Bakuman offers a perspective on manga, that as anime viewers or readers of the west, we rarely get a glimpse of, but that is not the selling point of Bakuman. What's truly at the heart of this story is the two main characters, young, charismatic and extremely hard-working individuals that want to accomplish their goal of becoming the best manga artists in Japan.
Bakuman's story is fast-paced, just like the two main characters, it doesn't waste time diddle-dawdling on the unimportant stuff. The introduction of new characters and development of the old ones are timed perfectly so there's never an interruption to it's pacing.
Of course, this is a character driven story, as if the characters had no motivation of their own to work then the story wouldn't go anywhere. So characters are extremely important and good news my friends, they are all likeable. The complete lack of archetypes in this series is extremely refreshing and all characters offer different perspectives on the manga business and what it means to never give up on the dream. They all have goals, they all have hurdles to over come, and they are all the type of people that would like to take to the cafe and have a glass of ouzo with. Maybe it's the anime I watch, but I'd like to see this type of character development more often.
The art and sound are both good, I don't really have much to say about that. The opening track isn't my kind of music, and I normally watch OPs but this time I just skipped ahead, same with the ED. The background tracks had nothing that stood out to me, but nothing seemed out of place or bad. Voice acting I can't really comment on since I haven't developed an ear yet for the nuances of the Japanese language. However, there was a lack of whiny high pitched female voices so that's a plus in my books.
My only concern for Bakuman is that it might go the same way as Death Note. The same author-artist team are responsible for both and I found the second half of Death Note extremely disappointing. At the time of me writing this, the second season is airing and the third season is on it's way, so hopefully it will stay as good as it is (no comment on the manga, I haven't read it).
