Bakuman - Episode 23

Their rebellion against Koogy may have fallen flat on its face, but the meeting of minds that was the revolt of his fellow Golden Future Cup contenders ended up being a positive result for all involved as they all make the decision to spend some time trying to improve and perfect their entries.

Thus, we get to see all and sundry working hard, with both facets of the Ashirogi Muto duo seeking to improve both the story and artwork of their entry - indeed, it seems to be only Koogy who is slacking as he falls into some of the same traps previously seen with Eiji Nizuma's work while generally not getting much done as he swans around performing interviews and the like.

Finally though, time is up and manuscripts submitted, before the painful wait for each contender to be released and questionnaire results compiled.  The immediate news seems to be excellent for each contender, with Moritaka and Akito told to prepare themselves for serialisation while their rivals get similarly positive responses - there can of course only be one winner of the Golden Future Cup however, but it appears that we're going to have to next week to find out the fate of the contest itself.

It's par for the course now that Bakuman will entertain in its depictions of the inner and outer workings of the manga industry, but perhaps what is most frightening about this episode is the way it happily depicts excerpts of all of the competing manga in the Golden Future Cup, all of which (well, apart from Colourfusical maybe) look like genuinely cool manga ideas in their own right, much like some of the earlier creations we've seen in this series.  This should perhaps be expected of the team behind this series and Death Note but still... these guys don't have to worry about quitting the industry any time soon methinks, although of course Bakuman itself still seems to have plenty of legs right now.