Bakuman.

As a child, Moritaka Mashiro dreamt of becoming a mangaka, just like his childhood hero and uncle, Tarou Kawaguchi, creator of a popular gag manga. But when tragedy strikes, he gives up on his dream and spends his middle school days studying, aiming to become a salaryman instead.

One day, his classmate Akito Takagi, the school's top student and aspiring writer, notices the detailed drawings in Moritaka's notebook. Seeing the vast potential of his artistic talent, Akito approaches Moritaka, proposing that they become mangaka together. After much convincing, Moritaka realizes that if he is able to create a popular manga series, he may be able to get the girl he has a crush on, Miho Azuki, to take part in the anime adaptation as a voice actor. Thus the pair begins creating manga under the pen name Muto Ashirogi, hoping to become the greatest mangaka in Japan, the likes of which no one has ever seen.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Bakuman. was licensed by Media Blasters in North America, but only released one 2-disc DVD containing the first 7 episodes, the rest of the releases were cancelled.

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Bakuman.
Sequel:	Bakuman. 2nd Season
Summary:	Bakuman.: Deraman.

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Mashiro, Moritaka

Main

Abe, Atsushi
Japanese

Takagi, Akito

Main

Hino, Satoshi
Japanese

Niizuma, Eiji

Supporting

Okamoto, Nobuhiko
Japanese

Hiramaru, Kazuya

Supporting

Morita, Masakazu
Japanese

Azuki, Miho

Supporting

Hayami, Saori
Japanese

Fukuda, Shinta

Supporting

Suwabe, Junichi
Japanese

Hattori, Akira

Supporting

Tone, Kentarou
Japanese

Miyoshi, Kaya

Supporting

Yahagi, Sayuri
Japanese

Yoshida, Kouji

Supporting

Koyasu, Takehito
Japanese

Aoki, Yuriko

Supporting

Kawasumi, Ayako
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Matsukura, Yuuji

Producer

Kasai, Kenichi

Director, Storyboard

Akitaya, Noriaki

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Watanabe, Jun

Sound Director

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Opening Theme

	1: "Blue Bird" by Kobukuro (eps 1-24)
	2: "Genjitsu to iu Na no Kaibutsu to Tatakau Mono Tachi (現実という名の怪物と戦う者たち)" by Yuu Takahashi (高橋優) (eps 25)

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Ending Theme

	1: "BAKUROCK ~Mirai no Rinkakusen~ (BAKUROCK 〜未来の輪郭線〜)" by YA-KYIM (eps 1-13)
	2: "Genjitsu to iu Na no Kaibutsu to Tatakau Mono Tachi (現実という名の怪物と戦う者たち)" by Yuu Takahashi (高橋優) (eps 14-24)
	3: "Blue Bird" by Kobukuro (eps 25)

Reviews

Jun 20, 2011

8thSin

Recommended

'Bakuman.'
The true meaning of the title was never revealed, but most speculators believe it's short for 'BAKUchi MANga.' (Gambling Manga). It is a simple tale of two middle school guys setting out to become professional manga artists. The story progresses like any other sports or music anime, where ordinary guys aim for the top, facing many challenges and rivals on the way. However, I consider this to be the greatest shounen/seishun (coming of age) genre anime I have ever encountered, because it analyzes what makes a manga good in a coherent way, and more importantly, it practices what it preaches.

This is a review by EIGHTHSin, ...

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Dec 25, 2014

Moon-

Mixed Feelings

-----------------------------[THIS IS A 1ST SEASON ONLY REVIEW]---------------------------

Bakuman is the story of two boys who just met and one of them (Akito) that had a particular interest for manga saw the other one (Moritaka) drawing and understood that he had a good talent for drawing and then after convincing Moritaka both of them chose the mangaka life .. At first I found this sypnosis a bit ugh .. And well I was somewhat wrong.. There were alot of stuff they´ve done right and other that werent badly done but left alot to think .. Of course all the questions of the 1st season were answered in ... the 2nd but since this is a review about the 1st season and not the all franchise I am going to say what felt wrong and what was good.

