As a child, Moritaka Mashiro wanted to be a manga artist like his uncle. However, after certain events transpired, he refocused his efforts towards studying in middle school.
One day, aspiring writer Akito Takagi notices some detailed drawings in Moritaka’s notebook and approaches him to propose they become a mangaka duo together.
Realizing that he might be able to get his crush to notice him if they make an anime adaption of it with her as the voice actor, Moritaka agrees, and thus, the mangaka Muto Ashirogi is born.
An interest in anime and an interest in manga often go hand-in-hand, so it is always great to see how these things get made. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Bakuman, head on down below.
Anime Like Bakuman
For Fans of Making Manga
Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun
Chiyo Sakura has fallen head over heels for the handsome and oblivious Umetarou Nozaki. However, when she confesses her love, he gives her an autograph.
It turns out this stoic boy is actually a respected shoujo manga artist. After a series of misunderstandings, Chiyo winds up not as his girlfriend, but as his manga assistant.
Similarities Between Bakuman and Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun
- Both series follow manga artists who are very serious about their job
- Both offer a closer look at many aspects of the manga creation process
- You are introduced to an array of interesting side characters
Differences Between Bakuman and Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun
- Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun is a romance anime, but its doesn’t actually focus on romance that much. Regardless, the manga aspect still has to compete with that unlike Bakuman that is all manga.
- Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun is more shoujo compared to Bakuman’s very shounen presentation and depiction.
- Bakuman focuses more on professional competition whereas Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun lacks that professional or competitive element. Mostly it is just them creating and talking about manga in a room.
The Manga Artist and His Assistants
This story depicts the work life of a perverted manga artist, Aito Yuuki, and his assistant, Ashisu Sahoto.
Under constant pressure by his editor and lacking girl experience, he frequently used his assistant as a reference.
Similarities Between Bakuman and The Manga Artist and His Assistants
- Both series are about manga artists
- The manga artist often act a bit perverted or awkward when it comes to women
Differences Between Bakuman and The Manga Artist and His Assistants
- The Manga Artist and His Assistant is very much a comedy, not a drama like Bakuman.
- The Manga Artist and His Assistant can be quite a bit more ecchi than Bakuman.
Comic Girls
Kaoruko Moeta is a manga artist that wants to make a manga about high school girls. However, due to her lack of interaction with girls her own age, her manga is terrible!
Her editor suggests that she moves into a dormitory full of other female manga artists who are also in high school.
Through living with these other manga artists, hopefully she can find the hit manga inspiration that she needs.
Similarities Between Bakuman and Comic Girls
- Both series are about manga artists, and more so than just the main character
- The main character starts making manga from minimal experience
- Both series feature mentors as well as rivals
Differences Between Bakuman and Comic Girls
- Bakuman is very much shounen storytelling while Comic Girls lives firmly in moe, CGDCT sensibilities – though Comic Girls is really the only other series with as much of a “manga making focus” as Bakuman.
- Comic Girls is more about the main character trying to improve her talent as an artist while Bakuman is more focused on their professional aspirations.
- Comic Girls, as each girl works in a different genre, explores more genres of manga.
A Galaxy Next Door
After the death of their father, Ichirou Kuga supported his two younger siblings on their inheritance and by taking up drawing manga. However, with tight deadlines, he finds himself in need of a new assistant to help him meet his schedule.
While growing dangerously near his breaking point, Shiori Goshiki takes the job. She is incredibly fast and also detailed, a real dream assistant.
However, one night while working late, Ichirou gets pricked by something on Goshiki’s body and suddenly finds out that now they can’t be too physically far apart without him suffering ill effects, but they are, according to the customs of her homeland, engaged to marry.
Similarities Between Bakuman and A Galaxy Next Door
- Both series are about manga creators
- The manga creators are motivated by a girl
- You get a closer look at the creative manga-making process
Differences Between Bakuman and A Galaxy Next Door
- A Galaxy Next Door is very much a romance anime first, and making manga is a secondary focus. Bakuman is all manga.
- Bakuman displays creating manga in what is best described as a “shounen action” style way. By comparison, A Galaxy Next Door is a softer series, almost shoujo in its presentation.
- All the characters are pretty wholesome in A Galaxy Next Door. The same cannot be said for Bakuman.
For Fans of Chasing Passion
Blue Period
In his second year of high school, Yatora Yaguchi goofs off with his friends and studies hard enough to make good grades. However, neither makes him happy. Bound by normal activities, he wonders if there is something more.
