Bakuman: Rookie and Veteran continue where the previous tankobon left off and contains the next nine chapters (134–142) of the on-going manga series.
When Eiji Niizuma joined Shonen Jump, he had one condition – that when he became the most popular manga artist, he gets to choose any manga he hates and cancel it, to which the editorial staff and the editor-in-chief agreed. It seemed that everyone had forgotten about this clause, until Eiji Niizuma decided to become the best in earnest.
When Shinta Fukuda heard that Eiji Niizuma is going to cancel a manga he hates from his editor Yujiro Hattori, he calls everyone in his circle of friends who's in the manga business and currently has a serialized manga: Aiko Iwase, Yuriko Aoki, Ashirogi Muto, Shoyo Takahama, and Kazuya Hiramaru. Shinat Fukuda explained the provision in Eiji Niizuma's contract and they begin to worry, which manga he wants to cancel. Aiko Iwase fed up with the discussion and decided they will go straight to Eiji Niizuma and ask him personally. In the end, Niizuma told them the manga he wanted to end is his own.
Niizuma explained that the fact he couldn't end his manga when he wanted to is just wrong. He understand the editorial division wouldn't want any popular manga to end, because it's a commercial magazine and it means more money, which means that Niizuma would continue drawing his manga until its popularity goes down and dies an ignoble death – he would rather end his series on a high note. With the self-imposed condition of being in the first rank for ten consecutive weeks that he would end his manga in another ten issues.
While the group is sympathetic to Niizuma's plight, they aren't willing for him to end it. So, together the group (minus Aiko Iwase she left when she heard that her manga wasn't being cancelled), decided that if they could knock Niizuma from the top position, they would stop Niizuma from ending his manga. It became an all-out challenge, which raised the fighting spirit of Niizuma as well. He tells them that if they could knock him down before he could publish his last chapter he would continue to work on the series – that's fifteen more first places he would have to get before he would allow himself to end his manga the way he wanted.
The challenge to knock Niizuma out of first position begins in earnest with each person bringing their secret weapons that would hopefully knock Niizuma off first position. Better plots were made, new characters and villains are introduced, and surprising revelations are introduced in their manga series. It brought up the caliber of the manga writer and artist to a whole new level of quality. In the end, they couldn't knock Niizuma off his pedestal, but the all congratulated and thanked Niizuma for all his hard work in the comment section.
When Eiji Niizuma read Ashirogi Muto's comments he went straight to their studio office and told them that his next manga would not be the best in Japan, but in the world! He wanted to assure Ashirogi Muto that they are eternally link, because they are eternal rivals and promptly leaves. It was a cool scene to behold and it was done rather well.
There is one character of intriguing note that is introduced in Bakuman: Rookie and Veteran: Mikihiko Azuma – a veteran manga artist. Not much is known about him except that he was one a veteran manga artist that made a manga proposal. At first he got Goro Miura, but immediately rejected him, because of his apparent ageist attitude. When he asked for a second editor, he got Akira Hattori, who he accepted and loved his manga draft. However it seems like he's working for someone else behind the scene – someone whose silhouette looks suspiciously like Toru Nanamine – the nemesis of Ashirogi Muto.
Tsugumi Ohba has written another wonderful tankobon, despite his loquaciousness. I really like for one chapter we get to see Aiko Iwase unconfident side – her manga has been hovering in double digits for a long time now and she can't really blame Niizuma's art, because it is his art that has been saving her story. It is good to see the always confident side of Aiko Iwase show her vulnerable and doubtful side. In the end, thanks to her friends, she picks herself up and rises like a phoenix to continue her work. As always, Takeshi Obata's art is great and compliments the text rather well.
All in all, Bakuman: Rookie and Veteran is a wonderful continuation of the on-going series. If my assumptions are proven correct and Toru Nanamine is behind Mikihiko Azuma's sudden success, I wonder what he's up to with these veteran manga artists. I can't wait to read the next tankobon to find out.