Shuukan Shounen Hachi (from the author of Jitsu wa)

I guess I might as well open a new thread, since it'll probably be followed by at least some of the Jitsu wa fandom here.

So Shuukan Shounen Hachi is the story of Hachiki, a not-so-talented aspiring mangaka who's also a fan of baseball, entering a somewhat infamous school for, well… aspiring mangaka. This being a Masuda series, the school is home to a fair number of goofballs and weirdos, and slightly unhinged teachers.

The first two chapters introduce the main cast and establish Hachi's rivalry and kind-of friendship with a young prodigy, the COOL AND GALLANT KNIGHT (*cough*) Mikeya, and that's where we are now (in English anyway). Come here to discuss!

edited 20th Feb '18 1:17:34 PM by Lyendith

The raw of chapter 5 is available. Alice sucks at explaining but she knows how to hit the right chord with Hachi. And damn this school's system seems brutal… though it's pretty much how a normal Japanese school works when you think about it. Huh. I wonder if there's gonna be a commentary on that.

Chapter 3 out. Sorry for the delay.

Glad to know the typical Jitsu wa humor is still there, and that the cast is still a bunch of idiots. I especially love that Mikeya subverts the "gifted, cool, stoic rival" trope hard.

As for the new pheasant guy, he looks a lot like Shima...hopefully he's not as much of a freak . I do get a bad feeling like he's going to backstab Hachi somewhere down the line, though :X

Also, new girl, which looks a lot like Akane. Hopefully she's as much of a best girl like her.

Not-Shima at least doesn't seem to be quite as much of a freak, though it remains to be seen.

(copying from the Jitsu wa thread)

Well, the little we've seen of Mikeya's art did look pretty sweet. He's good, but still an 18-year-old kid, so it's not like Masuda has to literally surpass himself.

But keeping with the tradition of his Shima predecessors, he's not too fond of popular guys. By the way, I love how Mikeya cluelessly yays with everyone when they form their loser alliance.

It definitely looks good, yeah. It's just a common pitfall for people in works to say that somebody is like super amazing at something only for them to not quite live up to that standard. Though Masuda is probably self aware enough to realize that and can work around it.

Also, I think my favorite moment is when all the guys admit that they pretty much all crushed on Mikeya before realizing he was a dude.

Chapter 4 out. Shit's gonna get real… and Hachi gets a taste of heaven/hell.

Funnily enough, Alice turns out to be more similar to Karen than to Akane…

And on a fanservice note, I just love how Masuda draws Myaako's breasts… he's actually really good at that in general, surprisingly.

...Part of me thinks he borrowed Akane's design just so he could do that.

I think it's because he actually has some subtlety to it rather than "hey lets pretend she stores watermelons in her shirt."

Also, it appears we're basically taking a turn into a battle manga, only with... manga.

@Spoilered Part

If he did that with expectations people have read Jitsu wa before...that's a pretty good move.

I wouldn't be surprised. X)

Chapter 5 out. Alice sucks at explaining but she knows how to hit the right chord with Hachi. And damn this school's system seems brutal… though it's pretty much how a normal Japanese school works when you think about it. Huh. I wonder if there's gonna be a commentary on that.

It wouldn't surprise me. I have to say I really like how the story is addressing the notion of "you can absolutely work your ass off and still not accomplish anything worthwhile'', because honestly I think a lot of what people consider an aversion to work is, in reality, an aversion to wasting time. It's much easier to put a lot of effort into something if you know you'll get something out of it. But if you don't know if you'll have anything to show for your time... it's way harder to get motivated.

Anyway, theories as to what ratings Hachi and Mikeya are going to get? I mean, I wouldn't put it past the author to throw a curveball and have it turn out that Mikeya didn't make it nearly as high as everyone thought he would. The question is whether or not that's at all likely.

Nah, Mikeya's set up as the "high bar to clear" so it would be weird if the bar wasn't really that high (though Mikeya certainly undersells himself). There's more doubt about Hachi's rank though. I'm expecting him somewhere high in the lower ranks, like C or D.

And I like how you put it. It's a bit like walking or running a really long race, I'd say − if you don't know how many laps you have left and feel like you could run forever without ever reaching the goal line, no one can blame you for giving up. Or something.

