Bakuman is a coming-of-age story for all those who aspire to become mangakas. The manga was written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, the same duo behind DEATH NOTE. It was serialized from August 2008 to April 2012 in Weekly Shonen Jump, with a total of 176 chapters collected into 20 volumes. Bakuman is the first manga released online by Shueisha in multiple languages before becoming available in print outside of Japan.

Bakuman’s anime adaptation was aired from October 2010 to March 2013 with 75 episodes. And in October 2015, its live action film was released.

The protagonist is a 14-year old high school student named Moritaka Mashiro, who was often called by the nickname “Saikou” by his friends.

Ever since he was a small kid, Moritaka had talent with art and drawing. He was often praised by his uncle, who was a mangaka at the time, for bringing home numerous prestige Art Awards. However, as Moritaka gradually grew up, he led an uneventful life and didn’t want to achieve anything in particular. He neither had a plan nor dream and went through school years without much thought. It’s a boring future – Moritaka thought, while secretly drawing his crush Azuki Miho.

He couldn’t gather enough courage to talk to her and this unrequited love has pushed Moritaka further into misery.

After going home from school, Moritaka realized he had forgotten his notebook and had to go back to the classroom. There, Moritaka found one of his classmates – Takagi Akito, waiting for him. Takagi held up Moritaka’s notebook and Moritaka’s face went pale. He was scared that Takagi would find out about his crush.

Instead of teasing Moritaka, Takagi simply stated that he saw the drawing and he thought Azuki liked Moritaka back. He offered to return the notebook to Moritaka and keep his secret, under one condition. “I want you to write a manga with me”, Takagi said.

Takagi told Moritaka that he has always loved manga and dreamed of becoming a mangaka. However, he would need Moritaka’s drawings. Takagi was confident in his writing skill and with Moritaka’s art skill, they would make a name for themselves.

Moritaka instantly declined. He said that the only people who make it as mangakas are a tiny percentage of those with talent – the true geniuses. The rest are just gamblers. Moritaka then told Takagi that he knew the difficulties of becoming a mangaka because his uncle was one.

Moritaka really admired his uncle when he was a small kid in 4th grade. His uncle drew a manga named “Superhero Legend” and it got adapted into an anime.

Moritaka’s uncle told him that he had a woman that he had liked since middle school. After graduation, they kept exchanging letters. She started working at a good company after graduating and Moritaka’s uncle went to university while drawing manga. When his manga got published, Moritaka’s uncle called the woman and found out she had moved up in her career.

Feeling that the gap between them had widen, Moritaka’s uncle worked even harder to prove that he was good enough for her. But by the time he was 30, the woman he loved had married someone else. “I gambled on love and lost”, Moritaka’s uncle said.

After that one success, Moritaka’s uncle failed to achieve anything else significant in his career and fell into debt. When Moritaka was in 6th grade, his uncle died of overwork. However, Moritaka was sure that it was suicide because his uncle also gambled in becoming a mangaka and lost. That was when Moritaka lost interest in manga.

Just when Moritaka was about to forget the conversation with Takagi, the phone suddenly rang. Takagi called and asked Moritaka to come to Azuki’s house with him as Takagi has just discovered something amazing about her.

They stood in front of Azuki’s house and called her out to talk. The moment Azuki stepped outside and saw Moritaka, her face turned bright red.

Takagi then said he came to tell Azuki that he aspired to become a mangaka. And one of Azuki’s friend told Takagi that Azuki dreamed of becoming a voice actor. Azuki admitted it while Moritaka was in total shock. It turned out both Azuki and Takagi had decided on their dreams and were working towards achieving them.

Moritaka felt a sudden spark of motivation and decided, on the spot, that he would be the artist drawing Takagi’s stories. Then when their manga got made into an anime, Azuki could do the voice of the heroine. Hearing that, Azuki’s eyes sparkled when she looked at Moritaka with admiration and excitement.

On the spur of the moment, Moritaka blurted out that when their dreams would come true, he wanted to ask her to marry him.

After a moment of shock, Azuki said yes to the proposal but on the condition that they wouldn’t see each other until their dreams have come true. Until then, Azuki and Moritaka agreed that they would only encourage each other through email, just like the story of Moritaka’s uncle. But this time, I would not lose this gamble – Moritaka thought.

Finally lit with the fire of passion and hope to marry the girl of his dream, Moritaka and Takagi took a step forward, into the world of manga.

Will this be a turning point in Moritaka’s boring life? Will he become a true mangaka or just another gambler?