Dreams are hard to follow and even harder to make them come true.
Whether it's getting securing your ideal job, marrying someone you
always admired, or becoming a superstar, dreams require many ingredients
to make it come true. It requires hard work, determination, motivation,
creativity, and even a little luck. Yet, when people follows these
dreams, it can be surprising on how much they realize about their goal
and about themselves. In Bakuman 3, the series follows two best friends
who hopes to achieve their dreams and become professional manga artists.
Ahh, Bakuman once again returns as the third installation of this trilogy, known as Bakuman
3.
It's amazing how this show can still keep it together after several
years. The series is written and illustrated by Tsugami Ohba, who is
known for his famous work Death Note. In contrast though, the series
does not give off psychological impressions but rather follows a
slice-of-life style of presenting its story. The series has achieved
universal success with its manga predecessor and likewise, I find that
the third and final installation manage to keep it together once again.
The series follows two best friends, Moritaka Mashiro and Akito Takagi.
Collectively known by their pen name, Muto Ashirogi, the duo hopes to
make a name for themselves by getting serialized in the Weekly Shonen
Jump. With a little hard work, motivation, determination, and luck, they
might just be able to do just that.
Like its previous predecessors, Bakuman 3 presents itself as a
slice-of-life style series. Dreams are hard to make into a reality but
we can clearly see that Muto Ashirogi hopes to do so. It follows their
youth lives in a natural way as opposed to normal teens. Most teens
often think about their future and dream jobs later on in life but at
only 9th grade, the duo Muto Ashirogi has already began to climb that
ladder to success. It's not easy though as becoming a manga artist is a
very stressful way of life. In fact, Moritaka already knows this with
the unfortunate circumstances of one of his family relatives. It even
strived him away from thinking about the dream in the beginning.
Furthermore, there is competition. Becoming a manga artist is a lot
harder said than done. In fact, it can be compared to climbing the
world's tallest mountain, winning an Olympics gold medal, or achieving a
world record in the Guiness Book. Okay, I'm probably exaggerating a bit
here but you get the idea. It is not easy.
Surprisingly, Bakuman 3 incorporates many ideas from the art of manga
creation itself. It presents to viewers how manga is made with the
ideas, how to get the material published, and how the industry works
directly with many of its episodes. It looks hard and definitely
requires a lot of effort. Yet at the same time, watching this series
makes the career seem fun and exciting. In fact, it's that much exciting
when Muto Ashirogi gets recognized for their work at various
circumstances. In a way, Bakuman adapts its series of manga-in-manga but
in a way that makes it look like a lifestyle.
The slice-of-life continues to exist just like its previous
predecessors. It follows the duo in their every day live mixed in with
comedy, drama, and romance. The drama part comes from Nakai who
continues to linger his ways of going after Aoki despite their previous
encounters. It doesn't stop there though as a love triangle ensures
between him, Aoki, and Hiramaru. It's two guys and one girl in a triple
threat. As silly as it sounds, the love triangle plays more of a
progressing role for Aoki as she makes her stand and point known.
With the dramatic romance part aside, the technical part of Bakuman 3
also comes into play with some controversial events. In fact, Ashirogi
Muto gets some unprecedented media attention after some unfortunate
events. The duo wanted to make a name for themselves but not in the way
that they see it this time. It gets a bit complex and even causes stress
to the duo for their dreams. Forget dreams, it's more like a nightmare
now after such an event. It should be no surprising though as the author
of the series wants to visualize what manga artists needs to deal with
in the real life. It's realistic in many senses from this case as
becoming a manga artist is never easy. There are challenges every day
whether it's competition, scandals, overworking to meet due times, and
bringing out ideas to audiences in its finest form. The imaginations
that manga artists comes often requires extensive thoughts and planning
as well. I personally found that the ideas used by Ashirogi Muto is a
bit repetitive and even borrowed from themes used by the real
artist/illustrator of Bakuman. In other words, although the series'
manga ideas are fun to read, they often lack a bit of uniqueness or set
themselves differently from others. It's often hard to present ideas
when so many others exists beforehand but overall, I only considered the
ideas that Ashirogi Muto came up to be....average.
Fortunately, I find Ashirogi Muto and their way of working to be quite
interactive and fun. Often when working together, the duo seems to have
more fun than expected with their ideas. It's not in a workaholic way in
which the duo tries to be the very best or earn cash but rather to do
what they enjoy in while hoping to achieve success. Even when the duo
are arguing, the dialogue is presented in an entertaining way. The words
spoken by the characters are colorful and often or not, becomes an
inspriation for their ideas. These ideas are transformed into their
product for the world to see. Of course, success isn't easy to come by
especially with competition. Major supporting characters as Eiji are
obstacles for Ashirogi Muto and they must overcome him to achieve that
success.
On the more dramatic side, Bakuman 3 also introduces what some fans may
see as a real antagonist in the form of Toru Nanamine. He represents the
antithesis of Ashirogi Muto. On the surface, he looks like a fun and
outgoing guy with a chill personality. However, deep down he is seen as a
hot-tempered, manipulative, and an individual who is willing to do
absolutely anything to achieve success. The construction of his
character makes him an antagonist by the way he compete against Ashirogi
Muto because he even relies on underhanded tactics to ensure his
assumed victories. To him, making manga is about winning and being the
best in contrast of Ashirogi Muto who wishes to achieve their dreams.
Bakuman 3 does seem to continuously adapt a slow pace. Furthermore, the
many dialogues used between the characters often gets dull, lacks
flavor, and dragged. The seemingly antagonist Nanamine is also easy to
predict by viewers as the villain by the way of his actions. It's not
hard to see him as a two-faced individual who wishes to become the best
even relying on iniquitous tactics. These tactics of course doesn't
always go the way he wants to.
The artwork of the series remains intact compared to its previous
seasons. J.C. Staff adapts the anime based off of the manga and does a
fit job in making its artwork intact. And of course, because this is an
anime series based on making manga, the artwork created by the various
artists themselves also are presented artistically well. The artwork in
fact is edgy but gives off that realistic look at the series from the
outside. In the inside, the manga and characters' designs gives off a
natural sort of look. It looks realistic and doesn't look too flashy,
not that it needs to be anyways. There is no fan service and fans
shouldn't be surprised at this considering it's NHK network known for
airing lighthearted series.
For the soundtrack department, everything seems to remain the same. Both
the OP/ED song for the first and second half depicts on a montage of
the main characters. Some of the soundtrack does to be repetitive but
still retains its natural vibrations. It balances it out with the
general lighthearted outlook of the series.
Overall, Bakuman 3 is a pleasant series for me and I think for fans,
especially those who've watched the previous predecessors. Even if you
don't like the idea of making manga, the series makes it interactive
with its extensive dialogues, competitions, and characters'
interactions. And of course, some of the manga ideas themselves can be
entertaining. It's not easy making dreams come true but Ashirogi Muto
sure has great hopes. They're climbing that ladder of success and
opening doors to imaginations.
