Category: Bakuman

Most of the episode was dedicated to the romance, so I first want to nitpick a bit: in what year is this series set in anyway? I ask this, because people know mobile phones and email addresses, yet haven’t heard of instant messaging software or computers at all. Is it common for Japanese households to not have a computer? And are instant messengers like MSN a lot less popular in Japan than what they are in the rest of the world?

Regarding the portrayal of the actual romance, it was actually starting to get pretty good, though I did not like how Miho suddenly started crying from out of nowhere: it lacked build-up and was a bit too much for that particular scene. But really: I’m now at the point at which I’m nitpicking at these tiny details: there’s a lot of stuff that this series did right. With the usual romance series I’m not even able to pick those details like that apart. This episode really served its purpose of developing the relationship between Moritaka and Miho, and I especially liked how this episode talked about their future and how they keep in contact after they graduate. The next step should be to de-wimpify them: give either of them some guts to actually talk to each other.

The end of the episode also properly introduced the new genius high school manga author. Standalone he’s pretty much what you’d expect, but the thing I’m interested in the most is how he will clash with Moritaka and Akito.

This episode also reminded me how completely pointless these copyright aversions are: Shounen Jump is censored to Shounen Jack, and yet the manga openly talks about Dragonball Z and One Piece. Is it okay for someone to use products of a company, but the name of the company itself is taboo or something? It’s still a comppletely ridiculous practice: these copyright laws are enforced because the companies in question don’t want their names dirtied, yet the way in which their names are modified (Shounen Jack, Deegle, WC Donalds) makes no attempt to hide what they’re referring to. Bloody legal system.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Finally we get to the first meeting of one of the editors of Shounen Jump (or Shounen Jack, as it’s called here), and it was quite interesting, as we also get to see the full concept of the pilot that Moritaka and Akito created. It’s also here where you can see that the two still have a long way to go: the sketches looked rushed, and the dialogue of the trailer itself had some good concepts, but sounded rather cheesy without the proper build-up.

I don’t read any manga myself, but I’m still interested at how the editor said that there was too much dialogue and that his story would suit a light novel better. It’s true that that pilot sounded more like a trailer than an actual story, but that can also be a particular style, right? I’m interested in how many people like Moritaka and Akito he gets each month: do a lot of people try to contact him like that, only to give up later? The way he talked with his colleague seemed to suggest that they’re not exactly a rare case.

In the meantime, we also get to see some of Akito’s background. His mother was a bit much in the way she started crying in front of her son about something cheesy like that revenge, but overall it could have been much worse, and it’s a solid background for him either way. Oh, and finally the romance a) moved somewhere and b) stayed in the background with just a few scenes dedicated to it that were concise and to the point. When it’s like that then I don’t have any problems with it.
Rating: * (Good)

Next episode should promise to be interesting. This episode showed Akito and Moritaka create some sort of pilot, now they have to convince the manga publishing magazines that their work is good enough. That should really prove to be interesting. This episode established this series as a “hard work”-anime, which has definite potential. Moritaka is a perfectionist, and you can see that Akito is getting caught up in that.

I also like the story they came up with here, with the clones and all. It would be interesting if Bakuman would also end up talking not just about manga artists, but mangas themselves. Moritaka’s art… it looks a bit cliched, but at the same time it’s very detailed, and he’s definitely a talented artist.

The romance at this point feels like comedic relief, though. Normally I don’t think I would have minded so much, but I know the standards of Kenichi Kasai, and I know that it just pales in comparison to some of his other works. It’s not exactly bad, but it’s just… there. Not really interesting, and all I’m doing during those scenes is waiting for the focus to fall back on the manga creating process.
Rating: * (Good)

If I had to describe my feelings of Bakuman so far in one word, it’d be “solid”. It’s not the deepest or most exciting show of the season, nor does it have the best characters yet, but at the moment it’s happy enough to just carefully set up its story and premise. This episode continued that trend, as it discussed Moritaka’s conviction.

Moritaka is actually in some way similar to Yagami Light: both start out as seemingly regular students at the top of their class, with nothing really meaningful to do. Light then gets corrupted by the arrival of the Death Note, while Bakuman takes a completely different turn by having the guy work hard to become a manga artist. This episode really showed his talents, on top of his willingness to make something successful out of it, as he’s willing to let his grades drop significantly in favor of the manga he’s writing.

