matters.
Because he’s not doing it just because he wants the boys to achieve their dream, it’s because he knows they’re the real deal and that they work hard, and they’re gutsy and that they’r willing to go hard to be good mangaka. It’s based on what the boys do, not because they want it.
So it’s a beautiful reveal, and it really means we’re spiraling the narrative drain now.
However, we still have to talk about
Jump and Anime Adaptations
So this chapter revealed some interesting info on the calculus of creating an anime as part of their business model.
Even though it seems counterintuitive, anime adaptations are an advertisement for the magazine. Even though most people outside Japan think of it the other way around. Especially with the dearth of purely original anime adaptations, it is, in fact, driving readership of the magazine.
And usually, among manga readers, there is a lot of anticipation for almost guaranteed adaptations of material. But you typically don’t get announcements of the series until about 2-3 years into the series run, for obvious reasons.
If you are a weeb, you have almost certainly seen this clip at least once in your illustrious career:
In it, the tension of adapting a manga to an anime is made clear: you need enough content to tell the story, or else you run into all sorts of issues with pacing.
One Piece up until just now, almost literally,, in particular, has encountered a lot of pacign issues for this precise reason: because the series is a weekly release, so there are no breaks in schedule like a seasonal anime, they have to keep a certain distance from the manga at any given time, about a year’s lag, so they can continue to animate.
But that means stretching out sequences, or slowing down exchanges. There is a whole cottage industry making fun of filler tactics in the community.
But on the flip side, it never occurred to me that Jump has to figure out what anime it wants produced in whatever season of anime it’s currently in.
So, Jump has to decide whether to produce an anime in each season, and that choice actually matters because if they don’t make an anime during a season, they run the risk of losing circulation to competition with their absence on the airwaves. But at the same time, they have to consider the quality of the programming they want. Or if the anime goes poorly, it will also cancel it and undercut their bottom line.
But they basically always need an anime airing during any of the given anime seasons: Fall, Spring, Summer, and Winter.
And obviously, they’re going to prioritize the open slots from other series they run. And I wouldn’t be surprised if their contracts with broadcasters stipulate they get a certain number of primetime slots in addition to shinya (midnight) slots that are always open to them.
So this debate is weirdly enlightening.
And what I find even more interesting is that the consideration for “enough” material is relative to the amount of story being told.
Because Zombie-Gun is a conventional action story, it probably would adapt between 2 and 4 chapters per episode, which is standard for more action-y series.
But Reversi can probably get away wth a 1:1 or 1:1.5 ratio for adaptation per episode, which could make there, what, 25 chapters a full cour for production.
The only thing this chapter doesn’t go over is the distribution schedule, because it would likely be weekly, which is different than the more seasonal model, which is now popular.
Lots of things to consider. And I like that Heishi wants the creators input before making any decisions, although I will say
Eiji Annoyed Me This Chapter
So I have some more thoughts on the specious plot logic that is kinda undercutting the verisimilitude here, but before that, let’s get to Eiji.
Yeah. We only have a few chapters left, but this stunt is pretty…brazen, honestly. Like, even though my hit rate for predictions is about 50% at any given time, I have to assume that this will be fuel for the next chapter’s entirety.
And while in the real world this would fall apart IMMEDIATELY – the storyboarding process for an anime is complicated and nothing like storyboarding a manga; they are distinct crafts – and the preproduction stage for anime is incredibly intense- this is obviously not going just to end immediately.
It’ll probably be resolved in the next chapter. More on that prediction later.
But I think this is…a dick move, on Eiji’s part. And I can’t really justify it as a move based on the rivalry dynamic. Winning at all costs is one thing, but this feels petulant.
And it feels petulant for a few reasons.
The biggest, of course, is that this is something that Ashiorgi can’t actually do. It would be physically impossible for them to make 20 whole storyboards for an anime just to compete with their rival.
But more to the point, Eiji is not trying to win using the means with which their contest is based: being a good manga. Yes. I’m aware they’re going for total dominance of the anime/manga sphere, and anime is going to give an apex boost to either series.
But it’s cheap. And it’s below him when he’s actually trying to compete.
It’s also a little desperate
Obviously, I’m angrier about it because of the specious plot logic I was just mentioning up there, which sounds reasonable, but upon scrutiny falls apart: the boys might not get an anime adaptation.
Let’s jump into why that’s unlikely, but also recognize that face-saving and good looks for everyone is essential, and it is entirely possible the reputational damage from he boys finishing their series before the anime airs might be a bad look.
But also:
It’s a Non-issue
Yeah. So this is kinda bullshit, because there is no set runtime for anime. This is entirely predicated on the idea that the manga has to be a long-running hit series that lasts for hundreds of chapters.
Disregarding the fact that series like Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece are exceptions on a statistical level – very few series break into he three hundreds – it’s also apparent that Reversi is a cash cow. They are making a ton of money off its publication already.
And because of Shujin’s storytelling style, their tankobon sales will never tank.
I think the demographic considerations are more justifiable. But it’s pretty obvious that there is always going to be some level of demand for Reversi in the universe.
And Production companies would be fucking idiots if they didn’t know that, even if the series didn’t run for long.
All it needs to run for is one cour – approximately 12 episodes – and they would get a return on investment. Plus, here is the quality considerations, and continued popularity
But just like Death Note is DUMMY popular still, even decades after its initial release, it’s pretty clear that the series would remain popular for a hot second even if it weren’t running the magazine while the anime was waiting.
Now, Jump would get pissed since it wouldn’t be an advertisement for the magazine and it might not drive circulation. But otherwise, this feels like a real non-issue.
This is also predicated on my Western understanding of getting stories adapted. But I’ve been reading Jump religiously for almost 7 years, and one thing I know about them is that they will adapt basically any series past a certain threshold of chapters. It’s really only the series that get the axe for being middling quality or bad that never see the anime possibility.
So yeah, I don’t really buy this.
I also acknowledge that the series is not in what year 2011? 2012 in real life, so all the changes to the industry haven’t taken effect the way they would in-universe, since it’s 2018 in universe
Anyway.
Do I think Eiji will get a series?
I’m vacillating
SO, because we’re so close to the end of the story, there are a few ways we can see this playing out. A few of them involve Reversi getting an anime, and a few of them involve PCP getting an anime. But we’re going to get an anime, that much is a guarantee.
So let’s say they miss their window for Reversi at this point, PCP is going to get animated courtesy of Yamashita. Given this late-stage twist, I feel like that’s a perfectly reasonable read. I also think Hattori – given his new knowledge – is going to be much more inclined to let that happen, given what he now knows.
Alternatively, Reversi will get an anime even despite Eiji’s stunt – I can’t imagine the production companies would be pleased with it even if it’s enough story for a season – because the one thing we haven’t actually seen yet, and is kinda the final puzzle piece narratively, is watching how Mangaka are involved in the production of an anime.
We’ve seen bits and pieces. But making an anime is, in fact, a massive undertaking. And they could certainly wring out the juices to make it happen for the final few chapters of the series – with some more breathers.
Or Reversi could be prolonged just enough to get an anime order, against the boy’s wishes, and then get the anime adaptation.
But will Eiji get Zombie-Gun?
I’m straight up not sure. This could be enough to spark the debate and it gives enough content to the committee to make the anime work on it.
And this is probably going to have to force Hattori’s hand on telling his bosses about the personal wishes. Maybe he’ll hold onto it, but I wouldn’t bank on it.
So yeah, I don’t like this twist, even though I know it’s necessary
But I do have faith Ohba will make it work.
let’s find out next time, shall we?
Until then,
Peace
