Bakuman

Manga Review

Bakuman

Genre Slice of life, Romance, Comedy, Shonen

To Read Bakuman go to this Website:
Onemanga.com
Mangafox.com

Plot

Bakuman follows the story of high school student Moritaka Mashiro, a talented artist who does not know what he wants to do with his future. One day he draws a picture of Azuki Miho, a girl he is secretly fond of, during class and forgets the notebook at school. He comes back to find that his classmate Akito Takagi is waiting for him with his notebook. Takagi tries to convince Mashiro to become a mangaka, a manga artist, with him, only leading to Mashiro's disagreement. Mashiro goes home and thinks about his mangaka uncle, who had only one successful series before he died in obscurity. Mashiro is interrupted by a phone call from Takagi, who says that he is going to tell Azuki that Mashiro likes her. Mashiro runs down to Azuki's house to find Takagi waiting for him. Once Azuki comes out to meet them, Takagi tells her that he and Mashiro are aiming to be mangaka. Mashiro then learns that she wants to be a seiyū, a voice actor, and has shown promise in the field. Mashiro, once again thinking about his uncle, accidentally proposes to Azuki. She accepts. However, she will only marry him after they achieve their dreams. In addition, they cannot see each other until then.

Characters

Main

Moritaka Mashiro (真城 最高, Mashiro Moritaka^?)

The main protagonist of the series. He follows in the footsteps of his late, manga artist uncle, who loved a classmate from afar, but never got the chance to tell her so and later died from overwork. He is fond of his classmate Azuki Miho, who wishes to become a voice actor. To avoid becoming like his uncle, Mashiro accidentally proposes to Miho. She accepts, stating she will marry him after they achieve their dreams. However, they must not see each other until then. Mashiro then decides to team up with another classmate, a talented writer named Akito Takagi, and try to get published and have an anime adaption of the series. The two work under the pen name Muto Ashirogi (亜城木 夢叶, Ashirogi Muto^?) He is a talented artist, but is highly dissatisfied with his drawings. He is often called Saikō (サイコー^?). Originally, Mashiro and Takagi work on cult manga; they then decide to make a battle manga instead. Afterward, they begin work on detective manga. This manga, Detective Trap is serialized in the Weekly Shōnen Jump. After they are assigned a new editor, they also get three new assistants. He is extremely driven, even going so far as to skip school or stay up all night with no sleep to finish a manuscript. In chapter 44, two of his assistants walked into the studio to find him collapsed on the floor. Mashiro was then rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with malnutrition and liver trouble. In order to treat his liver, surgery is needed remove parts of it. With him in the hospital, Detective Trap seemed to have been put on hiatus.

Akito Takagi (高木 秋人, Takagi Akito^?)

One of Mashiro's classmates. After discovering Mashiro's talent in drawing, he proposed that they try to publish a manga together. Although Mashiro originally refuses, the two begin to work together. Takagi is a writer and writes the storylines for the pair's manga. He eventually dates Azuki's best friend Kaya Miyoshi. He is often called Shūjin (シュージン^?). Takagi specializes in unorthodox story lines. When he comes up against a writers block, he helps Miyoshi with her mobile romance novels. He is working with Mashiro on their newly serialized, Detective Trap.

Miho Azuki (亜豆 美保, Azuki Miho^?)

Mashiro's former classmate and fiancée. She aspires to become a voice actor and shows promise in the field. She promises to marry Mashiro after they achieve their dreams. However, they must not see each other until then. Since this promise, Azuki has picked up a voicing role, and is gaining growing popularity, not because of her skills, but for her looks. At one point Azuki's agent urged her to bring out a photo book, in effect becoming a gravure idol. With Mashiro's support, however, she turned down the offer and persevered in her voice acting.

Kaya Miyoshi (見吉 香耶, Miyoshi Kaya^?)

Azuki's best friend and Takagi's girlfriend. Because her friends all have such high aspirations, she begins to feel left out and decides to become a mobile romance novelist. For her first story, she relates the romance between Mashiro and Azuki; however, Takagi ends up writing it for her. She later changes her dream to wanting Mashiro and Takagi's dreams come true as well as wanting to become Takagi's wife afterward. She helps out in inking the manga and generally maintaining a positive atmosphere in the studio.

Rivals

Eiji Nīzuma (新妻 エイジ, Nīzuma Eiji^?)

A 16-year-old high school student hailed as a genius by many people. He wins the Tezuka Award for his manga Large bander, after which Mashiro and Takagi declare him their rival. Although Mashiro and Takagi view him as a rival, he is very friendly upon meeting them and states he is a fan of theirs. He moves to Tokyo to work on the serialization of his manga Crow on the condition he is able to cancel one series in the Weekly Shōnen Jump after becoming the magazine's most popular author.The head editor has described the difference between Mashiro and Takagi to Nizuma is "love of manga",indded,Nizuma seems to have been obsessed with and drawing manga since he was 6,and makes loud sound effects wth his mouth while drawing.Nīzuma tends to act conceited because he is hailed as a genius; however, he can be considerate upon realizing his faults. He works under the direction of the Weekly Shōnen Jump editor Yūjirō Hattori (服部 雄二郎, Hattori Yūjirō^?) and works with two assistants, Shinta Fukuda (福田 真太, Fukuda Shinta^?) and Takurō Nakai (中井 巧朗, Nakai Takurō^?), who also works with the shōjo manga artist Kō Aoki (蒼樹 紅, Aoki Kō^?), whose real name is Yuriko Aoki (青木 優梨子, Aoki Yuriko^?)

Shinta Fukuda (福田 真太, Fukuda Shinta^?)

Fukuda and Mashiro first met when Mashiro decided to become an assitant for Nizuma Eiji. Fukuda had already won an honorable mention when he tried for the Tezuka Award and also got seventh place in the same issue of Akamaru Jump in which where Ashirogi's Money and Intelligence ran and got third place. Fukuda then became friends with Mashiro and also competed with Ashirogi and Nakai in the Golden Future cup with his original manga, Kiyoshi Knight. Fukuda then got serialized somewhat time after Ashirogi and is now an aspiring rival to Ashirogi, Eiji, and Nakai. Among these three, he is considered to have the worst drawings,though they apparently match his stories. His drawings often border on grotesque. He can be extremely conceited and competitive at times, yet helps out his rivals, who are, oddly enough, also his friends.

Kazuya Hiramaru (平丸 一也, Hiramaru Kazuya^?)

A new mangaka who, one day, picked up Shonen Jump for the first time in his life, and decided to quit his job to draw manga. His series is called Otters 11 and became serialized around the same time as Mashiro and Takagi's. He can be overwhelmed easily and finds it hard to deal with the stress of writing a manga. He frequently shows up at the other mangaka's studios to hide, but is always soon found out by his editor, who made a point to send out a fax to everyone explaining what Hiramaru does and asking to call him (the editor) if Hiramaru shows up at their place. He is shown to be a drinker, such as at the New Year's party, where he drank himself sick. He complains about his job a lot and wonders aloud why he ever decided to do it in the first place, but consistently ranked high with the readers in the questionnaires. Due to this,he has been called as a manga genius possibly on the level of Nizuma Eiji, especially considering he has barely read any manga.

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