One day, he discovers the joy of drawing after becoming enchanted by a painting made by an art club member. Deciding he wants to do art as a living, Yatora faces a number challenges including his own hesitation on how far art can take him.
Similarities Between Bakuman and Blue Period
- Both series follow high school-aged artists who are starting from virtually nothing.
- Both series are extremely focused on the main characters chasing a specific artistic passion and hoping for professional success.
- Their successes feel inspiring, but at the same time, their failures feel just as devastating.
- Both series feature main characters with a similar sort of intensity about the art that has captivated them.
Differences Between Bakuman and Blue Period
- Blue Period is about traditional art while Bakuman is about making manga.
- Blue Period lacks the romantic motivations of Bakuman, but makes up for it with more emotional character stories.
Shirobako
The five members of the Kaminoyama High School animation club all make a pledge to make their project for the school cultural festival a huge success, then afterwards move to Tokyo and work in the industry.
Fast forward two years in the future and two members have made their dream a reality, but making anime is no easy task.
Similarities Between Bakuman and Shirobako
- Both series are fully dedicated to the creation process of your favorite media – anime and manga.
- Both follow bright-eyed hopefuls in the industry who are quickly humbled by professional realities and hurdles.
- Both are very in-depth with the details of creation on a professional level.
Differences Between Bakuman and Shirobako
- Shirobako is about making anime, Bakuman is about making manga. Those are similar, but have wildly different creation processes.
- Shirobako follows an already-established professional, not a high school hopeful like Bakuman
- Shirobako isn’t quite as fiery and passionate like Bakuman. It is more subdued and realistic.
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken
With sketchbook always on hand, Midori Asakusa has a passion for drawing both the world around her and the world in her boundless imagination. In stark contrast, her best friend Sayaka Kanamori and her calculated approach to life keeps her grounded.
After a chance encounter with model Tsubame Misuzaki who has a passion for drawing fluid characters, Kanamori, sensing a money-making opportunity, suggests they start an animation club.
Similarities Between Bakuman and Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken
- Both series are fully dedicated to the creation process of your favorite media – anime and manga.
- The main characters are very passionate about their specific medium.
- The series both end up as real, educational love letters to their specific media.
- You get a high school glance at the realities of the creation process.
Differences Between Bakuman and Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken
- Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken is about making anime, Bakuman is about making manga.
- Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken features female main characters, though they are just as degenerate as male characters. The real difference is that the main characters in Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken are far more eccentric than the duo in Bakuman.
- Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken is definitely the more artistic anime.
- While the team in Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken has professional aspirations, it stays on a high school level.
The Pet Girl of Sakura Hall
Unable to resist taking in abandoned kittens, and amassing quite a collection of them, Sorata Kanda is forced to move to Suimei High School’s infamous Sakura Hall. This dorm is used to house all the misfit students that don’t quite fit in the regular housing.
There, Sorata meets an array of different oddballs that inspire him to work towards getting back into the regular dorms and away from them.
However, when a new transfer student moves in, he meets the incredible artist, Shiina Mashiro. While talented, she is completely incapable of taking care of herself, and so, Sorata brings her into his care and his strange days truly begin.
Similarities Between Bakuman and The Pet Girl of Sakura Hall
- Both series are about the creative process of either anime or manga on a high school level
- The main characters become increasingly more passionate about their projects
- Both series are awash in relatable, but still eccentric characters.
- Romance plays an element in each series
Differences Between Bakuman and The Pet Girl of Sakura Hall
- The Pet Girl of Sakura Hall follows a main character who is, at first, unsure of even what he wants to do in the future, but wants to find a passion to work towards like everyone around him has.
- The Pet Girl of Sakura Hall is more about making anime, but that is a smaller aspect of the plot compared to the manga making in Bakuman.
- The Pet Girl of Sakura Hall is a slice of life comedy with romantic and coming-of-age elements first.
Smile Down The Runway
Fujito Chiyuki has dreamed of being the star model for her father’s modeling agency since she was a girl. Unfortunately, she stopped growing and is considered too short to be a good model. Regardless, she kept pursuing her dream.
Only did her resolve start to waiver in her last year of high school. However, after meeting Tsumura Ikuto, a classmate with a passion for designing clothes, does she join him on a seemingly impossible journey to achieve their dreams.
Similarities Between Bakuman and Smile Down The Runway
- Both series follow main characters with very specific interests in very specific career areas
- You watch high school kids strive towards professional-level success
- The main character is motivated by a girl who also has her own “related, but different” dream.
