Following two high school students who form an artist writer combo, we get to watch as the two grow from new mangaka to their competition for serialization. Takagi is the smartest in the class and wants to be in a career that he finds fulfilling rather than get a high end office job. Mashiro is the nephew of a one hit wonder who wrote a comedy manga. Convinced that he worked till his death he is reluctant to draw manga despite drawing all the time. However, due to Takagi's persuasion, Mashiro manages to set a deal with his high school sweet heart. This all happens in episode one.
Yes, the pace of the show is fast, considering they are creating a work and then submitting it in a span of a quarter or half a year. If you have no idea how manga is created, well they don't skimp out on the process much. While a double edged sword, your educated to the point where you will be able to understand everything about it. At the same time something like this can preoccupy a whole episode with little content. While leaving me asking for something else, there is one thing that this show manages to do; make things suspenseful.
Our duo Ashirogimuto enters a contest with a piece of work and is waiting for the call to tell them if it passed or not. Well, our leads have a plot shield don't they? Well, this isn't action. The thing is you never can really predict the results yourself. It becomes a guessing game of whether they can come out on top or not. The maturation is slow, so it isn't like they overcome a hurdle and become number one in shounen jump. Take a guess how far they can get and cut that progress in half.
The romance in this show is cut. Praise the heavens for a shounen romance that doesn't turn into some sort of harem or love triangle. Takagi does get a love interest and makes up for the pace of the other couple. No, Miho and Mashiro are the cutest couple I have seen. They are both shy and also avoid seeing each other as much as possible to complete their life goals. As pure hearted as this seems in any other show it just works for Bakuman. Sorry drama is pretty limited if non-existent.
The comedy in Bakuman is pretty good too. Well, these guys spend half the episode sitting in a room or an office they have to break the ice somehow. You will find laughs spaced out through the episode, and while Takagi is funny someone like Eiji who is a loveable nutcase mangaka or Kaya who acts as the duo's helper provide a lot.
The characters are focused on a lot. Since the story is simple and revolves around their job as mangaka, it then turns to the ability to show depth in the characters and Bakuman easily does that. There are plenty of rivals that appear later on in the series, and it allows us to watch the stories of multiple people competing for the same deadline.
Bakuman is a great show. In fact, while I kept recording my episode scores for everything else, it just said "screw it, this is going to be one of my favorites." It is, every week it just got me all worked up and I loved every minute of it. Obviously I am a fan, I will admit, so I encourage you to both watch this show or read a more negative review to balance out my optimism.
