The story
Bakuman centres around Mashiro Moritaka and Takagi Akito, writing under the pen name Ashirogi Muto, as they strive to become the most popular manga artist in Shounen Jump Magazine. One of the dreams holding them up, driving them on, is a promise between Mashiro and the heroine, Azuki Miho, an aspirant voice actor.
To wholeheartedly pursue their dreams, Mashiro and Miho promised not to meet, corresponding only through text messages and the occasional phone call, until Miho voices the heroine in an anime by Mashiro and Takagi. Together, Azuki, Mashiro and Takagi form Ashirogi Muto, meaning Ashirogi's Dream Come true.
While chasing their dreams, this story brings readers on a ride, with exciting scenes, fierce rivalry, determination, scheming plots, and a sweet romance. Enjoy also a critique on the manga world, as Ashirogi Muto try out different styles, and face-off with rival mangakas.
Anime VS Manga
In most cases, I feel a sense of dissatisfaction whenever I watch anime adaptations of series I've read before, be it manga or light novels. This is largely because the anime adaptations fail to match up to my imagination, and invoke feelings of equal intensity when I read the original. Bakuman manages to do well, both as a manga and as an anime, effectively utilising the different mediums.
A few factors contribute to this. Pace is most definitely one of the greatest factor. With anime, the screentime allocated to various scenes is pre-determined, while I have the ability to decide the pace when I read manga. This become significant especially in sections of the story, such as love scenes, or scenes leading up to a confrontation.
Bakuman very successfully accomplishes a good pace in both the manga and the anime. In the manga, I felt very intense excitement building up, making me want to read through the story to get to what happens next. This happens even on my second and third reads. In the anime, the excitement becomes less intense, and while some scenes end up creating less impact, other aspects are brought out better, most particularly the romance, and comedy.
Dialogue certainly becomes an important contributor in setting the pace. Stories driven by dialogue end up hard-pressed to capture viewers' interests. Bakuman faces this predicament, being almost entirely driven by dialogue to progress the story.
The dialogue in the manga come in the form of words, and is able to transmit more information in the same time and space as compared to anime. Bakuman certainly is much wordier than most manga, but it achieves a fine balance with the art and panel distribution. With manga, many scenes pass by within just one page, and the dialogue becomes less heavy, creating a fast pace story. Anime faces the constraint of having to read out the lines, and the time taken becomes much much more. The dialogue in Bakuman is controlled well, setting a different pace, instead of simply trying to reproduce the manga, unlike some other series.
The audio accompaniment is lively, and so is the art.
Thoughts
The series certainly lives up to the standards of manga it touted. Some people may not agree with me, but I just love the light-hearted feel of the manga, and the romance. Aoki and Hiramaru especially was my favourite couple.
Bakuman may be unreal, showing a very idealistic perspective on the manga making world. However, it serves as a critique on the current trends in manga, most weekly publications being almost entirely profit driven. Take bleach for example. I liked bleach, until Aizen died. It should have ended there and then, but somehow, they just added more and more arcs to continue the story, introducing new powers, new relationships, and you-name-it. Suddenly, Ichigo has Quincy heritage. They probably thought to ride on the popularity of the series, Such bullshit.
Bakuman ended when it did, without dragging out the story unnecessarily. By the same author/artist combo, Death Note was also a relatively short series, lasting around 100 chapters. Death Note didn't do so well in my opinion, but Bakuman was highly engaging, and compelled me to follow the story, keeping up it's standards throughout the series.
Well, that's it for this post. Perhaps I praised the series too much. You decide.
Thoughts
The series certainly lives up to the standards of manga it touted. Some people may not agree with me, but I just love the light-hearted feel of the manga, and the romance. Aoki and Hiramaru especially was my favourite couple.
Bakuman may be unreal, showing a very idealistic perspective on the manga making world. However, it serves as a critique on the current trends in manga, most weekly publications being almost entirely profit driven. Take bleach for example. I liked bleach, until Aizen died. It should have ended there and then, but somehow, they just added more and more arcs to continue the story, introducing new powers, new relationships, and you-name-it. Suddenly, Ichigo has Quincy heritage. They probably thought to ride on the popularity of the series, Such bullshit.
Bakuman ended when it did, without dragging out the story unnecessarily. By the same author/artist combo, Death Note was also a relatively short series, lasting around 100 chapters. Death Note didn't do so well in my opinion, but Bakuman was highly engaging, and compelled me to follow the story, keeping up it's standards throughout the series.
Well, that's it for this post. Perhaps I praised the series too much. You decide.
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