Bakuman First Impressions (バクマン。)

October 5, 2010

Welcome back to my loyal readers to my ‘First Impression’ post and welcome to new readers. I hope you guys enjoy this post. As gloomy as it will be with all rainy days during this fall season, bunch of new animes start airing this past week which should brighten up everyone’s day (or ruin one’s day if it turns out to be a disappointment ^^;).

First in my watch list is Bakuman. The series is based on the manga which I highly recommend my readers to give it a try if you cannot wait until the next episode, otherwise, sit still and enjoy the series. My friends have been recommended me the manga for couple times but I have never gotten to read it until I watched this first episode.

Summary

The series start with an interesting opening which I thought it was the real opening ^^;; because I had my ‘WTF’ moment with the character designs, however, it turns out the real opening comes after. Warning: Hero Legends’ song is stuck in my head for a day and it’s just that catchy. Don’t say that I didn’t warn you before hand ^^.

The opening anime is nicely done as expected from J.C. Staff and the song is pretty catchy. I am liking it already ^^ but I am not familiar with the band who sings the song. They are called Kobukuro. Does anyone ever heard them before ?

The story is about two middle school students who are aiming to be a manga artist. One is responsible for the drawing and the other one is responsible for the story. Both of them together is made into one team.

One of the main protagonist is Moritaka Mashiro. He is in 3rd year of middle school and is your average student. Not too smart but not an idiot either ^^;;. His life is pretty much undecided because he does not know which high school he wants to go or what he wants to do.

He has a huge crush on this girl named Miho Azuki in his class for the longest time. Both of them seems to like each other but none of them has courage to tell the other what he/she feels.

The other main protagonist is Akito Takagi. He is a genius and is always in the top rank at school, however, instead of having the usual path of being an office employee, he wants to write a manga.

Since he does not know how to draft, he wants to team up with Moritaka. It was not easy to persuade Moritaka to team up with him because for Moritaka, being a manga artist is just a gamble. It’s either you hit or you miss. Not to mention his uncle used to be a manga artist and died because of overwork.

When he was a child, his uncle told him the reasons why he wanted to be a manga artist and yes….. that’s correct; a manga artist is equal to popular with girls.

Later that night, Akito called Moritaka and told him that he’s going to Miho’s house to confess. There he goes being dragged by Akito to Azuki’s house.

Apparently none of them has experience in press a girl’s home door bell and Akito’s hand is shaking like crazy ^^.

Guess what Akito tells Miho ? He didn’t declare his love or anything but he tells her that he is going to become a manga artist

This is the first time that Moritaka ever talks to Miho in many many years.

Unexpectedly, Miho is very excited that both of them are going to be manga artist after Moritaka learns that she’s aiming to be a voice actress.

In the middle of conversation, Moritaka’s thinking about what his uncle told him quite a while ago and he accidentally asks Miho something really unexpected.

Three seconds after Moritaka realizes what he just said and ‘Despair’ is the most appropriate for the above screenshot ^^;;. I laughed my @$$ off during this scene since I totally didn’t see that coming and I feel like I will be enjoying Bakuman

Moritaka and Miho are meant for each. Guess what her answer is looking at the above picture ?

Moritaka is so fired up and swears that he will become a manga artist no matter what so that he can marry Miho.

Thoughts

I find Bakuman is very interesting and unusual in comparison to what I usually watch these days. I think it’s still in the same genre or close related to Genshiken which is a slice of life, however, instead of focusing on otaku aspect, this series looks at the life of a manga artist in general and not only in Japan so it’s a good learning experience for those who wants to become a manga/comic artist and you can ask yourself if you are mentally and physically ready ^^;;

Animation wise, I have no complaints since it’s done by J.C. staff after all so the quality is high as expected. I also noticed a similarity in character design between Bakuman and Death Note and found out later that they both are written the same author. No wonder there is a ‘Death Note’ reference in this first episode.

Romance between Moritaka and Miho peeks my curiosity on how it will develop. They promise not to see each other until their dreams come true and only use text messaging and email. Not sure how’s that going to work out but kinda exciting to see what happen between those two.

Additional tidbits

Opening theme	“Blue Bird” by Kobukuro
Ending theme	BAKUROCK ~Mirai no Rinkakusen~ (ＢＡＫＵＲＯＣＫ～未来の輪郭線～)” by YA-KYIM
Official website	NHKアニメワールド バクマン。
Animation Production	J.C. Staff
Notable Seiyuus	Atsushi Abe (Kosuda in B Gata H Kei, Toma in To Aru Majutsu no Index) as Moritaka Mashiro Satoshi Hino (Saito in Zero No Tsukaima, Kouichi in Kimikiss Pure Rogue, Sai in Naruto Shippuden, Yuuji in Shakugan no Shana) as Akito Takagi Saori Hayami (Saki in Eden of the East, Musubi in Sekirei) as Miho Azuki Ayako Kawasumi (Saber in Fate Stay Night, Lafiel in Banner of the Star, Riruko Ikusawa in Gate Keepers, Nodame in Nodame Cantabile, Mahoro in Mahoromatic) as Kou Aoki
Original Creator	Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba (creator of Death Note series)
Episodes	25

Trailer

Rating: 8.5/10

Source: ANN

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Tags: Anime, Bakuman, Fall Anime 2010