Bakuman, a New Generation?

AND IT'S ANOTHER SLICE OF LIFE MANGA... but there's a reason pretty much all the manga I recommend are slice of life/sports. So why is Bakuman revolutionary? Because the protagonist is a manga artist.

Duo

Now, this manga starts off with the classical trope of high school student Morikita wondering why he lives life and dreaming of a future with his crush, Miho. Sitting at the back of the classroom, Akito, the smartest student in the grade, finds a drawing of Miho in Moritaka's notebook. Akito, an aspring mangaka, and an avid storyteller, finds his perfect match. If he and Moritaka work togethor, Akito knows, they could be succesful.

And so, the story begins. The dynamic duo are perfect complements to each other both as mangaka and as people. Where Moritaka is shy and self-concious, Akito is confident and determined.

The only problem is that Moritaka's uncle used to be a famous Mangaka. The only problem is that he died. Moritaka's family says that he died because of working too hard, but Moritaka suspects otherwise. Because of this tragedy in the family, Moritaka is frightened to start his own manga.

Eventually, when the duo begins working togethor, Akito takes over the script end Moritaka draws the story after the girl of his dreams promises him they can get married after they both achieve thier dreams (she wants to be a voice-actor). The two of them promise that she will be an actor when the manga he will draw in the future gets animated.

This manga is sto great because there is a constant rivalry between Akito and Moritaka. Akito struggles with trying to make his contribution valuable enough because he fears that Moritaka can go off on his own. Morikita on the other hand, struggles with trying to do Akito's scripts justice because he fears that Akito will pair up with another, more talented artist. This competitive edge between the two of them serves to make them collectivly stronger as a mangaka pair similar to how rivals on a soccer team might compete for the starting spot.

World Building

Prior to reading Bakuman, I didn't have a deep understanding of shonen jump. How an author got published, the cut thraot competition that mangaka have to engage in to stay published, and why some manga were cancelled, were all blanks to me.

Bakuman does a great job explaining all of the details and steps to go through to publish on jump.

The author also does a great job managing setting. Over the course of the story, Morikita and Akito never leave thier hometown. This constrained setting works because it removes that variable from consideration. Unlike other manga such as One Piece, where the readers have to keep track of the different places Luffy and his crew visit, in Bakuman, the burden of keeping track with the setting doens't rest on the readers end. What's more, the audience learns more about the small-town Akito and Moritaka live in as the story progresses. So that discovery element actually remains in the story. That's my faovirte part about stories with small settings. It's rare to read a manga in which the setting doesn't expand correlatively with the plot. Bakuman is a perfect example of small setting, done right.

Another aspect of the story that really struck a chord was how real some of te challenges the duo faced. On Akito's side, Bakuman tackles writer's block, and time managment. Tensions grows between the two of them after Akito starts dating because of the time he spends with his girlfriend compared to the script he is supposed to be working on. The builds to a cresendo when the Akito and Moritaka decide to go their saperate ways after Akito forgets to deliver a script on time because he is on a date. This challenges Akito's values because of the dreams he has of the future. Should he be dedicating all his time to working with Moritaka, or furthering his love interest? As this conflict plays out, Akito also suffers from writer's bloc becuas of this feelings of insecurity inside him.

For Moritaka's side, one of the major challenges he faces is overworking, that is to say, he is literally hospitalized because he worked too hard. This brings up conflict between Moritaka and his family because his uncle passed away the same way through overworking himself and with the publishing company who refuse to continue his story any longer becaus it's revealed that the president of the company was a close friend to Moritaka's uncle. This is integral to the plot because it makes me think of Yoshihiro Togashi, the author of Hunter x Hunter. Although the manga is no longer on hiatus, it was on hiatus for a record four years while Togashi suffered from back problems.

The Devil's in the Details

Just like One Piece's wanted posters play an integral background role in the story, in Bakuman, the published weekly ratings serve a similar role in Bakuman.

I learned just how important weekly ratings are for a story to not be discontinued. So, to Akito and Moritaka, the ratings are lifeblood. This is one aspect where I feel the manga was lackluster.

The One Piece community explodes each time Oda reveals a new bounty. This is one part of the story that I feel could have been done better in Bakuman. Initially, when I started reading the story, I would get excited each time a new weekly rating came out. But as the story progressed, and Akito and Moritaka began to aquire success, the ratings meant less in the second leg of the manga.

While the release of the weekly ratings did furhter the plot in the sense that the duo competed against the prodigy genius Eiji Nizuma for first place, I felt that the ratings could have been better implemented such that it wasn't purely a competition for first or second place.

Another exmaple of small details done wrong in Bakuman is Miho (Moritaka's love interest). The problem is that she takes up too much of the story. She's not a main character, and yet, the author spends a good amount of time following her journey to become a voice actor. This fault is the biggest problem I have with this manga. Miho is Sakura (from Naruto) done all over again.

Aside from emotional support, and taking part in the cute romance between her and Moritaka, Miho serves zero purpose in the story. The amount of "space" Miho takes up isn't equivalent to how much she does.

I would recommend reading the Bakuman manga over the anime adaption. I've always held that there are some manga that are better off remaining manga than being animated.

Kokou no Hito is a good exmaple. But Kokou no Hito is ahrd to animate because of the unique art style. In Bakuman, it's not the unique art style but the pacing that make sit hard to animate. The manga has 176 chapters, and usually an episode usually covers one to three chapters. But the problem is that Bakuman's chapters usually all end on cliffhangers so it's hard to creeate an episode with three cliffhangers. Anyway, I'll leave you guys to judge for yourself.

Thanks for reading today's post. As always, if you've enjoyed this, hit that subscribe button to get daily reviews on some of the most popular manga and anime (as well as my favorites). Stay tuned for another top 10 list coming out soon (manga edition).