Bakuman. Season 2

Sexist. The writers do not know how to write female characters. All of the female characters have serious problems with them and they are certainly not treated as equals. The female lead asks her boyfriend's permission regarding her career. Miyoshi is mistreated by Tagaki soooo many times yet she does everything she can for them, i.e., cooking, cleaning, looking after them, etc. There is a constant sexist tone throughout the whole series that ruins the show for me. For example, the "women cannot understand a man's dreams" line from season one. All of the female characters are either unreasonable or obedient to a male character,except Azuki's mother which is probably because she did not have screentime. The story itself is nice, a bit repetitive but doesn't bore you. I would enjoy the show if it wasn't this sexist.

I had watched the first season along with a few episodes of the second season a while ago, but I had to stop for some reason I can't remember. So, I decided to go back and start the second season from the beginning. Bad idea... Now I know why I decided not to stick to watching the second season. Even as I'm typing this, I still can't grasp the stark difference between my thoughts on the show vs the majority's opinion. I felt betrayed by the score, so I thought I'll throw in a different perspective regarding the anime. The first season felt like an inoffensive storythat was just okay to watch (from what little I remember), but this second season was a trudge to go through. I had to force myself to watch another episode with the idea that it'd get better eventually, but unfortunately it got worse. The entire season could be skipped, and nothing would change except a few set pieces. Near the end, I decided not to continue on with the third season since I realized that I lost my interest. Now the characters. The way I'd describe the majority of them would be: Obnoxious. They barely have any redeeming qualities. They are one dimensional and only serve as convenient devices to keep the story moving along. Romances are thrown in out of completely nowhere and only feel as though they are introduced and used for motivation. Character development consists of complete 180 degree changes in personality and character thought processes are indescribable. The story consists of a popularity contest between manga authors of the same publisher. It starts with them calling each other rivals, telling each other that they'll beat each other next time. Then, they come up with ideas haphazardly and start working on them, hoping it'll get NUMBER ONE IN THE RANKINGS!.... then if they get a good ranking they congratulate each other, if they don't then they say they'll beat each other next time. There are some stakes thrown in to each of these repetitions because the makers know if they don't include those in, then there would be nothing left of interest. But then the stakes are pummeled as soon as push comes to shove, and you start wondering why they were included in the first place. Artwork is okay, nothing special but it's decent. Actually, it was nice to see different manga authors with different drawing styles. Sound was okay too, serviceable enough for the show. It's difficult for me not to spoil stuff while talking about my experience watching this anime, so I feel that right here would be a good place for people to stop reading. But for those who've watched the show or don't care about spoilers, please continue... ------------------------ SPOILER WARNING ------------------------ I mentioned the characters being obnoxious. So let me expand on that... The main characters Mashiro and Takagi aka Ashirogi Muto stand true on that statement the most. They are childish, whiny, arrogant and stuck up, with these inflated but fragile egos. They are constantly bitching about being popular and getting the best rankings and would change their entire story they worked on to get ranked better. They feel like they only want to be manga authors for the sake of becoming famous, getting anime adaptations, and striking it big. Mashiro is especially guilty of this to the point where almost every word spoken out of his mouth made me go "oh just shut up" in my head. Mashiro's art is very good and never needs any polish. Takagi is just this genius who can think of a good story on the spot, but is otherwise really bland. Ah who am I kidding, everybody in this show is bland. But still they crapshoot everywhere because the season needs to stretch to 25 episodes and the makers need some form of progression throughout the series. Of course, every "rival" has this behavioural pattern as well, although not to the same degree. They're all different flavours of "I'll work hard and beat you next time!" and "I wont lose to you!". Niizuma Eiji is shown as this super genius with an eccentric personality, and serves as the main rival to Ashirogi Muto. Both as manga authors and being super annoying to look at. Sheesh, his screams still ring in my head. He has no "I'll work hard and beat you next time!" but he does have "I wont lose to you!". Fukuda is this angry man that rages at everything and is a hardass with a caring heart. He is the angry version of "I'll work hard and beat you next