Haha! Well, I can’t speak for girls, but this 40-year-old woman probably sees them about the same way you do. They are both amazingly inspiring and painfully silly, and I remember, if vaguely, when I used to think like they did. The authors must have clearer memories of teenagehood than I do; either that or they have plenty of secondary material to draw on.

I love this series, it’s a wonderful combo of hard information and utter tomfoolery. The reader gets a look (and I assume it’s a fairly accurate look) inside the workings of the manga industry. It’s all very interesting, seeing the publishing process addressed from a dramatic viewpoint! I doubt I’ll ever use this information, but I spent a lot of my reading time muttering “Huh! Well, who would’ve guessed.”
It’s a detailed look at the industry, and in someone else’s hands, it could get as boring as a high-school filmstrip. But to leaven it all–or maybe ‘explode’ is a better word–you have our leaping, yelling, obsessing, scribbling teenage protagonists, determined to smash down all obstacles with the force of their collective awesome (and more than a little talent and inside information). They succeed, they fail, they exult, they bawl, they crash and they get up again. They endure some realistic-seeming knocks at the hands of the author, who COULD have made them his fictional pets and granted them a Monty Haul success scenario–but no. They have fights, they get sick, they guess wrong and screw up. The author is knocking these kids left and right!

The plot would seem to indicate that, eventually, these kids will achieve their dreams, but you know what? I’m not too damn sure they’re going to make it! Bakuman manages to generate real suspense and worry along with the laughs and energy. There will be at least one point for the reader where you want to enter the magazine and yell, like someone watching a slasher movie, “NO! NO, DON’T DO THAT, WHAT THE HELL ARE CRAZY OR SOMETHING?” But what good would it do? Half the cast is trying to steer them around with only partial success; these two are like a runaway train.

It’s been awhile since I read something that grabbed me as much as Bakuman. I can’t recommend it enough. Younger audiences will certainly grab some paper and start scribbling, older ones will grin and mumble “Oh, dear God.” It’s an amazing piece of work, any way you slice it.

I don’t read jump nowadays but Bakuman is really good. Not shonen jump like at all. ^^;

Definitely worth the read.

thanks a lot asshole