The
teen Manga-creating manga characters Moritaka Mashiro and Akito Takagi are so
popular, one of their fictional series has been novelized in real life (under
their own pseudonym, of course). They are young, but the competitive atmosphere
of Shonen Jump magazine will not cut
them any breaks. In fact, it might be particularly hard on them when they
develop an intense rivalry with another high school phenom. However, they have
love and friendship on their side and that counts for a lot in Hitoshi One’s
winning adaptation of Bakuman (trailer here), which screens
during this year’s Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film in New York.
If
you know your manga, you will pick up on plenty of in-references in the
live-action Bakuman. If not, you will
still come to appreciate what it took for the original manga series (co-written
by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, the creators of Death Note) to thrive at Shonen
Jump. For series to continue at the manga magazine, they must rank highly
in the weekly readers’ survey, which falls somewhere between American Idol voters and The Hunger Games in its unforgiving
brutality. Nobody understands this better than Mashiro. He saw how the system
broke his beloved late uncle, who maintained a long-running Shonen Jump series.
Despite
his uncle’s fate, Mashiro still has a deep love for manga. He also has talent.
When aspiring manga writer Takagi notices his skills, he suggests they team up
and go pro. Initially, Mashiro is reluctant, but when he discovers his class
crush Miho Azuki has started pursuing a career as an anime voice-over artist,
he fully commits to the manga dream. He and Azuki are both so awkward whenever
they try to talk, the communication is decidedly strained, but she more-or-less
offers to marry Mashiro when she finally lands a leading part in the anime
adaptation of his manga series. This is motivation. So is beating the arrogant
and freakishly anti-social Eiji Niizuma, Shonen
Jump’s teen sensation currently ensconced at #2 in Shonen Jump’s internal standings.
Bakuman might just be the
best film about comic and manga artist perhaps ever. It certainly lays a
beat-down on Chasing Amy. There is
comedy and there is romance, but the tone is sort of like The Great Passage reconceived for the manga world. Bakuman (in all its incarnations) is
also often ruthlessly frank in its depiction of Shonen Jump’s inner editorial workings. It is a bit surprising the
magazine allowed so much sausage-making to be exposed to public view, but it
seems when you are riding high in the ratings, you can get away with anything.
Co-leads
Takeru Satoh and Ryunosuke Kamiki have terrific geeky underdog chemistry
together, transcending the obvious easy stereotypes. Nana Komatsu just seems to
glide through the film on gossamer wings, sort of like the more innocent and
endearing analog of her title character in The World of Kanako. Kenta Kiritani, Hirofumi Arai, Sarutoki Minagawa, and
Takayuki Yamada nicely flesh out the film as the lads’ friendly manga
colleagues and their editor, Akira Hattori. Shota Sometani is also weirdly
effective as their squirrely nemesis, Niizuma. However, Lily Franky really
supplies the film’s X-factor with his wonderfully subtle turn as Sasaki, the
dreaded editor-in-chief.