time!" and "I wont lose to you!". Hiramaru was a character that I found decent. His dynamic with his editor was predictable but okay to watch. His shtick is that he is forced to draw manga while he wants to do other stuff. He is the unwilling version of "I'll work hard and beat you next time!" and "I wont lose to you!". Nakai is just a plain creep with fragile self esteem. Iwase is an arrogant woman with too much time on her hands. A vindictive and narrow minded individual with the weirdest motivation. She is the vengeful version of "I'll work hard and beat you next time!" and "I wont lose to you!". Aoki is a manipulative, heartless and proper woman who does a 180 degree personality change into become a blank slate. She is the female version of "I'll work hard and beat you next time!" and "I wont lose to you!". Moving on with other characters, Azuki is Mashiro's girlfriend and nothing would change if she was replaced by cardboard. Their relationship makes no sense and makes you wonder how the hell they fell in love and decided to marry each other in the first place. Miyoshi is a convenience. Miura is just this loudmouthed, boisterous man who actually achieves nothing. NOTHING. His purpose is solely to act as an obstacle and he comes in to achieve only that, then to leave after he has been overcome. To me, it felt like he is the only reason the second season occurred. If you take out the portion of the anime from the point where Miura is introduced as Ashirogi's editor to where Miura is exchanged back to Hattori, then apart from Nakai leaving the picture and the serialization manga names changing, nothing happens. Oh I guess Takagi and Miyoshi get married? I don't even know how or why they decided to do that. Felt like it was just convenient to throw in because they're both best friends of the show's main romance. Hattori is a decent character. He's the only one that made me laugh once in a scene in the entire season, but still he seemed like a genuinely likeable and competent editor. Don't get me wrong though, still a bit bland. The chief editor is shown as this very competent and serious dude, but to me he seemed like a really indecisive prick. First, he says he'll put Ashirogi on hiatus for a whole year since Mashiro got sick due to overworking and for some reason was sick and needed to get surgery, so he needs rest to recover. But then he's like "naah jk". Second, he tells his editors to vote for Ashirogi's manga serialization to see if it can compete with Niizuma Eiji's work, since they're all incompetent and can't judge their own publications. The condition is that if it can't compete, then Ashirogi's contract would be terminated. The editors vote 4 to 3, saying that Ashirogi can't beat Eiji with this at the end of the episode. BUT NOOOOOOOO, since this show can't have that happen, just at the fucking start of the next episode, they editors are like "But sir! Ashirogi's career is at stake! Let's leave it in the hands of the readers to decide!" so the vote changes to 7-0 in favour of Ashirogi's serialization. Are you fucking kidding me?! Are you telling me that all that time spent into coming to these dilemmas was for nothing? Why can I see these predictable outcomes from a mile away! Things like these make for a very frustrating viewing experience and you're left thinking "What was the point?". Near the end, a conversation gets shoehorned in about manga authors focusing on story vs popularity and this is where I realize why there is such an obsession with rankings. Mashiro basically declares that he writes manga only for popularity's sake, and to me personally (even though I do not read manga) that was indication to not watch the third season. ----------------- SPOILER END ----------------- Actually, now that I think about it. This show unintentionally, through it's own dialogue, the way it's story is written, the way it's characters interact and behave, tells me a lot about how some manga authors think and go about creating a manga. That is really interesting and odd since none of the actual content depicts any semblance of realism. The thought processes and dialogue of characters really commentate on the thoughts of the makers themselves as they were making the show, and how shallow the whole thing is. Making a weekly publish in a manga while coming up with what happens next every week will not make up a good story or an interesting read unless the whole thing's planned from the beginning. Shounen mangas have this problem the most, and this show magnifies this by showing us the actual time and thought put into them. These works are done purely for the purpose of running a business, and authors' ideas are reworked and washed down to make them more mainstream at the cost of originality. Overworking their authors by giving them breakneck deadlines while manipulating their want for becoming popular as fuel for encouragement for working hard. This makes me understand why I never liked shows like One Piece, Naruto or Bleach. I always felt like the stories in them were made up on the spot and pieced together, dragging on for no reason other than maintaining viewership, popularity and fanbase. Bakuman is one of these shows but with no battle scenes or action.

