BAKUMAN.

DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

ANIME ComedyBakuman. 3
ANIME ComedyBakuman.
ANIME ComedyBakuman. 2
MANGABakuman. Bangai-hen
NOVEL ComedyBakuman.
ONE SHOT ComedyRakko 11-gou
ONE SHOT DramaBangai Special Saint Valentine
NOVEL MysteryPCP: Kanzen Hanzaitou - Kotou no Kodomotachi

REVIEWS

• 

  MasterCrash

  90/100
  Mashiro and Takagi aim to write the best manga in Jump, but do Ohba and Obata do the same?

  (Hello, before we get into the review, just wanted to bring to your attention that I also have this review in video format on my channel for those that preffer that format. If you don't, feel free to skip this paragraph and jump into the review, for those that do, you can find it by clicking here, thank you)

  WARNING: Slight spoilers for Bakuman, but also Death Note [properly spoiled]. Yeah. Go figure.

  There's this small hill I live in and will probably die in too. It's the hill of people who like Bakuman more than Death Note, it's a very small hill, that's constantly under attack by other people because they like Death Note, and because of that one dude that keeps screaming "DEATH NOTE SUCKS!". We're sorry about that dude, he just gets off on that.

  

  Death Note is a monumental work though, it serves as the perfect balance of mainstream and non-mainstream. It's a bold manga to have in Shounen Jump, being all about mental games and introducing the villain as your Main Character. It's perfect because it can be enjoyed by causal readers, newcomers and veterans alike. So it's only natural that people were hyped to know that a new work from the duo would come out in 2009.
  Bakuman at first glance doesn't seem to have anything to do with Death Note, and admittedly it's a completely new experience, far more tame in terms of themes, but inside these pages the mental battles continue.
  Bakuman is the story of Mashiro, Takagi, Azuki and their dream. Mashiro and Takagi will one day write a manga that will be animated, and Azuki will voice the main female lead, when that happens, and only then will Mashiro and Azuki reunite and get married.
  I guess this is the perfect segway to talk about the problem in Bakuman, which is the romance. It simply isn't that interesting, Azuki and Mashiro's romance is dumb, and it is pointed out time and time again that it is that way, but it's all good and well, because it IS pure. They barely see each other because they want to see their dreams come true. To the manga's credit, it does re-inforce that they do love each other and their support is shown, which helps us keep invested in them as a couple in a way that it wouldn't if this wasn't the case. But the problem is that the romance seems to come out of nowhere. Before the declaration of their dream they didn't really talk, sharing only a glance or two, they didn't knew each other other than physically, but in their first conversation ever they suddenly became engaged. You can't help but think that it's just out of nowhere.

  

  Same with Takagi and his romantic partner, Kaya. Now, I really like Kaya, she's a great character, but she and Takagi just start dating just because. Takagi clearly doesn't care much about her in the start of their relationship and Kaya just seems to care about being in a relationship. This seems to be a problem in the girls in this manga.
  Their motivations seem to be quite... childish when compared to the male counterparts. Kaya's first dream is to be a writer because Takagi is one, cool, then whe she realizes that isn't going anywhere, her dream changes to just be there for the duo. Okay.
  Iwase's whole character arc is that all she does is to be better than Takagi, which she has a crush on because he scores higher than her in tests. And Iwase is portrait as someone who works hard and has talent, but it's kinda ruined by the fact that she does it all to annoy her middle school crush.
  And then Azuki, which her dream is the most important out of all the secondary characters, since it's related to the goal of this story, in chapter 2 or so Takagi reveals that she only wants to be a voice actor because that's what young girls wanna be like. It's a whim, like that time you looked at the moon and decided you wanted to be an astronaut and also a dinossaur. Even side characters like the duo's eventual female assistant only talks about wanting to get married. It really hurts the portait of the female characters, with the best written one being Aoki, which is the only one that seems to have a genuine drive to write manga.
  The bad thing is that these problems are on full force at the start of the manga, that focuses on Mashiro and Azuki's romance as well as Takagi having to choose between Iwase or Kaya not because he loves any of them but because he said the wrong words at the wrong time.
  Once that is out of the way and the manga's attention starts to focus more on... well... manga, things get better. One of the best things that this manga has going for it from the get go is that it's made by Death Note's writers. It's made by someone who not only has had experience with Shounen Jump's proccess and editorial department, but one that had success with an unorthodox manga. Mashiro and Takagi are very clearly extensions of Obata and Ohba, even Takagi admitting to us that he isn't that good with female characters. (But admitting a problem doesn't mean the readers should dismiss it). This means that we're going to experience a lot of the thought process that went into making Death Note.
  The manga really kicks off once we get a proper rival, in the form of Eiiji Nizuma, which is basically the Oda-Sensei of this manga, as well as being introduced to Hattori, the duo's editor.

