Hi, and welcome to my read-through of Chapter 175: Sales Date and Night Before, in which I say goodbye.

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Sales Date and Night Before Summary

Sales Numbers

Shujin reviews the latest sales numbers for 5 and 6: a disappointing 920K units will be sold in August. Saiko, playing devil’s advocate, reminds him that Hattori said it’s incredible they’re getting a print run like that because final volumes usually have fewer prints.

Shujin knows that, but given they weren’t cancelled and the sheer popularity of the final chapters, they might have printed more volumes. In fact, the rest of the volumes are sold out right now. Saiko continues: they’ve been gaining steam gradually on print orders, so that will likely continue with Volumes 5 and 6.

Shujin’s disappointment stems from the fact that they haven’t outstripped Zombie Gun’s sales and prints. Saiko thinks it’s pointless to care about Zombie Gun anymore; Reversi has become their definitive work. Based on the survey results, they’ve received an average of first place. They can focus on the first place with the graphic novel of their next work.

Saiko wants to think of what they’re doing while they work on PCP. Shujin points out that due to their decision to end Reversi early, the Zombie-Gun anime has been greenlit for right after the anime concludes. It’s going to get even tougher to beat!

At that moment, Hattori calls. The editor-in-chief wants to come by the studio to thank them personally. The boys are surprised, and Shujin offers to go to the office instead. They’ll come on Wednesday, August 8th at 2:00 o’clock.

Hattori let’s them know that they’ve been receiving an “avalanche” of calls from bookstores telling them they’ve sold out; as a result, all volumes – including 5 and 6 will get a reprint of one hundred thousand copies. Shujin’s shocked but still disappointed: they’re shy of beating Zombie-Gun’s sales by 180K units. Saiko is unsurprised by Shujin’s response.

They Did It!

On Saturday, August 4th, a bookstore posts signs that Reversi’s final volume has sold out. Hattori calls them on August 6th, excited. They did it! They sold out as soon as the volumes were in stock. They received another order of 200,000 copies.

1.22 million copies in circulation!

They did it.

They did it.

They have officially beaten Eiji by 20,000 copies. They’ve finally surpassed him utterly.

The boys celebrate, and Shujin has achieved his goal: Saiko and Miho can officially be married, with Saiko as the number one manga artist in Japan.

Saiko puts the pieces together. It’s Shujin’s wedding gift to Saiko. He didn’t know what gift to get them, so he decided he wanted them to be married, as the most popular manga art in Junjun. Half of it is his own work, but still.

Awwww these two.

Shujin’s glad to have made it in time, especially since the “house” will be completed in a month or two.

Saiko gets emotional. He thanks them and offers to go to Kaya’s father to say hello again. Kaya slaps him on the shoulder and reminds him that her Dad’s business is so she should be thanking him.

Shujin realizes their whole cute moment was shared by Hattori because he’s still on the line. He laughs it off and congratulates them.

True Fated Rivals

On August 8th, the secretary at Shueisha ushers them to the Jump offices. The boys think about how long it’s been since they’ve been at the offices. They haven’t had the opportunity to come themselves.

Saiko still gets nervous talking to the editor-in-chief. Shujin thinks it’s going to be a boilerplate – good job, we look forward to what you’re working on next – type deal.

But as they get there, they find Eiji in the studio. Yujiro and Eiji are to go to Studio 92 due to Zombie-Gun’s impending anime adaptation. Eiji thinks of it as a nice tour of anime production companies.

Yujiro sees Ashirogi and congratulates them on a job well done. Eiji pauses, and gets serious.

He’ll be waiting for them with 3 million copies of Zombie-Gun. The boys promise to get a new series that will sell 3.5 million copies.

Eiji peaces out with a Roger. Maybe forever.

Sasaki – good to see you – thinks they truly are fated rivals, which was Heishi’s wish.

Heishi’s not so sure.

Meanwhile, Miura oversees Kosugi’s transfer to Iwase for work on +Natural. Kosugi has heard she’s quite scary, unlike Nizuma. Is it true?

