(L) Bakuman (TV) (All Seasons)

[RyougaElliot]

Originally Posted by Roardel

That's right. We Japanese use e-mail so often, most of them are nonsense and stupid. For example, "Good morning" "Hi" "I'm going to school" "Me too" "See you later" "See you"... They use it more often than telephone.

And do you know twitter is very popular in Japan? Some schoolboys and schoolgirls tweet more than 800 post par day. "Good morning" "Thank you for good night" "I'm to eat breakfast" "I'm in toilette" "Mom gets angry and hurry me to school" "I prepared" "I'm going to school"... They use just as they talk.

So, Saiko and Azuki's promise is not so strange. Just show their shyness and politeness. Of course it's very exaggerated, though.

Seriously! It's still hilarious to me even now, when a friend will be like "Heading to work!" in the morning, and I just respond "Yup! Me too!"

It's less email than it is an extremely prolonged non-ending conversation that you can pick up and go back to whenever.

[Keiichi_chan]

Originally Posted by Cabrini6000

I want to see this show, but the art is bothering me. This is drawn by the artist that drew Death Note, a anime which I consider to have high quality art, so I'm expecting this show to have the same quality. However, the promo art is proving otherwise. I will probably still watch, but I hope the actual anime is better.

the MANGA is drawn and written by the team that did death note.
the comic it's based on is by them, not the anime. the original creators don't have much say-so on the anime or how it's made/the animation/etc.

read the manga; it has great art!

[imbehindyou]

I am not a fan of recent "JC art style (esp. coloring)" - SnS, Index, ZnT, Maid-sama, etc. but I am rather satisfied with how JC is handling Bakuman. Not having read the original manga (...yet), I thought it was an overall good episode; I had no problem with understanding the story and the funny moments in between made that 20 minutes feel like 10 minutes.

[TJR]

Some brief thoughts:

• I like the OP song a lot. As with Kobukuro's Cross Game OP, it's generic, but the style sure suits my tastes.

• Script is fast-paced but otherwise fine. Comedic timing isn't bad

• Art is rather low quality. Ditto for the choppy, frame starved animation.

• On the other hand, director Noriaki Akitaya did a nice job with the framing. If only there were more animation to complement it.....

• Voice work sounds good

• BGM doesn't

• If staffing is any indication, the studio seems to have had the best of intentions during pre-production - Ken'ichi Kasai supervising, two industry heavyweights (Reiko Yoshida, Seishi Minakami) on the script, and a quality art director (Chikako Shibata). Something went haywire along the way

• J.C.STAFF left their name off the opening credits (usually, they prominently emblazon the full logo on opening and ending sequences). Similarly, the opening and ending staff didn't take credit for their work.

• The zaniness of Super Hero Legend reminds me of Nodame's Puri Gorota. Art is ugly, but the animation is smoother than anything else in the show. These parts appear to have been directed by Kasai himself.

The pacing was pretty horrid.

I haven't read the manga, but the pacing of Ep. 1 is fine for TV anime. It's a bit on the fast paced side, but there's just enough breathing room between scenes to avoid a particularly awkward flow. The same goes for the scenes themselves.

I am not a fan of recent "JC art style (esp. coloring)" - SnS, Index, ZnT, Maid-sama, etc. but I am rather satisfied with how JC is handling Bakuman.

I guess I'm in the opposite camp then. I normally love their post-production work (from 2006 onward anyway), particularly the color design, but Bakuman is a distinct disappointment.

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by Falkor

eh, what part of the character design was "horrid"?

Especially the facial structure. Just doesn't do the original designs justice, at all.

Still such a huge shame Madhouse didn't work on this, though that was always just a dream of mine.

[Kakkou]

I'm... not quite find of the way they shade Moritaka and Miho's hair. The gradient in the shading during the night scene makes it look even weirder imo. Character design looks decent. I do agree the animation or rather the overall production seems really average. Perhaps they'll up their efforts later on when things start getting interesting, like having short anime skits of their manga like they did pre-opening in this episode. Maybe I'll try the manga after this ends.

[ryuusei]

Originally Posted by k//eternal

If the manga that people draw appear as anime clips, this will be ridiculously good.

