Bakuman is a fairy tale about two high schoolers, as they try to become famous mangaka. And I say “fairy tale” and not “story” because it is very ideal and easy-going. The problems these guys face are detached from reality; not that different from the boys reading fighting shonen full of juvenile ideals. I mean, how does this premise sound to you when you read it out loud?
“The girl I love and have never spoken to, agrees to marry me as soon as I make my first anime series before I am even 18 years old. My parents, who were against me becoming a mangaka because it is a crappy profession, agree to let me do it because I really want it. My uncle was a famous mangaka and I now get his workshop full of manga and equipment all for free. My sweetheart’s best friend happens to love my best friend too. My sweetheart’s mother happened to love my uncle too, so it is DNA telling me that I deserve to have her. Also money or school exams are never a problem.”
All that and several more are what alienated me from the very first episode; there is no real conflict in the show and everything plays out conveniently. Those who are actually affiliated with manga-making will most likely laugh with how unreal the whole thing plays out. Real life is a lot more challenging than what the anime shows you. But I guess all that are trivial if you just accept the fact you are watching an unrealistic story about some cartoons who want to become famous by drawing more cartoons. It is after all a shonen story about teenagers striving to become the best in their field; not that different from your run of the mill sports or superpower manga they love and mention all the time.
Speaking of manga, the show is not afraid to mention actual names of manga and even some vague reasons for why they were so successful. It is also full of tips around becoming good in the field, so on a very basic level it does help someone to know how it feels like to be a mangaka. It also helps the average Jump Shonen fan to have a sense of familiarity with what is going on in the story. But beyond all that, Bakuman is still a rather shallow slice-of-life show, with stereotypical characters and superficial conflicts which are resolved with cop-outs.
Down to it, it is an otaku-oriented series. It will mean a lot less for anyone who is not an anime-fan, and chances are he will see it as nothing more than yet another school romcom or something. And why wouldn’t he; a big part of the show has to do with one of the protagonists being a shy wimp who can’t even look at the girl he likes without getting a heart attack, and the other one being an indecisive four-eyes who loves to be beaten all the time by his tsundere platonic girlfriend.
As for those who already are deep in the hobby, chances are they will like it a lot just for mentioning the thing they like. In fact, it’s not a stretch if you see the entire show as propaganda around the bright side of manga-making. And it works if you don’t try to see the whole thing as realistic. The characters are all lively and their goals seem plausible under the light way everything is presented. All you see them doing is studying for awhile, then taking part in silly school romances, then they draw some manga, and then they take them to some director to approve them or not. Sure, it all looks understandable and acceptable if chicks love you even if you spend most of your time drawing cartoons instead of having fun with them, and if the publishing company is just a few blocks away from your house. Oh, and of course if you have a fully equipped professional workshop for free.
I would be fine with all that if at least the stakes were high, but they weren’t. Do you know what will happen if they fail in their goal to be mangaka? Here, let me tell you.
“Oh no, my story didn’t get published; I guess I will now need to find a different, better paid and more secured profession.”
Sounds a lot less thrilling than in a fighting shonen where defeat means you get killed or the world gets destroyed, doesn’t it?
Also, the romance part is completely retarded. Why are the girls interested in these boring losers? They are hot enough to have anyone they like. And why is there even romance in this story if it’s not really moving forward in any way? It’s just there for teasing you to keep watching, but it otherwise might as well be absent from the plot, as it doesn’t offer anything. I mean, they try to make it sound like the boys are going to have sex if they succeed, but it’s not like they would never attempt to be mangaka if they weren’t promised sex. They do it because THEY LOVE IT! Not because they want money or girls. In fact, this is not a job they would choose if they wanted money or girls. So in all, the romance is a useless extra, that was initially added for teasing the viewer into expecting something to happen. But as it always happens with anime romances they don’t go anywhere, and are just standing in the way like annoying fillers. Heck, being dumped by their girlfriends ends up being the only way to offer development in this otherwise useless aspect.
And I might as well add how it lasts way longer than it needs to. The premise didn’t deserve three seasons, because watching people making manga is a lot more boring than reading them. The novelty wears off faster than you think, and the cool ideas for manga they have at first are soon replaced with generic stuff we see all the time. That is why most viewers gave up on it in the second season, and the animators skipped a lot of chapters in the third one because they knew it got tiresome and nobody would stick around for more. This wouldn’t be an issue if they had removed the useless romance, but chances are if they did the manga this anime was based on wouldn’t be given the greenlit. Otakus love cute girls on the cover and half of them wouldn’t bother to buy a single volume if it was just dudes. So, ironically enough what ruins the show are the very stereotypes of the shonen demographic, in a story that claims to be about creativity… by using the same shit everybody uses so that his manga won’t get the axe in a dozen chapters.
So is Bakuman a good show? For an anime which deals with manga-making it is definitely the best… because there is hardly any competition. There are other anime with a similar theme, such as Doujin Work and Comic Party but they are short and silly. Bakuman definitely stands out, it is full of references to famous anime, and provides some tips for the rookies to know what is going on behind the scenes. Other than that, it is nothing but an unrealistic romcom, with simplistic characters and an easy-going plot that outstays its welcome.
