Light Yagami and Ryuk... Just kidding!
One of Fall 2010’s awaited titles, Bakuman that was created by the same guys behind Death Note, Ohba and Obata. Unlike their previous work which is psychological, and more of a cat and mouse game between a nerd and a bored guy, Bakuman is simpler, a story about two guys pursuing their dream as manga artist. Here’s what happened in the first episode.
The episode kicks off with an opening theme of an anime called, Super Hero Legends with crappy artwork with its opening song sung by Hironobu Kageyama! To those who are living under the rock, he is known for Cha-La, Head Cha-La, the first opening theme of DragonBall Z and most of its opening and ending themes. Also, he sung for tokusatsu, to be exact, he sang for Maskman, Jetman and if I am right, did a cover of the Changeman theme.
Enough with the H. Kageyama intro, while watching the video, I was like, is this Bakuman?! What the heck?! It turned out to be that our star, is just reading the manga version of the said series! Aside from that, we have a glimpse of his room in which we saw volumes of DragonBall and One Piece! We then met his uncle, who gives him a gift for him winning an art contest and talked about that he can be an artist in the future.
Taka (the kid who is reading the manga), then narrates that his uncle never suggested that he should be a manga artist. Opening sequence ensues. End of opening sequence, back at Taka. He wakes up and walks to school. As he walks to school, we are reintroduced to him. His name is Moritaka Mashiro. He has no dreams; all he wants is a regular office job and have a “normal” life.
Since he is middle school, he likes a certain girl and is scribbling her face in his notebook but he can’t express his feelings towards her. The class ends, and his teacher reminds them of their midterms. Moritaka, which he was called Saiko by his classmates, was invited to go home with them. He leaves his notebook inside his desk and leaves with them. The two are planning to watch a certain “film.” You know what I am talking about, while Moritaka wants to go home and study for his midterms.
As he checks his bag for his math notebook, he remembers that he left it in his desk! He goes back to school to get it and this is where we officially meet Akito Takagi. He has his notebook and made The Dark Knight reference and later, telling Moritaka that it is not a Death Note. He is impressed with his artwork of Miho Azuki, Moritaka’s crush. He then said that because he is in the back, he knows a lot and that he thinks that Miho has a crush on Moritaka… or maybe he is wrong. Ouch, Moritaka.
Offering the Death Note.
He will then return his notebook for one condition. He will do a manga with him. He will right while Moritaka will illustrate. We learned that Akito loves manga since he is a child and wants to do manga.
Aside from that, he starts bragging about manga being the national pride of Japan and saw volumes of Death Note and Hikaru no Go, both series drawn by Obata… and the covers are the Viz Media release! Is it me, or the authors are ordering/commanding/asking/begging those who are watching it on illegal stream or illegal download to buy the official release? I am slowly loving this show!
Moritaka then tells him the odds of being a manga artist. That only geniuses can be one and that it is a gamble being one due to the survey conducted in the magazine about whether or not they will continue the serialization of the title or not. This is when we learn that his uncle was a manga artist. Akito asked who is he, we learned that his name is Taro Kawaguchi, the one responsible for Super Hero Legends… and Akito was a fan!
Because of this, Akito is more convinced due to his DNA! He later realized that T. Kawaguchi’s artwork was crap so it’s not DNA. Akito still tries to convince Moritaka to become one but he tries his best to decline his offer by convincing him to just continue writing essays or submit his original story to publishers. Moritaka leaves the room for him to study and Akito tries to convince him to take some time in thinking about it.
This is when we learned his uncle’s backstory. Back then, Moritaka wants to become a manga artist. We learned that his uncle becomes one for him to impress the girl he likes. But because the girl was married, he never got the chance to confess to her. But even if that happened, without her, he will not strive hard to achieve what he is right now. To cut the long story short, his uncle died accordingly, due to overwork, but in Moritaka’s mind, suicide because after Super Hero Legends, the other two titles where not successful.
