Anime review: Bakuman 2

Bakuman 2. the second season revolving around a pair of manga authors - Mashiro Moritaka and Takagi Akito - and their peers, as they try to make a name for themselves in the intense business world of manga publishing.

This was a terrific choice for my "return to anime", because it's so easily digestible and thus easy to marathon. I blasted through it in two days, and it didn't feel like a chore for a single second. When a series hooks you in in such a way that you just don't wanna stop watching it, you know they're doing something right.

One of the main reasons why I love this series so much is because of it's fantastic cast. Every single character is well written. They each have their own distinct personality, no one is perfect and we constantly get to see things from their perspective. I love how characters can be complete assholes at one moment, and very likable people in the next moment. Now that's what I call life-like :)

The cast is - to be honest - one of the overall best anime casts I've come across. And I've seen quite a bit of anime - or TV series all together. That is because every character is great by themselves, but also have very entertaining interactions with each other. Even minor aspects like Miura's and Yamahisa's rivalry is very entertaining, despite not amounting to much story-wise.

As for the negatives of this season; I feel that some may consider this to be TOO similar to the first season, because there is A LOT that is very similar. Personally, I just consider it to be more of the good stuff :)

Then there's also the OPs and EDs. They're not terrible, but they are definitely boring and I skipped them nearly every time. Granted, it's not a big thing and has nothing to do with the actual story, but for a series that's all about creating stuff the public will like, they sure dropped the ball in this aspect.

Also, I wasn't very fond of the whole "Takagi might cheat on Miyoshi" subplot, but fortunately,  it resolved itself both fast and satisfyingly. By the way, this seems like a good time to mention that Miyoshi is one of my favorite characters in the whole series. While not actually doing all that much, she is one of the strongest supporting pillars in the entire show.

The biggest minus I give it is that it is very childish/cheesy at times with some overly dramatic speeches and statements here and there. It may sound like a minor thing, but it's stuff like this that makes me weary of recommending many anime to my non-anime watching friends (i.e. all my friends). This is however nothing that detracted much of my overall enjoyment of it.

Nothing out of the ordinary here. Just another day in the manga business.

I'll end with saying thatI found this season be just as good as the first season. If you liked the first season then you'll almost definitely like this one as well. If you didn't like the first season, then you may as well stay away from this one.

"More of the same" has never rung so true and yet been so fulfilling.

8/9