Bakuman (2015)

Moritaka Mashiro, a junior high student, forgets his notebook in class. His classmate Akito Takagi, notes Mashiro's drawings in it and asks him to become a manga artist to his stories. ... See full summary »

Director:

Hitoshi Ône (as Hitoshi Ohne)

Writers:

Tsugumi Ôba (manga) (as Tsugumi Ohba), Takeshi Obata (manga)

Stars:

Takeru Satoh, Ryûnosuke Kamiki, Nana Komatsu

4 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Takeru Satoh	...	Moritaka Mashiro (as Takeru Satô)
Ryûnosuke Kamiki	...	Akito Takagi
Nana Komatsu	...	Miho Azuki
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Hirofumi Arai	...	Kazuya Hiramaru
Lily Franky	...	Sasaki (as Lily Frankie)
Kenta Kiritani	...	Shinta Fukuda
Kankurô Kudô	...	Taro Kawaguchi
Sarutoki Minagawa	...	Takuro Nakai
Shôta Sometani	...	Eiji Niizuma
Takayuki Yamada	...	Akira Hattori

Storyline

Moritaka Mashiro, a junior high student, forgets his notebook in class. His classmate Akito Takagi, notes Mashiro's drawings in it and asks him to become a manga artist to his stories. Mashiro declines. Takagi incites Mashiro to meet with Miho Azuki, Mashiro's crush, and tells her the two plan to become mangakas (manga artists). In response, Azuki reveals her plans to be a seiyuu (voice actress). Mashiro proposes to her that they should both marry when Azuki becomes a voice actress for the anime adaptation of their manga. The two then start creating their manga, under the pen name Muto Ashirogi, in hopes of getting serialized in Weekly Shounen Jump.

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Plot Keywords:

live action remake of anime | manga | japan | tokyo japan | based on manga | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

3 October 2015 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Бакуман.

Company Credits

Production Co:

Office Crescendo, Toho Company, Toho Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

119 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Based on the manga of the same name.

User Reviews

The manga business is less desirable than you might think.

Note: Check me out as the "Asian Movie Enthusiast" on YouTube, where I review tons of Asian movies.

An amateur artist teams up with an amateur scriptwriter (both of which are still in high school) to create manga and break into the business at Weekly Shonen Jump, but the demands and stress of the industry may derail their plans. The stress of working in this particular industry is a major theme here, and it's communicated in multiple ways.

First, there's the competitive aspect. Our protagonists are very quickly roped into the cut-throat nature of business and almost immediately create rivalries with other manga artists. Success at this particular company is dependent on sales of the manga you're drawing, so every week a Top 10 list is posted in the office, which gives everyone a gauge as to how well their manga is doing. That creates rivalry, because you need to perform better than the other manga artists to stay on that list.

Second, there's the survival aspect. If your manga does not sell well, it is discontinued and you will have to go back to the drawing board to produce something else. But you're not a permanent employee of the company, so if your manga fails, you may never get another one of your works published ever again. It all depends on whether or not they like your stuff. It would seem to me that the job security of this profession is not good at all because you're constantly fighting to keep your job.

Third, the weekly deadlines result in very long working hours. It seemed like these guys were working about 80 hours per week, at least. In fact, it's probably more because at times they had difficulty finding enough time to sleep. That's just insane. I previously worked at a Big 4 accounting firm for 5 years, so I know what working long hours is like. But even I was horrified at what our protagonists were going through in this movie. It almost makes the profession of manga drawing seem undesirable. This is not a film that glorifies the industry, and I like that.

Bakuman has a fantastic cast of young acting talent. Start with Takeru Satoh, who recently starred in the awesome Rurouni Kenshin trilogy. Then we have Ryunosuke Kamiki, who starred in Poison Berry In My Brain, The Kirishima Thing and has appeared as a villain in films like As the Gods Will and the second and third Rurouni Kenshin films. Then we have Shota Sometani, who is practically everywhere recently. He was in the Parasyte movies, Tokyo Tribe, Wood Job, As the Gods Will, etc. Finally we have Takayuki Yamada, who had a lead role in the Crows Zero movies, and has appeared in Lesson of the Evil, 13 Assassins, and many others. So we have solid core of young acting talent that helps to establish a foundation for Bakuman to build on.

Another big positive is the rhythm and pacing, which will keep the viewer glued to their screens throughout the entire runtime. The film keeps moving and it maintains interest. The story plays out very naturalistically; even the romantic subplot is nicely portrayed and really like how it concluded. There's a nice dramatic impact to everything and the protagonists have very likable personas. There are also some very funny scenes along the way, which always helps to humanize the characters and make them even more relatable.

Stylistically, there are a few creative sequences that use manga drawing special effects that are blended with the live action shots – and it works really well. It's something a bit different, but I liked it. One final surprise, for me at least, was the scoring and soundtrack, which are really good and were apparently performed by a Japanese band by the name of Sakanaction. I may have to check out some of their stuff.

I definitely recommend Bakuman, and I can't really think of any big flaws to complain about. This is a solid movie.