Wow, what an unexpectedly hype chapter. Barely a year into her job and Aoba is already competing with her role model for the key visual design. Like Kou, she is the quintessential star rookie, a future pillar for an organization. That being said, Aoba has the fortune to have Kou to be a sort of mentor for her. Their dynamic is very interesting. It's certainly a teacher-student relationship, but at the same time both want their work to respresent their best ideas, which can come into conflict with each other.
It's sad that the higher-ups want Kou to be given the credit, but it makes sense from a business perspective. A new IP is always a risky investment, and you want recognized names to be the face of the new product to ensure its success. I hope like during the design contest, a compromise will somehow be found where both Kou and Aoba names will be featured.
Impressed with New Game. Really started off as the typical moe, yuri-bait, all-girl series with a game dev skin, but ended up developing some interesting workplace drama. I'm not expecting Shirobako, but I'm glad the series is showing some depth in a genre that rarely has any.
