Mashiro agreed that Takagi will work for Rabuta and Peace and that Shiratori decides that he wants his story to be published on Jack. As for his family, his mother doesn't want him to be involved in writing manga and prefers his son to study in Paris. Will Shiratori pursue his mother's wishes or his dream?
This episode is heavily focused on Shun Shiratori and why he should write for manga and not study abroad. The thing that I like about Shiratori is that he is an artist who wants his work to be seen by everyone and he sees manga as an avenue to show his art to everyone. Unlike your traditional fine art that only few people can see, manga is a cheap way to express art. This is something Shiratori's mother can't understand since she thinks that manga is just a waste of time and you can't consider it as fine art or art in general.
Shiratori standing up for himself after getting encouraged by Mashiro to continue on pursuing his dream to be a manga artist is something admirable. It didn't help that he decided to run away from him just to pursue his dream! Granted, running away will not solve everything but this is the best solution that he could think of since his mother will force him to go to Paris at the very end. Because he ran away from home, his dog, Peace also followed him and that scene showed the loyalty of the dog to his master and I really like it.
The next day, Kaya noticed that there is something wrong with Shiratori until the noticed the next that he didn't take a bath and learned that he run away from home and that they are living in the streets. I find it a bit weird for the two to live on the streets since for starters; Shiratori has some money that he earned as an assistant. I guess he doesn't know the where to look for a proper house or an apartment to stay. Speaking of apartments, he can just stay inside the studio just for a couple of days. But based on his personality, I think he is just too shy to ask their help.
After Kaya helped Shiratori find an apartment thanks to Kaya's father being a real estate dealer, we are back to more important things, how can Mashiro improve his art. This is when Shiratori comes in and learned how he does his rough sketches. Unlike Mashiro who just draw his characters directly, Shiratori makes a skeleton of the character and just proceed on the inking, cutting a lot of time in drawing a page. Shiratori's style reminded me a lot of those "How to Draw Manga" books that I saw in bookstores that all start with skeletons and such.
While they are busy, Shiratori's family barges in and had one really great scene on the value of manga as an art form. I love the exchange between Mashiro, Takagi and Moriya about why making manga is difficult and it is not child's play like what Shiratori's mom think. In addition, Moriya standing up that manga is a piece of fine art is something that I really like. It just shows that he is really passionate about manga and even though he is rejected a couple of times, he continues to pursue this career.
Another thing that I like is how Shiratori's sister and father talk about that manga is not really bad and much to my disappointment, they cut some bits about what Shonen Jack titles that they have read that really shocked me while I was reading the original manga. To give you a sample, Shiratori's sister read Slam Dunk and Rurouni Kenshin. With Takagi's determination, he promised that the manga that he will make will Shiratori will something that she will be proud of and considering that the one-shot debuted at #5, I guess they are in a good start.
Meanwhile, Hiramaru's Otter 11 is cancelled after 4 years of it being serialized and because of that, he wants to take a long break... but his editor want him to make a one-shot for April's Leaders Fest. This scene just proves why Yoshida is my favorite Jack editor; he knows how to get Hiramaru pumped up by using the fact that Aoki's Time of Blue Leaves is also cancelled. As for Ashirogi, they decided to also participate in the Leaders Fest even though Takagi will be busy with Rabuta and Peace. All I can say is I love Takagi's determination to improve their duo since he is taking the risk of doing a one-shot while he is doing two series.