Mar 18, 2014
Bakuman is a manga... about manga. And romance. It tells the story of two teens as they aspire to become mangaka in Weekly Shonen Jump.
The plot, for the most part, is a very well-written and well-thought-out one. Ohba manages to keep the story interesting, and I really enjoyed observing all the problems that Mashiro and Takagi encountered and how they overcame them. I imagine that the creators of Bakuman had some of the exact same problems that Mashiro amd Takagi did earlier in their career as well. Some of you may disagree with me on this topic and say that the problems were
...
rather unrealistic and unlikely, to which I ask the question: How many of you are professional mangaka?
Case and point.
I do have to admit, however, that these people may have somewhat of a point regarding the beginning of the series. Some of the happenings are very drastic and may seem a bit unrealistic and fast-paced. Yes, the beginning of Bakuman, as well as the end, felt a little rushed, and this makes me wonder if Bakuman would've been that much closer to perfection if the creators had just taken a bit more time in these parts.
The characters are a tricky aspect of Bakuman to review. They aren't exactly presented at first as interesting or unique, and some might perceive them as cliché. Since Bakuman is pretty much a one-of-a-kind manga, it's hard to thoroughly and effectively analyze them by comparing them to characters of other manga and/or anime. So I'll look at them as they are as a stand-alone.
Bakuman's characters are presented in the typical shounen way. We have Mashiro, the normal kid who gradually gets roped into creating manga. Next we have Takagi, the overachieving student who ropes him in. Then, we have Azuki, Mashiro's girlfriend (chapter one spoiler) and motivation, and we have Miyoshi, Azuki's best friend and later--
**SPOILER**
These characters are all very interesting in the way they interact with one another. Mashiro and Azuki's romance, although it seemed like a plot device at times, was very cute, and the rivalry between the mangaka duo and the other artists was simply shounen gold. No characters were neglected, and Ohba did his best to carefully develop each and every one. And need I mention Hiramaru and Yoshida? This is honestly one of the best comedy relief pairs I've seen in anime.
The art of Bakuman displays the exact same quality we see in the other aspects. Obata really outdid himself this time, and I dare say I liked Bakuman's art even better than Death Note's. His style stood out very distinctly, his character designs were superb, and I know for a fact that I'm not the only one who loved those faces during the comedy moments 😂👌
Overall, Bakuman is a masterpiece by my analysis and deserves far more attention that it gets. It's a dramatic, compelling story that leaves you with a great feeling at the end. It's better than Ohba and Obata's past work in that it doesn't completely lose its purpose after certain major plot twists (oh yeah, Death Note fans, you KNOW what I'm talking about). Obata's art is just as good as, if not better than, anything else he's ever made. I can't guarantee that you'll feel the same way towards it that I do, but I can strongly recommend it as one of my favorite manga of all time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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