To me the story wasn´t anything outstanding .. if anything it was quite simple with a slow paced start that from 19 on turned out really fast and started to be amazingly enjoyable but to get there you need to get trough the ughh and zzz stuff if you know what I mean .. This however was a good decision by the creators since this is a shounen and its normal that its going to have a really weak start.. While I took 4 months to watch the first 19 eps I took 1 and a half week to watch eps 19-25 the 2nd season and the first 4 eps of the 3rd season.. crazy isnt it? .. Well I was sort of expecting something like this .. The direction was good .. the drama and the comedic moments are really well balanced I was amazed by the perfect execution and it made it one of its best parts of the show.. The art for this show is very simplistic, comparable to Danshin Kokousei no nichijou or Gintama, the animation (character movements) were done well and the expressions were really funny.. The sound was particulary good with very fitting soundtrack wich brought the scenes to life, the Openings arent anything special but one of the endings is especially good, the 2nd Ending by Takahashi yuu I have it in my Mp3 ..

The characters were probably the weakest link .. Since this was the introduction they focused more in the story than in the characters.. some of the relationships seemed very forced especially Akito and Miyoshi who looked like they were dating because they were best friends with Moritaka and Miho respectively .. The relationship between Moritaka and Miho was over the top awkward and with a big level of social retardation that made it cute somehow, the only character who jumped to my eyes was Niizuma wich was at first just a goof but he is also very calculative and serious wich makes this contrast very appealing to me.. Hattori looked like one of those characters who usually turn into assholes midway trough but thankfully not..

Has I was saying the first 19 episodes were really hard to get trough so it kind of turned me off however the last 6 eps were really entertaining and they were the key to the 2nd season wich was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G .. I can give this ALL franchise a SUPER HIGH PRIORITY since its really amazing.. The 1st season only flaw was its slow paced who might turn off some people, the incossistent and forced relationships, and the lack of character development.

The way they present the life of a mangaka and how the manga is made is very good and they know how to expand the information field without giving away any questions nor plot holes..

The dialogue was also quite flaired and boring wich together with the slow paced story was quite unbearable .. But altogether Bakuman. is a worth watching franchise

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Sep 5, 2017

Tempsy

Not Recommended

I was looking through MAL and noticed a surprising amount of positive reviews for this anime. It was being praised left, right and centre without tackling the problems that this anime has. This reviews purpose is not to say that those reviews are wrong, but to just give people a second opinion on this anime and to show that no anime is that perfect.

I'll start by giving credit where credit is due. This anime is an AMAZING look into the manga industry and the lives of mangaka. By the end of the show, I felt like I knew how to create a manga of my ... very own and it told me how I too could get it published in a weekly magazine. It also told me why I wouldn't ever want do that in a million years. Being a mangaka is hard, and Bakuman shows us that in spades. It cleverly uses Ashirogi Muto's emotions to give a clear understanding of how they're feeling and what they're thinking. That's certainly where this anime shines the most. So, what's wrong with it? Well...

Although Bakuman uses Ashirogi Muto well in some cases, it completely fails at making them likable in the slightest. Mashiro is an arrogant love struck teenager who has a crush on some girl he's barely ever made any interactions with, and Takagi is just the plain boring smart yet doesn't act smart kind of character. I'm sorry if I'm being a little harsh, but in an anime that tries to show a realistic representation of the challenges in the manga industry, making the main characters get away with absolutely everything that would probably get them fired just from the power of pure arrogance and a tad bit of plot-armour just doesn't sit well with me. And that's not even talking about the most forced romance in anime history.

Mashiro decides his entire future based off of a promise he made to girl he had a slight crush on. That's would be pretty fine, if not still a bit stupid, if it weren't for the fact that they drag out this completely uninteresting romance for the ENTIRE SERIES. And they only ever talk directly about 3 times. 3 times! The show rubs it off as being their own way of expressing love or some shit like that, but it was just painful to watch from start to finish.

Not all the characters are bad. Whilst most of the best ones don't really show up that much till season 2, Niizuma Eiji is by far the best character in this show. I won't spoil anything, but let's just say that he's fun to watch every time he shows up on screen and his passion for manga makes you route for him all the way.

Overall, I can see the appeal of this anime. I really can. But the characters and story were just so uninteresting for the most part that I cant bring myself to like this anime. If what I just told you puts you off watching this in anyway, then stay clear. There's much better anime out there.

You're still probably going to end up watching it after reading the other reviews anyway, aren't you?

Oh, and the music isn't that memorable. I forgot that part.

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Mashiro, Moritaka

Takagi, Akito

Niizuma, Eiji

Hiramaru, Kazuya

Azuki, Miho

Fukuda, Shinta

Hattori, Akira

Miyoshi, Kaya

Yoshida, Kouji

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Bakuman.

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Synopsis

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