Howdy neighbor, and welcome to my read-through of Chapter 165: Practice and Recharge in which things are amazing until they abruptly aren’t

On Scheduling: There will be no post next week because it is Thanksgiving. We will resume the week after

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Practice and Recharge

…Practice

In her room, Miho practices the lines for the main heroine of Reversi. She memorizes the scene where she gets brainwashed by “Satoru” the black demon, presumably.

Right as she’s rounding off the sequence, Mina – Hisashiburi! – announces dinner, then knocks on her sister’s door. Miho, embarrassed, scolds her sister for not knocking. Mina plays it off. She did, though.

But not in the right order, Mina.

Meanwhile, at the studio, Hattori gets into he details of Reversi’s anime announcement (squee): they wanted to replace Crow with another property. Shujin thought it was going to be Zombie-Gun because Studio92, the studio that will be animating Reversi, previously worked on Crow.

Hattori thought they were cooked when Eiji brought the storyboards. But he chose Reversi.

Saiko and Shujin agree on one point: it’s so they can catch up with Eiji. Hattori is on the same page. Shujin thinks it’s going to hard to beat Crow’s accomplishments. Hattori brings them to back to the present: focus on Zombie-Gun. Kaya decides to leave; the boys thank her for cleaning, and Hattori reminds her to keep the anime news to herself except for family.

Kaya closes the door and jumps for joy.

Cute cute kaya.

Hattori lets the boys know that Jump will announce the anime in the spring. Saiko asks for final super duper realzies confirmation: it’s happening, right?

Yes. Definitively. They will announce in the magazine when it runs, the production company, the singer of the theme, and all the other odds and ends bit by bit.

However, the cast will be determined by audition

DUN DUN DUN

Hattori notes that the boys’ preferences will be actively considered, but ultimately, the production company and director get final say.

Miho getting the role of….you have to be fucking with me, Naho (oh god) isn’t guaranteed. Saiko thinks it’s better that way: he wants her to get the role through her skills. He has faith in her.

Atta boy.

Hattori agrees: she’s talented and popular. She’d be best for the role. Hattori is not getting involved, though. They will be meeting the director of Studio92 soon, and they should not hesitate to inform them of their wishes.

A harmless text message and a recital

The boys bike home, still on cloud nine from the news. They’ve come this far; now, he has to make his dream with Miho come true.

Saiko is confident it will come true.

Sshujin wonders if it’d be chill to tell Miho about the news as well, all things considered. Saiko plans to tell her once he gets home. He’ll also let her know that she’s going to have to audition.

At 10 o’clock, Saiko sends her the text on his fancy new phone. He gives her the bare bones detail, just like how she likes it, and then sends the text.

She receives the news and absolutely glows with joy, tears up, and is about to text our boy when she runs out to her balcony and calls him instead.

So cutteeee.

I really need to chill on these images. But fuck it. It’s too cute.

Saiko freaks, then plays it cool when he answers. She congratulates him. They remain in silence for a bit, air misting. Saiko gets nervous: she’s partially responsible for all this, no need to congratulate him.

She takes a breath and then starts playing the lines for *pfft* Naho in Reversi.

We flashback to the sequence in volume 1 where she’s reciting these lines. Satoru used to be kind. He was pretending to be kind to those idiots.

What does he mean by that?

He’s got no need to do that now that he can use his power. Same for Naho.

He gives her a look, and the demon controls her mind, and she, now hypnotized, parrots what Satoru wants: If everybody thinks and acts like me, the world will become a wonderful place.

Sidenote: this was not worth breaking out into the whole long-running meta-gag—tough titties.

Saiko’s surprised by how confident she is; she’s usually soft-spoken. She continues reciting lines from Satoru’s twisted ideology, and Saiko narrates that she received all of Naho’s lines from Volume 1 perfectly over the phone.

Saiko’s pleased to hear that his suspicions were correct: she is the perfect voice for Naho. He has no notes. Perfect! She explains that she wasn’t doing it for advice; it’d be cheating if he did.

Saiko offers to say nothing about it then; she just wanted to show that she’s been working hard towards that dream as well. He could tell. She’s memorized most of Volume 2 as well. He’s impressed, and she asks if he would like to hear it.

He would.

He listens in contented silence as she recites the line from the balcony.

I’m not crying, you’re crying.

