is a Japanese

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

series written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by

Takeshi Obata is a Japanese manga artist that usually works as the illustrator in collaboration with a writer. He first gained international attention for '' Hikaru no Go'' (1999–2003) with Yumi Hotta, but is better known for '' Death Note'' (2003–2006) ...

, the same creative team responsible for ''

Death Note ''Death Note'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. It was serialized in Shueisha's Shōnen manga, manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from December 2003 to ...

''. It was serialized in

Shueisha is a Japanese publishing company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Shueisha is the largest publishing company in Japan. It was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The ...

's manga magazine ''

Weekly Shōnen Jump is a weekly Shōnen manga, ''shōnen'' manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the ''Jump (magazine line), Jump'' line of magazines. The manga series within the magazine consist of many Action (fiction), action scenes and a fair ...

'' from August 2008 to April 2012, with its 176 chapters collected into 20 volumes. The story follows talented artist Moritaka Mashiro and aspiring writer Akito Takagi, two ninth grade boys who wish to become

manga artist A manga artist, also known as a mangaka (), is a Cartoonist, comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist before entering the indus ...

s, with Mashiro as the illustrator and Takagi as the writer. Some characters resemble real authors and editors of ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'', and many manga titles mentioned in ''Bakuman'' have actually been published in the magazine. It is the first manga released online by Shueisha in multiple languages before becoming available in print outside Japan. In 2009,

Viz Media Viz Media, LLC is an American entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California, focused on publishing manga, and distribution and licensing Japanese anime, films, and television series. The company was founded in 1986 as Viz, ...

licensed the manga for English release in North America. Besides releasing the series in collected volumes, they also released it in their online manga anthology '' Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha''. A 75-episode

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

television adaptation of the series by J.C.Staff was broadcast for three seasons on

NHK Educational TV , abbreviated on-screen as NHK E, is the second television service of NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation). It is a sister service of NHK General TV, showing programs of a more educational, documentaries, cultural, children's or intellectual n ...

from October 2010 to March 2013. A live-action

film adaptation A film adaptation transfers the details or story of an existing source text, such as a novel, into a feature film. This transfer can involve adapting most details of the source text closely, including characters or plot points, or the original sou ...

was released in October 2015. ''Bakuman'' topped the ''

Kono Manga ga Sugoi! is an annual reference mook series published by Takarajimasha since 2005 featuring yearly rankings and reviews of manga. The rankings are compiled by surveying professionals in the manga and publishing industry. The first two years saw two s ...

'' list for male readers in 2010, was the seventh best-selling manga series of 2011 and the 10th best of 2012. The manga has over 15 million copies in circulation.

Plot

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

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 Voice acting is the art of Acting, performing a character or providing information to an audience with one's voice. Performers are often called voice actors/actresses in addition to other names. Examples of voice work include animation, animated, ...

. Mashiro proposes to her that they should both marry when Azuki becomes a voice actress for the

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 ''

''. After submitting many one-shots to

, Ashirogi begin their first serialized manga in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'', , which is eventually canceled due to its declining popularity, after Mashiro is hospitalized for overworking on it. Their next series is the gag manga , 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 . 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.

Production

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.

, illustrator of the series, said that the title "means (explosion), (gamble) and (an animal that supposedly eats dreams)… It has many meanings to it, and I think it's a very fun title." 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''. 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. 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. 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. 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." ''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.

Media

Manga

Written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by

, ''Bakuman'' was serialized in

's manga magazine ''

'' from August 11, 2008, to April 23, 2012. The 176 chapters were then collected into 20 ''tankōbon'' volumes from January 5, 2009 to July 4, 2012. A 15-page one-shot of the series , the gag manga created by the character Kazuya Hiramaru in ''Bakuman'', was published in the August 8, 2010 issue of ''Weekly Shōnen Jump''. It was then published the following week in ''Shōnen Jump Next'' on August 16. In commemoration of the live-action film release, two new chapters were created by Ohba and Obata under the titles ''Age 13'' and ''Age 14''. They are set before Takagi and Mashiro first met, with the first chapter published in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' on September 21 and the second on September 28, 2015. The two chapters were also included in the edition of ''Bakuman'', published in 12 volumes between July 18 and December 15, 2017. Several chapters of the series were released on Jumpland's official website in Japanese, English, French, and German; the first chapter released on August 19, 2008. It is Shueisha's first manga to be released online in multiple languages before becoming available in print outside Japan. At

San Diego Comic-Con San Diego Comic-Con is a comic book convention and multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California, at the San Diego Convention Center. Founded in 1970, originally showcasing primarily comic books and science fiction/fant ...

in 2009,

announced it had licensed the series for English release in the US and Canada. The 20 volumes were published from August 3, 2010, to August 6, 2013. In addition to the collected volumes, Viz also published the series online in their manga anthology '' Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha'' (now known as simply ''Weekly Shonen Jump''). ''Bakuman'' started with chapter 162 in the anthology's debut issue on January 30, 2012, and ended with the series' final chapter released on May 7, 2012. Viz digitally released the two ''Bakuman. Age 13'' chapters in ''Weekly Shonen Jump'' on the same days that they ran in Japan.

