Monday, January 24, 2011

Characters: Bakuman

Characters: Bakuman

The characters of the manga series Bakuman:

Moritaka Mashiro

An average student in his third year of middle school. Mashiro decides to become a mangaka alongside his classmate Takagi following his proposal to his love interest, Miho.
Tropes associated with Moritaka:

Akito Takagi

Mashiro's classmate and the smartest student in their class. Takagi comes up with the idea to become a mangaka with Mashiro.
Tropes associated with Akito:

Miho Azuki

Mashiro's love interest and fellow classmate. Miho agrees to marry Mashiro once they both achieve their dreams.
Tropes associated with Miho:

Kaya Miyoshi /Takagi

Miho's best friend and Takagi's eventual girlfriend. Now his wife.
Tropes associated with Kaya:

Nobuhiro "Kawaguchi Taro" Mashiro

Moritaka's deceased uncle, who, like Moritaka, had hoped to marry his childhood love interest after becoming successful himself, but by the time he felt secure in his career, she was already married. After his first series ended, he was unable to follow up with another, and died from overworking himself while deep in debt. This caused Moritaka to abandon his desire to become a mangaka until he met Takagi, confessed to Miho and learned how hard his uncle had worked.
Tropes associated with Nobuhiro:
  • Cannot Spit It Out: Determined not to tell his love interest how he feels until the time is right.
  • Determinator: He kept drawing manuscripts in an attempt to get another series going.
  • Did Not Get The Girl
  • Driven To Suicide: Subverted. Moritaka thinks he did so out of despair, but realizes that he pushed himself until he died.
  • Generation Xerox: He and his nephew have similar ambitions, and Moritaka's girlfriend is the daughter of the woman he loved.
  • Iron Woobie: The girl he likes, one of his main reasons for being a mangaka, found another man? He believes he got this far because of her, and she's still watching him. His contract got canceled? He thinks it's an opportunity to start over as a newbie.
  • Kenji Hamada
  • Mangaka
  • Nerd Glasses
  • Posthumous Character
  • Smoking Is Cool: Tends to smoke fairly often as an adult, and Moritaka remembers his office smelling like cigarettes.

Eiji Niizuma

The author of Crow and eventually the artist for Natural, who sees Ashirogi Muto as his primary rivals.
Tropes associated with Eiji:

Aiko Iwase

The second smartest student in Mashiro's and Takagi's class. Iwase has an initial one-sided rivalry with Takagi that eventually develops into feelings for him.
Tropes associated with Aiko:

Kazuya Hiramaru

The author of Otters 11, who got started as a manga after picking up an issue of Shonen Jump and quittinig his job to do manga. He realizes that being a mangaka is more work than he thought, but his editor manages to manipulate him into keeping motivated.
Tropes associated with Kazuya:
  • Brilliant But Lazy: His editor basically has to pull Manipulative Bastardry in order to get him to do any work at all.
  • Bread Eggs Milk Squick: Mentions in the middle of a conversation that he has a medical condition that causes him to urinate blood.
  • Bunny Ears Lawyer: Despite the fact he seems to do anything he can to get out of working, he's still quite good at his job. His manga does consistently well throughout the series and the bits they actually show of Otters 11 are genuinely good.
  • Butt Monkey: His editor's schemes often don't go well for him, as when his editor gives him a necklace to give as a gift to Aoki, he leaves it in his Porsche, which gets towed when he parks it in front of the building.
  • Dogged Nice Guy
  • Hopeless Suitor: For Aoki.
    • Not so hopeless anymore....
  • Pale Skinned Brunette
  • Real Life Writes The Plot: Otter 11 seems to be based off Hiramaru's life, with him working at a job he hates, getting along poorly with someone named Yoshida and wanting to live like an otter rather than a human.
  • The Slacker
  • The Alcoholic
  • Throw The Dog A Bone: He finally asks Aoki to go out with him, and she says yes (as long as he keeps drawing manga).

Takuro Nakai

An assistant who has considerable experience drawing, but has been unable to get serialized for years. He also has the goal of getting a girlfriend, and is attracted to Aoki. He ultimately alienates Aoki by offering to draw for her if she will be his girlfriend, turns Kato, another girl whom he's interested in, away from him after that comes to light, and loses his position as assistant after Takahama's series gets canceled. He ultimately decides to return home to Akita.
Tropes associated with Takuro:
  • Determinator: In order to get "Aoki Ko" to work with him, he started drawing, under the snow, risking his own life. He even kept drawing when some people attacked him, and was determined to protect his hand in order to continue
  • Disappeared Dad: His mother mentions that his father is dead.
  • Dogged Nice Guy: Played quite streight, then subverted.
  • Gonk: He's obese and not often clean-shaven, and the manga clearly shows that he's not very attractive.
  • Just Friends: This seems to be what "Aoki Ko" wanted to have with him. There might have been some sort stronger relationship between them, but he ruined everything when he became a Jerk Ass
  • Mangaka
  • Put On A Bus: Returns home and decides to quit manga forever, but could return, since he's not exactly happy with his new life.
  • The Scrappy
  • The Woobie / Nice Guy -> Jerk Ass Woobie; YMMV

Yuriko "Aoki Ko" Aoki

The author of Hideout Door, and later, The Time of Green Leaves. She initially appears quite cold, and is largely distrusting of men, but after opening up, reveals herself to be a kind person.
Tropes associated with Yuriko:

Shinta Fukuda

Initially one of Nizuma's assistants, he writes Kiyoshi Knight and later, Road Racer Giri. He sets out to change Jump, and forms "Team Fukuda".
Tropes associated with Shinta:
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