Scheduling

The next day, Shujin hands the storyboards for the next chapter to Saiko. Saiko lets him know that Miho is definitely going to get the role of Naho. Shujin thinks that’s obvious. He’s confident she’ll win it with her skills.

Uh-oh.

Saiko also notes that her abilities as a voice actress are amazing. Shujin notes that she’s currently in four recurring roles. She’d never be able to do it without talent. He’s wondering if she’ll be too busy to do Reversi.

Saiko gets grumpy: obviously, she’s going to do Reversi.

Shujin plays it off as a joke.

Meanwhile, at Miho’s agent’s office, Miho is bubbly as her agent mentions that two new offers have come in for her work. The role of Shoko for Diploma Girl Shoko, and Kamasu for the Coming of Age Ceremony of a Child Actor. A boy’s role, and it’s not a famous work.

She happily rejects both offers.

Damn. Cold.

Her agent/manager? is surprised, but he thinks it’s good not to take every role that comes your way. She announces that she doesn’t want to take any roles until the summer.

He pushes back on that: if that happens, she won’t have any work except for Secret Witch Miko. Miho’s fine with it. Her manager is shocked. He has never understood Miho, but he understands her even less.

Same, bro.

He does note that she has succeeded in spite of her eccentricities. He confirms that she doesn’t want any work until the summer. That is the case, and she excuses herself.

But before she goes, she thanks the “president” for supporting her all this time. She’s very grateful.

He concludes that she is a very strange girl.

Ahhhh shit

At the… oh god, not this guy, Ishizawa household, his mother asks him to come out and eat. He tells her to shut up. Calls her a hag and reminds her that he’s a manga artist.

She points out, calmly, that he hasn’t done anything for five years. He’s recharging. And he doesn’t want her food. He needs to eat something “properly” but he’s eating fine.

At the same moment Instant 12 is starting, and we get a glimpse of what Ishizawa has been up to:

Fuck. This is sad, man.

He watches Instant 12 and joins an anonymous chat room while Miho’s character rallies around a new ball that was bought with the 10 yen miskick fun. Other users note that “Azu-Kyun’s” voice is so cute. Ishizawa thinks Miho is played out and that there s a new hot thing on the horizon and so states: Ririka Kitami is the next big thing.

The Chat room – which I just realized is probably a 2-chan style board – blows up: Who is that? They accuse him of not knowing this person. Ishizawa knows she does the voice of the female student in the spectator stand. She’s really cute in real life, too.

Other members doubt he’s as cute as Mihio. Ishizawa (I presume) thinks Miho is old.

Ishizawa opens…Ririka’s blog. Shit. And reads her latest post.

Shaming blog post readers everywhere. For shame.

She writes about her time at the Tezuka Akatsuka award parties on December 16th. She mentions that her friend is Muto Ashirogi’s assistant and that she begged to be taken.

She also mentions that Ashirogi is two people.

What the fuck.

She also mentions that they are hotties. But one of them is married, sadly. The other is going out with another voice actress whom she respects, but she can’t tell who it is. She’s going to have to work hard.

Ishizawa grins at that. He knows who it is.

On that positively sickening note, the chapter concludes

Practice and Recharge

Ugghhhhh

Yeah. I’m actually legitimately sickened by this turn of events, for like, a few reasons, but at least I called Ririka, maybe coming back!

And maybe the Shonen Three reveal with Moriya is going to come into play finally. If it did, that would be some long-term planning on Ohba’s part, or it would just be likelier that it’s the stand-alone that doesn’t stand alone plot device as they set up the final bits of the endgame to squeeze more drama out of this.

But yeah, Moriya’s big mouth might play a role. I want to congratulate my past self for noting that one. Although I guess we’ll actually have to see.

So before we get into all the Ishizawa stuff (and there is a fuck of a lot to unpack here), let’s go into some of the enjoyable stuff about this chapter: it was fairly short in terms of Bakuman so I guess the comment about using less dialogue was partially being applied to these final chapters.

I mean, there is also less to do now other than prep the endgame, where the boys have to surpass Eiji, which I assume is going to occur after the fracas with Miho’s casting, and, of course, Miho has to get cast, which is now looking very bad.

What I think I appreciate about this chapter the most is actually that I don’t quite know if Miho’s going to get cast, and here’s why

The Structure here ties into where the happy ending is placed

So, I have a bit of magical thinking that I engage in a lot: if something is REALLY important – like super duper important – and in progress, and I’m not sure of the result, if I talk about it at all, to anyone, it will fall apart.