Anime

A 25-episode anime television series based on ''Bakuman'' was announced in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump''s second issue of 2010. Produced by J.C.Staff, it began broadcasting on

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

on October 2, 2010 and ran until April 2, 2011. In December 2010, ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' announced that a second season would air in Fall 2011; it ran from October 1, 2011 to March 24, 2012. A third and final season was announced in the 3/4th (2012) combined issue of ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' and began airing on October 6, 2012. It ran for 25 episodes between October 6, 2012 and March 30, 2013. In August 2011,

Media Blasters Media Blasters, sometimes abbreviated as MB, is an American entertainment company that was founded by John Sirabella in 1997 and is based in New York City. It is in the business of licensing, translating, and releasing to the North American mar ...

licensed the first two seasons of the ''Bakuman'' anime for North America, including an English-language dub. The first seven episodes were included on a 2-disc DVD set released on November 22, 2011, however, the second was halted in February 2012. The first Blu-ray release was cancelled indefinitely in June 2012.

Viz Media Europe Crunchyroll EMEA, formerly known as Viz Media Europe, is a European anime distributor. Established as Viz Media Europe, it was Viz Media's European sister company until 2019. It holds partnerships with TV channels, DVD distributors, and manga pu ...

acquired the rights for release in Europe and the United Kingdom in March 2012, in collaboration with

Manga Entertainment Manga Entertainment was a producer, licensee, and distributor of anime in the United States and the United Kingdom. Originally founded in the UK in 1991, the UK branch became Funimation UK and Ireland in 2021, also currently known as Crunchyr ...

and

Kazé Kazé was a French publishing company that specializes in anime and manga. Its head office was in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. Founded in 1994, the company debuted by publishing ''Record of Lodoss War'' on VHS. It was owned by Sony through t ...

. After Media Blasters' cancellation, Kazé revealed the UK release would be subtitled only. In November 2012, Media Blasters officially announced they are discontinuing the series, but added that Viz Media might pick up the license for NA.

Live-action

A live-action film adaptation of ''Bakuman'' was released on October 3, 2015. Written and directed by Hitoshi Ōne (''

Moteki is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Mitsurō Kubo. It was serialized in ''Evening'' magazine from 2008 to 2010, with its chapters collected into four ''tankōbon'' volumes by Kodansha. It was adapted into a Japanese televi ...

''), the film stars

Takeru Satoh is a Japanese actor. He is best known for his leading role as Kamen Rider Den-O (character)#Ryotaro Nogami, Ryotaro Nogami in the ''Kamen Rider Den-O'' franchise, and as Himura Kenshin in the live-action ''Rurouni Kenshin (film), Rurouni Kenshin ...

as Moritaka Mashiro and

Ryunosuke Kamiki is a Japanese actor. Starting his career as a child prodigy, he has garnered critical acclaim and numerous awards for his performances across 25 years in the industry. Kamiki debuted in a 1995 commercial. Four years later, he had a leading rol ...

as Akito Takagi. Japanese rock band

Sakanaction are a Japanese rock band from Sapporo, Hokkaido. Their music is a fusion of alternative rock, electronic, pop, and new wave styles. The band consists of five members: Ichiro Yamaguchi, Motoharu Iwadera, Ami Kusakari, Emi Okazaki, and Keiichi ...

performed the soundtrack, '' Motion Music of Bakuman'', including the theme song " Shin Takarajima", which they released as a single four days before the film's release. A

play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * P ...

adaptation, ''Bakuman The Stage'', ran at three locations in Tokyo and Osaka throughout October 2021. Written and directed by Worry Kinoshita, it starred Hiroki Suzuki as Mashiro and Yoshihiko Aramaki as Takagi. A recorded performance was released on home video on March 29, 2022.

Other media

''Bakuman'' received a four-episode Vomic adaptation, where voice actors, music and sound effects are heard as the manga images appear on screen, that was broadcast on the TV show '' Sakiyomi Jum-Bang!'' in June 2009. Mashiro and Takagi were voiced by

Jun Fukuyama is a Japanese voice actor and singer. He played Lelouch Lamperouge in '' Code Geass'', Yukio Okumura in Blue Exorcist, Koro-sensei in '' Assassination Classroom'', Ichimatsu in '' Osomatsu-san'', Yuta Togashi in '' Love, Chunibyo & Other Delu ...

and Shinnosuke Tachibana respectively. A video game based on ''Bakuman'' was made for the

Nintendo DS The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...

