Episode 18 – Jealousy and Love – 嫉妬と愛 (Shitto to Ai)
This episode continues off from last week where Mashiro, Eiji, Nakai, and Fukuda are working together at Eiji’s studio. It’s rather interesting to see how all of the characters cooperate with each other, even though they are also rivals. There are a few interesting points made here, but in the end it didn’t really change the fundamental conflict in this arc; how Takagi seems to be slacking off in terms of writing a manga story (or at least, that’s how Mashiro feels). Seeing the rift that’s formed between Takagi and Mashiro did make me wonder what would happen to their relationship, but after this episode it’s pretty obvious what they’ll be writing for their next series. There is quite a bit of teenage angst in this episode too, mixed in with some romance and such. The pacing is much better in comparison to previous episodes, with the introduction of the new characters a few episodes ago having changed up things quite a bit.
We get to hear the opinions of other mangaka that are aiming to in Shonen Jack, and it really does give more insight into the manga publishing world, including the complaints mangaka may have about manga publishing. I certainly got a good chuckle out of Fukuda mentioning how his favorite manga is To love ru, though his more serious in tone complaints concerning the manga were certainly valid. In the end, though, all this talk didn’t really change much with regards to the tensions between Mashiro and Takagi.
What did change things up a bit is how Eiji mentions that he uses characters that he imagined up as a child in his works. This gets Mashiro to remember about his own works from his childhood, and gets him a pretty good idea for what he wants to do for his next manga. The big issue here is that Takagi still hasn’t thought up any ideas for a manga, and not to mention, Mashiro is even more suspicious of him because Takagi is spending his time at Kaya’s house. Mashiro obviously feels that Takagi seems to no longer care about writing manga, and instead just wants to hang out with his girlfriend. Thus, Mashiro’s decision to make his own manga if Takagi doesn’t come up with anything should come as no surprise.
The funny thing here is that while Mashiro is thinking of writing a mystery manga, Takagi obviously seems to have a very similar idea (after all he was staring down the “mystery” genre on an online website). The drama between the two feels a little forced, especially if you consider how they have the same idea but just haven’t mentioned it to each other. I guess misunderstandings are just common or something. Well, either ways, this episode did develop the Mashiro and Takagi conflict a little bit, though what will happen remains to be seen. Honestly speaking, there is now way the main characters will be split up for long, so I’m expecting them to get back together after they somehow break the news of their ideas to each other.
Overall Enjoyment: 3.6/5
Screenshots are later in the post.
Next Episode Preview: Two and One – 2人と1人 (Futari to Hitori)
Distant Paradise 