Cue in the fangirls... and the fujoshi
Back at the present, Moritaka is at his room, playing a PSP. His mother came and scolded him for not studying. He receives a call from Akito to come with him because he wants to confess to Azuki. Forced to come, Moritaka arrives in their meeting place, a convenience store. They arrived in his house and Akito has a hard time ringing the doorbell. After he rang it, and got an answer from Miho’s mom, Miho arrived in front of them.
Moritaka was amazed on how she looked like outside school. Akito started to confess something on Azuki and that is… he will become a manga artist. Aside from that, because of Akito’s detective work earlier, we learned that Miho wanted to become a voice actress and she submitted tapes to various production companies, and learned that she received praises from them. After this, Akito pulls Moritaka in the spotlight. With nothing to say in his head, he blurted out this, he will become Akito’s illustrator and she will voice the heroine of their story.
Everything seems perfect since Miho loved the idea until… Moritaka confessed that once they are successful in their dream, they will get married. WHAT?! Miho leaves, and enters her house. Well, I can’t blame the guy considering that he is thinking about his uncle’s love life1 It’s the spur of the moment that he said it. I feel your pain.
Even with that, Azuki agrees. YES! But there is a condition, the two will not meet till their dreams will come true. They can communicate via text only, to inspire each other. Seems fair enough. So, Moritaka is now firm with his decision. He will become a manga artist. Akito convinces him to become the no.1 manga artist in Japan but Moritaka counters that because of Japan’s low birth rates and DragonBall and One Piece are on top of the food chain, it is impossible. Wait, no love for Naruto and Bleach nor FMA? Aww. So, even if he will not team up with Akito, he will continue his dream because he already made a promise to the girl he likes.
Akito Takagi... A Joker fan.
On to the review, when I learned that after their masterpiece, Death Note that it will be followed up by this, I thought at first, is this a good move for the duo? I mean, the plot is about how to create manga with behind the scenes look on the struggle between the artist and the writer! But after watching the first episode, it seems they made a right choice.
I mean, look. Death Note was psychological and something debatable in the modern world. Fans expect that these two will do something similar to Death Note but in my opinion, it would end up being compared to its predecessor. So, making a title that is miles away from the psychology of the series seems a good choice for the tandem. The idea of Bakuman was something refreshing to start with. Sure, the first episode hints us that this series has the classic plot of fulfilling a dream in anime but the series gives this worn out theme a fresher look.
I am one of those people who wonder what is behind the scenes in our favorite titles. Sure, they often insert snippets of their experience in the volumes of their manga, but its just a bunch of snippets. I want the actual thing.
The first episode of the series gives us a look on how the Takagi-Mashiro duo started. It was by accident. Now, first impressions on the two, Takagi, even if he looks like Light Yagami from Death Note with glasses (Cues fangirls.), he is actually different from him. He is more like of an easygoing kid, a well-rounded genius except that he has a hobby. He loves manga and he wants to create manga. Simple. Since like I said, a genius, he has some way on getting Mashiro into this manga mess even if he doesn’t want too.
Mashiro has Light’s boredom and didn’t have the care in the world attitude but he has a reason why he is like that. He doesn’t want to end up like his uncle, but fate likes to play with us, thus ending up that he will become a manga artist to fulfill a promise he made for the girl that he likes. While writing the previous sentence, it hit me, is it me or Mashiro is like Hanamichi Sakuragi from Slam Dunk? Both have the innate talent but they never used it that much until a certain girl will arrive and convinced them to go on and nourish their talent. For Azuki, skip. For Mashiro’s uncle, Taro Kawaguchi, it is safe to say that he will be Mashiro’s spiritual mentor via flashbacks in the series.
Overall, the first episode was a great start for the entire series. Aside from that, what I liked about it is that they throwed a lot of references to other manga titles, most specifically, titles that are serialized in Japan’s Weekly Shonen Jump. To those who don’t know, One Piece and DragonBall where serialized in the said magazine. It would be fun if in the next episodes; they would throw references on other manga magazines like Gangan or Young Animal!