Namco Bandai Games is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game video game publisher, publisher, and the video game branch of the wider Bandai Namco Holdings group. Founded in 2006 as it is the successor to Namco's home and arcade video game ...

. was released in Japan on December 15, 2011. A novel titled ''PCP -Perfect Crime Party-'' and based on the fictional manga of the same name created by Takagi and Mashiro in ''Bakuman'' was released by Shueisha on October 2, 2015. It was written by

Sei Hatsuno is a Japanese writer of Mystery fiction, mystery and Thriller (genre), thriller. He is a member of the Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan. When he was at Hosei University, he was moved and influenced by ''honkaku'' (orthodox) mystery novels s ...

, although Takagi and Mashiro's fictional pen name "Muto Ashirogi" is credited with the original story.

Reception

''Bakuman'' was chosen as the best manga for male readers in the 2010 ''

'' guidebook, which surveys people in the manga and publishing industry. It was nominated for the third annual

Manga Taishō The is a Japanese List of comics awards, comics award recognizing achievement in manga. It is awarded annually to a manga series published in the previous calendar year of eight or fewer Tankōbon, collected volumes in length. The Manga Taish� ...

award in 2010. The first volume of the series placed fourth on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that ...

manga chart during its debut week, selling 154,675 copies. The second volume followed suit, placing second during its first week with 228,056 copies. The third volume continued the trend and placed fourth during its debut week, selling 200,369 copies. 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. ''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. By April 2012, over 13 million copies had been sold, with this number growing to over 15 million copies in publication by May 2014. In the United States, volume one debuted at number 6 on ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' Manga Graphic Books list for the week of August 12 and remained on the list for eight weeks straight. 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 Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but primarily affects women and girls. It has been linked to gender roles and stereotypes, and may include the belief that one sex or gender is int ...

for only portraying its female characters as either "bitter, man-hating viragos motivated by grudges against men" or "patient helpmates" striving to support them instead. Carlo Santos of

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and ot ...

was surprised that ''Bakuman'' succeeds, not only as a manga about manga, but as a

slice-of-life Slice of life is a depiction of mundane experiences in art and entertainment. In theater, slice of life refers to Naturalism (theatre), naturalism, while in literary parlance it is a narrative technique in which a seemingly arbitrary sequence ...

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 ''

''; 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." Allegra Frank of

Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the 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". Christopher Butcher reviewing volume one for

About.com Dotdash Meredith (formerly The Mining Company, About.com and Dotdash) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, hom ...

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." In an article discussing the underdevelopment of its female lead characters, Gregory Segal of

Comic Book Resources ''CBR'', formerly ''Comic Book Resources'', is a news website primarily covering comic book news, comic book reviews, and comic book–related topics involving movies, television, anime, and video games. It is owned by Valnet, parent of publicat ...

wrote that some fans speculate the series' inclusion of such

tropes Trope or tropes may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Trope (cinema), a cinematic convention for conveying a concept * Trope (literature), a figure of speech or common literary device * Trope (music), any of a variety of different things in m ...

is a form of

meta Meta most commonly refers to: * Meta (prefix), a common affix and word in English ( in Greek) * Meta Platforms, an American multinational technology conglomerate (formerly ''Facebook, Inc.'') Meta or META may also refer to: Businesses * Meta (ac ...

-commentary on the traditional portrayal of women in manga. The film was number-one at the Japanese box office on its opening weekend, with . It earned during the October 18 weekend. 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. The film was also one of two releases that won the Popularity award, alongside '' Maku ga Agaru''. Matt Schley of ''

Otaku USA ''Otaku USA'' is a bimonthly magazine published by Sovereign Media, which covers various elements of the "otaku" lifestyle (such as anime, manga, video games, cosplay and Japanese popular music) from an American perspective. The issues were acc ...

'' 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. ''

Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...

''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. Mark Schilling for ''

The Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...

'' gave the film four out of five stars, with strong praise for director and screenwriter Hitoshi Ōne.

References

External links

''Bakuman.'' anime at the NHK website

''Bakuman.'' at Viz Media website

''Bakuman.'' at Manga Plus website
* * {{J.C.Staff Anime Works Anime and manga set in Japan Anime series based on manga Comedy anime and manga Coming-of-age anime and manga Fiction set in the 2000s Fiction set in the 2010s J.C.Staff Manga adapted into films Manga adapted into television series Manga creation in anime and manga NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan NHK original programming Shueisha franchises Shueisha manga Shōnen manga Slice of life anime and manga Viz Media anime Viz Media manga