BAKUMAN TP COMP BOX SET: Volumes 1-20 with Premium (Bakuman?Complete Box Set (Volumes 1-20 with premium))

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This is less fiction (still is) as it is a behind the scenes of mangaka's life, and more specifically the famous Shonen JUMP magazine. (Not much of a fan myself, but I know someone who is and for whom this appeared therefore better than it was for me...)

Bakuman Complete Box Set by Tsugumi Ohba, Takeshi Obata Bakuman Complete Box Set by Tsugumi Ohba, Takeshi Obata

He is still in school, publishing a Manga in "Weekly Shonen jump" (the standard Shonen jump magazine) means he needs to create an issue of Manga every week on a strict time limit and have enough time left to fix issues if the editor in charge of him finds any. Despite my dislike of slice-of-life manga, I have to admit Bakuman does pretty much everything right. The story is fun and engaging, plus the characters are very expressive and have great personalities (more on that later, though). Despite the fact that Mashiro’s uncle died from overwork, which is a real life problem in Japan’s society, the manga is pretty lighthearted for the most part. First of all, the reason the review is on the boxset is because this is a Manga (The Japanese equivalent of a comic book) it has fewer words and is significantly shorter per book in compression with a novel, so to compensate for that I read the entire series and my review is a general review of the series as a whole. Bakuman stars Moritaka Mashiro, whose uncle died from overworking during his manga career. However, when he leaves his notebook at school one day, a starving writer named Akito Takagi sees it, and says that they should make a manga together. He refuses until the girl he likes, Miho Azuki, who’s trying to become an anime voice actor, promises to star in the anime of their manga. And just like that, boom! End goal established! Now comes reviewing the entire series. Let's get this out of the way first: Bakuman is dense. It's literally filled to the max with dialogue. So much so, that the artwork as barely any room to breathe sometimes. Is this a bad thing? Yes and no. The over abundance of dialogue makes the books feel LONG, so you shouldn't worry about getting your money's worth with this series. On the other hand, the over abundance of dialogue makes each book feel like an eternity in comparison to other series. Yes, I did REALLY enjoy my time with this series, but the dialogue and pacing was probably the biggest flaw. It's ironic, too, that this manga is about aspiring mangakas, and they frequently go over what makes a manga good or bad.Ohba's storytelling is fantastic. He made me care for the characters, and gave them each a distinct voice. His twists surprised me every time, even though this wasn't my first read of the series. I know that working in the manga world can be harsh; I’m even aware of how it’s literally killed people. That’s why I never read through Bakuman (published in English by Viz) until just now. And wow… where has this been all my life?! The manga was published in the same publication the fictional characters in the story work for (namely Weekly Shonen Jump), and features real editors who work for the magazine, which makes for a fun self-referential treatment of the manga industry, combining realism and deep insight with fanciful "what-if" arcs. The nature of the story also allows Obata to show off his ability to illustrate in a myriad different manga styles, with aplomb. He can't write (as in being an author)/ create a story. As important as it is to have good drawing and art style in your Manga, it all doesn't matter if its completely boring... Mashiro isn't an author and therefore can't become a good mangaka. The setting is Japan during current times and the protagonist is Mashiro Moritaka. Mashiro is a highschool student who excels in drawing and is a fan of Manga and anime (a TV show based off a Manga, may be completely orignal on rare occasions) His dream is to become a mangaka, a person who creates Manga either a writer or illustrator or both. He specifically wants to become a mangaka for a weekly magazine called "Shonen jump" the most popular Manga magazine in the world (this is also true for real life) Unfortunately for Mashiro, 3 things are denying him from achieving his dream:

Bakuman 。Complete Box Set: Volumes 1-20 with Premium Bakuman 。Complete Box Set: Volumes 1-20 with Premium

As a whole, I really enjoyed it, the story is fascinating, the actual facts on JUMP are interesting, but what I liked best are the characters which you get attached to easily. (Except for two that kept getting on my nerves, that is Iwase and then Nanamine. These two, I could have done without.) It's been a couple (or more) years since I first read all 20 volumes of Bakuman, and it was even better than I remembered. From beginning to end, Ohba and Obata keep the readers engaged with their brilliant characters and even more brilliant plotlines. Obata's art, which I've always admired, is so skillfully applied that the series flows perfectly. Moments of humour make you laugh out loud, triumph make you cheer, and overwhelming success flood you like a tidal wave. Obata has harnessed his skills with the experience of a master. This series is so heavily focused on the plot that some characters go chapters without so much as a mention. That's a shame because this series has some really, really strong characters. My favorite of the bunch, Hiramaru, has a ton of parts, so I can't complain too much. Then you have characters like Miho. I get it, they didn't want to spoil the feeling of innocent romance by shoving her in every chapter, but a bit more introspective dialogue or thoughts would have made me warm up to her character a bit more. My least favorite characters are probably the two main characters’ love interests, the aforementioned Miho, and Takagi’s girl, Kaya Miyoshi. They’re good girls (Miyoshi’s the better of the two, though), but they kind of exist just for moral support. Sure, Miho has plot relevance, but you don’t really get to see her progress that much; you only see the results. Trust me when I say this: Bakuman feels a lot longer than 20 volumes. I JUST finished reading through the last one about two minutes ago, and I wanted to finish it all before posting a review to keep this as accurate as possible for any potential buyers. Just a heads up.Like I said some time, a long time ago, I'm only adding mangas when there's a reference for the full series or very few volumes, because otherwise my stats get messy. Also, I don't like reviewing them volume per volume as my opinion on them is on the whole thing rather than individual volumes. His uncle, Nobuhiro Moritaka. Nobuhiro was a mangaka for "Shonen jump" himself, he knew that Manga wasn't a stable job, if your series loses fans and drops in the weekly rating poll done by fans, the editorial board can cancel your series and demand you deliver them 3 more chapters to wrap up the story and put it to a stop. Nobuhiro had a popular series in Shonen which was even turned into an anime, but eventually the weekly schedule and the pressure from getting canceled everytime his rating was lower then last week were to great for Nobuhiro which eventually committed suicide. This event left a mental scare in mashiro's mind and has kept him away from becoming a mangaka.