List of Bakuman characters

This is a list of fictional characters in the anime and manga series Bakuman. The writer of the series, Tsugumi Ohba, developed the basic character traits while Takeshi Obata, the artist, created the visual character designs.^{[citation needed]} A majority of the characters are themselves involved in the manga industry as manga artists, editors, or assistants.

Characters

Main characters

Moritaka Mashiro (真城 最高, Mashiro Moritaka^?)

Voiced by: Atsushi Abe (Japanese), Michael Sinterniklaas (English)

Mashiro is the main protagonist of the series. He was once content in following the usual life of a Japanese citizen: attending a university, and eventually becoming an office worker; but he now follows in the footsteps of his late uncle—a manga artist who loved his classmate in secret, and later died from overwork—as he too aspires to become a manga artist. Mashiro has been a talented artist since early age, but is highly dissatisfied with his drawings. Mashiro is fond of his classmate Miho Azuki, who wishes to become a voice actress, and he spontaneously proposes to her. She accepts to marry him on the condition that they must not see each other until they both achieve their dreams. Mashiro then decides to team up with another classmate, talented writer Akito Takagi, and tries to create a popular manga to have it adapted into an anime. The two work under the shared pen name "Muto Ashirogi" (亜城木 夢叶, Ashirogi Muto^?). He develops a personal rivalry with Eiji Nizuma. He is often called Saiko (サイコー, Saikō^?). He was voiced by Jun Fukuyama in the flash web-comic.^[1] Mashiro cares for Takagi, (sometimes even worrying about him) although not showing his affection, he is happy that he had such a friend. It is also hinted that Mashiro and Azuki already fell in love at a earlier grade, but did not say anything, it also hinted that they were also already in love, but didn't know how the other felt. His favorite manga is Ashita no Joe.

Akito Takagi (高木 秋人, Takagi Akito^?)

Voiced by: Satoshi Hino (Japanese), Kevin T. Collins (English)

Takagi is one of the main protagonists of the series. He is one of Mashiro's classmates, and after discovering Mashiro's talent as an artist, he proposes that they publish a manga together. Although Mashiro refuses, the two soon come to work together. Takagi is a writer who specializes in unorthodox storylines and writes them into their manga. The two start working under the pen name "Muto Ashirogi" (亜城木 夢叶, Ashirogi Muto^?); Takagi himself is often called Shujin (シュージン, Shūjin^?). He eventually dates and marries Azuki's best friend Kaya Miyoshi. He shares a rivalry with his former classmate Aiko Iwase. He was voiced by Shinnosuke Tachibana in the flash web-comic.^[1] Takagi treats Mashiro as a best friend and cares for him deeply. In episode 8 of the anime (chapter 8 of the manga), when Ishizawa made fun of Mashiro's drawing, he punched Ishizawa. His favorite manga is Dragon Ball.

Miho Azuki (亜豆 美保, Azuki Miho^?)

Voiced by: Saori Hayami (Japanese), Stephanie Sheh (English)

Mashiro's fiancée and former classmate. She aspires to become a voice actress, and shows promise in the field. Her mother is the woman Mashiro's uncle fell in love with. Azuki promises to marry Mashiro after they achieve their dreams; however, they must not see each other until then. Since this promise, she has picked up a voicing role, and is gaining growing popularity, not because of her skills, but for her looks. At one point her agent urges her to bring out a photo book, in effect becoming a gravure idol. With Mashiro's support, however, she turns down the offer and perseveres in her voice acting. She and Mashiro often communicate through text messages and sometimes through phone calls, but rarely meet except by chance or under special circumstances. However ever since Mashiro got out of hospital, they have been talking with each other much more than before.^[1] It is also hinted that Azuki and Mashiro already fell in love at a earlier grade, but did not say anything, it also hinted that they were also already in love, but didn't know how the other felt.

Kaya Miyoshi (見吉 香耶, Miyoshi Kaya^?)