Might be slightly confusing/unfitting, but I love the manga snippets in the original and hope they'll do something interesting with them here.

exactly what i was thinking. What if they animate the manga like how a reader imagines what's happening as they read. That would be awesome.

[ID555]

Solid start for this show, like the soundtrack too. This is probably going to be my top show this season, there's barely any show that really caught my eye, and that's before even watching their premiers :[

Is this one or two cour?

[lightbringer]

The low quality of the animation doesn't really bother me, but the voices don't really fit (especially Takagi) and the music is entirely forgettable. But then, the manga is really awesome so maybe I was setting my expectations too high.

@ID555:
Pretty sure it will be two seasons long.

[ID555]

Originally Posted by lightbringer

@ID555:
Pretty sure it will be two seasons long.

Nice. Thanks.

[Xagzan]

I didn't have much problem with this first episode, even having been with the manga since the beginning. Maybe I have lower standards than you all, but when it comes to a series like this, a sort of slice of life drama, I don't really care about animation quality or bgm. I thought the voice work was actually very decent throughout, except I did not Kaya's at all. I forget if it was ever said that she's supposed to sound annoying, but..she does.

[Master Chibi]

Yeah, the irony (to myself and my opinion) is that this show doesn't look even 1/4 as good now that it's an anime. It just works as a manga but seeing it animated makes me kinda cringe. They definitely lost points on Miho too, she looks awful.

Still going to watch mind you. Just not going to enjoy it as much.

[k//eternal]

My complaint about people's looks is actually not that the designs are ugly (okay, I guess Miho is supposed to look good, but everyone else we've seen so far... not advertised as such, at least)... but that they look way too old. C'mon, they're supposed to be kids right now, don't get lazy about that.

I don't think that was handled too well in the manga either, where they're supposed to be way older at the current point and look about the same as they did years ago.

[kobun]

i liked anyone.. notice the big nod to hikaru no go, and death note... i thought i was really cool..

[yura`]

That was a delightful first episode for me, and although the art and animation may not have been the best, (it appeared awkward at first) I slowly warmed towards it. As some have echoed in this thread, the premise is the most compelling part of Bakuman, that makes it what it is - even though it's just one episode, I'm already enjoying this adaptation of a wonderful manga, and as Kaoru Chujo noted, the pace was just perfect.

The mock OP was a very nice touch, and I couldn't help but laugh. A childhood flashback, and then we get the real OP - nice! I like that they created a special theme song especially for the Saiko's uncle's anime, and that that makes me anticipate seeing some anime-in-anime adaptations that was depicted in some scenes from the manga...!

I'm already looking forward to the rest of this season!

[aohige]

I think the art was adapted pretty well to reflect the manga.
Unfortunately animation was nowhere near Madhouse level, but for Bakuman, it works fine.

Only gripe I have is how boring the OP was.
I can live with song being mediocre, but my beef is with the fact that the only characters appearing were the main four.
Bakuman has lots.... and I mean LOTS of characters. Yet none but the main 4 appears in the OP?
If this OP is supposed to last a whole season, it really should have WSJ editors, rival mangaka, etc. Hopefully OP animation will change as more characters are introduced into the story...

Originally Posted by kobun

i liked anyone.. notice the big nod to hikaru no go, and death note... i thought i was really cool..

Not to mention Dragon Ball and One Piece tankobons on the shelves.

[Kanon]

I don't like the OP much either. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought Bakuman was a romance anime after seeing it.

[Kafriel]

If I didn't know any better, I would have thought Bakuman was a romance anime after seeing it.

....you mean, IT ISN'T!?

[Ehnra]

After eagerly awaiting this series for quite some time, I must say I'm disappointed in the result. I was really hoping that the artwork and animation had turned out better for a manga that I really enjoy just that, the artwork.
Overall adaptation is well done though, artwork could've been better especially the faces and I'm slightly annoyed by Miyoshis high-pitched voice.

[Kafriel]

Come on, it's not a bad series at all, the first episode was both hilarious and more interesting compared to its manga counterpart. OP's good enough, the acting's in place...just waiting for the next ep now~