When we first meed Mashiro, he’s drifting towards a future that he has no feelings for and can’t get a grip on. He plays a lot of video games, though, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that, when he embarks on his manga career, that the first thing he does is turn that into a game, too. “I have to have a hit manga before I turn 18. If that works and I get an anime, then I’ll marry the girl I love. If we see each other before this happens, everything will crumble.” (Step on a crack, break your mother’s back. If I see three red cars on my way to school, I will have a good day. Who else knows people who think like this?)
It’s unsettling, because he’s setting up artificial rules that both define his success, and ensure it, and you want to step inside the story and say “…You know, you don’t really need to do all this.” And I think the author knows this too–look at the other mangaka in the story. Sure, they’re driven, but not like THAT. Even his best friend looks at Mashiro’s girlfriend-related vows and says “Dude. You’re kinda weird.”

Mashiro makes mountains out of molehills, puts himself in cages and mazes of rules, and sets up ridiculous obstacles just to make himself jump over them. And I admit, it looks mildly demented to me, but I have to remember–before he created his huge game for himself, he wasn’t doing anything with his life at all. Maybe this is what it takes for some people to push themselves up the hill.

I’m really surprised to hear you say all this. We used to both get equally excited over this series, I recall.

I’ve actually been meaning to make a post about Bakuman, because it’s got to the point where I am happy every time they have a setback, because they are so obnoxious (especially Saiko) that I want to see them fail.

I liked Death Note a lot more, actually. Light was supposed to be a bad guy. Saiko is just really, really obnoxious but supposed to be the hero.