Best part about being a blind pitcher, you don't have to see other guy's junk in the locker room.

The most noticeable change in this episode from previous episodes is that the time period was much greater. The previous 4 episodes seem to span in a relatively short time frame, like roughly 1 to 2 weeks. I really liked how this episode just swiftly covered the entire summer. Slow pacing can be good, but if it is always so slow then the series might drag on a bit. I am starting to see why Bakuman is one of those really popular titles. Akito and Mashiro really are a great combination and even though there is little to no real action in the episode, just two guys sitting around, they do a great job in making you want more.

I call next..

Overall I really enjoyed this episode. Akito accentually confessing to Kaya was wonderfully subtle. One of those moments where not even the viewer really realized it until Mashiro pointed it out. I am guessing that a relationship will brew between those two and I am curious to see where it goes. The major part of this episode was all about them creating their first manga. I really found the concept of the first manga very interesting. The idea that this world is just one big experiment really sounded like a great Sci-Fi title, but not really one that I would see in Shounen Jump par say. The sports idea kept me thinking of Major League, the movie where the kid broke his arm and then could suddenly pitch at amazing speeds. Either way, they both sounded like a great spin off series should be made by the Bakuman creators. Even just a one shot would be really great.

I think the Bakuman mangaka's only concept of romance is the look back.

I still think that their obsession with beating Nezuma still is unfounded. I might be somewhat mistaken, but I always though Shounen Jump as the bible of manga titles, in other words, not something that was easy at all to get published in. I know setting their goals high is good, like getting published in Jump, but it seems even more unreasonable to be challenging someone who already got serialized in Jump. I am looking forward to next week and seeing what the reaction from the shounen jump editor is going to be. If this series was formulaic, then they would get rejected and end up finding some kind of small publisher willing to take their work or something. Maybe they will enter the competition and get runners up, like his uncle, and then get picked up.

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