And even though this magical thinking has borne out very irregularly, it has happened enough times that I’m still superstitious about it. So I wait until I’m damn sure it’s a reasonable point to mention something.

SO there are a ton of things that happen in my life that I keep to myself until there is a reason to share.

And even though Saiko was perfectly justified in reaching out to Miho about the news – and we’ll talk about the sequence because it was DELIGHTFUL – the narrative is setting up that “Counting your chickens” arc for Miho. And so the ending of this chapter felt inevitable.

But it also makes sense with Ririka, and the discussion from chapter 163 about how invisible mangaka and voice actresses are until they hit it big.

Which would suggest, much as I don’t like it, that Ririka is going to be the one who becomes actively considered for Naho. Which would be absolutely heinous.

And that’s why I’m more worried than I usually am. Because this doesn’t feel like a red herring, it’s one of the benefits of writing such a tightly structured narrative arc that Ohba has with this series. Because now that we’re this close to the endgame, it’s hard to imagine anything going truly and utterly wrong.

BUT IT JUST MIGHT GO WRONG.

And I say that for a few reasons:

PCP is still in play

Yeah. So, again, I think this is one of those things that telling stories for a long time benefits you. Even if I’m ultimately wrong about Moriya’s role in the fracas that is about to happen, there is one thing that a storyteller is always keeping in mind: what unresolved plot points are left?

We’ve resolved virtually every hanging thread. The only things that are kind of up in the air narratively are the fate of Team Fukuda outside of Aoki and Hiramaru, but their stuff has largely been resolved at this point, so I think it’s not the hugest thing that we’re not checking in on them.

But PCP is a dangling thread at this juncture. And I’m not saying it because I have that pet theory I really want to come through with Yamashita. I’m saying it because it allows us to resolve the story with Miho voicing a lead actress role even if Reversi is lost out on.

And the narrative setup of Miho cancelling all gigs until the summer could be read as a red herring narratively – or at least to establish the stakes of the current arc – which will be a mini arc focusing on Miho for once, which I don’t think we’ve seen since like…chapter 40.

But it also feels like it’s setting up a fall from grace for Reversi. And even though this is a shonen anime and the good guys have to win, the main characters have lost enough times that there is no guarantee that MIho will get this.

Now, am I right?

I dunno. This could be resolved in like two chapters, and everything is hunky dory, but for now, I’m going to have to assume there is the real possibility of Ririka getting the role. And that’s been laid out pretty effectively because:

The Voice Acting World is Brutal

I know that Japanese work culture in general is rough, but the Voice Acting world is unrelenting. They are not paid amazingly well, and they have to keep multiple roles active to have a viable career. You are basically always doing press, in the booth, seeking the next role, or not working. It’s even less stable than being a mangaka in some ways.

But there is added pressure because, even though you don’t have to be hot to be a successful Seiyuu – unless you’re like Mamoru Miyano – the gravure/idol culture in Japan is off the charts nuts. And the hentais who like the idols and support the industry, like Ishizawa, prefer their idols young and ripe.

Forget that last adjective.

And Miho isn’t even old: she’s only, like, 22, but she’s established so that she can be aging out of her prime for these fuckholes. And if not, Ishizawa, being his asshole self, would do that.

Which reminds me. Nakai is the worst character, by a pretty long shot (y’know, because of all the active predation). Still, Ishizawa is probably the other biggest scumbag who fills me with much more revulsion. And that has nothing to do with just his looks.

I feel like him

Not spending all day on message boards comparing girls for attractiveness – that is not me. But maybe this is because I’ll always be a fat, insecure nerd in my heart of hearts, but seeing a dude doing nothing with his life, and actively falling into Anime escapism and junk food to cope, will always strike a very particular nerve because that part was my past, for better or worse. But seeing Ishizawa’s state filled me with a visceral sense of revulsion.

And I think Ohba nailed the absolute venality of this type of individual: the way he’s overly overweight, slags off his own mom, shamelessly feeds the anime industry with money he doesn’t earn. Trolls anonymous message boards like 2chan (the Japanese 4chan), comparing the hot girls from their favorite show.

It’s all pitch-perfectly terrible.

But the part that hits me is the refrain: I’m still an artist even though I’m doing nothing to achieve my dreams.

