Bakuman 29: Literature and Music

This relatively new series has held my interest since it debuted in August of last year. Perhaps what is best about Bakuman is the insight it yields on the manga industry. We learn about competitive and painstaking process involved in getting serialized as artist and wannabe mangaka Moritaka Mashiro and his friend, talented writer Akito Tagaki begin to work their way up the ladder of success.


In this chapter Mashiro and Tagaki - having been given the necessary motivation by their advisor, Weekly Shonen Jump editor Akira Hattori - enroll themselves in the Future Golden Cup with the hopes of ex post facto serialization (assuming that they can best their competition by becoming more popular, or by receiving enough endorsements).


The main purpose of this chapter is to introduce us to (the rest of) Mashiro and Tagaki's competition in the Future Golden Cup, who appear to be formidable at the very least. We meet the demure yet forward Aoki Ko, as well as her (the earlier introduced) assistant Nakai Takuro, who is waging his dreams and future career and her success. By the end of the chapter we also get a glimpse of hip and stylish musician Makaino Koji, who placed 2nd in his pursuit of the Tezuka Award (which is given out to future mangakas, who are often thought to have incredible potential), with his manga debut 'Colorfusical.'


Suffice it to say, it will be interesting to see how Mashiro and Tagaki will fare against their competition with their up and coming 'detective manga.'

As has been listed in this chapter the main competitors in the FGC are as follows:

- Fukuda Shinta with "Kiyoshi Knight"
- Ashirogi Muto with "Detective Trap" (serving as a collective pseudonym for Mashiro and Tagaki)
- Aoki Ko and Nakai Takuro with "Hideout Door"
- Makaino Koji with "Colorfusical"

Quick aside: For those who are looking for a new series to 'get into,' and haven't picked up Bakuman, I highly recommend it. It's nice to see a manga that uses a fair number of non-fictional elements; as I'm almost positive that the experiences of Mashiro and Tagaki in some way mirror the experiences of Bakuman's authors Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba (who ended up penning the incredible, enormously successful, fresh and cerebral Death Note).