Shuukan Shounen Hachi (from the author of Jitsu wa)

Especially when she untied herself pretty easily apparently.

…Weirdly enough, Handa is the character for which I can find the most tropes, even though she was introduced only a couple chapters ago…

Chapie out. Communication is hard. And return of the Shimada face.

Well, that's interesting. Definitely going to have to get over that fear of criticism if you want to be a professional artist though. It's tough to make that leap from doing it for fun to doing it as a livelihood.

The same could be said for people like writers as well. You need to have more than a thick skin too, to not simply cave in when a particularly loud and annoying segment of your leadership complains.

Hell, it's even the case for a translator who's afraid to translate stuff no one will like.

Speaking of which, chapter 13. That's an epic crush if I've seen one. I hope romance is gonna remain in the background though. I wouldn't want this to turn into a romcom.

Yeah, I think he's already gotten the romcom down, so it's time to see him roll with a different genre.

I'm still waiting to see him tackle a bonafide horror manga. There was Invisible Man, but his style wasn't quite as polished yet…

By the way, I wonder if they actually teach their students how to use a graphic tablet in Onigahama? Seems pretty damn important for a mangaka in 2018…

Chap 14 out…

I said I didn't want this to become a romcom but damn do I want these two to be a couple now… The second half of the chap was really sweet. I really like that Handa only talks with her "real" voice when she's alone with Hachi, it's a great way to emphasize the connection they've made.

Now I wonder what will become of the Like Battle. Seeing that Handa's obviously A or B rank level, the competition's completely rigged with her in the team.

Assuming that none of the other teams figure out a way to cheese the competition. I mean, this kind of thing is going to be determined as much by marketability as by raw artistic skill.

Also, the harem appears.

And that is the worst possible timing she could've had to arrive at the store.

Oh no, no harem. Please Masuda.

Yeah, I'm hoping it doesn't go that way. Got my fill of those shenanigans last time around.

Chapie out!

…As much as I don't want too much focus on romance, these two are just way too perfect together. I really love how Handa's teasing has gone from malicious to almost flirtatious.

Also nice to see Hachi become more chill about his own limits and the whole competition aspect.

And so it seems like fucking lolcats are a valid way of getting likes for the assignment. I'm increasingly confused as to what the Like Battle is about. It sure doesn't seem to be about artistic skills.

Yeah, I'm not sure exactly what they're supposed to be learning from this, unless it's simply about marketing and trying to teach them that luck is as important as having skill.

But aside from that, it's really interesting to see exactly where Hachi is going. He still doesn't have the skill yet, but he's developing more in the sense of knowing exactly what it is he wants his story to be about.

Or maybe that they should try to "move" the audience before showing off their technical chops? Since that's what Enma and Shinonome were discussing about Hachi…

Regarding Hachi, I do like that he's going through significant character development this early. This series might be more autobiographical than I thought (Masuda mentionned in his interview that he added more comedy to counterbalance his excessive seriousness back then).

…

The chapter 16 raw is out by the way. Don't◊ ask.◊

I think Masuda might be king of "This panel makes sense in context, I swear."

Ooh! Ooh! I know!

Is that a motherfucking Jojo reference!?

Which one?

Chap 16, which marks the end of volume 2! So it seems the purpose of this whole thing was to find their target audience and speak to it with the right content…? That sort of makes sense, but is that really worth making into a life-or-death assignment? I'm not sure…

Hachi sure has changed since chap 1. He's much less bitter now. We have Panda to thank for that.

edited 23rd May '18 5:09:35 AM by Lyendith

I wonder exactly what group they're going to be targeting. It's also a bit of a Family-Unfriendly Aesop for artists: you can't always just produce what content you want and expect to become popular for it; you need to make stuff that people want to see.

From what I get the idea is rather to create a Commonality Connection between the author and the reader and share your own passion… Like, Mayoi and his pals used a band they were fans of first and foremost.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

The chapter 17 raw is out… It's an Inohara chapter!

edited 29th May '18 1:40:04 PM by Lyendith

Chapie out. You might want to cover yourself a bit more if you're gonna fish in a storm, Ran. Just saying.

Well, Ran is insane.

That she is. And I really wonder what's up with these "neighborhood guys". Maybe it'll turn out that they're just throwing a costume party or something − or a "survival game" as Ran says −, but I wouldn't put it above Masuda to make them actually blow stuff up. X)