Very scary.

Kosugi gets nervous. The boys watch.

Man, Fuck Miura.

One Last Look at the Gang

At Iwase’s restaurant, she’s already furious at Kosugi for coming to work on +Natural without a single idea for the series. Kosugi panics. As her editor, he needs to have at least 1 or 2 ideas with him. No, he needs to have four or five ideas with him. Kosugi apologizes.

Can’t catch a break

Meanwhile, at a mixer, Fukuda and his assistants toast to the mangaka, the to-be mangaka, and the flight attendants

The three flight attendants are creeped out and find the fact that team fukuda are manga artists to be lame.

Absolutely brutal.

Takahama, at home, quietly but contentedly works on Mikata’s Justice.

Meanwhile, at a wedding shop, Hiramaru delightedly suggests a thank-you-for-coming gift of a plate with their photo on it. Aoki thinks it’s a bad idea.

Yoshida jumps up for a perfect jump scare and says that no one is going to want a gift like that. They should go with something more practical.

WHAT IS YOSHIDA DOING HERE!

As his matchmaker, Yoshida is like Hiramaru’s parent and was worried. Hiramaru wonders if Yoshida will follow them to their honeymoon.

He might do so.

Until Aoki says he shouldn’t do that. Yoshida accedes to Aoki’s wish

Meanwhile, in Kabukicho – I assume – Yamahisa finds Shizuka at a hostess bar, again. Oy. He’s in his underwear, in incredible spirits, and is thinking about making this story extremely cheerful and happy.

Yamahisa is terrified and floored by his confidence and thinks he might actually change.

The hostesses think he’s fun.

The Night Before

On September 3rd, at the studio, Kaya is in a fit because the anime will be airing tomorrow in nineteen hours. She’s in a tizzy about it. Shujin prods her: she’s already seen the sample. What’s the big deal?

She’s excited about it airing on TV and the people watching’s reaction. She asks if Saiko’s excited tomorrow.

Shujin thinks he’s excited in a different way. He’s going to see Miho when Reversi airs on TV. Kaya didn’t know about that. She asks if that’s why he gave the assistants a day off tomorrow.

Yep. He’s going to propose to Azuki. Kaya slaps her boyfriend in excitement about that. Kaya thinks that because their dreams have come true and there is now no doubt about that, there’s no reason to be so nervous about the proposal. Right? He must be buoyant inside.

Shujin thinks Kaya’s being dumb for thinking that. She gets defensive and wants an explanation.

Bringing the subtext to text, unlike a couple who have always seen each other, two people who support each other from a distance carry a different weight. It’s heavier because they’re also meeting for the first time.

Their dreams will come true when the anime airs on TV. Their dream will then become a reality. And that’s why he’s going to propose to her. How could he not be nervous about it?

Saiko’s Gratitude

Kaya realizes how huge this moment will be. She’s concerned, though; it’s unusual for Saiko to be so forthcoming about his feelings without feeling embarrassed.

It’s because he’s grateful to Kaya. He walks over to her and asks to shake her hand. She gets flustered and makes a joke about holding the hand of a married woman. Not to mention his friend’s wife.

Saiko has always wanted to tell her this, but thinks now is the time: the pseudonym she came up with, Muto Ashirogi, has always been a huge support to him.

He grabs her hand and thanks her.

I’ma cry

He’s sure Miho feels the same way.

Kaya blushes and then immediately starts bawling, as is totally appropriate for Cute Cute Kaya to do; she never thought she’d be any help to them. Shujin jumps in and reminds her that it wasn’t just the pseudonym but also helping literally make the manga and doing the housework.

Kaya’s a fountain of tears: she can’t handle so much praise.

She shakes Saiko’s hand violently: Shujin, Miho, and Saiko are the ones who make her happy. She should be thanking them.

Kaya decides to go home; she thinks the boys have something to talk about privately.

Shujin gently teases her about her bashfulness.

Awwwwww.

The boys don’t have anything to talk about – not their feelings or anything – they need to continue being the Muto Ashirogi they’ve always been.

