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Right, I've had a lot of thoughts about this while reading Bakuman and I don't really know how to put them. Basically, the first thing I'd like to mention is how Mashiro is obviously the main character and his existence is much more prominent than Takagi.
Why do you think that is?
My first instinct would tell me that the story itself was written by Ohba, and if it was anything like Death Note, it had very little input from Obata. So Ohba, as a person that writes manga for his career, would surely choose to put Takagi at the same importance as Mashiro if not more important?
And I know that they're usually regarded as a two-man team. I know the story frequently pretends that Mashiro isn't the main character, but it's obvious he is. He's the first one introduced, he is alone in the first volume's cover, the main romance story is his and everything about Takagi screams backing character. If anything, Azuki has been more important to the depth of the story than Takagi. Well, not really, but all the really important and really serious chapters we've had involved either Azuki or Takagi, and she seems almost on par with him. So how is that?
Then there's another thing I'd like to point out. I don't care how hard Takagi works, I don't care how hard Ohba works, there's something to be said about the fact that drawing manga is by default going to take an exponentially larger amount of time than writing the story for it. Takagi thinks and his part is crucial, yes, but I don't think it's debatable that his part isn't as time consuming. All the stuff you hear about mangaka's little-to-no-room-for-breathing schedules, I very highly doubt that would apply to someone who only does the story. The story requires time and attention, yeah, but the reason being a mangaka is so time consuming is because drawing takes a long time. It takes longer than thinking, it's just a fact. The artist needs almost all of the hours he's awake for a week to be on time, I doubt that the writer of the most complex story in the world would take longer than 4 or 5 straight hours to come up with the story for a single chapter. Besides, each individual chapter has so little actual plot in it that what the writer came up with in those 4~5 hours is probably going to last longer than one chapter, and it'll generate the next chapter's name MUCH quicker, and I just don't see it as time consuming.
Now I'm not undermining the importance of the author. In fact, he probably matters more than the artist. If we were to divide every successful manga in the world to art/story, almost all of them would depend much more greatly on the story, and an art style that was vaguely different or slightly less good would still suffice. Either way, regardless of your opinion on the matter, it can be agreed that the author is at least as important as the artist, right?
So why isn't he portrayed that way here? Especially since the entire story was written by someone that does this FOR A LIVING, it seemed increasingly weirder and weirder that he would portray him as less central in a manga's creation than the artist. I mean, not necessarily, but you get my point, right? Mashiro's always been in the center of the plot.
And then it hit me. Bakuman isn't trying to fulfill Ohba's urges. If there was only one story writer we could call absolutely brilliant in the manga industry, Ohba would definitely be one to seriously consider. He's the last person in the world that would make Takagi important just because he has his role. He's not going to be selfish about this, he's going to be realistic. And the realistic part of it is that regardless of how important and crucial the author's part is, the artist's part is ultimately going to take a lot longer to produce, and the majority of manga creation is the artist drawing without even thinking, for hours on end.
That's not the only thing that's realistic about it, though. The thing that's realistic about it is that people that relate to Takagi are less common than people that relate to Mashiro. By default, Takagi is a bit of a school genius which already puts him over the majority of the world's population that find themselves relating to the underachieving shonen hero. But also, people that would relate to Takagi are frequently not people that would dream of becoming mangaka. You know who dreams of becoming a mangaka? The artist.
A storyteller -- well, at least a good storyteller -- wants to tell a story, and he wants to do it pretty damn well. I'm obviously not in the position to speak for every person that has storytelling talent, but I think we can agree with fair confident that for the most part (not necessarily always, but for the most part,) a storyteller's desire is to tell a story. A writer wants to write and he wants to share his story with you, and he wants you to read it and take it seriously. I just don't think the storyteller would care that much if it's a manga or not. I think a real Takagi would be pretty fine with writing novels, I don't think the idea of an ultimate dream being BECOMING A MANGAKA is a thing that people other than young artists can relate to.
Bakuman is of course not a manga that's dependent solely on people relating to it. There's a bunch more to it and it tries to be a story that would appeal to the average reader regardless of how much they want to be a mangaka, but I still think that the shonen hero is meant to appeal to the shonen reader, and the shonen reader is going to be much more of a Mashiro than a Takagi.