Voiced by: Sayuri Yahagi (Japanese), Amanda Shuckman (English)

Azuki's best friend and Takagi's girlfriend and later wife. Because her friends all have high aspirations, she begins to feel left out and decides to become a mobile romance novelist. For her first story, she relates the romance between Mashiro and Azuki; however, Takagi ends up writing it for her. She later changes her dream to wanting Mashiro and Takagi's dreams to come true as well as wanting to become Takagi's wife afterward. She helps out in inking the manga and generally maintaining a positive atmosphere in the studio. Mashiro and Takagi find that her optimistic presence in the studio helps cheer up what is otherwise a very stressful working environment, and feel she is part of "the team." She is the one who comes up with the "Muto Ashirogi" pen name, coming from the phrase "Azuki, Mashiro and Takagi's dream coming true" (亜豆と真城と高木の夢を叶える, Azuki to Mashiro to Takagi no yume o kanaeru^?).^[1]

Other Manga artists/Author

Eiji Nizuma (新妻 エイジ, Niizuma Eiji^?)

Voiced by: Nobuhiko Okamoto (Japanese), Robby Sharpe (English)

A 16-year-old high school student hailed as a genius by many people. He wins the Tezuka Award for his manga Large Bander, after which Mashiro and Takagi declare him their rival, although he is very friendly upon meeting them and states he is a fan of theirs. He moves to Tokyo to work on the serialization of his manga Crow on the condition that he is able to cancel one of his series in Weekly Shōnen Jump after becoming the magazine's most popular author. The head editor describes the difference between Mashiro and Takagi to Nizuma is their "love of manga"; indeed, Nizuma seems to have been obsessed with drawing manga since he was six years old. Nizuma tends to act conceited because he is hailed as a genius; however, after working on Crow for quite a long time, he becomes humbler, even claiming to "not be good enough of a manga artist to be judging other people's work" when asked by his editor to judge for the Treasure magazine. Nizuma is eccentric and has a variety of odd quirks, like constantly pronouncing sound effects while he draws and speaks, and working to the sound of very loud music. He works under the direction of the Weekly Shōnen Jump editor Yujiro Hattori and for a time with his two assistants, Shinta Fukuda and Takurō Nakai.^[1] His favorite manga is Doraemon.

Shinta Fukuda (福田 真太, Fukuda Shinta^?)

Voiced by: Junichi Suwabe

Fukuda and Mashiro first meet when Mashiro decides to become an assistant for Eiji Nizuma. Fukuda has already won an honorable mention when he tries for the Tezuka Award and also gets fifth place in the same issue of Akamaru Jump in which Ashirogi's Money and Intelligence gets third place. Fukuda then became friends with Mashiro and also competes with Ashirogi in the Golden Future cup with his original manga Kiyoshi Knight. Fukuda then gets serialized and is an aspiring rival to Ashirogi, Nizuma, and Nakai. Among them, he is considered to have the worst drawings, though that they often border on grotesque apparently matches his stories. He can be extremely conceited, abrasive and competitive at times, yet helps out his rivals, who are also his friends.^[2] His favorite manga is To Love-Ru.

Takuro Nakai (中井 巧朗, Nakai Takurō^?)

Voiced by: Tomoyuki Shimura

Nakai is a manga artist, and a former assistant of Eiji Nizuma's. He won a monthly award ten years before his introduction in the story, and has since been determined to get serialized and find a girlfriend. He is good with drawing backgrounds and angles. He originally started as an assistant for Eiji Nizuma and then turned into an assistant for Kō Aoki, whom he was attracted to, for Hideout Door. Once the serialization ended, he confessed his love for Kō but was rejected. He eventually showed up again as an assistant for Takahama, who as an assistant for Muto Ashirogi who got serialized. Eventually, when Kō asked him to draw for her, he told her he would, on the condition that she became his girlfriend. Kō slapped him and told him to never speak to her again. After Takahama's series was canceled, and being rejected by another girl who was assisting with him, he gave up and returned home, despite protests from Kō, Shinta Fukuda (who was another assistant with him for Eiji) and both Mashiro and Takagi. However he eventually comes and becomes Nanamine Toru's assistant for his work "What is required for a good school life"^[2] His favorite manga is Kimagure Orange Road.

Ko Aoki (蒼樹 紅, Aoki Kō^?)

Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi

Aoki (real name, Yuriko Aoki (青木 優梨子, Aoki Yuriko^?)) is an aspiring female manga artist that only recently began to work in the shōnen genre, previously having worked exclusively as a shōjo manga author. Aoki is a beautiful woman a couple of years older than Mashiro and Takagi, which her editor believes will help her sales. She is distrustful of men, as she draws a number of suitors interested in her appearance, including her assistant Takurō Nakai, whose advances she rejects many times. She initially appears cold and aloof, but gradually opens up, and is quite warm and friendly to those she trusts. Because shōjo art styles do not match well with Jump, she initially needs help from assistants and artists in order to be published. She is paired with Nakai for her first series, Hideout Door, and after the series is cancelled, Aoki resolves to return to shōjo, although she is later convinced to stay on working for Shōnen Jump. She works on the serialized series The Time of Green Leaves, and she does her own drawings with assistance from Shinta Fukuda. In the manga Kazuya asks Aoki out.^[2] Her favorite manga is Kimi ni Todoke.

Kazuya Hiramaru (平丸 一也, Hiramaru Kazuya^?)

Voiced by: Masakazu Morita

A new manga artist who one day picks up Shōnen Jump for the first time in his life, and decided to quit his job to draw manga. With his series Otters 11, he becomes serialized around the same time as Mashiro and Takagi. He can be easily overwhelmed and finds it hard to deal with the stress of writing manga. He frequently shows up at the other manga artists' studios to hide, but is always soon found by his editor. He often complains about his job and wonders aloud why he ever decided to do it in the first place, but consistently ranks high with readers in questionnaires. His editor manages to persuade him to continue by offering to help him get closer to Kō Aoki, as he is attracted to her; his attempts, however, usually end badly, but in chapter 114 he finally asks Aoki out. Due to his success, he has been called a manga genius possibly on the level of Eiji Nizuma, especially considering his inexperience and relative lack of interest in writing manga.

Aiko Iwase (岩瀬 愛子, Iwase Aiko^?)

Voiced by: Ayumi Fujimura (Japanese), Veronica Taylor (English)

She is a former classmate of Mashiro and Takagi's during junior high school. She at first has a crush on Takagi but is rejected because she disapproves of writing manga. She later reappears as a student at To-Oh University along with Kō Aoki. She writes her first novel while in University, but since she sees Takagi as a rival, she decides to write a manga for Shōnen Jack to prove her superiority. Her editor is originally Hattori, who worked with Takagi and Mashiro beforehand, but after Hattori returns as Takagi and Mashiro's editor, her new editor becomes Gorō Miura, which angers her because she had feelings for Hattori. Her writing and plot are praised as very well made and she is the writer of +Natural.^[2] Her favorite manga is Adolf ni Tsugu.

Ryu Shizuka (静河 流, Shizuka Ryū^?)

An 18-year-old newcomer manga artist who submits a manga called Shapon for an issue of Treasure. Nizuma considers him and his story to be second only to Mashiro and Takagi's manga in the same issue, stating that he was amazing and deep, and would have won if he had not been up against Muto Ashirogi. Because of the dark subject matter of his manga, he is working with a young editor named Yamahisa to make it more Jump-friendly. He has social anxiety disorder and is reluctant to talk to his editor face-to-face, instead preferring to have his meetings over the Internet. He is a recluse who has spent much of his time in his room with video games and computer since the eighth grade and is sensitive to the words of others. He starts to become more comfortable talking with Yamahisa further on in the story and Yamahisa later helps him buy his own apartment and begin conversing with people. His favorite manga is Level E.

Shoyo Takahama (高浜昇陽, Takahama Shoyo^?)

Voiced by: Hiroki Shimowada

He first appeared as Muto Ashirogi's assistant for their work "Trap". At first he never talked to anyone, but once Kato and Ogawa leave he opens up to Mashiro. He claims that he's big fan of Disney and wants to work for them. He eventually gets his own series inn Jump, "Business boy Kenichi" with Nakai and Kato as his assistant and Gorō Miura as his editor. However, the series eventually gets cancelled. Despite his series getting cancelled he ends up becoming Muto Ashirogi's assistant for their next series "Tanto" and he eventually gets another series, "Seigi no Mikata".

Toru Nanamine (七峰 透, Nanamine Tōru^?)

Nanamine is a mangaka who was inspired by the early works of Muto Ashirogi and attempts to surpass them. He is however also highly distrustful of the editor-author relationship and creates a scheme to undermine it. He believes the more reader opinions one can obtain beforehand, and the more suggestions can be incorporated into the manga, the better the manga will be.

