Moritaka Mashiro, a junior high school student, content to live out a relatively normal life as any other does, is persuaded by his classmate, Akito Takagi, to become an aspiring mangaka when the latter realizes his natural talent as an artist. However, Moritaka is reluctant to pursue his dream as his uncle, once a mangaka with his own serializations, died from overwork trying to regain his lost status. With Akito's help, Takagi gets another classmate and his school crush, Azuki Miho, who is an aspiring voice actress, to voice in the anime adaptation of their future manga once it is completed. However, Mashiro also proposes to Azuki, who surprisingly accepts only on the condition she will marry him when both of them have achieved their dreams. With a goal set before him, Mashiro begins a long and struggling path to become a famous mangaka.
how you can get hooked up by something so out of the ordinary. There are dozens of really great anime that do have new and interesting ideas, however they ussually use a pattern that is already known. This one does not. Ok it is about a highschool boy and it is about love, but there the similarities end. I've never seen something else about becoming a mangaka. The arduous and hard process of becoming one is depicted in an extremely interesting way. On one hand you get to know the hardships(dark circles bneath the eyes are the least of their sacrifices...), on the other hand this is combined with that overpowering will to succeed.
There isn't any action, but a lot of passion and that passion got me watching it. The Animation is solid if not outstanding as far as I can tell. However it gets the feelings of the various characters transported, makes them come to life which is pretty hard with such a variety of them. My only criticism here would be that the girls are kind of lame, they are purely supportive. At least up until now.
In addition to all this Mr. Ooba shows us some pretty nice side stories in the form of the various manga plots his "heroes" are creating.
To sum it up: If you are looking for action and battle, watch something like bleach. However if you are looking for a new and enticing story well told: Bakuman is something worth watching.
