Bakuman volume 1 review
I decided to read this manga after discovering it was available for order at my local libary. Several people had recommended this to me previously, and I'd heard it was a slice of life drama about two aspriring mangaka, so it sounded pretty interesting.
Bakuman is about talented 14 year old artist Moritaka Mashiro. After noticing his talent, his classmate, Akito Takagi, an aspiring writer, half persuades half manipulates him in to teaming up with him as a manga creating duo. After being dragged to the house of his crush Miho Azuki, and stating his and Takagi's intentions, Mashiro ends up impulsively proposing to her, asking her if she will marry him if his manga ever becomes animated. She agrees, and Mashiro and Takagi begin feverishly working on a manga they hope will be good enough to storm the manga market.
While Bakuman does provide a fascinating insight in to the workings of the manga industry, I did have a number of problems with it. Not least the blatant and shameless sexism demonstrated in the manga. Bakuman is openly and horribly sexist on so many levels. The disgusting sexism starts with a conversation between Takagi and Mashiro, where Takagi states that Azuki is 'smart' because, while actually being quite intelligent, she is purposefully dumbing herself down and only achieving average grades because 'she is a girl, (so) she should be earnest about things and only get average grades. She knows by instinct that a girl won't look cute if she is overly smart'. So what he has just stated is this; girls shouldn't be intelligent; they are women, they should leave intelligence to the men. An intelligent girl is a precocious and arrogant one, and intelligence is a very unattractive quality in a girl. And girls should be more preocupied with being 'cute' than being smart, well afterall, it is a girls job to be attractive and appealing to men. I just found this segment completely disgusting, but it doesn't stop there. Takagi then goes on to finish off by saying '(Azuki knows) the best thing for a girl is to get married and become a wife'. Yes. He actually says that.
Then shortly after this scene takes place comes this infamous line said by Mashiro's mother who is qouting his father's response when she informed him that she had forbidden Mashiro to become a mangaka. 'Let him do it. Men have dreams that women will never be able to understand'. The implication of this statement is this; women do not know what it is to have dreams, goals or ambitions. They live to be wives, please men and cook and clean; they do not know what it is to have a goal.
And the other thing that bothered me about this scene was thise fact; Mashiro's mother forbade him to become a mangaka because it was this career that brought on his uncles early death from overwork. She firmly forbids him to become a mangaka on the basis that she does not want him having the same fate as his uncle. But when Mashiro's father tells her 'let him do it', she does so without even arguing. It doesn't even look like she even bothered to try to discuss it any further with him. One thing is very clear in Bakuman; Bakuman happens in a mans world were men have authority over their women. What men say goes, and it is a womens place to simply do what they are told by their husbands.
And then there is the fact that in this manga, women are very clearly divided in to two categories:
1. Cutesy, cloying eye candy - the object of men's desires. Women really are objectified in this manga, not really in a particuarly sexual sense, but in that the female characters in this manga are rated, valued and judged by how they appear to men. You can tell the female characters who you are meant to like by the fact that they are overly good looking, while those you are not meant to like, oh, Mashiro's mother, are plainer. The few female characters who exist in this manga are in it for either two reasons; too provide eye candy to male readers, or as plot devices. If you need to see what I mean by eye candy, look no further than the picture below.
Take a guess at her age. 18? 19? Early 20's maybe? She's 42. She is Azuki's mother. Yes, this manga even has 42 year old mothers who are the stuff of teenage boy's sexual fantasies.
2. Boring, irritating, nagging housewives, who constantly spoil your fun and just generally serve as a pain and annoyance in your life. The key example of this is Mashiro's mother, who only ever briefly appears in this manga to nag Mashiro or otherwise interfere in his life. One of the things that really took me back in this manga was the incredibly hostile relationship between Mashiro and his mother. They seem to hate each other. They never share even one kind word throughout the entire volume.
I know that many fans would argue that in many ways Japan can be considered a more sexist society than western countries, and Bakuman is simply refelecting the traditional values of the country it was created in. To be honest, a lot of mangas contain arguably sexist elements, and it's hard to think of a manga that wouldn't somehow manage to displease feminists, but Bakuman really does take it up another level. I really could go on and on about the sexism in this manga, about the female characters are never taken seriously, how women's dreams are quickly belittled, patronised and disregarded by the male characters, but I would be here all day. I'll just finish off with this extract from the manga, which pretty much sums up this mangas attitude towards women on a whole. I don't think I need to explain it.
Ugh.
Then there are the characters. Bakuman has the most bland, uninteresting, unlikeable, personality lacking characters I have ever come across in a manga. With it's appaling sexism and dreadful characters, this could very well be considered the manga equivalent of Twilight. The main character Mashiro in particular is just awful. The only characters I can define as being half way likeable and having some extent of personality is Mashiro's uncle, who is dead and only appears in flashbacks, and Takagi, thought the 'likeable' aspect is somewhat tinted by the fact that the majority of the mangas most sexist comments come out of his mouth.
The storyline of this manga is very slow to begin with; to say it drags is an understatement, and any scene not relating to the manga aspect of the storyline had me yawning. However, once the main storyline begins and we begin learning about the workings of the manga industry - that is fascinating. This manga really does give you a very interesting and valuble insight in to the workings of the manga industry, from actually creating a manga, to getting an editor to, to getting your work published. It was this aspect of the manga that got me interested to read more, although I don't think I could ever be bothered to read all 11 volumes, and this is only if I can find the other volumes available for loan; I would never pay for this manga. It's such a pity, if only this series had likeable and engaging characters and wasn't horribly sexist, then I think I would have loved this manga.
Characters: 2/10 (decreased further for it's awful portrayal of women)
Art: 8/10
Storyline: 5/10
Overall rating: 5/10
This manga does give a fascinating insight in to the workings of the manga industry, but besides that it is appallingly sexist, has a dreadful cast of incredibly bland characters, and can frankly be quite boring. If you are interested in the workings of the manga industry, or maybe are an aspiring mangaka yourself, and feel you can grit your teeth, then it may be worth checking this out. However, if not, I wouldn't bother, and I would certainly advise any feminists to steer clear as well, as this is one series that will make your blood boil.