Shōnen Jump/'Jack' Editors

Akira Hattori (服部 哲, Hattori Akira^?)

Voiced by: Kentaro Tone (Japanese), Wayne Grayson (English)

Akira Hattori begins as Akito Takagi's and Moritaka Mashiro's editor. He helps them with their pen name and eventually gets them serialized for Detective Trap. Once it becomes serialized, however, Hattori loses them to Gorō Miura due to conflicting responsibilities, and soon becomes Aiko Iwase's editor. After The Perfect Crime Party is serialized, Hattori returns as Muto Ashirogi's editor, leading Miura to edit Iwase's work. He is is somewhat of a schemer and likes to plot both behind other editors and even his own mangaka to advance the interests of the magazine. As such he came up with the idea of having Nizuma and Iwase collaborate on Natural in order to inspire Mashiro and Takagi to work harder.^[2] His favorite manga is Cobra.

Goro Miura (港浦 吾郎, Miura Gorō^?)

Voiced by: Daisuke Kirii

He is Mashiro and Takagi's editor between the start of Detective Trap and the serialization of Perfect Crime Party. Initially he is very enthusiastic but naive and somewhat incompetent due to lack of experience. He is desperate to get one of his series serialized in order to protect his job, and believes that gag manga have a better chance of doing so. This often clashes with Mashiro and Takagi's approach, leading to some arguments. Over time, and through the tutelage of Hattori, he becomes more flexible and his personal desires do not come into play as often, and Ashirogi come to accept him as an editor. He is also the editor for Takahama's Business Boy Kenichi and Seigi no Mikata and eventually becomes Iwase's editor. His favorite manga is Jungle King Tar-chan.

Hisashi Sasaki (佐々木尚, Sasaki Hisashi^?)

Voiced by: Kenyuu Horiuchi (Japanese), Dan Green (English)

The Executive editor of Shōnen Jump. Earlier in his career he had worked with Moritaka's uncle: Mashiro Nobuhiro, eventually he had to break the news that Nobuhiro would have to leave Shōnen Jump, leading to his unemployment and eventual death. He is stoic but also passionate underneath. He also likes to delegate responsibilities when able in order to give his subordinates experience.

Soichi Aida (相田聡一, Aida Souichi^?)

Aida is one of the team-leaders in Shonen Jump and both Hattori and Miura are members of his team. He gives helpful advice to Miura on occasion but is troubled by the stirs Ashirogi is causing. He later becomes vice executive editor.

Yujirou Hattori (服部 雄二郎, Hattori Yūjirō^?)

Voiced by: Hirofumi Nojima (Japanese), Chris Niosi (English)

Yujiro is one of the youngest editors at Shōnen Jump and editor of Eiji Nizuma's succesful manga Crow as well as Fukuda's Kiyoshi Knight and later Road Racer Giri. Yujiro has difficulty keeping Eiji in line, but prides himself on finding such a talented Mangaka. Due to his success, he later becomes a team leader.

Koji Yoshida (吉田 幸司, Yoshida Kōji^?)

Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu

Yoshida is a team-lead and the editor of Hiramaru. His editing style is unscrupulous and he will use any means to get his authors to work. In Hiramaru's case he uses bait in various forms, lies about this bait, and exploitation of Hiramaru's interest in Aoki. He also tricks Hiramaru in buying an expensive car and renting an expensive apartment to keep him from saving up money and forcing him to continue to work. When interacting with Hiramaru, Yoshida's face is usually not visible for the reader, though Yoshida appears in full in the editing department.

Masakazu Yamahisa (山久 雅和, Yamahisa Masakazu^?)

The editor behind Aoki's Time of Green Leaves. He's also the editor of Ryu Shizuka. Yamahisa is a smooth-talker and attempts to garner the trust of his mangaka by reading their emotions.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} "NHKアニメワールド バクマン。". NHK. http://www9.nhk.or.jp/anime/bakuman. Retrieved April 16, 2010. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d e} "アニメワールド+BLOG:NHK バクマン。". NHK. http://www.nhk.or.jp/anime-blog/140/54785.html. Retrieved September 4, 2010.