Bakuman (Manga/Anime)

Mashiro is an ordinary middle school boy with a talent for drawing and a crush on the prettiest girl in the class. One day, he runs into Takagi, the school genius who offers him a proposal: 'work with me to create manga'. At first he refuses, but then finds out that the girl he likes, Azuki, is trying to become a voice actress and the two make a promise: that when Mashiro's manga gets made into an anime and Azuki stars as the voice actress, the two will get married. This event starts Mashiro and Takagi's paths off on the road to become Mangaka (professional artists).

(Anime: 2 Seasons (3rd slated for release) 26 episodes. Manga: 11 Volumes, Still running)

This is quite an unusual story brought to us by the makers of Death Note (a lot of the characters pay homage to this fact). Its a great blend of slice of life, comedy and romance stories and is a genuinely enjoyable experience to watch. It is also a very educational idea: it focuses on the two boys trying to become professional and explains a lot about the many levels and processes involved in trying to do so. Why they decided to make it, I don't care because its fun to learn something about the business and process by which great manga are brought to us. That being said, there is a tiny flaw in the plan: the story sometimes gets slowed down into long moments of dialogue where the characters are basically explaining everything and this can feel a little slow. With the anime this became a problem because there is so much information being thrown at you that you have to re-watch episodes several times to get the whole picture (not that there is anything wrong with that, but it is something to remember). Personally the manga is better because you can take your time but the anime is still just as enjoyable. There are some great moments in the story that really stand out and the whole story is fantastic. The characters are really enjoyable and the humour moments aren't too shabby. But probably one of the most memorable things about this story is the love relationship between Mashiro and Azuki: they basically decide not to see each other until their dreams come true, but this leads to some of the most bizarre and sweet interactions that i've ever seen from an anime. All i can say is i can't wait for season 3 of the anime to be released.

Rating - 

9/10