Bakuman

Bakuman
The cover of the first tankōbon, released in Japan by Shueisha on January 5, 2009, featuring Moritaka Mashiro.
バクマン。
Genre	Slice-of-life, Comedy-drama, Romance
Manga
Written by	Tsugumi Ohba
Illustrated by	Takeshi Obata
Published by	Shueisha
English publisher	AUS Madman Entertainment NA Viz Media
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	Weekly Shōnen Jump
English magazine	NA Weekly Shonen Jump
Original run	August 11, 2008 – April 23, 2012
Volumes	20
Anime television series
Directed by	Kenichi Kasai, Noriaki Akitaya
Written by	Reiko Yoshida
Studio	J.C.Staff
Licensed by	AUS Madman Entertainment NA Media Blasters
Network	NHK-E
Original run	October 2, 2010 – April 2, 2011
Episodes	25
Anime television series
Bakuman. 2
Directed by	Kenichi Kasai, Noriaki Akitaya
Written by	Reiko Yoshida
Studio	J.C.Staff
Licensed by	NA Media Blasters
Network	NHK-E
Original run	October 1, 2011 – March 24, 2012
Episodes	25
Game
Bakuman: Mangaka e no Dou
Developer	Namco Bandai Games
Publisher	Namco Bandai Games
Genre	Visual novel, Puzzle game
Platform	Nintendo DS
Released	JP December 15, 2011
Anime television series
Bakuman. 3
Directed by	Kenichi Kasai, Noriaki Akitaya
Written by	Reiko Yoshida
Studio	J.C.Staff
Network	NHK-E
Original run	October 6, 2012 – March 30, 2013
Episodes	25

Bakuman. (バクマン。) is a Japanese manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, the same creative team responsible for Death Note. The series follows talented artist Moritaka Mashiro and aspiring writer Akito Takagi, two ninth grade boys who wish to become manga artists, with Mashiro as the artist and Takagi as the writer.

The manga was serialized in the magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from August 11, 2008 to April 23, 2012. The 176 chapters were collected into 20 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha, with the first released on January 5, 2009 and the last on July 4, 2012. An anime television adaptation of the series began airing on NHK-E on October 2, 2010. To date there are three seasons created by J.C.Staff, the third of which began broadcasting on October 6, 2012.

Bakuman was the seventh best-selling manga series of 2011 and the tenth best of 2012, with nearly 4.4 million and over 3.2 million copies sold those years respectively. Additionally, it is the first manga released online by Shueisha in multiple languages before becoming available in print outside of Japan. In 2009, Viz Media announced it had licensed the series for a North American release. Besides releasing the series in collected volumes, they also released it in their online manga anthology Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha (beginning with chapter 162), with the final chapter released on May 7, 2012.

Some manga characters resemble real authors and editors of Weekly Shōnen Jump; many manga titles mentioned in Bakuman are also series published in Weekly Shōnen Jump at that time.

Plot

The plot begins when Moritaka Mashiro, a junior high student, forgets his notebook in class. His classmate, Akito Takagi, notes Mashiro's drawings in it and asks him to become a manga artist to his stories. Mashiro declines, citing his late manga artist uncle, who died from overworking. Takagi incites Mashiro to meet with Miho Azuki, Mashiro's crush, and tells her the two plan to become manga artists. In response, Azuki reveals her plans to be a voice actress. Mashiro proposes to her that they should both marry when Azuki becomes a voice actress for the anime adaptation of their manga. The two then start creating their manga, under the pen name Muto Ashirogi, in hopes of getting serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump.

After submitting many one-shots to Shueisha, Ashirogi begin with their first published series in Weekly Shōnen Jump, Detective Trap, which is eventually canceled due to its declining popularity. Their next series is the gag manga Run, Daihatsu Tanto!, which they give up on, realizing it will never be popular. Their current series Perfect Crime Party is met with considerable popularity but due to its theme, is unfit for an anime series. When their rival, Eiji Nizuma, submits a one-shot for serialization, Ashirogi competes by submitting Reversi which replaces Perfect Crime Party while the latter is moved to Shueisha's fictional monthly magazine, Hisshou Jump. Reversi is chosen for an anime adaptation with Miho as one of the voice actresses, after she passes a public audition. After fulfilling their dreams, the series ends with Mashiro officially proposing to Miho at the place they made their promise, followed by their first kiss.

