In this episode, Ashirogi finally learned that their series will be cancelled once it doesn't beat +NATURAL or CROW in terms of ratings. Because of this, Ashirogi decides to check what is wrong with the series. This is when Mashiro realizes that he needs to improve on his art.
There are two things that are running around in this episode, the first being Mashiro realizing that he needs to improve his art and the second being the tandem of Akina. Let's go with Mashiro in this episode, as it turns out he is being too realistic with his art that it might have turned off some viewers since it kinda looked dark and feels like it is not a shonen manga. Having Mashiro realize this on his own is something that I really admire since it shows that he can actually figure out his own problems as an author and that's a good thing, especially if you are struggling for your serialization and you have a lot of rivals to fight.
Since he figured out what is wrong with PCP, he decided to gradually improve his art so that the readers will not be surprised if they will see the series. Nizuma noticed it; he decided to do something with his art later in the episode. This is when we talk about the Akina and Nizuma tandem. Unlike the Ashirogi team, the two don't bond that much unlike Mashiro and Takagi but even if that is the case, the two has something in common, they want to beat Ashirogi. In Akina's case, he wants to beat Takagi while in Nizuma's case, he wants to beat Mashiro.
For some reason, Akina keeps on visiting Nizuma and based on her body movements, it seems that she is slowly to like Nizuma and might have feelings for him since the first thing I notice in her visits is that she is starting to look more gorgeous, like she is trying to flirt Nizuma or something. That's the first thing that comes to mind with their editors. More on Akina, one thing I noticed on her is that even though in the previous episode she wants to beat Takagi in every method possible, it turns out she is quite an understanding person after knowing that PCP is in a brink of cancellation. This is when I notice that she is quite a tsundere for Takagi.
Granted, Takagi is married to Miyoshi, but it seems like she still has feelings for Takagi in the form of her rivalry with him. She is so concerned about her rival that she has the guts to call him when she learned that PCP is in a brink of cancellation once the series is not on par with CROW or +NATURAL. The episode also displayed Nizuma's "manga psychic" skills since the episode since Akina is quite concerned about it since most of his predictions are extremely accurate that he predicted that the +NATURAL anime will help improve the manga's overall ratings.
More on Nizuma, one thing that I like about the guy is that he knows how to taunt Mashiro about his art since after seeing the improvements he made for his art, he decided to have a different approach with his art by having one volume of the series with no dialogue, just CROW's artwork and it telling the story. It is quite a bold move, especially if the series is a popular one since it might turn off some readers. But since I haven't read a single page of CROW, I can't tell what makes the series popular but based on what I saw in the series thus far, people read CROW because of the action.
Because of what happened in this episode, I suddenly remembered what Kishimoto did with Naruto in one chapter and I find it funny since it happened months after the original manga chapter of Bakuman was published! To those who are not aware, that chapter involves around the revelation that Tobi is Obito Uchiha. Back to Bakuman, as expected, Ashirogi is impressed with what Nizuma did and because of that, they are more pumped up with their color pages and in the next issue. Speaking of issue, the episode also featured two new serializations, namely Seigi no Mikata and Road Racer GIRI.
Seigi no Mikata is a shonen manga that focuses on court room drama while Road Racer GIRI is about a racer... and that's about it. Based on their reactions, the two new titles are really interesting since they have forgotten to talk about the newly serialized manga called NANDE!? by the author who keeps on getting serialized but ends up most of his serializations getting cancelled at the end. The episode ends with something I didn't expect, Crow in an issue of +NATURAL. Well this explains why Akina went to Nizuma's house; she just wanted to have a proper collaboration chapter with Nizuma!