Yeah, I think it's definitely most likely for Mikeya to end up being ranked highly; but again I think it would be a pretty interesting twist if it turns out that whoever's in charge of the ratings has a differing opinion. It would really be an interesting way to shake up the status quo early on. But yeah, highly unlikely.

Chap 6 out, aaaaaand yeah. Alice is not only not surprised but actually happy about it. I guess she wants him to keep a "hungry underdog" spirit. We haven't seen Myaako's rank, but it would be interesting if she turned out to be A rank too and Mikeya was sort of running after her…

Saru's a good friend. And man that new teacher looks like an asshole.

This week, on Hachi Can't Catch A Break: Turns out that like a week of frantic practice won't turn you into a great artist overnight. That takes time. Also, while it was nice of Saru to offer him the C, it wouldn't have helped. Assuming that that's something you can even do, Hachi would've just gotten busted back down to E when it becomes clear that he's not quite skilled enough to hack it at C level.

I'm pretty sure he said that just to piss him off though. I don't think he was actually serious. But yeah, I get what you mean. X)

Yeah, I know, but in a lot of series' they would totally do that and then it would turn out that he's actually a natural and Saru had like some disease that was going to kill him in a month and it doesn't matter if he gets busted down to E.

…Boy, that escalated quickly.

Chap 7 is out, which means we're all caught up with the raws now. \o/ Hachi is not gonna take that shit, and it's glorious. Now I wonder if Enma did that just to see if some students would have the guts to oppose him.

Strangely, this chapter made me like Tanuma as a character. An interesting chap, as depicting ordinary human cowardice in such a nuanced way isn't something Masuda has really done before… maybe a little bit back in Sakura Discord, but it wasn't quite the same.

Yeah, Tamuna is interesting in that while I think he's wrong, his desperation is also completely understandable. Also, Enma is either a brilliant Trickster Mentor, or just a complete dick. Probably the former, since that would be narratively more interesting and in the latter case Hachi would get the boot after his outburst.

But yeah, it really looks like his goal is primarily to weed out those with the necessary drive to actually do the work necessary to get out of E rank. It's going to take a lot of practice to improve enough to move up, and people without the motivation to put in the effort are just going to waste their time.

Chapter 8: so is Enma a Trickster Mentor or just a dick? …A little bit of both it seems. And Hachi bought himself some time, but drove himself into a corner at the same time.

This chap has some good expressions.

edited 22nd Mar '18 12:30:36 PM by Lyendith

I mean, the end result isn't exactly unfair. If you can't even draw a good line, maybe an art-driven profession isn't for you.

Now I'm curious if Enma actually will axe half the class or if he'll pull an Aizawa and give some mercy. Although I'd kinda prefer if he didn't, if only to drive home the fact that there actually are stakes here.

Pulling an Aizawa would be a bit too predictable, so I agree that it would be better to actually have it happen. How Hachi is gonna get himself out of this mess is anyone's guess though. Just drawing a super personal and passionate story hasn't produced stellar results for him thus far.

…You know, I noticed that the early chaps had many call backs to Jitsu wa's characters and humor, but the last few have taken a more straight-up shounenesque direction. I don't know if Masuda did that deliberately to get Jitsu wa fans more comfortable in the beginning…

Well, I mean, we only just got out of the first volume, so we're still in the Early-Installment Weirdness phase where he hasn't quite settled the tone yet. I mean, Jitsu Wa didn't really start to define itself until Akane showed up, and this series is only about halfway to that point.

As far as how he gets himself out of this predicament, there are basically two options:

1. Practice, practice, practice (seriously, this sort of technical thing really just boils down to learning the technique and repeating it until it's second nature)

2. Getting some sort of advice or training from the other students. Seriously, I doubt that Alice or Saru are going to just drop off the radar now that Hachi is in E rank.

edited 22nd Mar '18 7:48:15 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Masuda does seem to have a clearer idea of where he's going this time, though. I guess the gags will come back later on…

And I'd say n°2, because it's one week away from the test and he doesn't seem to have improved much… He's gonna need some sort of revelation from Alice or Saru. Speaking of other characters, I have a feeling Myaako is sorta gonna "play both sides" and have fun watching the rivalry unfold. What she did in chapter 1 was quite clearly on purpose at least. I wouldn't even be surprised if she was actually A rank.

edited 23rd Mar '18 3:22:08 PM by Lyendith