Bakuman

When Moritaka Mashiro, a middle school student, forgets his notebook in class, he finds his classmate, Akito Takagi, who notes Mashiro's drawings. Takagi asks him to become a manga artist to his stories. However, Mashiro declines, citing his late manga artist uncle, who died from overworking. Takagi incites Mashiro to meet with Miho Azuki, Mashiro's crush, and tells her the two plan to become manga artists. In response, Azuki reveals her plans to be a voice actress. Mashiro proposes to her that they should both marry when Azuki becomes a voice actress for the anime adaptation of their manga. She accepts, but under the condition that they not meet face-to-face again until then. The two boys then start creating manga, under the pen name Muto Ashirogi, in hopes of getting serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump.

After submitting many one-shots to Shueisha, Ashirogi begin their first serialized manga in Weekly Shōnen Jump, Detective Trap (疑探偵TRAP（ぎたんていトラップ）, Gitantei Torappu), which is eventually canceled due to its declining popularity, after Mashiro is hospitalized for overworking on it. Their next series is the gag manga Vroom, Tanto Daihatsu (走れ!大発タント, Hashire! Daihatsu Tanto), which they give up on, realizing it will never be popular, coupled with Takagi's difficulty with writing rapid-fire humor. After being challenged by the editor-in-chief of Jump to create a superior manga to their rival's, Ashirogi develops their current series Perfect Crime Party (PCP -完全犯罪党-, PCP -Kanzen Hanzaitō-). It is met with considerable popularity but due to its theme, is unfit for an anime series. When their rival, Eiji Nizuma, submits a one-shot for serialization, Ashirogi competes by submitting Reversi which replaces Perfect Crime Party while the latter is moved to Shueisha's fictional monthly magazine, Hisshou Jump. After many conflicts involving the graphic novel sales and the voice actress choice, Reversi is chosen for an anime adaptation with Miho as the primary actress, after she passes a public audition. After fulfilling their dreams, the series ends with Mashiro officially proposing to Miho at the place they made their promise, the front gate of Miho's old home, followed by their first kiss.

Tsugumi Ohba came up the idea for Bakuman after thinking of all the people who long to be manga artists. Because he is in the industry, he felt he could create a manga about manga.[4] Takeshi Obata, illustrator of the series, said that the title "means bakuhatsu (explosion), bakuchi (gamble) and baku (an animal that supposedly eats dreams)... It has many meanings to it, and I think it's a very fun title."[5] Ohba said that for the fictional manga created in the series, he did not worry about the plot and settings, only focusing on "cranking them out." He revealed that he did actually make storyboards for the fictional The Classroom of Truth, and one he created for Otter No. 11 is actually seen in Bakuman.[4]

When creating a chapter, Ohba did not meet with Obata. He would discuss things with his editor and create storyboards that were given to Obata. Obata then would create his own storyboards that were given to Ohba and their editor. The author said only minor changes were ever made and they never had disagreements.[4] Obata said that when he started the manga, he struggled with the large amount of dialogue and information, not having enough space to draw the detailed backgrounds that he wanted. But he eventually realized that the dialogue is "the main character" of the series and shifted to making the art as unobtrusive as possible, such as using simple camera angles so that the composition was not too elaborate and the text could be read smoothly.[6] Ohba referred to Bakuman as "a weird series." He revealed that the hardest part was coming up with new ideas as the story kept getting longer. But said because of this, he was able to include stories that he never initially considered.[4]

When asked how accurate the manga process depicted in Bakuman is to reality, current Weekly Shōnen Jump editor-in-chief Hiroyuki Nakano said that as a work of fiction, some things are exaggerated for dramatic effect, "But it takes a lot of details from real life, so I think it's quite close."[7] Bakuman features many homages to Fujiko A. Fujio's Manga Michi, a semi-autobiographical manga series with a similar premise that Obata is a big fan of.[6]

Bakuman was chosen as the best manga for male readers in the 2010 Kono Manga ga Sugoi! guidebook, which surveys people in the manga and publishing industry.[43] It was nominated for the third annual Manga Taishō award in 2010.[44] The first volume of the series placed fourth on the Oricon manga chart during its debut week, selling 154,675 copies.[45] The second volume followed suit, placing second during its first week with 228,056 copies.[46] The third volume continued the trend and placed fourth during its debut week, selling 200,369 copies.[47] During the first half of 2009, the first volume placed twenty-eighth and the second volume placed twenty-seventh on Oricon's list of fifty top-selling manga in Japan, selling 381,633 and 394,567 copies respectively.[48] Bakuman was the seventh best-selling manga series of 2011, with almost 4.4 million copies sold, and the tenth best of 2012, with over 3.2 million sold that year.[49][50] By April 2012, over 13 million copies had been sold,[51] with this number growing to over 15 million copies in publication by May 2014.[37] In the United States, volume one debuted at number 6 on The New York Times Manga Graphic Books list for the week of August 12[52] and remained on the list for eight weeks straight.[53]

Jason Thompson referred to Bakuman. as "a love letter to the manga industry done in old-school shonen manga style." He felt that while it can be "text-heavy" on the process of making manga, it is ultimately a "heroic story of self-improvement, friendship and striving to succeed." Thompson cited the villain characters as the most interesting, but called the series sexist for only portraying females as either "bitter, man-hating viragos motivated by grudges against men" or "patient helpmates" striving to support them instead.[54] Carlo Santos of Anime News Network was surprised that Bakuman. succeeds, not only as a manga about manga, but as a slice-of-life story about the dreams of youth. Although he praised the conflicting viewpoints of the protagonists, Santos remarked that the series could learn from Ohba and Obata's previous serial Death Note; commenting that the beginning is not as gripping and the plot twists are "pretty weak" and "seem like petty contrivances." Despite this, he believes that the series is "another hit."[55] Allegra Frank of Polygon seems to disagree with Santos' criticism, calling Bakuman. a "sweet, funny page-turner" that is gripping right from the start just like Death Note, only in "a completely different, far more low-key way".[56]

Christopher Butcher reviewing volume one for About.com had strong praise for the art, calling it "quite possibly the best-drawn manga out today." He also enjoyed the behind-the-scenes information on the manga industry. Like Thompson, Butcher did state that while he enjoyed it, he has reservations about recommending Bakuman. because it is "horribly sexist."[57] In an article discussing the underdevelopment of its female lead characters, Gregory Segal of Comic Book Resources wrote that some fans speculate the series' inclusion of such tropes is a form of meta-commentary on the traditional portrayal of women in shōnen manga.[58]

The film was number-one at the Japanese box office on its opening weekend, with US$2.1 million.[59] It earned US$1.15 million during the October 18 weekend.[60] At the 39th Japan Academy Prize awards, its editor Yasuyuki Ōzeki won the Japan Academy Prize for Best Film Editing award, while Sakanaction's Motion Music of Bakuman won the Outstanding Achievement in Music award.[61] The film was also one of two releases that won the Popularity award, alongside Maku ga Agaru.[61] Matt Schley of Otaku USA wrote that Bakuman. is "a real celebration of and testament to the unique power of Japan's comics culture" and the best live-action manga adaptation he's seen this year.[62] Kotaku's Toshi Nakamura also suggested that it is possibly the best live-action manga adaptation he's seen. However, he said the motivational romance between Mashiro and Azuki was "surprisingly inconsequential" and boring.[63] Mark Schilling for The Japan Times gave the film four out of five stars, with strong praise for director and screenwriter Hitoshi Ōne.[64]

• Bakuman. anime at the NHK website (in Japanese)
• Bakuman. at Viz Media website
• Bakuman. (anime) at IMDb
• Bakuman (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia