Bakuman (anime)
Season: Fall 2024
Type: Community Special
Contractor: Frazzle
Progress: 25/75 (one season)
Score: 9/10
Fav Character: Akira Hattori
Least Fav Character: Shinta Fukuda
Fav Moment: "Omedeto." I'm a sucker for this type of abrupt reveal after so much build-up.
This anime has been super fun to watch! I had heard it was good and about making manga, but I didn’t know anything else going into it. I wasn’t expecting a bit of a legacy story and some teen romance, though.
I LOVE me a good legacy story so the set up with his uncle’s tragic life as a motivation for Mashiro’s interest and source of his knowledge has been incredibly interesting. It makes for a good contrasting frame and alludes to some themes that I hope the later seasons get into- such as maybe we really shouldn’t karoshi. I’m a little nervous about his dad and grandpa supporting him even though he’s definitely running himself haggard.
The overall plot is carried by their really good explanations on how Shounen Jump functions as a business. They’re able to do so succinctly and include enough personal motivations and set-ups that those episodes about the Gold Future Cup results and the final serialization meeting were really effective. On paper, entire episodes pretty much about viewer stats and hours long business meetings while people wait around should be kinda boring. But with everything built up in the prior 20+ episodes, I was really feeling the pressure. They also gave enough variation in results and mixed up how things went down that I even had some hesitation as to whether our protags would prevail or not.
All of the romance is so incredibly middle school. The most needlessly slow burn ever. We finally progressed our romance to TALKING WITH OUR VOICES at episode 25. It’s been fun watching Miyoshi and Takagi’s romance develop differently but still incredibly in a middle school way, too. The classic “do you hate me?” “no” “then you like me, let’s date” switcheroo. Both of these relationships have been quintessential “teen romance” in different ways.
I gotta talk about the OP. This OP theme is so 00s it hurts. I can HEAR the frosted tips and soft lighting. It was such a fascinating choice to just make verse the theme for cour 2. But honestly, after all the smirking and eye rolling I did everytime an ep started with YOUR LOVE!! when it played over the last scene between Mashiro and Azuki finally talking on the phone, I felt it. That little doki doki feeling in my teenage soul, somewhere deep and dusty with frosted tips and soft lighting.
The cast of characters are all really fun. I think the only one I didn’t care for was Fukuda mainly because I disagree with his views on manga anyway. Mashiro and Takagi are a good duo and I genuinely like rooting for them during all of this. Eiji is so autism-coded and early on it really didn’t feel to be in a good way. Why'd they make him so obnoxious? However, I turned around on him in the last half of the anime. His genuine love for manga and respect for people who make it is endearing.
I wasn’t sure who my favorite character was, but I went ahead and chose Akira Hattori because I really liked his professionalism and sincerity. He just really genuinely believed in our protags and wanted to help but also keep their expectations within a reasonable range.
There was just a touch of fan service mid-way that almost started to annoy me and then disappeared. It was mostly centered around Miyoshi. At first, the fan service was mainly just from the perspective of her boyfriend being a horny 15 year old and checking her out, but then Azuki’s little sister also had to make a comment on her fat fuckin’ tiddies and I got a little confused. Back to one scene of Miyoshi’s FFTs bouncing around during volleyball, one more comment from her boyfriend, and that’s about it. I honestly didn’t mind when it was just her boyfriend being a horny teen because yeah… that’s about right. The extra comment and a bit more gratuitous sports scene was a *touch* unnecessary but man I’m more just confused why they cared to put it in there at all when that’s all they did for 25 episodes.
The other hint towards fan service was when Azuki started performing on TV. But I really feel like that was one with intention, having also made a point to have Miyoshi and Azuki’s sister share dialogue about the sheer amount of men attending an event to stare at teenage girls dance and (poorly) sing in short, short skirts. The very minimal but still present scene of her skirt flashing this way and that really felt like perhaps they were making a touch of commentary about the state of teenage fame in the industry. I thought it was an interesting way to take it and I hope they dive into it a bit more in the next seasons.
In my Girls Band Cry review, I explored the concept of art and capital and how there’s a bit of an inherent conflict of interest between the two. I think following up with this anime was good for me to see a completely opposite perspective. Whereas Momoka in GBC wanted to use art to express herself, Mashiro and Takagi want to use art to get famous, make money, pursue it as a career, and impress their girlfriends. Because of this, they decided to go about their art in the opposite way as Momoka and actively pursue mainstream tropes. Their strategy was not about expressing themselves completely, but to create the perfectly designed manga that will get them serialized and, ultimately, adapted into an anime as soon as possible. Their reasons are just as valid and they are using the tools they have to be successful, per their own definitions.
Having only seen one season, I have some thoughts on what I think may happen or what I think I would like to see. One thing I think they could potentially be setting up is the hilarious fact that their manga, Shady Detective TRAP or whatever, seems to be lacking the one thing they need to fulfill Mashiro’s dream of his beaux performing the leading role- a leading female character. The fact they haven’t brought up that detail at all while designing their stories is funny to me. It’s a very teenage thing to overlook.
As I mentioned before, I hope they get into the unhealthy work environment these boys are having to put themselves through. Mangakas are known to really have shitty jobs in terms of existing as healthy human beings. The most they’ve done with it, I feel, is have a bit of an awkward moment where Takagi said “we will complete this even if it kills us” and Mashiro coughed in discomfort. Like, yikes, bro. I really hope that the show itself doesn’t attempt to glorify the karoshi culture like Mashiro’s male family members mean to…
I also hope they get a bit more into Azuki’s journey into fame, which is a dangerous one in any society for a girl her age. They very slightly started to imply it with her short, short skirt, but I’d be interested to see where it goes.
Maybe by the end of the anime Mashiro and Azuki will finally look each other in the eye and maybe even hold hands lmao
Overall, this anime surprised me. I knew it was going to be good, but there were aspects I didn’t expect from it that I really enjoyed. I feel like it is very much trying to say some things about the industry while still just making a compelling story about navigating the complex world of the manga business. Perhaps I should not have been so surprised, as a semi-similar anime, Shirobako (which is about making an anime), was one of my favorites for a good few years. I don’t remember too many details anymore but generally if you like Bakuman, I would recommend Shirobako. I will definitely be continuing this anime on my own time, and I am very happy that it was my last contract of the season.