Let’s quickly skip over the fact that I’m watching fansubs again—right now, that’s the only way to watch Bakuman 2. We can talk about it later.
I want to talk about Aoki Ko, the most problematic character in Bakuman 2.
Ko has undergone a huge personality shift since the original Bakuman. Originally portrayed as an ice queen, she’s now blushing, flustered and boy crazy. For some inexplicable reason, she’s writing a new manga that consists of copious amounts of panty shots.
I don’t get it because from everything we’re told about Aoki Ko’s life tells me that she’s intelligent and independent. She’s a graduate student and a teacher (two things I can totally relate to), and on top of that a (sometimes) syndicated manga author. When her new editor suggested she turn her romantic storyline into a raunchy comic, I thought it was a joke. The moment Ko quietly assigned herself to doing it was the moment I stopped believing in her character. Why would a woman as accomplished as Ko debase herself like that?
I probably shouldn’t be surprised. There’s always been weird gender politics going on in that show, but they’ve never been this distracting. Before, I could ignore Mashiro and Azuki’s creepy marriage pact and write it off as an old-fashioned concept of romance. But now, more than ever, it’s unavoidable to see the women in this show as nothing but sex objects, solely there to motivate—and be motivated by—the men.
A few weeks ago, before everything started going all soap opera, I used to describe Bakuman 2 as “an anime by two authors based on a manga about two authors creating a manga in hopes that it will become an anime.” I would also tell people that watching Mashiro and Shujin’s enviable productivity always made me feel lazy. But now, the manga has taken a backseat to the characters’ drama, during which I cannot relate to the motives of a single woman on this show.
I’m not ready to say this show is sexist, however. It’s more confusing than that. It portrays women in a way that makes me uncomfortable, but I can’t put my finger on it yet. It’s totally lacking in a woman’s perspective.
I’m getting that feeling that I’m only watching this show now because of momentum. I’m suddenly recalling that I have no idea what the word “bakuman” even means. On screen, we see Mashiro and Shujin cranking out manga chapters at remarkable speed. Maybe when artists are working this quickly, the thing that gets lost in the shuffle is remembering to have at least one believable female character.
Are you watching Bakuman 2?
7 Comments.
I’m not watching this.
From what you have written it sounds like the first series is worth watching, but the second is not.
I love character growth in anime/manga/and storytelling really, but when a character does a 180 degree change for no apparent reason…It’s just a turn off from what might have been great.
I haven’t been watching the series. I have been reading the manga however. In either vol 2 or 3, one of the authors said the name Bakuman first came from “Bakuhatsu” which means explosion, and just took out the Hatsu and added man I believe.
As for Aoki’s character, I’m not sure if it’s a case of her accepting the change–after all she wasn’t even sure she could trust in men (I think you’re that far in the show, assuming it’s following the manga)–but she is writing for a shonen magazine, and I don’t see it as making her an unbelievable character, especially since…it’s supposed to be a raunchy comic? I’m pretty sure it’s still a romantic comedy, just with apparent panty shots like series like Ichigo 100%, I’s, stuff like that.
But by the way I’m reading it, it seems the anime rushed through for some things?
@Justin, Ichigo 100% is definitely a harem anime, not a romance. I mean, even the title focuses on the pattern on one girl’s panties! It’s definitely designed to pander to male otaku.
Aoki Ko certainly seems like she’s done a 180 to me. First she’s writing a manga about fairies, now she’s writing one that shows plenty of upskirt shots. I’m not sure the anime is at a point where they’ve established whether she trusts men or not; she’s said she trusts Shujin more than other men, but he hasn’t proven himself to be all that trustworthy to begin with. You know, I wish they would show us more of each of the comics in Bakuman— I bet that’d explain a lot.
Finally, thanks for letting me know what Bakuman means!
Well from the start I always thought of her as awkward/shy instead of just plain cold. Cold was the writer rival girl with the black hair. So her opening up didn’t feel too out of wack here.
I never saw her as awkward. In her meetings with the other manga artists, she always seemed standoffish to the point of being rude. She always sounded confident when talking about Hideout Door.
The fact is, I don’t remember the writer rival girl’s name either. I guess we’ll both memorize it soon when she becomes a manga rival next episide.
Not ENTIRELY certain the sex-objects reading applies here.
What’s more interesting is how Aoki becomes complicit in purveying pandering sexualization in her manga. I think Shakesville covered that here: Same Boat; Grab a Paddle.
She is different now, but I think it’s for the better. In season 1, every female character was either a love interest or an “ice queen” as you said. I guess technically there’s Aoki’s mom, but she’s very minor.
I wouldn’t say that Aoki is a sex object. There’s a lot of cutesy love stuff and she’s never shown in a fanservicey way. You could argue that she’s a romance object.
At first glance, it seems like she exists only as motivation for Mashiro, but he wanted to be a mangaka before he proposed to her, and in the hospital he specifically said that he’d choose manga over her. So while those motivations are related, they are distinct.
She doesn’t get that much character development, but that’s hard-coded into the premise. The show is really about Mashiro and Takagi, and Mashiro and Aoki aren’t allowed to date because that’s the premise. Personally I think that’s a bit awkward, but I don’t think they can go back on that now that it’s built into the show. I guess they could cover her story more, but then it would basically be two shows in one and the authors clearly want to focus on manga writing politics more than acting politics.
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That was longer than I expected. Anyway, Aoki. She always wanted a lot of control over her work. She wasn’t willing to put in fight scenes, for example. In season 2 just before her advisor-person suggested that she put in panty shots, she was about to leave the magazine and go back to a whole different genre, the one she started in.
Note that she CHOSE to switch over to shonen manga, for whatever the reason. If we ever found out what it was, I forgot it. But there must be one. She only bitterly took her ball to go home because they wouldn’t let her do things her way. She still wanted to do shonen manga, but only on her own terms.
At this point, the advisor suggests that she do panty shots. Maybe she sees that as a way that she can manage the content of her manga however she wants as long as she does a page or two of fanservice now and then. Since she’s primarily a writer more than a drawer, it’s understandable she would care more about the plot than the art. She doesn’t jump at the opportunity either: she has to think about it for a while, so she was conflicted over the decision.
And about her falling for Takagi: she wanted a male perspective on romance for her manga, so she talked to him. It’s entirely believable that something would develop when two people of different gender and about the same age talk about romance all the time. It doesn’t have to happen, but it’s believable.
All of this isn’t necessarily even inconsistent with season 1. Maybe she only seemed like an ice queen because she’s very internal about her emotions. We also never see anything from her perspective in season 1. Also, maybe her manga not doing as well as she expected humbled her.
If you really want an example of a bad female character, how about Aiko? She likes Takagi since season 1, and seems to never get over it even after he rejects her multiple times. She even changes her career specifically to get revenge on him. Her character is (at least so far) purely defined in terms of being in love with Takagi. That being said, I’m not sure if that’s bad character design or whether I just personally dislike her. Pretty much everything I said about her also applies to…the fat guy. I forget his name.