You may be familiar with the names OBATA Takeshi (小畑 健) and OOBA Tsugumi (大場 つぐみ): they're the ones who created Death Note, they supernatural psychological thriller that's one of the most appreciated and talked-about manga+anime in recent years.
Bakuman is their second work together, and it couldn't be more different from Death Note: no spirits, no mysterious deaths, no mind games. It's a much "softer" story, about family, ambition, growth, love, and hard work.
Akito wants to become a mangaka; he convinces Moritaka, nephew of a famous manga artist, to join forces and work toward their dream. As an additional motivation, Moritaka's sweetheart Miho promises to marry him when their reach their dream goals (she wants to become a voice actress).
The road to fame, publication, and love is not easy, though: the world of professional mangaka is very competitive, everyone works as hard as they can to win one of the very few serialised publication slots, and even winning a few contests is no guarantee of success.
Even if the premise may seem a bit flimsy, there's enough story to fill this season's 25 episodes, plus two more seasons (which will hopefully be published in the UK in the next two or three years). If you like action, fights, explosions, and the like, you'll probably find Bakuman rather boring and slow; if on the other hand you like stories of normal people reaching for their dreams with hard work, friendship, and (to be honest) an amazing amount of luck, you should really treat yourself with this series.