I wrote a lot and a lot of it didn't make sense, and a lot of it is also inevitably going to be wrong or disagreeable. Anyone else thinks this topic is interesting and worth discussing?
Why do you think that is?
My first instinct would tell me that the story itself was written by Ohba, and if it was anything like Death Note, it had very little input from Obata. So Ohba, as a person that writes manga for his career, would surely choose to put Takagi at the same importance as Mashiro if not more important?
And I know that they're usually regarded as a two-man team. I know the story frequently pretends that Mashiro isn't the main character, but it's obvious he is. He's the first one introduced, he is alone in the first volume's cover, the main romance story is his and everything about Takagi screams backing character. If anything, Azuki has been more important to the depth of the story than Takagi. Well, not really, but all the really important and really serious chapters we've had involved either Azuki or Takagi, and she seems almost on par with him. So how is that?
Then there's another thing I'd like to point out. I don't care how hard Takagi works, I don't care how hard Ohba works, there's something to be said about the fact that drawing manga is by default going to take an exponentially larger amount of time than writing the story for it. Takagi thinks and his part is crucial, yes, but I don't think it's debatable that his part isn't as time consuming. All the stuff you hear about mangaka's little-to-no-room-for-breathing schedules, I very highly doubt that would apply to someone who only does the story. The story requires time and attention, yeah, but the reason being a mangaka is so time consuming is because drawing takes a long time. It takes longer than thinking, it's just a fact. The artist needs almost all of the hours he's awake for a week to be on time, I doubt that the writer of the most complex story in the world would take longer than 4 or 5 straight hours to come up with the story for a single chapter. Besides, each individual chapter has so little actual plot in it that what the writer came up with in those 4~5 hours is probably going to last longer than one chapter, and it'll generate the next chapter's name MUCH quicker, and I just don't see it as time consuming.
Now I'm not undermining the importance of the author. In fact, he probably matters more than the artist. If we were to divide every successful manga in the world to art/story, almost all of them would depend much more greatly on the story, and an art style that was vaguely different or slightly less good would still suffice. Either way, regardless of your opinion on the matter, it can be agreed that the author is at least as important as the artist, right?
So why isn't he portrayed that way here? Especially since the entire story was written by someone that does this FOR A LIVING, it seemed increasingly weirder and weirder that he would portray him as less central in a manga's creation than the artist. I mean, not necessarily, but you get my point, right? Mashiro's always been in the center of the plot.
And then it hit me. Bakuman isn't trying to fulfill Ohba's urges. If there was only one story writer we could call absolutely brilliant in the manga industry, Ohba would definitely be one to seriously consider. He's the last person in the world that would make Takagi important just because he has his role. He's not going to be selfish about this, he's going to be realistic. And the realistic part of it is that regardless of how important and crucial the author's part is, the artist's part is ultimately going to take a lot longer to produce, and the majority of manga creation is the artist drawing without even thinking, for hours on end.
That's not the only thing that's realistic about it, though. The thing that's realistic about it is that people that relate to Takagi are less common than people that relate to Mashiro. By default, Takagi is a bit of a school genius which already puts him over the majority of the world's population that find themselves relating to the underachieving shonen hero. But also, people that would relate to Takagi are frequently not people that would dream of becoming mangaka. You know who dreams of becoming a mangaka? The artist.
A storyteller -- well, at least a good storyteller -- wants to tell a story, and he wants to do it pretty damn well. I'm obviously not in the position to speak for every person that has storytelling talent, but I think we can agree with fair confident that for the most part (not necessarily always, but for the most part,) a storyteller's desire is to tell a story. A writer wants to write and he wants to share his story with you, and he wants you to read it and take it seriously. I just don't think the storyteller would care that much if it's a manga or not. I think a real Takagi would be pretty fine with writing novels, I don't think the idea of an ultimate dream being BECOMING A MANGAKA is a thing that people other than young artists can relate to.
Bakuman is of course not a manga that's dependent solely on people relating to it. There's a bunch more to it and it tries to be a story that would appeal to the average reader regardless of how much they want to be a mangaka, but I still think that the shonen hero is meant to appeal to the shonen reader, and the shonen reader is going to be much more of a Mashiro than a Takagi.
I wrote a lot and a lot of it didn't make sense, and a lot of it is also inevitably going to be wrong or disagreeable. Anyone else thinks this topic is interesting and worth discussing?
