Takeshi Obata no relation Tsugumi Ohba
Bakuman (バクマン。, stylized as BAKUMAN。) is a Japanese manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, the same creative team responsible for Death Note. It was serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from August 2008 to April 2012, with its 176 chapters collected into 20 tankōbon volumes. The story follows talented artist Moritaka Mashiro and aspiring writer Akito Takagi, two ninth grade boys who wish to become manga artists, with Mashiro as the illustrator and Takagi as the writer. Some characters resemble real authors and editors of Weekly Shōnen Jump, and many manga titles mentioned in Bakuman have actually been published in the magazine. 
It is the first manga released online by Shueisha in multiple languages before becoming available in print outside Japan. In 2009, Viz Media licensed the manga for English release in North America. Besides releasing the series in collected volumes, they also released it in their online manga anthology Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha. A 75-episode anime television adaptation of the series by J.C.Staff was broadcast for three seasons on NHK Educational TV from October 2010 to March 2013. A live-action film adaptation was released in October 2015.
Bakuman topped the Kono Manga ga Sugoi! list for male readers in 2010, was the seventh best-selling manga series of 2011 and the tenth best of 2012, and has over 15 million volumes in circulation.Media
Manga
Written by Tsugumi Ohba and drawn by Takeshi Obata, Bakuman was serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from August 11, 2008, to April 23, 2012. The 176 chapters were then collected into 20 tankōbon volumes from January 5, 2009 to July 4, 2012. Several chapters of the series were released on Jumpland's official website in Japanese, English, French, and German; the first chapter released on August 19, 2008. It is Shueisha's first manga to be released online in multiple languages before becoming available in print outside Japan. A 15-page one-shot of the series Otter No. 11 (ラッコ11号, Rakko 11-gō), the gag manga created by the character Kazuya Hiramaru in Bakuman, was published in the August 8, 2010 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump. It was then published the following week in Shōnen Jump Next on August 16. Viz Media included an English translation of it in the free SJ Alpha Yearbook 2013, which was mailed out to annual subscribers of Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha in December 2012. In commemoration of the live-action film release, two new chapters were created by Ohba and Obata under the titles Age 13 and Age 14. They are set before Takagi and Mashiro first met, with the first chapter published in Weekly Shōnen Jump on September 21 and the second on September 28, 2015. The two chapters were also included in the bunkoban edition of Bakuman, published as 12 volumes between July 18 and December 15, 2017.In addition to the success of Bakuman in Japan, the series has also been licensed worldwide: in Korea by Daiwon C.I. and serialized in their Comic Champ manhwa magazine, by Tong Li Publishing in Taiwan, Kana in France, Norma in Spain, Tokyopop in Germany, Comics House in Malaysia, Kim Dong Publishing House in Vietnam, in Brazil by Editora JBC and NED in Thailand. At San Diego Comic-Con International 2009, Viz Media announced it had licensed the series for English release in the US and Canada. The first volume was released on August 3, 2010, and all 20 volumes have been published as of August 6, 2013. In addition to the collected volumes, Viz also published the series online in their manga anthology Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha (now known as simply Weekly Shonen Jump). Bakuman started with chapter 162 in the anthology's debut issue on January 30, 2012, and ended with the series' final chapter released on May 7, 2012. Viz digitally released the two Bakuman. Age 13 chapters in Weekly Shonen Jump on the same days that they ran in Japan.Reception
Bakuman was chosen as the best manga for male readers in the 2010 Kono Manga ga Sugoi! guidebook, which surveys people in the manga and publishing industry. It was nominated for the third annual Manga Taishō award in 2010. The first volume of the series placed fourth on the Oricon manga chart during its debut week, selling 154,675 copies. The second volume followed suit, placing second during its first week with 228,056 copies. The third volume continued the trend and placed fourth during its debut week, selling 200,369 copies. During the first half of 2009, the first volume placed twenty-eighth and the second volume placed twenty-seventh on Oricon's list of fifty top-selling manga in Japan, selling 381,633 and 394,567 copies respectively. Bakuman was the seventh best-selling manga series of 2011, with almost 4.4 million copies sold, and the tenth best of 2012, with over 3.2 million sold that year. As of April 2012, over 13 million copies had been sold, with this number growing to over 15 million copies in publication by May 2014. In the United States, volume one debuted at number 6 on The New York Times Manga Graphic Books list for the week of August 12 and remained on the list for eight weeks straight.Jason Thompson referred to Bakuman. as "a love letter to the manga industry done in old-school shonen manga style." He felt that while it can be "text-heavy" on the process of making manga, it is ultimately a "heroic story of self-improvement, friendship and striving to succeed." Thompson cited the villain characters as the most interesting, but called the series sexist for only portraying females as either "bitter, man-hating viragos motivated by grudges against men" or "patient helpmates" striving to support them instead. Carlo Santos of Anime News Network was surprised that Bakuman. succeeds, not only as a manga about manga, but as a slice-of-life story about the dreams of youth. Although he praised the conflicting viewpoints of the protagonists, Santos remarked that the series could learn from Ohba and Obata's previous serial Death Note; commenting that the beginning is not as gripping and the plot twists are "pretty weak" and "seem like petty contrivances." Despite this, he believes that the series is "another hit." Allegra Frank of Polygon seems to disagree with Santos' criticism, calling Bakuman. a "sweet, funny page-turner" that is gripping right from the start just like Death Note, only in "a completely different, far more low-key way".Christopher Butcher reviewing volume one for About.com had strong praise for the art, calling it "quite possibly the best-drawn manga out today." He also enjoyed the behind-the-scenes information on the manga industry. Like Thompson, Butcher did state that while he enjoyed it, he has reservations about recommending Bakuman. because it is "horribly sexist." In an article discussing the underdevelopment of its female lead characters, Gregory Segal of Comic Book Resources wrote that some fans speculate the series' inclusion of such tropes is a form of meta-commentary on the traditional portrayal of women in shōnen manga.The film was number-one at the Japanese box office on its opening weekend, with US$2.1 million. It earned US$1.15 million during the October 18 weekend. At the 39th Japan Academy Prize awards, its editor Yasuyuki Ōzeki won the Japan Academy Prize for Best Film Editing award, while Sakanaction's Motion Music of Bakuman won the Outstanding Achievement in Music award. The film was also one of two releases that won the Popularity award, alongside Maku ga Agaru. Matt Schley of Otaku USA wrote that Bakuman. is "a real celebration of and testament to the unique power of Japan's comics culture" and the best live-action manga adaptation he's seen this year. Kotaku's Toshi Nakamura also suggested that it is possibly the best live-action manga adaptation he's seen. However, he said the motivational romance between Mashiro and Azuki was "surprisingly inconsequential" and boring. Mark Schilling for The Japan Times gave the film four out of five stars, with strong praise for director and screenwriter Hitoshi Ōne.
no relation