- Both offer more in-depth glimpses at professional areas not often seen in anime, and do so in inspiring ways.
Differences Between Bakuman and Smile Down The Runway
- Smile Down The Runway is about fashion, not making manga like Bakuman
- Smile Down The Runway has a more unclear main character, particularly since it is very good about exploring the struggles of all its major characters.
- Bakuman presents making manga in a more competitive, fiery shounen way while Smile Down The Runway features more dramatic shoujo/josei style storytelling.
Saekano – How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend
Tomoya Aki is your typical otaku who takes on part-time jobs to fund his anime and light novel obsession. However, one day when he was out riding his bike, he catches the beret of a girl and is so captivated by the scene before him that he sets out to create the ultimate dating sim.
While he struggles to do so, he eventually recruits three of the school’s most popular girls, who also happen to be good at drawing, writing, and music as well as are otakus themselves. After some debate, each agrees to help make his vision come to life.
In this new doujin circle, he also happens across the girl that inspired him, but she was not what he expected and certainly doesn’t stand up to his 2D expectations.
Similarities Between Bakuman and Saekano
- Both series are about a main character trying to make something with other people
- They are trying their best to make their product the best they can, experiencing both success and failure.
- Both are a bit educational on the topic at hand as they create it.
- The main characters have extensive experience enjoying the media, but minimal experience creating it.
- Both main characters were motivated by a girl.
Differences Between Bakuman and Saekano
- Saekano is unambiguously a harem anime.
- Bakuman is about making manga, Saekano is about creating a dating sim/visual novel.
- Saekano often focuses more on the stories of the individual girls involved in the creation process than creating the game itself.
- Saekano isn’t as intense about creating the game as Bakuman is about making manga. In fact, it is most often more of a comedy with drama developing later on.
For Fans of Friendly Rivalries
Space Brothers
After spotting what they believe to be a UFO, two brothers, Mutta and Hibito, vow to become astronauts.
Fast forward to their adult years and Mutta’s life isn’t going as expected as he toils in an automotive company while the younger Hibito is well on his way to be the very first Japanese man on the moon.
When Mutta loses his job and is given a chance to catch up to his brother by joining the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, he jumps at the chance.
Similarities Between Bakuman and Space Brothers
- Both series are about people chasing passions they once gave up on, but for real this time.
- Rivalries come from people who are chasing the same dream, but the industry has limited spots
- Grounded, realistic characters that are hard not to root for
- Strong motivational messages due in no small part to detailing the realistic small successes the character has and watching the lessons they learn from failures.
Differences Between Bakuman and Space Brothers
- Space Brothers is about becoming an astronaut while Bakuman is about making manga.
- Space Brothers follows adults while Bakuman follows high school students. This means Space Brothers has a more mature tone, and for many characters, this is their last chance at their dream.
- Space Brothers is more of a drama while Bakuman uses more fiery shounen-style storytelling to make things a bit more intense.
- Space Brothers features just one main character, and he is a much more likable goofball all on his own. In Bakuman, it is the main character duo dynamic that makes things enjoyable, but each main character on their own is not quite as fun.
Chihayafuru
Growing up in the shadow of her older sister, Chihaya Ayase is strong-willed and a tomboy with no dreams of her own. However, after learning an outcast in her class, Arata Wataya, has incredible skill at karuta and his huge passion inspires her, she is pulled into the world of the poem-based card game along with her other childhood friend, Taichi Mashima.
While Chihaya grew a passion for karuta with her two childhood friends, they grew distant when they were separated in middle school. Now a high schooler, Chihaya still aims to be the queen of karuta and wants to compete with Arata again to grow her skill.
Similarities Between Bakuman and Chihayafuru
- Both series feature highly passionate protagonists who are passionate about one specific thing.
- The high school-aged main characters are motivated to become professionals in their area of play.
- Romance plays a role
- The main characters develop rivals who are all aiming for the top spot.
- Both feature a more shounen style storytelling when it comes to the topic, giving otherwise normal things a more intense atmosphere.
Differences Between Bakuman and Chihayafuru
- Bakuman is about making manga, Chihayafuru is about the card matching game, karuta
- Chihayafuru’s romance element is love triangle that forms around the main character.
- Making manga in Bakuman is an already-interesting topic, but Chihayafuru does the unexpected by making a card game about matching poems really quite fun to watch.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Bakuman? Let fans know in the comments section below.
