Bakuman Season 2 - Episode 17

With serialisation meeting time approaching once again, the pressure is on for Takagi in particular as both marriage and serialisation become inextricably tied together - this is as nothing to the pressure felt by editor Miura however, with Ashirogi Muto's latest work getting a muted reception in the serialisation meeting preamble while Business Boy Kenichi looks likely to be put out of commission at the same time.

So it goes that Aoki Kou's new effort makes the grade effortlessly, while its one-shot winning status in Jack Next isn't enough for Takagi and Mashiro's latest outing as it gets passed over for serialisation.  There's little time for either joy or despair from the relevant parties however, as the crows finally come home to roost for Nakai after burning all of his bridges of late - rejected at every turn, he seeks to return home and quite the manga business, despite Mashiro imploring him to stay and continue to fight.  With Takahama's aforementioned manga cancelled, his complaints about Miura sees both himself, his editor and Ashirogi Muto brought before the Chief Editor with a view to giving a stern lecture on the relationship between artist and editor.

Away from all of this, it seems that Hattori is having the time of his life, as his new find and rival to Takagi, Aiko Iwase, proves to be more than a little adept at following his instructions and creating an impressive manga manuscript.  But who is going to draw the artwork for such a piece?  Hattori has a cunning plan which could well propel his career forward considerably - a potentially risky scheme which involves (and reinvigorates) none other than Eiji Nizuma.

Aside from being more than a little glad to see the back of Nakai after recent events (even if there's still a possibility of his return) this was a pretty decent episode which kept any romance at arms length and instead made the most of the twists and turns surrounding its artists - an arch mixture of elation, excitement, disappointment and soul searching that was eminently watchable.  The intriguing developments just keep on coming, and as a result I can't help but keep on watching no matter how often Bakuman threatens to falter or fall entirely flat on its face.