Bakuman is both entertaining and educational. It shows that it's not so simple to write or draw something that people will appreciate. If you want to make something truly good, you might have to revise and redo it several times as they do in this series. I like that Bakuman shows how difficult it is; it makes it more realistic. It's still entertaining at an anime level, though, since the characters passionately aim for the top. * * * S T O R Y * * * It's rather original and is likely to draw in anyone with an interest in anime/manga. It has somepretty good drama and whatever in it. * * * A R T * * * I'd say the "typical anime faces" (such as oAo) they sometimes have kinda lowers the quality of this series. I like that they have some more original types of gag faces, though. The art and animation looks quite nice overall. Some of the parts where they showed storyboards/"names" were poorly drawn and dull to look at. I think they should've at least had more panels/actions shown so we could see the story, not just hear a narration. Manga is all about the visuals, after all. There were some good moments with the more elaborate manuscripts, though. * * * S O U N D * * * I think Mashiro sounds a little too wimpy. The music didn't stand out to me whatsoever. Their relaxed, "everyday" country-ish music is just pretty boring. They live in a city, so why the country bumpkin music? There's other music more appropriately fitting the anime, but none of it is memorable. * * * C H A R A C T E R S * * * Yes, yes, people hate Miura. I think Miura was another good display of what the world of manga can be like. He also developed into a decent editor after realizing his flaws. As an obstacle, he created more entertaining points in the series and made the end result all the more satisfying. Mashiro and Takagi are always developing and learning to see manga from different perspectives. They change in other ways, too, making unexpected decisions as the story progresses. Other characters develop, other characters stay the same. That's the way life is, including when it comes to a manga artist's aspirations (or lack of). * * * E N J O Y M E N T * * * Compared to the Bakuman manga, they cut out a lot of the more technical aspects of planning and writing manga. They kept the "Tanto arc" short and sweet, really. It also feels like they balanced things out so that Azuki would seem like she has more involvement in the series. I know people complained about how small her role was in the manga, so I think this is a good change. It was pretty easy to neglect and forget about her in the manga, but I think it's important to maintain this romantic aspect based on true love. One thing I didn't like is how they made it sound like panty shots are not only normal, but necessary in the world of manga. Honestly, things like that cause people to label all manga as bad. I think panty shots should've been treated as a cheap way to get votes from perverts, not something a female manga artist should strive to achieve. It's sad to think people would be unable to appreciate a good story unless it had softcore porn in every chapter. * * * O V E R A L L * * * Good story, nothing really disappointing (other than the panty thing), satisfying ending. I didn't find this too addicting, but maybe that's just because I read the manga already. This is some quality anime.

First of all let me begin by saying this Anime is written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata who made Death Note and unlike some of the other works that have been produced since this anime has the special sauce too. MAYONNAIISEEE. Trying to find L? Sorry you'll have to look somewhere else. This is the sequel of the first Bakuman which continues the story of Takagi Akito and Mashiro Moritaka; two teenagers who aspire to be mangakas with a popular long running manga serialization that gets turned into an anime. Mashiro in particular wants their career to take off quickly because of a promise hemade with Azuki Miho, the girl he'd been in love with since elementary school, that the two of them would marry once they accomplished their dreams as they try to make a name for themselves in the intense business world of manga publishing. Animation-wise with J.C. Staff at the helm of the much-anticipated anime adaptation, you’d expect some pretty damn good animation. Luckily, the studio delivers fluid movement and great attention to detail. The art was once again really well done and high quality like its predecessor. The art was quite good throughout each episode. The anime’s art shows a great amount of detail yet still maintaining that slice of life environment in the anime. Something which intrigued me the most, in terms of the art, was the displaying of the stories each manga artist made. By animating the storyline and having a narrator explaining the information in the manga, improved the anime. The character themselves were well illustrated and fluidly animated. The voice acting was very good for the characters. I felt that the character's representations through their vocal expressions suited them perfectly and portrayed their attitudes and personalities nicely. Then there's also the OPs and EDs. They're not terrible, but they are definitely boring and I skipped them nearly every time. Granted, it's not a big thing and has nothing to do with the actual story, but for a series that's all about creating stuff the public will like, they sure dropped the ball in this aspect. Overall I didn't find anything too annoying throughout the anime series regarding the soundtrack. It was well presented. It was nice to see the variety of characters, with their assortment of personalities. They definitely added depth to this anime. As with the story, this season of Bakuman only touches on its cast of characters and what we learn of them is only the tip of the metaphorical iceberg. That being said, the two central protagonists develop reasonably as they embark on their quest to become published mangaka. Whether it is Takigi's boldness, Moritaka's determination. the surprising feminess of tomboy Miyoshi, The eccentricness of ingenious mangaka Eiji Nizuma, and some others. almost all characters were well written and had great chemistry with each other. The two main characters go through development as their bonds and determination are tested. For anyone with an interest in the behind-the-scenes workings of a large manga publication, and particularly when it comes to the shounen genre, I can’t recommend Bakuman enough. Bakuman season two delivered the same type of feelings and emotions that the first season did. Following Saiko and Shujin through their life as they pursue one of my dreams has been wonderful.