Shujin and Saiko decide to go home at about the same time, and as they walk out, Shujin wishes him good luck tomorrow.

Saiko will be fine, he’s going to go by the textbook.

Taro

At the Azuki household, Miho tells her mother that the Reversi anime is airing tomorrow. Miyuki thinks they can watch it together. Miho clarifies: that’s when Saiko is coming to see her.

Miyuki realizes that he’s going to propose, and she hasn’t gotten anything read yet. Miho denies that’s what it’s about. She would have told Miyuki otherwise.

Miyuki remembers it will be their first date, together. Miyuki remembers they’ve spent a long time pursuing their dreams, and they promised to get married.

So she won’t be angry if Miho doesn’t come home tomorrow night.

(lol).

Miho gets flustered about that one.

Meanwhile, at Saiko’s household, in his room, he brings out Taro’s notebook and speaks to him: he didn’t do it alone. Shujin, Hattori, Kaya, Miho, so many people have helped him. Even though it’s just for a moment, he’s become the most popular mangaka in Jump. But most of all, the reason he chose this path was because of his uncle. So he’s going to do all the things he wanted to do but never had the opportunity to.

On that contemplative note, the chapter concludes.

Sales Date and Night Before

Feeling A Lot Right Now

So, this….was not what I had on my bingo card for this part of the story. I guess the final chapter is going to be the airing of the anime/Miho and Saiko’s reunion?

Maybe the wedding will be there, too? Maybe I kinda hope so. But perhaps that’s me being presumptuous.

I’m going to be honest, I’m feeling a lot right now. A lot a lot, and this whole chapter has me feeling quite tender and soft and happy and also I want to cry.

I’m definitely going to cry when I read the final chapter. Whenever I read something that has hit me in a very specific way, I weep. A lot. But it’s usually reserved for things for which I have a lot of mental real estate.

In the last year, the ending of My Hero Academia actually made me openly weep on the train. Well, the penultimate chapter, but the final chapter did a number on me, too.

This chapter still had a story in it, which kinda surprised me, but we’re firmly in the falling action part of the story. There is only one plot line left to address, and we’re going to address it in the next chapter.

So now we can relax a bit and do a final check for the other characters, which is what this chapter was kind of really about. So let’s start with the character who really drove the series, and kept it moving, even when things were kind of annoying, or narratively wonky.

Eiji

So we’ve finally, definitively beaten him. I don’t remember if I mentioned in my read-through where Shujin mentioned the wedding gift, but I assumed that the wedding gift was making Saiko the most successful mangaka in Japan, so even if I didn’t say it, I’m going to say I called it.

This chapter was a lot emotionally, but seeing Shujin get so antsy about book sales so that he could give his “gift” to his friend was so fucking sweet, man.

But that brings me to the rival with the mostest; yes, I love to mix metaphors, didn’t you know. Eiji Nizuma.

There’s something very just about having – what might be and probably is the final moment of Eiji’s interactions – being an acknowledgment of his defeat, but also him getting ready to move onto the next part of his insanely successful manga career.

One thing I don’t think we get a lot of in shonen manga that are traditional battle stories is the Rival getting to continue leading a successful life on their own. I mean, sports anime usually get that, but mostly the rival dynamic usually leaves the characters scared and performing below capacity.

But here Eiji is still the greatest of the mangaka from his generation, and the way Zombie-Gun is set up, it seems like he’s going to keep on rising to the top. He will be unstoppable.

And Ashirogi will be there to beat him, again.

For now, though, they’ve truly won, as the chapter showed up. Also, neat little behind-the-scenes detail I enjoyed: seeing Shujin look at sales numbers. That was fun for me. What can I say, I’m a nerd?

But really, seeing Eiji be whimsical and silly even when he gets serious around the boys – destined forever to be rivals – and make increasingly better manga to beat them was pretty much the perfect note his character could go out on. If we see him again next chapter, I’ll be happy.

But I’m pretty sure we won’t.

Goodbye, Eiji. You are one of my favorite rivals, and you have given me so much. I know you were annoying at first, but you have truly grown to be one of the best rival tropes I’ve read.

