People who have a dream and are striving toward it... People who are searching for a dream... I want to support those people. Miho Azuki Is there a dream you want to achieve? That dream can only come true with a lot of hard work but if you keep at it the payoff will indeed be great. Im sure thats the message that Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata the ones behind Death Note wanted to convey in this manga. From the moment I heard about this manga I knew I had to read it and watch its anime adaptation. After getting a boxset of the entire manga series sometime after completing the anime I began to seriously read the manga and Ive got to say I enjoyed it just as much as the anime. Ladies and gentlemen aspiring mangaka of all ages here is my review of Bakuman. Moritaka Mashiro is a middle school boy who basically doesnt know what to do with his life. He used to want to be a mangaka but he gave up on that dream after the death of his uncle who was a mangaka. However one day he accidentally leaves his notebook at school and when he goes back to get it Akito Takagi his genius classmate is waiting for him. Takagi has seen Mashiros drawing of his crush Miho Azuki who we later find out dreams of becoming a voice actress and asks him to team up with him to create manga. Mashiro refuses at first but when Miho finds out about it it ends up leading to a promise that once one of Mashiro and Takagis manga gets an anime adaptation Miho will voice the heroine then Mashiro and Miho will get married. They agree not to actually see each other until then though. The story of Bakuman. follows Mashiro and Takagi as they strive to create manga meeting friends and rivals along the way. I guess I should start with the artwork. Now the artwork for this manga drawn by Takeshi Obata is rather good. Some of the character designs reminded me of characters in Death Note....but hey theyre from the same mangaka duo What do you expect me to say? Speaking of the characters there is a great number of likable characters in this manga and all of them get great development. I especially liked Shinta Fukuda and Eiji Niizuma both of them had some really funny moments. Now lets talk about the story. I can think of a few other manga that have a mangaka as one of the main characters if not THE main character Gekkan Shoujo Nozakikun Mangakasan to Assistantsan to etc. However what I love about the story in THIS manga is how it portrays a story like this. Not only does it give us a more realistic look at the manga industry heck I sometimes even wondered if it was secretly Ohbasensei and Obatasenseis autobiography but its a kind of story that inspires you to chase after whatever dream you have. Seeing Mashiro Takagi and all of the other mangaka who appear in this series doing or drawing I should say what they love.... it just really gets you motivated you know? Overall Bakuman is a pretty good manga. If youre looking for a realistic and/or an inspiring read this is the one. Whether or not you end up liking it.... well I guess that determines whether or not Ohbasensei and Obatasensei succeeded in their gamble.