This episode also established that he might just as well be the guy to actually pull it off: he’s got the right mind-set, and once he starts writing he gets totally caught up in it. I mean, it’s one thing to be experienced in how a manga gets created through his uncle, but even considering that, this guy has talent and the right personality for it. Contrast that with Akito, who probably did not realize all of this when he first proposed his idea to Moritaka.

As for the side-characters, this episode introduced a bunch of new ones. I didn’t really like the wannabe artists whose only purpose was to make Moritaka look smart. Miyoshi meanwhile has me a bit indifferent, as her introduction didn’t really show much of her, and we’ve got a fifteen year old mangaka who probably will serve as some kind of example for Moritaka and Akito, and he’s who I’m interested in the most here. Oh, and Azuki’s scenes were a lot more bearable in this episode, mostly because the creators didn’t try to use any weird coincidences here, but instead just tried to show it progressing naturally. My only gripe is that the mostly down to earth Moritaka somehow becomes a little toogullible when he starts talking with Akito about Azuki.
Rating: * (Good)

Okay, so when Moritaka’s uncle was in high school, he had this girl he was semi-dating, and exchanged letters with. This girl eventually married someone else, and became the mother of Miho, who looks exactly like her at that age… Even Death Note’s romance was more plausible than that…

This episode was pretty much similar to the previous two: the parts that focused on the mangas were interesting, and it’s also good to see more depth on Moritaka’s uncle, but the romance again was pretty dull. Using these coincidences is always a bit of a matter of walking on a tight-rope: if they’re small or the rest of the series makes up for it, they can often be forgiven, but this was just too much, especially considering this series is still introducing itself. I especially don’t like the cliche that you see everywhere, in which a mother and daughter look exactly like each other. That’s called lazy character-designing!

In any case, I’m now beginning to understand why Moritaka’s uncle is such a big focus of these first three episodes, because it allows the lead character to already have a bit of experience with the manga industry, and how it works, and yet there’s going to be a lot of contrast, since the manga that Moritaka is thinking of is a lot more sophisticated than the gag manga that his uncle became famous for. Most of the times with anime like these, the characters involved start out as total rookies, so it’s definitely a refreshing change here.
Rating: * (Good)

As for the series I’m not going to blog:
– The only good thing of Iron Man is its soundtrack. I mean, I can understand that Madhouse had to sacrifice the animation in favour of Redline, but that’s far from the only problem here. Who the hell wrote this rubbish?
– MM had together with To Love-Ru the worst first episode of the season for me.
– Probably the biggest dilemma this season is whether the comedies are going to be interesting to blog, because this season they’re blessed with some of the best direction out of all of the premiering series. Still, if I’m going to blog a comedy then it’s going to be Squid Girl. Panty and Stocking really does have a very shallow characterization and I’m not getting happy if Sora no Otoshimono II is based around a girl whose only defining traits are boobs and stupidity.

In any case, every year I hold a contest in which you can force me to blog one series without question. In the past, this resulted in me blogging Claymore, Gundam 00, Tytania and Kimi ni Todoke (I love how diverse the results turned out to be, by the way). This year was by far one of the most close calls, in which Bakuman just barely managed to beat Psychic Detective Yakumo with just one vote difference.

Had I not been forced to blog this series, then I probably would have ended up blogging it as well, though it wouldn’t have been one of my top choices. Most of this would probably be thanks to Kenichi Kasai, who is a very solid director, since I knew absolutely nothing about the manga, other than that it was about manga artists and written by the same guy from Death Note. Out of all of Kenichi Kasai’s series, Bakuman didn’t have the strongest opening episode (that title goes to probably Aoi Hana), but it still was quite a solid episode, and this episode continued that trend.

The creators used the death of the lead characters’ uncle well to create their drama here. I really liked how realistic they kept Moritaka’s relationship with his parents: it’s obvious that they’re still thinking about his uncle and how he died, but they quietly discussed how they felt about it. I especially liked that grandfather: you’d expect him to take Moritaka’s decision to become a manga artist as some kind of bad omen, but instead he’s actually very glad that Moritaka has found a passion for himself.

As for the romance… you really could have fooled me here. This episode again spent quite a bit of time on the romantic relationship between Moritaka and Miho. I’m not sure what to think about them at this point, really. Just get the two dating, or at least do something with it, because at this point it feels rather pointless.
Rating: * (Good)