Then there’s:

Team Fukuda – and Others

We didn’t get Shiratori or Nanamine – not that I think Nanamine deserves any more oxygen at this juncture – nor did we get Azuma, or Koogy, or Arai, or Hibiki. We only gotta a final sideways glimpse of Nakai in the previous chapter. Ishizawa, tragically, did not get beaten into pudding.

But we did get Fukuda – hilariously pursuing dating after realizing he wants a girlfriend, and blowing it immediately through no fault of his own. As someone going through the dating gauntlet right now. Good lord. I fucking get it.

Although, if I’m being honest, Fukuda, you can do better than flight attendants. You are worth more.

The Romeo of Hiroshima, he may be, but seeing him continue to be a mature Yankee is going to leave me with feelings of warmth. He’s my Yankee who’s secretly a giant softie.

Having been to mixers, I feel for him specifically. They can be such a mixed bag. Some are great, but a lot of it is just searching for the right people to vibe with.

I hope he finds someone.

But we won’t see that.

Goodbye, Fukuda. You ended up removing one of my favorite side characters.

Of course, Hiramaru is happy now, and Aoki is putting up with him – bless her heart – and Yoshida, now fully embodying the worried parent role, is finally cool in my books.

Of all the silly character dynamics I hated, this was the one that grew on me. And seeing Hiramaru and Yoshida finally have just the right level of dysfunction, but a loving kind of dysfunction, well, I’m okay with that. I really am.

And, even better, we don’t see Nakai lose his weight and get his girl. So the narrative mercifully elided that for the better.

I loved seeing Takahama quietly working. While we saw everyone else living life, he still dreams in Ashirogi’s shadow. What a quietly beautiful depiction of solitude.

And Shizuka! And yamahisa! I audibly grinned when I saw that Shizuka overcame his social anxiety in the most extreme way imaginable. He may still be one of the darker and more frustrating characters, but it’s good to see that he’s moving forward in his own way.

Of course, there’s

Iwase and Kosugi & the Editors

Yeah, another “Fuck Miura’ because goddamn I’m shocked Miura never got fired. But at least he won’t harass poor Iwase anymore. Now, Kosugiw will have to deal with her.

And this seems like a reasonable pairing because KOsugi, like, actually gives a shit about doing a good job, so I think once he gets in the rhythm of Iwase’s demanding nature, he’ll really get his skills up to snuff. And that’s good.

Iwase did get a bit flanderized in her final moment to the shrewish, loud-mouthed woman who wants to beat the others without thinking things through. And that’s not very cash money of Ohba.

But she also ends the series as her own woman, driven by her desire to make good art and good manga. She is not tied to a man – outside of her professional relationships – and she is fully doing her own thing without the need for romance.

I love that.

Goodbye Iwase. I think your battle with Ashirogi still might be the peak of the entire series, which is saying something for real.

Heishi and Sasaki got their goodbyes too, content that the jump is in good hands with Eiji and Ashirogi’s dynamic, and Hattori got to deliver the good news about beating Eiji once and for all.

Heishi didn’t do as much as I expected, but he’s still a fun character who has grown – and notably, softened – throughout the series run. He’ll make a good editor.

Yujiro is still very much Eiji’s editor and is dealing with him as he knows how. And he always will. Yujiro has always been one of the more compelling editors, and it seems like he’s on the way up.

Goodbye Yujiro. Goodbye, Sasaki, Heishi, and Hattori; Goodbye, Hiramaru, Shizuka, Takahama, Fukuda, Iwase, Yamahisa, and Miura.

And that brings me to:

Miyuki & Ashirogi

She was a small part of the cast, and she never played a huge role. But she really grew on me in these last few chapters. It’s a real shame that she never really got the chance to develop into a more serious character because she’s such a good role model for Miho and is really just a wholesome girl.

But not above teasing her daughter. I guffawed when she joked about MIho finally getting dicked down by her fiancé.

Goodbye, Miyuki.