  

  It's really interesting to see them and Hattori discuss about manga and Shounen Jump's methods. The rankings (that becomes to focus of this manga) and all of that. It's because of this aspect that I think that Bakuman was probably a much bolder manga than Death Note. Bakuman exposes Shounen Jump a lot, and of course, by being a Jump manga it probably sugarcoats it a bit, with the editorial staff of Jump being all full of great personnel with great relationships with the mangakas as long as they are respectful too.
  But they don't try to hide the struggles that the mangaka suffers nor have any qualms addressing some of the problems that the system had. (Not that it had much effect, since it seems the system is still the same in 2020).
  Shounen Jump can be ruthless, canceling manga if they don't give immediate results and cancelling manga if they stop doing results, as well as trying to convince the successful authors to work on their hit manga for as long as they are giving them money.
  It's something that's not really hidden, out of the 10 manga that started in Shounen Jump in 2019, the only one that reached 2020 that didn't start at the tailgate of the year was Samurai 8 (by Naruto's mangaka), everything else got canceled after a couple of months. This is the environment that Ohba and Obata worked in and this is the environment that is presented in Bakuman, giving it all the tension it needs, as our duo works chapter per chapter trying their best to stay away from the bottom of the rankings. All the way while Nizuma just ranks on the top 5 immediately.
  It's in this phase that we start to get introduced to what will eventually be Team Fukuda (which Mashiro and Takagi are part of), and this is when the series shines the best. These characters are just great, first of all, it includes the best female character in the whole series, Aoki, but also the titular Fukuda, a pretty cool dude who writes pretty cool manga, Nakai, which, to be honest, is the weakest part of this team, gtfo pls, and my boy, Hiramaru.
  Hiramaru is the highlight of this series, comedy wise, he's an incredibly lazy bastard that only works because he needs money to survive, but by barely trying he writes classic gag manga that get anime and toy and all that.
  Bakuman works on the strength of it's core cast and their friendship/rivalry and how each of them works hard and thinks of ways to overcome the others.

  

  From doing shorts arcs that end at a crucial period of time, to introducing new rivals and villains, to using the color pages to their advantage, each chapter is full of information about how a mangaka's train of thought works week to week, chapter to chapter, series to series.
  It's a delight to see the duo evolve too. While at first the idea of a mainstream manga and a giant hit seems impossible, with each one-shot and series they do they perfect different parts that will eventually help them reach the final work.
  A final work that seems too similar to Death Note, concept wise. Which in one hand, it does seem self congratulating that this is the work that takes Shounen Jump by storm, on the other, it's really fulfilling to finally see them write the kind of work they've tried to write since the start of the series.
  One thing worth noticing about this part, and maybe it's just me reading too much into it, but there's a couple of chapters dedicated to the fact that the editors want to continue that work due to it's fame, despite the fact that the authors already have the finale in mind.
  (Death Note related spoilers)
  One of the things the editorial department pushes is for the manga to continue past the lead rival has been defeated, which the mangakas are clearly against it, which makes me think that this may have happened with Death Note and DN was supposed to end with L, but the editorial department wanted to prolong the series for a bit. Or maybe not, there's no proof of anything, it's just me speculating.
  About the ending, one memory I have reading this back when it was being released was being in college and opening my manga reader and seeing that "Bakuman Chapter 176 (END)" note and me and my colleague audibly gasping, which caused the teacher to look at us. I wasn't really expecting to end there, and I got in my head that the ending had been rushed and came out of nowhere, but re-reading it, this is totally not the case. The last two volumes are all building up to the finale of the series, I simply wanted more of it.

