Panty & Stocking 08 oops I mean, Ashirogi Muto Makes a 4-koma (The ONLY Post on Bakuman You'll EVER Want to Read)

It’s past 11PM in the Ashirogi Muto studio. The two-part, non-genius mangaka who dare to be lucky have dismissed their staff but remain behind, still working on and discussing their creative passions.

“Shujin, I’ve realized something,” Moritaka Mashiro, the illustrator half of the team, said from behind his drafting table. Across the room Takagi Akito was admiring his own latest draft for the manga Rabuta & Peace.

“And what’s that, Saiko?”

“We’ve achieved a lot, but I think we’re stagnating. We haven’t beaten our rivals, and it’s really about time we make a manga that gets turned into anime.”

“You know I agree, but the timing is weird — we’re both doing independent projects right now.”

“No, I got it figured out. I noticed there’s a kind of manga that easily gets adapted into anime, and that it shouldn’t be so difficult to make.”

“What’s that?”

“4-koma. So start coming up with stories.”

“Saiko, I don’t think Ashirogi Muto is suited for 4-koma at all!”

“Maybe not, but Lucky Star and K-ON! did pretty well and Azuki is far more adorable than any of those characters.”

“S-Saiko, those manga aren’t suited for Ashirogi Muto, and more importantly, neither are they suited for JUMP!”

“You’re right, but this is where you come in. We want to innovate Jump, right? We can make something both suitable for it and for us while still following the 4-koma format.”

“Hmm, I wonder how we’d do that though… I’m not into moe-moe at all… and those manga are heavily into that.”

“I think we should do something as humorous, but go in the opposite direction. Instead of being just adorable, the characters should be interestingly flawed… to the point that they’re infuriating…”

“…But since they’re doing outrageous things, and saying outrageous things, the readers will keep coming back!”

“Yes! And you should make it a bit science fiction or fantastic to drive home the point that this is an Ashirogi Muto manga.”

“Okay… Let me come up with something…”

“What do you think?”

“It’s kinda hard to make a 4-koma for that kind of serious story, Shujin.”

“You’re right… How about this?”

“What do you think?”

“Shujin, that’s even harder to do and far too serious for a 4-koma!”

“Okay, okay… Let’s see… how about this one?”

“You just don’t get it Shujin! 4-koma needs to be funny.”

“But Saiko, I don’t want to make another gag manga! Not unless I can somehow make it dark…”

“Dark and sexy…”

“Huh?”

“Man, gimme a break. I haven’t gotten any yet, so I just wanna draw something sexy.”

“LOL! Okay, okay. I know exactly what we want to do…”

“Shujin, we have to show Hattori-san, but I’m actually afraid of what he’ll think!”

“If I’m honest, I’m quite terrified myself. Here goes everything!”

—

This fanfic is the most fun collaborative experience I’ve ever had. The person responsible for the 4-koma illustrations is my BROSIS (she’s a sis, but she’s totally my BRO) Kiriska of the Opinion Prone blog, who did major contributions to the script as well. Here’s her potfolio, etc.

If you want to know what happens next, let us know!