Bakuman – 14

After the last episode, two weeks ago, I remember noting that I hoped that the creators would go for a new OP for the second half of the first season, because Blue Bird was getting obnoxious. I did not mean a simple remix by that. Seriously, it sounds a little different, but it mostly feels like the composers were rushing to produce something different. On top of that, the recap of the previous episode took up a minute and 24 seconds. These things are getting longer and longer.

Having said that, though, this probably was the best Bakuman episode to this point. A nice start of this year. It would probably have been even better if it were a bit faster paced, but my opinion of Eiji really changed the moment that he actually stood face to face with Moritaka and Akito. This episode finally had a bit of good tension, where it nicely combined Eiji’s refusal to draw the right manga to Moritaka’s insistence on drawing a mainstream battle manga.

Also, Japan. It’s the only country in the world in which little girls can get black belts in Karate. I’ve been practicing for eleven damn years and I’ve only still gotten to a brown belt…
Rating: ** (Excellent)