  All in all, Bakuman has some flaws with female characters and in the romance part of it, but that really doesn't ruin the enjoyment since it's not the biggest portion of the manga, plus, as the manga advances those elements improve as well.
  If you're a manga fan and if you're a Shounen Jump fan then this is something that you should read, it's probably not the most accurate in some regards but it does give you a very interesting insight to how a lot of things work both in Shounen Jump as well as inside a mangaka's head.

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• 

  HidamariSeashore

  85/100
  A gamble the creators of Death Note took....and succeeded with.

  "People who have a dream and are striving toward it... People who are searching for a dream... I want to support those people." - Miho Azuki

  Is there a dream you want to achieve? That dream can only come true with a lot of hard work, but if you keep at it, the payoff will, indeed, be great. I'm sure that's the message that Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, the ones behind "Death Note", wanted to convey in this manga. From the moment I heard about this manga, I knew I had to read it and watch its anime adaptation. After getting a box-set of the entire manga series sometime after completing the anime, I began to seriously read the manga, and I've got to say, I enjoyed it just as much as the anime.

  Ladies and gentlemen, aspiring mangaka of all ages, here is my review of "Bakuman."

  Moritaka Mashiro is a middle school boy who basically doesn't know what to do with his life. He used to want to be a mangaka, but he gave up on that dream after the death of his uncle, who was a mangaka. However, one day, he accidentally leaves his notebook at school, and when he goes back to get it, Akito Takagi, his genius classmate, is waiting for him. Takagi has seen Mashiro's drawing of his crush, Miho Azuki (who we later find out dreams of becoming a voice actress), and asks him to team up with him to create manga. Mashiro refuses at first, but when Miho finds out about it, it ends up leading to a promise that once one of Mashiro and Takagi's manga gets an anime adaptation, Miho will voice the heroine; then, Mashiro and Miho will get married. (They agree not to actually see each other until then, though.) The story of "Bakuman." follows Mashiro and Takagi as they strive to create manga, meeting friends and rivals along the way.

  I guess I should start with the artwork. Now, the artwork for this manga, drawn by Takeshi Obata, is rather good. Some of the character designs reminded me of characters in "Death Note"....but hey, they're from the same mangaka duo! What do you expect me to say?! Speaking of the characters, there is a great number of likable characters in this manga, and all of them get great development. I especially liked Shinta Fukuda and Eiji Niizuma; both of them had some really funny moments.

  Now, let's talk about the story. I can think of a few other manga that have a mangaka as one of the main characters, if not THE main character (Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, Mangaka-san to Assistant-san to, etc). However, what I love about the story in THIS manga is how it portrays a story like this. Not only does it give us a more realistic look at the manga industry (heck, I sometimes even wondered if it was secretly Ohba-sensei and Obata-sensei's autobiography), but it's a kind of story that inspires you to chase after whatever dream you have. Seeing Mashiro, Takagi, and all of the other mangaka who appear in this series doing (or drawing, I should say) what they love.... it just really gets you motivated, you know?

  Overall, Bakuman is a pretty good manga. If you're looking for a realistic and/or an inspiring read, this is the one. Whether or not you end up liking it.... well, I guess that determines whether or not Ohba-sensei and Obata-sensei succeeded in their gamble.

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• 

  Brati

  95/100
  An educational yet passionate story about the manga industry

  So I finished reading Bakuman some years ago after watching the anime. I was re-reading and re-watching it recently. Because I have lots to tell about this, I would like to offer a review for others to read! This review is including the plot of the first chapter. So if you value not to get spoiled on this, please look at another review or read the first chapter before reading this review!

