One of the things that drew me to Bakuman in season one was how it avoided the miscommunication trope. Characters sorted through their issues, and if there was it was resolved quickly. This season added in so many immature characters and interactions just to make the plot more drawn out. There was a move from learning about problems mangakas face to interpersonal drama. All of the female side characters have a crush on one of the main characters at one point. Takagi treats his girl like shit, which is portrayed as okay when he decides to do one big romantic act for her. :/
The characters aren't well written, they don't seem to have much dimension, especially Takagi. The two guys are both stubborn, which was fine because I liked seeing them pursue their dreams. But it feels like the character growth was nonexistent. The plot relies on outside obstacles to move them forward and they don't change much. It even shows Mashiro becoming seriously ill and the audience is supposed to believe that was still okay if it meant Mashiro was following his dreams. I feel like that's not a good message to send. Like man, it would have been such a good moment if Mashiro and Tagaki researched how to maximise their output while maintaining health, even seeing if being healthier would improve their progress. It would have been so funny to see Tagaki look at statistics and data on that topic. Maybe they could even write a manga with that as a theme! (think dungeon meshi!) Also, I would have preferred to see more of Miho's work towards voice acting to drive the audience's investment in the main romance rather than breaking the promise to work hard and only email. As for Miyoshi, she seemed to only be there for her boobs to be bouncing everywhere. She doesn't have a dream aside from wanting to help out her boyfriend in any way she can. It would have made it so much more interesting to have well-written female characters!! Come on man, it's not that hard. Miyoshi could have made a great HR manager, or someone specialising in resolving conflict. That was one of my favourite things about her. Maybe she could have had an arc about figuring out her talents and using them to help others.
I also found there was a weird number of shots of the female character's feet, mostly wearing stockings as opposed to none of these shots with the men. Just an FYI.
Anyways, I'd say its not worth the second season. Just enjoy how number one ended.
