I can't speak for every anime or manga fan when I say this, but I know that I've always dreamed about drawing my own manga and writing my own anime. Bakuman has allowed me to live out at least a little of those dreams.
Depicting the struggles, hardwork, and perseverance, that goes into creating manga. Bakuman is a fantastic, light hearted anime, about a couple of mangaka just trying to make their dreams a reality. Through its colourful cast of characters, good artwork, and overall strong story, Bakuman truly succeeded at making me care about the success of its characters.
The main duo, do a good job of representing the youthful optimism of middleschoolers. These two had me very invested in their story, making me feel almost as many emotions as they did, throughout the highs and lows of their aspiring careers as mangaka. However what truly elevates this story for me, are the myriad of other interesting and fleshed out side characters, that our main duo interact with during their journey. These characters range from young mad geniuses overflowing with talent, to older artists who still have yet to lose their passion for chasing their dreams.
If I had to give some criticism to this anime (which I do, this is in fact the point of a review) it would be that, this story could have benefited from being slightly more serious. Despite our cheerful and determined main characters, the show actually started with a rather bleak outlook, one which I would have liked to see stay. Honestly, despite showing lots of the hardwork that mangaka really have to do to survive, let alone standout within their field. The show actually holds back on some of the more serious aspects of the industry. I know part of the decision is because of the young age of our main characters, but still I can't help but wish they had been made maybe a little older, so that we could see some of the darker parts of being a mangaka.
I give this anime an 8/10. A solid and engaging story from start to finish. It truly had me on the edge of my seat at times and laughing my ass off at others. I would recommend this anime to anyone looking for a little bit of motivation in their lives and those who would simply like some good fun.
PS: If you want more context for my scores out of 10, please visit my profile.
