You know how really good anime cannot be spoiled, because it's so good that it's impossible to spoil, right? I'm going to spoil the New Game manga now, because it's like that.

Our hero, Aoba, enters another no-holds-barred competition with her idol and mentor, Yagami. They have to produce a magazine illustration for a new game, where it's emphasized that the character wears a costume. Here's how Aoba approaches the problem:

She starts by decomposing the task and then building from the center out. How do you make it clear that the hero wears a costume? Aoba does it by using a zipper. The zipper is prominent and will remain a key feature of the illustration. But as she works hard for days, she adds accoutrements to the idea. She strives to show the character (who wears the costume) having fun in an adolescent world:

You can see that the rest of the world starts to encroach, even overwhelm the main character. But this process looks like a natural progression from idea to implementation. Natural that is, until you see what Yagami came up with. Her illustration simple and expressive:

Needless to say, Aoba suffers a crushing defeat, and the bitterness of it will help her grow. But I'm really attracted to the way the difference between the master and apprentice is portrayed. The root of Yagami's superiority is her ability to design the whole thing. She didn't have to develop bottom-up, or center-out, or according to any other mediocre methodology. I saw this in engineering and programming many times, so it's something that speaks true to me. I can't wait to see this part in the anime.