  Bakuman was created by the illustrator/story author duo Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba who worked before on a manga called Death Note and who later worked on Platinum End. Bringing in lots of manga creating experience from their own career, they have lots of stories to tell and insights to give about the manga industry. And thats what Bakuman is about: Its a manga about creating manga. To some degree, it might be even valid to say that Bakuman is a "kind of" autobiography of their own life as mangaka.

  https://anilist.co/manga/30021/Death-Note/ https://anilist.co/manga/86526/Platinum-End/

  Story

  The story follows Mashiro and Takagi, whose dream is to be published in Weekly Shounen Jump and get an anime adaptation of their very own manga. But as it turns out, the daily life of a manga creator is filled with struggles and hurdles that need to be overcome. Starting from a very young age, still in school, Takagi cleverly forces Mashiro into forming a manga creator tag team. He notices that Mashiro likes to draw and that his artwork is excellent. With this, they have a team consisting of one person in charge of the art and one person in charge of the story.

  Characters

  The characters are really enjoyable and seem to be realistic. There are hard workers, geniuses, strugglers and many more archetypes. Even though the cast of relevant characters is rather big, they all have their own role and its easy to understand their motivation and goals. Another thing that I really like about the character development is the fact, that this manga covers a big timespan in the life of the characters. They went from being school kids, to university students and several years later. Therefore all of them have the possibility to grow and build up a individual personality.

  Its also interesting to observe how the relationship between the characters changes. How bonds are formed and how they grow together. Of course not every character is likable, just like in actual real life - and there are also antagonists. But like in an professional work-life environment Bakuman does a good job of showing that its important to get along (to some extent) with people you don't like as much as others. Antagonists are still not likable, but the relationship between the characters is portrayed in a way that they try to get along, even if they don't like each other - a good lesson for my own life.

  Art and Presentation

  Takeshi Obata is an absolute master when it comes to creating amazing manga artwork. Even though Bakuman is not known for many action scenes, wide spreads or really punchy visuals, the art style and quality is always on top. Especially compared to some of his early works (for example Blue Dragon Ral Grado) his art made a huge leap into a sphere not reachable by individuals like me.

  https://anilist.co/manga/30614/Ral-Grad-RalGrado/

  Bakuman is very VERY communication heavy. Almost every page has a ton of text. Its a story about talking. At some point I even needed to take a break, so I took some days off from reading after volume 10 and focussed on something else. This doesn't mean it is boring, but it might be a bit overwhelming. Conflicts are not solved by fighting, but by talking. And of course by battling with your manga serializations! A page with this much text is no rare find in Bakuman:

  

  Realism

  The most crucial factor why I love Bakuman so much is the realistic portrayal of the manga industry. Of course I don't work in the industry myself, so I don't know the details. But what is told in the story seems very realistic, logical and I think many of the industry insights are true and based on own experience of the authors.

  The struggles of the characters seem also very realistic and believable to occur in the life of a mangaka. I will not name examples to avoid spoilers of the story. But there are several.

  Actually I am surprised that such a "realistic" and "conversation heavy" manga like Bakuman survived in the harsh environments of Weekly Shounen Jump for this long. I would have expected the typical Shounen demographic reader to say "well, this is just talking. Boring. I want action" and then downvote the manga in the questionnaires (I learned about how manga questionnaires work and how its decided which manga to cancel from Bakuman). But Bakuman survived until the story reached a fulfilling conclusion with its final 20th volume.

  The passion of the characters for creating manga might have been a big factor that readers of Shounen Jump liked it enough to reach a conclusive end. I remember reading the final chapters of the manga and it made me shed tears because I was so invested with the characters.

  Whats good, whats bad? What kind of reader will like Bakuman?

  So in the end... Who will probably like Bakuman? People who are interested in the manga industry, who want to learn how manga are created in a way that goes beyond the drawing part will enjoy Bakuman. People who are interested in publishing routines and how the whole industry works together also have a lot to learn from this manga. Also people who like characters with intertwining story lines have a high chance of liking Bakuman because the characters have time to grow and form deep relationships over several years of plot.

  I would advise against reading Bakuman if you are not interested in consuming lots of text, because Bakuman has an insane amount of text per page.

  
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