Fridge / Bakuman。

• In Bakuman。, the first few chapters go heavily into detail about how hard it is getting into manga. How difficult it is to even make a first manuscript, which requires the artist mangaka to draw the characters, backgrounds, effects, tones, sfx, and speech balloons all by themselves. They need at LEAST 3 first chapter manuscripts to even get in the door. If they get serialized, the mangaka gets assistants who help greatly by doing just about everything except the characters and concepts. Why is this so amazing? When you look at how much damn detail is in just the first three chapters. The whole studio from chapter 3 alone pretty much is like Scenery Porn. The brilliance? That the artist had to do all of that by himself. And he sure would know what a good manga studio would look like, being the amazing Takeshi Obata.
• In Chapter 114, Aoki agreeing to go out with Hiramaru might seem a bit unexpected... until you realize that Aoki has been portrayed as uncomfortable and inept at romance as Hiramaru has, the only different being that Hiramaru's ineptitude was Played for Laughs. It makes even more sense when you consider before he confesses, Hiramaru flat out calls his editor on using Aoki's feelings as bait and saying it isn't fair to her, showing he has respect for her feelings, the exact opposite of what Nakai displayed when he basically tried emotional blackmail when she asked for help on her manga. The more you think about it, the more Hiramaru and Aoki going out makes sense.
• The revelation that Azuki is going to an all girls' school (influenced by her interest in voice acting) falls into a sort of Fridge Horror when you consider that if Mashiro and Azuki had graduated without confessing to each other (or even setting up correspondence like Nobuhiro and Miyuki did), they would never have heard from each other again, losing their last chance to get together, and Mashiro would have lost his greatest inspiration to succeed in the manga world. It's thus quite fortunate that Takagi spoke to Mashiro when he did, midway through their last year of middle school and close to when Mashiro and Azuki would have otherwise parted ways.
• Fridge Brilliance: In Chapter 149, While everyone else is working on their chapters during the holidays, Hiramaru does nothing. When Hiramaru dislocated his hip and couldn't finish his chapter for that week, Azuma's one-shot was used as a replacement and kept Nanamine out of the top 3. Therefore, Hiramaru's greatest contribution against Nanamine was not doing his work.
  • It's also quite fitting that Hiramaru is the one who gets to derail Nanamine's plan, albeit indirectly. When Nanamine's first series was launched, it ended up delaying the launch of Hiramaru's second series (they and Aoki were up for consideration, but they could only choose two series with school settings); that time, he actually wanted to get serialized, worrying that failing to do so would endanger his relationship with Aoki.
• Initially, Azuki seems underdeveloped and a Satellite Love Interest. But then think about it from another perspective- what you know as the reader is most of what Mashiro knows about the girl he's planning to marry, a fact that's pointed out a few times in-universe, especially by Takagi. Through the course of their minimal-contact relationship over the years, they develop a strong love and trust between them, so that by the end, when they do get married, you can see the strength of their relationship.
• Fridge Logic: Miho and Mina's father decides to move to Hachioji so that Miho will not have to face perverts on the subway or leave before he does. What would the implications be for Mina going to school?
• Not so much fridge as YMMV but the author probably dislikes Makaino Koogy, the singer that planned on using his popularity as a singer to win the questionnaires. Repeat his name, Makaino, and you'll realize it sounds a lot like Makeinu, or Loser Dog.
• Fridge Horror sets in when you realize Nanamine's underhanded tactics were inspired by reading Mashiro and Takagi's Money and Intelligence and realize how many other kids took that same inspiration from their one-shot but went into industries outside of manga.