Bakuman

Title: Bakuman

Writer: Tsugumi Ohba

Illustrator: Takeshi Obata

ISBN: 9781421535135 (1^st vol)

Volume: 14 (still on serializing)

Genre: Manga, Slice of Life, Romance

Summary

Moritake Mashiro, fourteen year old, is a junior high student. He is an average student in school with no dream. He just like to draw and have to talent to draw. He never though about use the talent on something that matter, until he met Akito Takagi. Akito is an outstanding student in class. He has a dream. He dream is to become a manga writer, but he does not have the talent of drawing. Akito wants to persuade Moritake to be his partner. Moritake rejected him because of some family history. Moritake crushes on a girl., Azuki. She has a dream to become voice actress. Moritake feels humble that he does not have a dream. Moritake does not want to become a nobody. He wants to success and be somebody. Therefore, Akito convinced Mortake to become manga artist, something he is good at. They work together to become the most popular manga artist in Japan.

Review
One of my favorite mangas in recently years. The subject is pretty new in manga books; have not seen another manga with similar subject. Unlike most of the popular mangas in Japan that is fantasy and action, Bakuman is about a dream that may be successful in real life. It can be pretty persuading for tweens and teens that he or she can have a dream or goal that he or she can pursue. The story is funny for daily life events, exciting for trying to become on the top of readers using, and romancing for when the Moritake is dating Azuki only in the phone. One thing I think is interesting is that the two characters is somewhat a reflection of the writer and illustrator of this manga.

Note
Bakuman is a translated work for Japanese.
A comic TV series is made based on the story.