Well this is a first.
PCP is running for a year now and is now judges for Treasure, Fukuda's Road Racer GIRI is getting an anime and last but not the least, Hiramaru is still not serialized and wants a long break. Yes, this episode is all about Hiramaru and his journey for a decent long break with Aoki.
When Kazuya Hiramaru was first introduced in the series, I easily liked the guy because he is a genius who hates work, especially his work as a manga artist. To force him to work in his serialization, his editor is doing everything just for him to work and that includes: convincing Hiramaru to take a loan to buy a car, convincing Hiramaru to take a loan for his apartment unit and now, he uses the info he had about Aoki because Hiramaru likes Aoki! In the case of this episode, it is time for Hiramaru to be a man and ask Aoki on a date by fooling his editor!
This is when the episode becomes fun, Editor Yoshida's hunt on Hiramaru. His reason on putting Hiramaru in a really tight leash is because he knows that he is such a bum that once he got married with Aoki, there is a chance that he will not work and let his wife do the job. To make this chase more awesome, they added some comedy effect in some scenes that are supposed to look serious and cool!
Hiramaru's date with Aoki is fun to watch, he is just that typical shy guy who ends up dating a beauty for the first time. He is a bit awkward and to top it all off, he is nervous, so nervous that he can't hold his tea cup or give her the gift that he wanted to give to Aoki! This is when Hiramaru's plan to fool his editor begins; he let Fukuda and his assistant drive his German (!) import car because it has a tracking device on it! But because his editor is just plain awesome, he found a way to track his pesky manga artist because he asks Fukuda's help.
Because of this Yoshida is now chasing Hiramaru who then grabs Aoki's hand! This scene is seriously awesome and come to think of it, he hadn't touched a girl's hand to begin with! For just a few minutes, I didn't see the lazy Hiramaru, what I am seeing is a man named Kazuya Hiramaru who just wanted to have a good break just at least once in his entire career as a manga artist! But because his editor is quite desperate right now to convince Hiramaru, for once he didn't lie (!) on Hiramaru about one thing. He is a genius that comes at least once every 2-3 years and that his one-shot can last for a long time.
But Hiramaru is not convinced this is when his editor took advantage of him wanting a break from manga that his meeting with Aoki and his date will not happen if Hiramaru is not a manga artist. His editor makes a good point so Hiramaru has no choice but to try his one-shot for serialization. But first, he must take a risk that he needs to take as a man, something that his editor is afraid off because he is afraid that Hiramaru will try to kill himself! Well at least Yoshida is for once, concerned about Hiramaru's life!
The thing that Hiramaru wants to take risk to ask Aoki to have more dates in her, in short, he wants her to be his girlfriend. To add up the pressure to Hiramaru and to Aoki (sort of), Ashirogi, Kaya, Fukuda and his assistant are supporting Hiramaru! Because of Aoki's reaction, the first thing that comes to my mind is that there is a chance that Aoki will not reject Hiramaru and I am right. Hiramaru is not rejected by Aoki only one condition; he must work hard for his serialization! Well at least he has a girlfriend who is supporting him aside from an editor who is trying to force him with his serialization!
As for Ashirogi, aside from thinking on how they can make an unorthodox battle manga, they are also judges for this year's Treasure. Knowing that they are thinking of plans in making a new manga while citing that every era has its own trademark shonen battle manga, they also made a reference on one unorthodox manga called "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure", a series that features spiritual beings known as Stands that do most of the fighting in the series while making the lead characters also exciting to watch without these Stands hogging the spotlight. Guess their next manga has something in the veins of JoJo's unorthodox battle manga style with some Ashirogi flair in it.
As for Treasure, there is one title that caught Hattori's interest that might give Ashirogi a run for its money because the author prepared 10 chapters for serialization. To make it more interesting, the episode ended up with a cliffhanger that features Ashirogi about to read the manuscript! One thing I notice with the author's art style is that it is quite similar to Ashirogi's earlier dark manga titles. Guess this series will be interesting then.
