Bakuman. 3

Dragging On and Top Speed

As Ashirogi Muto struggle to meet deadlines for the Shonen Jack and Hisshou Jump magazines, a backlog of work starts piling up. As Mashiro and his three assistants, along with help from Takagi and Miyoshi push themselves to their limits to complete the storyboards, returning professional assistant, Ogawa, steps in with two new assistants and is able to complete the storyboards. As the competition between Nizuma's Zombie Gun and Ashirogi Muto's Reversi takes off, Reversi manages to take 1st place in the rankings for three consecutive weeks. This results in Nizuma changing one of his antagonists for Zombie Gun and rises to the top once again, showing up the weakness in Reversi for having two protagonists. As Takagi realizes this, he slows the pace of his story to match the standard battle archetype which further results in their ratings dropping to 5th place. Eventually, after a discussion with Hattori, Takagi calls Mashiro and they both agree that Reversi may not be a long running manga, even managing 50 chapters. However they discuss being content with resolving the conflict between the protagonists in the most interesting way possible, rather than prolonging it. Nevertheless, for the sake of himself, Mashiro and Azuki, Takagi promises to go all out and turn Reversi into a masterpiece they can all be proud of.