Review: Bakuman Volume 1

So I just finished volume today, like, really early today. Early, as in 1AM early. I posted this volume in one of my Manga in the Mail days ago and I was too excited not to read it.

Bakuman Volume 1, a manga about making manga. It's all about the two main characters trying to reach their dreams of becoming the number 1 mangaka (manga artist/manga author) in all of Japan!

The story starts when a middle schooler Moritaka Mashiro (Saiko) decides to just live by the rules and be a salaryman (any kind of white collar job.) He was then confronted by a classmate of his; Akito Takagi (Shujin), about both of them being mangakas. Shujin goes to convince Saiko to draw for him. Unknowingly, Shujin cooks up a plan to make Saiko become a manga artist. After the execution of the plan, Saiko is now determined to be a mangaka and is now aiming for his work to be in an anime!

Art: The art is modern and is a little more rounded than their previous work; Death Note. Since the characters are in middle school (early teens,) the rounder and softer art is preferable. It looks like a "fun" piece and with that, I can say that I'm in love with it! It feels real yet, in a way, it tells you that it's manga.

Story: The story is really good. The characters are relateable to the point where you want to join them in their journey of being mangakas. It has a rich background too,  it does not feel like you've been put in a situation where you don't know what's happening.

I'm trying to draw manga too and I'm really bad at symmetry. After watching the anime adaptation, I was really inspired to draw but I can only draw chibi (cutesy version of a character) and shoujo type stuff.

I tried, but I can't draw too well. Need more practice. Ganbare.

Bottomline: Read it. Beginners are welcome to read this as this is kind of a "how-to" in the world of manga. You learn a lot of stuff you don't know about. If you like a manga series dealing with manga (like Genshiken) this is a nice one to start with. It's light, it's meant for the shounen audience (which can mean that it's not that hard to catch up to or get the meaning of things) and for that, I give a two thumbs up!

Read this for the sake of learning about the hardships of creating a manga. IT's educational, you should really read it.