This review focuses on the first season of the series Bakuman. This review is spoiler-free.

Intro:
Have you ever stayed up late at night or pulled an all-nighter to finish schoolwork? How did you feel? Good, joyous?? In truth, you didn’t feel any of that. You felt Satisfaction. Turning in that assignment you spent all night trying to complete. Watching your teacher grade it then hand it back to you with a smiley face and an A+ made you want to take an arc position clutching your fist in one hand; the paper in the other screaming “YESSS, LETSS GOOO'' right? You felt like your seeds of hard work had ripened into a tree because of the amount of time you put into finishing that work. In that moment, even for a little. You felt real satisfaction. The same can be said for manga creators, but these authors have 10 daily packets they have to pull many all-nighters for in order to complete. Even if they started their work early in the morning! They have to spend their whole day planting their seeds and doing back-paining work that they don’t even know will get full points just to make an appeal to a certain demographic, something for one of us to read in order to take our mind away from the grueling problems of this society and unironically enjoy.
Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. Two obscure names at first glance, but their work is very far from the word ‘bad’ or ‘garbage’.
Ohba and Obata put very grueling work to make all their series succeed. Their most popular series is titled..
Death note.
A classic that many high tier anime connoisseurs indulge in. A series that many enjoy ~~or respect~~ and recommended to all whether they have watched 500 anime or are starting their anime journey with 1.
Death note has had many people feel different. Whether that be getting hype or angry, as a whole the industry enjoys it. The moments in the anime itself might be worthy tenfold of the hype they receive now, even when the show ended over a decade and a half ago, many people still enjoy it as their go-to healing watch or just a mood with the actions the characters do throughout the series.

I consulted a friend known within the AL community about his thoughts on the series:

But some fans of the series ask a few questions..
Like “How did you know death note was a hit?” “How long did it take for the anime to blow up?”
Instead of a QnA bringing all of these questions to light or a podcast, Tsugumi and Takeshi gave us 75 episodes stretched across 3 seasons to answer all of the questions and even more with the title Bakuman.

Story:
Bakuman is about middle schooler boy Mashiro Moritika. He goes to school, passing his days by, uncertain of what to do with his life. Mashiro has a crush on the girl in his same class, Azuki. His uncle made manga and got a popular title and an anime adaptation but died due to overwork. Ever since then, Mashiro scorned the idea of becoming a mangaka or making manga. Even though he had good drawing talent. One day in class, Mashiro draws sketches of Azuki in his notebook. Class bell rings. Flustered; Mashiro shoves the notebook into his desk and quickly goes home. Just to come back to the school to get it. There, he meets Takagi.
Smartest in the class and highest scorer on tests, Takagi flips through the pages in Mashiro’s notebook to find the sketch of Azuki. Mashiro tries to grab it from him because he thinks Takagi might disapprove of his goal but then there, he tells Mashiro that he will only give the notebook back if he makes manga with him.
This is their journey to become the most popular mangaka’s.
In the later seasons of the anime, the story becomes more pumped and enjoyable. We learn more about the past of each character and other competitors that compete with one another hoping to make it big in the manga industry. This anime is a warning of a double edged sword if you want to devote your life to making manga.. If you were to choose to go into manga for a living, it can procure a stable living and you can find rivals that will pump you up to push past your limits, but people with immense talent can crumble faster than you imagine. And if you are going into the manga industry half-assed, you wil crumble faster than them.
If there was something I would take away from this anime, it’s that hits or popular manga’s don’t come easy.

Art:
For me, I really enjoyed the art. The series felt like homage to other popular manga creators. Often showing the workplace of other mangaka’s or workplaces with books or posters lodged into their bookshelves or walls as-well as the sketches on paper and the anime in anime . Those small details really put a smile on my face while watching. The art and the amount of detail put into small things nobody really cares about (but me) really heightened the watching experience. Same thing goes with the landscape and characters. Nothing special about em’ design wise but they only helped the watcher enjoy his experience more. (still me)
Sound:
I enjoyed the sound. BGM and op/ed for example. In S1 the BGM near the end of the episode was re-used a-lot. But regardless of sound being reused or not still heightened my experience and brought that extra suspense or hype factor. The opening and ending choice was phenomenal. Was really singing that Blue Bird opening low-key. The opening was good too. But not on the same level as the ending. (for me.)
Later in the other seasons they switch up the music choice a little and up the quality, and that really heightens the experience more. This is why you see more favourites catered toward the second and third season then the first.

Enjoyment: (so far)
Currently I am on the beginning episodes of season 3 on the anime. Bakuman has really been a fun ride and the anime reeks of the words 'perseverance’ and to never give up. Things don’t go your way? Revise and make it go that way.

In conclusion, Bakuman is a must watch for those who aspire to become mangaka’s and who don’t.The anime has other things to reel you in with even while also giving you tips and tricks of the manga industry. It’s an indirect way that Ohba and Obata gave us information from their experiences while also having you see Takagi and Mashiro’s journey and their experiences.. I have no intention of becoming a mangaka in the future but my respect for manga creators grew by ALOT. The manga industry is just like the rap industry. You make music with intentions of it getting popular or it becoming a hit just for it to get 1k streams and have nobody talking about it. Or you get a hit by getting memed and then going back to the usual 1,000~ plays.
I originally thought manga was easy and you could make a hit from thin air, but a lot of things happen before us, the general public even get to see it.
All you have to do when you’re at the front desk for a manga publishing company is say..
“I watched bakuman, and rewatched it too.”
receptionist instantly let’s you through
You’ll learn alot about the manga industry by watching 75 24-minute episodes, even if you don’t want to have a career as a mangaka Bakuman. doesn’t make it’s entire focus just that. These 75 episodes are highly important assets to assist your journey of aiming to become a popular mangaka. You could be an editor who cultivates talent from newbies; assistant helping mangaka’s with their recent serializations; or receptionist at the front desk welcoming immense talent to the place where they’re name will be etched into the wall as real legends.
Bakuman has it here in store for you.
-martee
no rough draft again. C h r o m e b o o k