‹ Home

Bakuman. watch order

Middle schooler Moritaka Mashiro can draw, and classmate Akito Takagi can write, so they team up to become manga artists and get serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump. From the creators of Death Note, it's a 75-episode look at the manga business, told across three seasons that adapt the whole manga.

First time? Watch Bakuman., Bakuman. 2 and Bakuman. 3 in order. The specials are optional bonus shorts and a recap.

Release order

Release order is also story order. Only the three TV seasons matter; the specials are bonus shorts and a recap.

  1. Bakuman. TV, 2010–11, 25 episodes

    Season 1. Mashiro and Takagi form the duo Muto Ashirogi, get a Jump editor, enter their first one-shots for awards, meet rival prodigy Eiji Niizuma and push for their first serialization.

  2. Bakuman. 2 TV, 2011–12, 25 episodes

    Season 2. Their first serialized series, Detective Trap, a new editor, a growing circle of rival artists, and the fight to stay in Jump's rankings.

  3. Bakuman. 2nd Season Special (optional) Special, 2012, 1 episode

    Optional. A four-minute Blu-ray bonus that animates Rakko 11-gou, the gag manga drawn by in-story artist Hiramaru. No story.

  4. Bakuman. Deraman (optional) Special, 2012, 2 episodes

    Optional. The first episode recaps Seasons 1 and 2 ahead of Season 3; the second has the cast show off the in-story manga and pick which they'd like to see animated.

  5. Bakuman. 3 TV, 2012–13, 25 episodes

    Season 3 and the end of the story. The duo's new series PCP, their race against Niizuma, the challenger Nanamine, and the push to get their work made into an anime with Azuki as the heroine's voice. It covers a lot of manga, so it moves faster than the earlier seasons.

  6. Bakuman. 3 Specials (optional) Special, 2013, 2 episodes

    Optional. Two three-minute Rakko shorts from the Season 3 Blu-ray and DVD boxes. No story.

Explained

Does the anime finish the story?

Yes. The three seasons adapt the whole manga, which ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 2008 to 2012, up to its ending. Season 3 is noticeably more compressed than the first two. Two short prequel chapters published in 2015 were never animated.

What are Deraman and the Rakko specials?

Extras. Deraman's first episode is a recap of Seasons 1 and 2, and its second is a light special about the manga in the show. The Rakko shorts animate a gag manga drawn by one of the characters. You can skip all of them.

Is there an English dub?

Only for the first seven episodes, which Media Blasters released on DVD in 2011 before dropping the series over weak sales. Everything after that is subtitled only, so most people watch it subtitled from the start.

What about the live-action movie?

Bakuman (2015), starring Takeru Satoh and Ryunosuke Kamiki, is a standalone live-action film that condenses the story. It's separate from the anime and not needed for it.