Probably because my process has been intentionally slow for a long time, I had a lot of emotional stuff to figure out, and this year was the first year where my active pursuit of art has really started to pick up some steam, committed more firmly to my own artistic pursuits, but part of me feels that “I’m doing the thing even though I have very little to show for my efforts because I’m doing it slowly and not with my whole ass” that rubs me so wrong.

But yeah, watching this waste of a person threatening people who work hard, again, is absolutely infuriating. And I’m reasonably confident that Ishizawa is going to get caught, and probably punched in the face for the third time – which would be well deserved – but god. It’s so horrible.

But let’s also talk about the other horrible person in this chapter:

Ririka

So aside from the fact that Ishizawa is reading the blogs of other actresses, which were still a thing back then, before everyone stopped reading blogs. Aside from you, my lovely readers, Ririka’s character really comes through this blog post.

It’s actually quite disturbing, but it does give me some hope that her future in the industry is already limited. I understand why she was being introduced this late in the game, even if I don’t like it.

But the blog post is a masterclass in being unsuited for the media industry.

One thing about working in media that you don’t learn unless you work in it is that they don’t want people who can’t keep their cool in front of celebrities. You can think what you are doing is cool, but discretion is the big thing. IN fact, it’s the BIGGEST thing.

There is a reason Hattori stressed to Kaya not to tell anyone except her family. This shit is highly sensitive and could cause a PR Disaster when not handled properly. The rumor mill doesn’t need facts to run wild, and any real facts are a potential harm to the people they are about.

It’s why I called out Moriya in Chapter 103. It’s legit dangerous.

And Ririka – who read as a vain social climber – now comes off as unable to actually do the job she has signed up for. She has gravely violated the privacy of Ashirogi by letting the world know that she knows that they are two “hotties” and the fact that she is actively thirsting over two men who are in committed relationships.

It’s really gross.

And her justification is probably that she’s unknown. Lord knows I’ve sometimes written things in this blog that I never expected to get back to their subjects. That did, ultimately, end up getting back to their subjects.

If you ever message me privately, I’ll tell you which one. But there is a blog post I wrote on here about something that I wrote with the understanding it would never get back to the subject. Well, it ended up getting into the wrong hands, and they read it. I have no idea how they took it. But your words can travel.

So, at best, this is irresponsible. And at worst, it’s actively harmful to both Ashirogi and now Miho’s ability to get the job as Naho (what a dumb name, by the by).

And that pisses me off.

It’s pretty clear that Ishizawa is going to reveal this information publicly and try to rally support around Ririka, and that in so doing, he’s going to reveal Ashirogi’s identity and that they’re going to get into a lot of scrutiny, including Saiko’s relationship to Miho, which is also now revealed.

And that’s probably going to influence Studio 92’s decision about casting her.

I’m an angry man. Even if I’m wrong and they get out of this somehow, which is also possible, I could totally see that given that this is a shonen anime, it’s still so infuriating that this is one of the final hurdles the boys have to face. Because it’s so violating and so scummy. And entirely not their fault.

Which brings me to why it actually pissed me off

This Chapter was So Lovely Otherwise

Yeah, this chapter, soup to nuts, was absolutely beautifully handled up until the turd in the punch bowl at the end there. From the sequence where Miho was practicing her lines at home – good thing she’s living at home – to Hattori and the boys preparing to square off with Eiji.

And I see it as likely that they will meet the director either next chapter or the chapter afterward, and then they’ll let him know, but this whole fracas will happen. And it’s going to make me so damn grumpy.

But the big centerpiece of this chapter was the sequence where Miho was reading to Saiko, and he just listened.

I know I give this series a lot of flak for how it handled this romance – and I stand by it – but they have a wonderful relationship when they are actually engaged in it. And that whole sequence was so authentic, and lovely, and intimate, and tender, and not forced at all.

I’m so damn grumpy. So damn grumpy.

But I guess we’re going to see the fallout in the next chapter and maybe get a resolution? But we still have some chapters left, so that remains to be seen.

At the very least, Ririka is not totally done, nor is Ishizawa. And we’re meeting that director soon.

But at least we still have PCP.

Man, I hope I’m wrong about this.

But I’m not sure I am.

Until next time,

Peace

Stray Thoughts:

–I like the phone change. It’s a very effective way to demonstrate time has passed – and Saiko is making more money, too.

–A lot of callbacks this chapter. This feels like the stand-alones that don’t stand alone again. I wonder how that’s going to factor in. Hopefully with Ishizawa getting socked back into the ice age.

–FUCKK.

Peace