In this episode, we meet Tooru Nanamine and his really amazing one-shot called "Classroom of Truth", a story about a class stuck in a classroom where they have no other option but to tell the truth if they want to live.
The on-shot is really interesting. The concept about a classroom controlled by a mysterious entity called "Kami" and the students are forced but to play along with Kami's games is interesting. It didn't help that playing his games is the only option if they want to survive at the end. Nanamine's art is fantastic but I can't help but notice that his art is quite similar to Ashirogi's art style, only darker and edgier. I guess even the illustrator of the Bakuman. manga series is also having a hard time trying to distinguish the art styles off all authors in this series then.
The way how this one-shot is presented in this series is also amazing as it feels like I am watching a moving manga. The voice acting also added the moving manga experience as it feels like I am watching a picture drama or something close it. What made it stand out more is that they have the guy who is voicing Dio Brando from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure do the voice of Kami! The only problem I had with this one is that it only lasted for at least 5 minutes of the show's overall running time. I mean, the one-shot is really interesting that I don't mind having the entire episode based on it!
Back to the real world, Ashirogi and even the editorial team agreed that Classroom of Truth is one interesting piece but it fits more to a seinen magazine. Even if that's the case, the editors of Jack want to meet Nanamine. Since Kosugi, the newbie editor decided to be his editor; it is his job to make the one-shot more fitting for a shonen magazine. This is when we meet Nanamine for the first time, he is really enthusiastic about working for Jack and he is a big Ashirogi fan. Overall, he is a really cool guy and someone you can say that feels like he is easy to work with as he is willing to make a kid-friendly version of Classroom of Truth.
But my impression of him being a really cool guy changed when he had this really evil smile when he uploaded his one-shot online. The next day, the Jack office received a lot of calls about the series not winning the prize for Treasure since it deserves it. All I can say is, the callers have the point but the editors have a better point, the guy entered a shonen magazine contest and the content he submitted is something that feels like it must be published on a seinen magazine.
As for Nanamine, he apologized for what he did because he is completely unaware that what he is doing is something a pro shouldn't do. But based on his facial expression when he is uploading the one-shot, he is aware of what he is doing. To compensate for what he has done, he submitted another one-shot that is suited more for Jack. Much to my surprise, the chief editor read it and like it! For the first time in the entire duration of the series, the chief editor did something like that. Since it is good, he decided to publish it in an issue of Jack so that the hype for this new and up and coming manga artist named Tooru Nanamine will not die down just yet.
Because he is a big Ashirogi fan, he asked the chief editor if he can meet them and he agreed. On the meeting, we see Nanamine being a fanboy to Ashirogi, you know, the usual reaction when you finally meet your favorite author for the first time. After Nanamine's editor left, this is when we finally see more of his true side. To sum it all up, he is like Takagi, only evil. He finds his editor incompetent since he is a fresh college graduate and that he asks help from 50 people that he met online for his ideas. You can say that is one dirty way to write manga but since he just compiles the ideas that they generate, you can say that it is still his original work of some sorts.
Because of his method in making manga, I suddenly remembered the time when Detective TRAP is on a slump and Ashirogi decided to check their fan mail to get some ideas only to end up cramming all the suggestions that their fans want in a single chapter. Their editor during that time, Miura pointed out that it is okay to get ideas from other people but they should not cram it on a single chapter and make it the basis of the story since it will ruin the composition. I am seeing this same situation in Nanamine. Based on Ashirogi's reactions, it is obvious that they don't like Nanamine's methods and are determined to beat him with PCP and their unorthodox battle manga that Takagi is still planning on.
