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- Verified Buyer
Trust me when I say this: Bakuman feels a lot longer than 20 volumes. I JUST finished reading through the last one about two minutes ago, and I wanted to finish it all before posting a review to keep this as accurate as possible for any potential buyers. Just a heads up.First off, the packaging of this boxed set is beautiful. The artwork on every side of the box is full color and highly detailed (no pixilation from blowing it up or anything, if anything, it looks almost hand-drawn and colored). Inside the box you'll find all 20 volumes, each with high quality artwork on the covers, and a gloss finish. The paper stock quality is industry standard, very sturdy. The extras are a double-sided poster, which is actually quite small, and a bonus mini-chapter of a manga in Bakuman. The poster isn't anything to really write home about due to its size (hanging it on the wall would be robbing your wall of one of the pictures, a grave sin), and the fact that it literally has a spoiler (though it's one that you know is going to happen) printed on it. If the size would have been a bit bigger to actually fill a space on a wall, yeah, this would be great stuff. The mini-chapter is a fairly interesting read, and makes me wonder why the creators don't just make a full-fledged manga out of some of the stuff in Bakuman. Who doesn't want PCP or Trap or Crow or even Otter? So, as far as aesthetics, minus a pretty small poster, this is top quality. Beautiful to display on a shelf!Now comes reviewing the entire series. Let's get this out of the way first: Bakuman is dense. It's literally filled to the max with dialogue. So much so, that the artwork as barely any room to breathe sometimes. Is this a bad thing? Yes and no. The over abundance of dialogue makes the books feel LONG, so you shouldn't worry about getting your money's worth with this series. On the other hand, the over abundance of dialogue makes each book feel like an eternity in comparison to other series. Yes, I did REALLY enjoy my time with this series, but the dialogue and pacing was probably the biggest flaw. It's ironic, too, that this manga is about aspiring mangakas, and they frequently go over what makes a manga good or bad.This series is so heavily focused on the plot that some characters go chapters without so much as a mention. That's a shame because this series has some really, really strong characters. My favorite of the bunch, Hiramaru, has a ton of parts, so I can't complain too much. Then you have characters like Miho. I get it, they didn't want to spoil the feeling of innocent romance by shoving her in every chapter, but a bit more introspective dialogue or thoughts would have made me warm up to her character a bit more.Also, the challenges that Muto Ashirogi face (the pen name of the two main characters) grow in size, but fall flat sometimes. About 3/4 into the series, there's a whole two arcs that really drug the pacing down to a crawl, only for the "villain" to be thwarted not even a whole volume later. This happens TWICE in the span of 3-4 volumes, and feels unnecessary. In my opinion, this series needed another 10-15 volumes to really give it room to breathe. As I stated above, the art suffers from so much dialogue. There's times where I'd get lost in which order to read the text due to so much being squeezed onto one page. It's as if the editors of Bakuman said that it all had to be done if a few pages, and they didn't know how to compress it properly.For all that could have been better, there's equally stuff that's amazing. This series has a really good vibe to it, and character growth is rewarding. Take Hiramaru, for example. He starts out as a purely comedic relief character (and goes out as one as well), but there's a few chapters in the series that really make him stand out as a person, and not just be a joke to lighten the mood. The two main characters don't really grow past the first few volumes as much as they just show their unwavering dedication to manga, and that isn't a bad thing! It's hard not to get motivated by this manga to go out and do things you've set aside. I even picked up a pen and paper and started jotting down ideas in the middle of a volume! You also have very strong female characters like Aoki, Miho, and Kaya who make this story shine just as brightly as the male leads do. Then there's those characters that are made to be despicable, but are also given very human qualities. Like Death Note beforehand, some of the characters might not say much, or might be a bit eccentric, but they feel like people, and that's what counts.There's a lot more that I could write about Bakuman here, but I'll end it here for fear of going on way too long and reiterating the same points. This manga deserves to be read. Not only does it shed insight into the world of manga, but also into the lives of those who choose to work in this field. It's also a great love story, a great friendship story, and a great story in general. The few shortcomings that this series has are far outweighed by the strengths. Now, if you'd please excuse me, I have the anime series to watch!