But that brings me to the character who is probably the series’s secret MVP. Someone whose treatment at the beginning of the series I found, in some ways, the most frustrating and contemptible, but over time has grown to be the beating heart of the series.

That is Kaya.

Yeah. This read-through is basically almost done, and we don’t have much left to do other than say goodbye to the characters. THIS IS ANOTHER FINALE TROPE THAT I LOVE, where you see all the characters living their lives after the events of the story have concluded. I love me some denouement, which is what we’re in.

And having that moment with Saiko and Kaya where he acknowledged just how profound an effect she’s had on the story was genuinely moving. I was tearing up when he thanked her for coming up with the name Ashirogi.

I still remember thinking how that was a Japanese problem of figuring out how to combine Kanji to come up with a name, and then determining the reading. And it still is.

But that was so long ago. So long ago.

But Kaya – who had a future that wasn’t defined by a man who then married and became totally subservient – I still, in some part, wish she could have found a purpose outside of her relationship with him, and found her own interests and desires.

But I have to say, I love that Kaya ultimately represented the everyman dealing with all the events of the story, and someone who was just kind, cheerful, and always willing to help. I think when I look back on this series, I will look back on most of her interactions with the boys super fondly.

Because she’s been there for ten years, supporting them quietly, and enthusiastically, being cute as a button. She had to deal wth emotional affairs, and her husband was constantly busy. And all sorts of nonsense, but she’s been living life and enjoying herself. And she made the studio feel like a home.

Like a real place.

So I think the decision to give her goodbye moment just the littlest bit more oomph – the panel is beautiful and I had to include it – was a perfect choice. SH’s been such a fixture of the series. It would be inappropriate not to give her a big moment.

And I’m pretty sure we’re going to see Shujin next chapter, but in case this is also goodbye for him, I don’t think he needs a goodbye the way the other characters do. Everything that needs to have been said with him has been said.

He did his final act for Saiko, and they helped Saiko buy a house. He is as good a friend as one can be, and they’ll continue making manga together.

But in case we don’t see him next chapter: goodbye, Shujin.

I hope I see him once more before the series closes out for good. But in case not, I want to cover my bases.

And Shujin is a character I’ve had trouble with – from the affairs, and the sexism, and all the rest – but he’s also been such a vital character. He’s not the main protagonist – that would be Saiko – but he’s the fabric of this story. And I’m going to miss him.

Of course

Goodbye, Taro

This one feels weird to say, because we never actually met, Taro. Not outside of flashbacks. But he’s been so essential to the whole story. He was the catalyst, but he’s also been a guiding hand for Siako the entire time. He’s been the gentle, loving figure and force, the core tragedy. And now the wrongs of the past have been righted.

The sins of the father are forgiven.

Goodbye Taro. You are a genuinely good person, and I’m sorry we never got to really meet you.

Which brings us to Saiko, who we’re not going to say goodbye to, just yet. Nor Miho.

The next chapter – I thought – was going to be the wedding. That made sense to me.

But I guess we’re getting Miho and Saiko’s first meeting after their dream has become reality.

I’m too happy wth how this series is ending to be annoyed at the fundamental silliness of their relationship. Although I’m glad Shujin finally pointed out the unnecessary awkwardness that comes with waiting almost a decade to meet your beloved, and how hard it is to ask someone out after building them up in your head for 10 years.

But that is where we are now. And Saiko wants to right the wrongs of his past. He’s going to do what Taro never could.

Which, I assume, is just finally asking for Miho’s hand. Coming to her place, picking her up, mirroring that first chapter.

This has been a beautiful ride, but we are not technically done yet; we still have one chapter to go.

I’m not quite ready, but I’m still ready, at the same time.

Are you?

Stray Thoughts

—Reversi sold out! Wooo, that was fun to see.

–Beating Eiji by 20K is such a slim margin, but it’s a margin nonetheless.

–This chapter made great pains to emphasize that no man is an island, and I have learned the same. You can get basically nowhere on your own. Thank you to the readers who have taken this journey with me. We have a bit left to go.

Until then,

Peace