Bakuman 4

Tsugumi Ohba / Takeshi Obata – Viz – 2011 – 12+ volumes

So, I love watching the characters in this series make manga. This volume goes over the Jump editorial process with a fine-toothed comb, and looks at everything from new talent contests to reader surveys, competition among artists, talent from other magazines, the editor hierarchy, and the process the editors actually use to start a new series. Mashiro and Takagi get their chops busted by their editor as if they really did have a series running, and it was a whole lot of fun to see them doing the pseudo-drafts as they were preparing for their first serious contest for Weekly Shounen Jump.

Again, its incredibly fascinating, and this volume has been the most process-oriented part of the story yet. After seeing what all these people go through, and seeing it from the perspective of several different types of editors and artists… it made me want to be an editor really bad, despite my absolute lack of any knowledge not gleaned from a comic book.

And that is why I like that series. I couldn’t put this volume down precisely because I was learning so much, and tie that together with the anticipation of the contest and what appears to be an impending series for Mashiro and Takagi, and you have a really winning volume.

But it’s a shame that Mashiro and Takagi are both still terrible characters. Both are now motivated entirely by “achieving their dreams,” which means being together with their girlfriends (Takagi has linked his success with manga to his escalating relationship with Kaya). Mashiro can barely have a conversation with the girl he wants to date, even still, and Kaya can only cook and act goofy for Mashiro and Takagi. Bah. Also, Mashiro’s girlfriend Miho finishes the volume in some potentially skeevy territory, and I hope the series doesn’t go down that road. The relationships aren’t a huge part of what’s going on, but they’re so badly done that all the momentum crashes and burns every time it comes up, and I hate that this element is so out-of-synch in what is otherwise a pretty great series.

One of the more interesting parts was a page we saw of each of the contestants in the contest that Mashiro and Takagi compete in. The strengths and weaknesses of all four series are discussed at length, and as condensed as the story is on the one page we do see, it’s enough to give the reader an idea of exactly what each of them is like. And Obata really, REALLY nails the individual art styles for each. It’s pretty fun to see him mimicking various “shounen-looking” styles throughout, but these four series in particular are like a labor of love.

At this point, as long as I can keep reading about making manga, I’m in the Bakuman bus for the long haul. It is exceptionally interesting. The characters are… not so much, but as long as their relationships and insane goals don’t get too much page time, I can deal with that. I’m still hoping that they’ll somehow turn into likable people, but that seems unlikely at this point. Surprise me, Bakuman.

This was a review copy provided by Viz.