S01E01 Dreams and Reality
Moritaka Mashiro, an average student with a talent for drawing, forgets his notebook at school, where his classmate Akito Takagi finds and looks through it. Takagi likes his drawings and asks Mashiro to team up...
Bakuman
S01E04: Time and Keys
Mashiro shows Takagi all that he has drawn and points out all the mistakes he has made, as well as the finer points of using tools for drawing manga. When Takagi questions him, Mashiro tells him about G-Pens and Kabura pens, making manuscripts, and Taro Kawaguchi's three rules to a successful manga: conceit, doing your best, and luck. When they go to a convenience store, Takagi notices that the latest issue of Jack has a semi-finalist named Eiji Nizuma, a fifteen year old manga creator. The two discuss their high schools, manga, and editors, thus coming to the conclusion that they would finish the manuscript for a manga by summer's end and show it to an editor of Jack. While walking home with Takagi, Mashiro encounters Azuki by chance; while the two are unable to look at each other as they pass, they both turn back to look.
Overview
Moritaka Mashiro and Akito Takagi are pretty much foils of each other. Mashiro, an average 9th grade student but talented artist, and Takagi, an overall advanced 9th grader and aspiring writer. After great convincing, Takagi convinces Mashiro to join him in becoming the greatest mangakas Japan has ever seen. Takagi, with his gift of writing, hopes to become a successful mangaka, and Mashiro, with his gift of art, hopes to marry the girl of his dreams, Azuki Miho.
Episodes
S01E02 Dumb and Smart
Mashiro chats with Takagi, who tells him that he chose Mashiro because he is smarter than many of his peers in matters outside of scholarship, and that he believes Azuki has a similar kind of...
S01E03 Parent and Child
Mashiro and Takagi arrive at Mashiro's uncle's apartment, where they look around and Mashiro shows Takagi the manuscripts and storyboards, that the author of a manga series produces before drawing it. Mashiro realizes that his...
S01E04 Time and Keys
Mashiro shows Takagi all that he has drawn and points out all the mistakes he has made, as well as the finer points of using tools for drawing manga. When Takagi questions him, Mashiro tells...
S01E05 Summer and Names
Recalling when he and Azuki turned back to look at each other at the same time, Mashiro tells Takagi that he and Azuki have been on the same frequency for years, indicating that they are...
S01E06 Carrot and Stick
Mashiro and Takagi meet with Akira Hattori, one of the editors at Shonen Jack. He notes that their work has flaws, as it is too text-driven and not drawn in manga style, but they have...
S01E07 Tears and Tears
After meeting with Hattori, Mashiro and Takagi continue working on new submissions, and Mashiro writes notes to Azuki in class. Azuki cries after Mashiro asks her if they have to wait to be together until...
S01E08 Uncertainties and Expectations
Takagi comes up with some more ideas, including One Hundred Millionth, a story about people being ranked according to their abilities, and Hattori is impressed with the story, causing Mashiro to wonder if his art...
S01E09 Regrets and Understandings
Takagi is suspended for a week after punching Ishizawa, causing Mashiro to worry about him. He goes over to visit Takagi and learns that the story ideas he submitted to him were only a few...
S01E10 10 and 2
Mashiro and Takagi meet with Hattori, who says the manga artists liked their work, but the editors judging it thought it would never be published. Mashiro, wanting to progress faster than he is now, wonders...
S01E11 Chocolate and NEXT!
Mashiro and Takagi work on Money and Intelligence while applying to the relatively easy North High School. Miyoshi questions why Mashiro and Azuki are not seeing each other, and Takagi concludes that Azuki wants to...
S01E12 Feast And Graduation
After celebrating by eating out, Hattori, Takagi and Mashiro discuss Money and Intelligence, and what changes they need to make to it. Hattori says that they should wait until graduating from high school to go...
S01E13 Early Results and the Real Deal
Mashiro, at Miyoshi's suggestion, sends an email to Azuki to begin correspondence with her. During the first day of high school, Mashiro and Takagi submit their new pseudonym, "Muto Ashirogi". Hattori is impressed with their...
S01E14 Battles and Copying
Mashiro has come to the conclusion that doing mainstream battle manga is the way forward, and draws characters from other battle manga to polish his skills at drawing this type of manga, Meanwhile Nizuma's manga...
S01E15 Debut and Hectic
Hattori goes over the weaknesses of Mashiro and Takagi's storyboard, and tells them that they need good characters, simple yet exciting battles, cute heroines, and tragedy and humor to make a good storyboard. Nizuma admits...
S01E16 Wall and Kiss
Mashiro and Takagi, incorporating Hattori's suggestions, comes up with a concept for a story about an angel fighting other angels who kill humans to advance themselves, but are frustrated at their lack of progress. The...
S01E17 Braggart and Kindness
Mashiro starts work as an assistant for Nizuma, and meets the other two assistants; Shinta Fukuda, who had placed lower than he did in NEXT, and Takurō Nakai, who won an award 10 years ago,...
S01E18 Jealousy and Love
While reworking Chapter 5, Fukuda reveals that he is dissatisfied with many aspects of Jack, particularly how series are ordered by their popularity, but Yujiro tells him to get serialized before he talks about changing...
S01E19 Two and One
Summer ends without Mashiro hearing back from Takagi, and Takagi returns the key to Mashiro's uncle's apartment, apologizing for failing to come up with a name in time but resolving to become a manga writer....
S01E20 Cooperation and Conditions
Mashiro and Takagi discuss how to improve the concept behind the story, now known as Detective Trap, and Takagi begins looking over many detective stories that Hattori sent him. The two meet with Hattori, insisting...
S01E21 Literature and Music
Mashiro and Takagi continue submitting a story every two weeks, with Mashiro sacrificing sleep to do so, but they have several weeks to go. They see Nakai with Ko Aoki, the runner-up of the Story...
S01E22 Solidarity and Breakdown
Team Fukuda reaches the editorial offices, but despite their protests, the editors do not believe Koogy's advantage is unfair or his tactics are unethical, and Mashiro decides to defeat him by making a better manga....
S01E23 Tuesday and Friday
Mashiro and Takagi both decide to rewrite their manga. Fukuda, Aoki and Nakai also rewrite their manga. Later Fukuda's manga is shown first with positive reviews. Next Mashiro and Takagi's manga is also shown with...
S01E24 Call and Eve
Koogy's manga does poorly in the Golden Future Cup, leaving Mashiro and Takagi, Fukuda, and Nakai and Aoki as the top contenders. An unprecedented two-way tie happens, with Fukuda and Ashirogi Muto both getting first...
S01E25 Yes and No
Thirteen series are submitted for the serialization meeting and are discussed by the team captains, editor in chief and deputy editor. Of all 13, Detective Trap and Otter 11, a manga by newcomer Kazuya Hiramaru,...
Cast
Saori Hayami
Miho Azuki (voice)
Ayako Kawasumi
Yuriko Hiramaru (voice)
Ayumi Fujimura
Aiko Iwase (voice)
Nobuhiko Okamoto
Eiji Niizuma (voice)
Satoshi Hino
Akito Takagi (voice)
Atsushi Abe
Moritaka Mashiro (voice)
Sayuri Yahagi
Kaya Miyoshi (voice)
Tomoyuki Shimura
Takuro Nakai (voice)
