Bakuman Volume 5 cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com.

Rated “T” for “Teen”

Akito Takagi, an aspiring writer, convinces his artistically inclined classmate, Moritaka Mashiro, to join him in creating manga.  Although Moritaka resists at first, he goes along as the duo attempts to create a manga that will find its way into the manga magazine, Weekly Shonen Jump.  Together they work under the penname, Muto Ashirogi.

As Bakuman, Vol. 5 (entitled Yearbook and Photobook) opens, Akito and Moritaka meet their new editor, Goro Miura.  At 23-years-old, Miura seems too young to be an editor, but what he lacks in experience, he makes up in enthusiasm.  Now, the trio has to deal with the ups and downs of fan voting and popularity as Muto Ashirogi’s series, Detective Trap, finds it proverbial legs.

THE LOWDOWN:  This series is so well conceived and executed by writer Tsugumi Ohba and artist Takeshi Obata, the creators of the controversial Death Note.  Bakuman (stylized as Bakuman。) draws the readers into the hard work, expectations, worries, and joys of young writers and artists creating comics for mass consumption.

I found myself waiting with Akito and Moritaka as they awaited the results of the readers’ surveys.  Ohba and Obata place their own readers right in the studio as Muto Ashirogi and their assistants race to beat deadlines.  You will practically be in Ashirogi’s head as the boys struggle to give Detective Trap a voice that will please the readers of Shonen Jump.  I want to be in their world, and I will count the days until August when the next volume of the fantastic Bakuman arrives.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Anyone who reads manga will want to give the excellent Bakuman a try.

A+