Excellent episode focusing on Futami. Of course, in the manga industry, assistants are important. We got good characterization on Mizuki last week. Nice to see Futami is getting more help, but this is actually the more proper way to get assistants. Mizuki helped because she is the sister of Futami’s childhood friend. Though it was a good showcase that assistants can help purely digitally.
Which is a good transition to Futami’s life as an assistant. She helped Ren Takizawa, who we learn from Mizuki is a big-name mangaka given her reaction. Still, the differences in personalities were huge between Futami & Takizawa. Takizawa to someone like Futami would seem intimidating, but a lot of what she said was for Futami’s own good. Tell her you need a backbone or you will be exploited, which I imagine is a huge problem in the industry. Once Futami got her serialization, she told her she doesn’t need to come back anymore. It’s more so to say focus on your own manga, which ties to her point before of not being exploited.
The ending of the episode showcased a bit of what supervision is like. As with manga that ventures into different sports, hobbies, etc., sometimes you will need guidance from someone in that field. We are introduced to Touko Kakunodate, who is very talented at shogi and was coaching and seemed to win one title. It’s cool to see how someone in the field inspires Futami to figure out what she wanted to do with the cliffhanger that she was stuck with. Though good use of the “Oh, I got it!” Moment from Futami. Since I wonder if that is a trait of more talented mangaka, since both Touko & Satou comment on her really being a genius.
