#Bakuman s01

[curestardust]

if you want: slice-of-life / some really sweet romance without much drama / insight into manga creation and getting serialised / mostly realistic characters

Bakuman came out in 2011, around the time I actually started watching some anime on the internet and created my MAL. The premise itself was interesting to me even back then but the main reason I remember being excited about this is because it was created by the duo behind Death Note. Well, I sure am glad I only just watched this now.

Why? Because I’m almost completely sure that I would’ve expected something vaguely similiar to Death Note. Not the same, obviously, the premise was just too different but Bakuman has basically 0 similiarities to their first work besides the artstyle but even that is a bit different. 

Bakuman follows 2 high school boys, Takagi and Mashiro, as they try to make their dream of being mangakas a reality. They’re unique as they work as a duo, much like the creators themselves. This also creates an interesting situation where the viewer might wonder what is complete fiction and what is something that actually happened to the mangakas themselves.

The anime dives heavily into the subject, manga creation. Almost the entirety of the anime is taking up by the boys coming up with stories, drawing, submitting their work for critisism and then waiting on the result by the editing department. This is tricky, and even I worried that the anime was going to lose steam after the first 2 mangas were finished but it didn’t. The pair starts out almost completely from the bottom and we see them improve and achieve victories step by step, making every new creation feel somewhat fresh and unique. 

The first half of Bakuman mostly just has our main duo and their love interests. It’s very...shoujo-ey which I really wasn’t expecting. The romance is a bit cliché and overtly dramatic for my tastes but most slice-of-life fans enjoy that kinda stuff so I won’t say much more. To me, it was the latter half of the anime where it really picked up as we’re introduced to multiple rival mangakas who have the same dream as our main characters. All of the characters feel unique and their interactions and dynamics are refreshing to watch.

Bakuman does have some drawbacks. After their first manga, we don’t get much insight into the works Takagi and Mashiro make later on which I thought was a missed opportunity. The female characters all feel a bit weak compared to the male ones and could’ve been expanded upon much more. There’re many time jumps but we don’t really know about it just when the charcters drop info about how much time has passed in conversations which was a bit confusing. Later on they do start showing the dates on the screen but I wished they started doing that earlier. The music if fine but felt a bit too energetic and wild for the things we were seeing on screen.

Bakuman is a fine anime for slice-of-life lovers who’re interested in the world of mangakas. Don’t get discouraged by my score. As much as I had good time with Bakuman, SOL just really isn’t my genre so this is the best I can give. [7/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | This anime killed my parents

if you want: CGDCT (Cute Girls Doing Cute Things) / Slice-of-Life / raging lesbians (but they’re babies so it’s cute) / human obsessed with vampire dynamic 

"Ms. vampire who lives in my neighborhood.” is a very cute CGDCT SOL with a shitton of yuri “subtext”. 

Our set-up is that Akari wonders into a forest at night, in search of a haunted “dollhouse” her classmate told her about. There, she meets Sophie out on her daily stroll and she introduces herself as a vampire. Akari is fucking HYPED and immediately attaches herself to Sophie and then moves in with her. From then on we see the cast going about their mundane daily lives with the vampire aspect mixed in to make something interesting.

So, why did I put the subtext in quotiation marks? Well, our main cast consists of 2 vampires, Ellie and Sophie, and 2 humans, Akari and Hinata. Yuu and Sakuya, the 2 humans classmates and friends show up at times as well. And they’re all. lesbians. Harold!

Akari is completely smitten by Sophie and her doll-like complexion and is just absolutely in love with her. Hinata, Akari’s childhood friend, is in soft baby lesbian love with her best friend, constantly fantasizing about Akari’s attention towards her. Ellie, Sophie’s long time vampire friend, cannot stop talking about “young healthy looking maidens” and how much she wants to suck their blood. And when it comes to our 2 background characters, Sakuya is really in love with Yuu and keeps blushing around her when she says SoFt things. The only person who seemingly doesn’t care about all the lesbian nonesense going on is Sophie as she is just trying to be a Big Weeb in peace but even her has some soft moments.

So usually we’d be smacking a huge Shoujo Ai tag on this but alas it remains subtext as the recipients of the affection are oblivious to it and so there’s nothing to bring this from “girls love as fanservice” to “actual girls love”. Which is a shame imo but if you don’t go in expecting anything serious in that department you’ll be fine.

The art isn’t anything incredible but remains consistent and well-drawn throughout the whole thing. The music didn’t leave any lasting impression but it’s typical for this genre. If you like CGDCT and SOL and don’t mind some girls being smitten by other girls, you’ll enjoy this a lot! While I found the characters charming and loveable, again, SOL isn’t my genre so I had some trouble not falling asleep during episodes. But if you like this kind of stuff, I 100% recommend! [6/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | This anime killed my parents

[curestardust]

if you want: an engaging cast / slice-of-life / manga creation and getting serialised / fulfilling romance and ending

S01 (x) S02 (x)

<some spoilers for this season and death note>

The last season of Bakuman! This show was a really enjoyable ride and didn’t feel like it was actually 75 episodes long (which I just now realised and holy fuck. It really doesn’t feel like it.)

Now, the first arc of season 03 was probably the most questionable in the whole series. They brought in a quite despisable character who shifted the tone of the show to a direction I wasn’t the biggest fan of. Then when that arc ends, that character just fucking...disappears. Addditionally, they also bring back an older, also quite disliked character, who doesn’t do much for the rest of the season. So I was a bit worried initially. 

However, the second half was SO good I literally forgot that this season had a first arc in the first place. I was really wrecking my brain “I remember that there was something I didn’t like here but what was it?” until I remembered that forgettable character. But as I said, the way season 3 wraps up the whole story makes it all worth it. 

Mashiro and Takagi’s journey was so well written and paced, I can only applaud our real life Takagi. The permise itself was something I thought would be impossible to pull off and make interesting, expecially with such a long runtime but they did it! Every time you would think that there’s isn’t more to achieve, a new character, twist or arc is introduced and it keeps you hooked yet again. 

<SPOILER> The final manga we see Ashirogi Mutou create is Reversi, which very closely resembles Death Note, the (real life) duo’s first work. The ending of it especially left a lot to think about. There was a lot of back and forth, where they were supposed to lengthen the manga to become a flagship series for Shounen Jack, however after a lot of work, they got permission to finish Reversi at the hight of its popularity with the 2 main characters dying in a big showdown. From this, it’s very possible that this was the duo’s plan for Death Note as well, to wrap it up where L died in the show but they weren’t allowed to do that, which led to Near and Mello. I’m really curious what their original plans for the “true” ending of DN were. <SPOILER>

The lead up to our last goal, Mashiro and Azuki’s promise made in the first episode, was also quite exciting although a bit predictable. Nevertheless, even I felt little butterflies during the last episode even though romance usually doesn’t phase me at all. A very well done series, would recommend (if you like this kinda stuff). [9/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | This anime killed my parents