Media

Manga

Written by Tsugumi Ohba and drawn by Takeshi Obata, Bakuman was serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine from its premiere on August 11, 2008 to its end on April 23, 2012.^[1][2] The 176 chapters were then collected into 20 tankōbon volumes from January 5, 2009 to July 4, 2012.^[3][4] Several chapters of the series were released on Jumpland's official website in Japanese, English, French, and German; the first chapter was released on August 19, 2008. It is Shueisha's first manga to be released online in multiple languages before becoming available in print outside of Japan.^[5] A 15-page one-shot of the series Otter #11, the gag manga created by the character Kazuya Hiramaru in Bakuman, was published in the August 8, 2010 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump.^[6] It was then published the following week in Shōnen Jump Next on August 16.^[7] Viz Media included an English translation of it in the free SJ Alpha Yearbook 2013, which was mailed out to annual subscribers of Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha in December 2012.

In addition to the success of Bakuman in Japan, the series has also been licensed worldwide: in Korea by Daiwon C.I. and serialized in their Comic Champ manhwa magazine,^[8] by Tong Li Publishing in Taiwan, Kana in France, Norma in Spain, Tokyopop in Germany, Comics House in Malaysia, Kim Dong Publishing House in Vietnam, in Brazil by Editora JBC and NED in Thailand. At San Diego Comic-Con International 2009, Viz Media announced it had licensed the series for English release in the US and Canada, with the first volume released on August 3, 2010.^[9][10] To date they have published 17 volumes, with the final currently scheduled for release on August 6, 2013.^[11] In addition to the collected volumes, Viz also published the series online in their manga anthology Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha.^[12] Bakuman started with chapter 162 in the anthology's debut issue on January 30, 2012, and ended with the series' final chapter released on May 7, 2012.

Anime

A 25-episode anime television series based on Bakuman was announced in Weekly Shōnen Jump's second issue of 2010.^[13] Created by J.C.Staff, it began broadcasting on NHK on October 2, 2010 and ran until April 2, 2011. In December 2010, Weekly Shōnen Jump announced that a second season would air in Fall 2011; it ran from October 1, 2011 to March 24, 2012.^[14][15] Due to the popularity of the second season of the anime, a third season was announced in the 3/4th (2012) combined issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump and began airing on October 6, 2012.^[16] It ran for 25 episodes between October 6, 2012 and March 30, 2013.

In August 2011, Media Blasters licensed the first two seasons of the Bakuman anime for North America, including an English-language dub.^[17] The first seven episodes were included on a 2-disc DVD set released on November 22, 2011, however, the second was halted in February 2012.^[18][19] The first Blu-ray release was cancelled indefinitely in June 2012.^[20] Viz Media Europe acquired the rights for release in Europe and the United Kingdom in March 2012, in collaboration with Manga Entertainment and Kazé.^[21] After Media Blasters' cancellation, Kazé revealed the UK release would be subtitled only.^[22] In November 2012, Media Blasters officially announced they are discontinuing the series, but added that Viz Media might pick up the license for NA.^[23]

Games

A videogame adaptation based on the Manga/Anime, was made for Nintendo DS by Namco Bandai Games.^[24] The game was released in Japan on December 15, 2011.^[25]

Reception

Carlo Santos of Anime News Network praises the conflicting viewpoints of the protagonists and is surprised that the series succeeds, not only as a manga about manga, but as slice-of-life series about the dreams of youth. However, Santos comments that this series could learn from Ohba and Obata's previous series Death Note; the beginning is not as gripping and the plot twists are "pretty weak" and "seem like petty contrivances". Despite this, he believes that the series is "another hit".^[26]

The first volume of the series placed fourth out of thirty in manga sales in Japan for the week of January 6–12, 2009, selling 154,675 copies during that time.^[27] The week after, January 13–19, the volume fell to ninth place selling 38,176 copies.^[28] The second volume followed suit placing second during the week of March 2–9, selling 228,056 copies, and falling to seventh during the following week of March 10–16, selling an additional 62,947 copies.^[29][30] The third volume continued the trend and placed fourth during the week of June 1–7, 2009, selling 200,369 copies and placed sixth during the next week of June 8–14, selling 67,541 copies.^[31][32] During the first half of 2009, the first volume placed twenty-eighth and the second volume placed twenty-seventh of fifty top-selling manga in Japan, selling 381,633 and 394,567 copies respectively.^[33] Bakuman was the seventh best-selling manga series of 2011, with almost 4.4 million copies sold, and the tenth best of 2012, with over 3.2 million sold that year.^[34][35]

In the United States, volume one debuted at number 6 on the New York Times Manga Graphic Books list for the week of August 12^[36] and remained on the list for eight weeks straight.^[37]

References

External links

• Official website (Japanese)
• Bakuman. at the Weekly Shōnen Jump website (Japanese)
• Bakuman. at the NHK website (Japanese)
• Bakuman. (manga) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Bakuman. (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia