Akito Takagi

Origin

Akito tells his mother he won't let her control his future anymore

Akito Takagi was a child prodigy when it came to academics, always getting good grades and being at the top of the class. However the reason for this was because his father lost his job as a banker when he was a little kid and his mother ever since then pushed him at all times to keep working hard in an attempt to "Avenge his father." However he could only take this for so long and in the fifth grade he snapped at his mother and told him to let him decide his own future. Ever since then she has said nothing to him about his future and has never even been mentioned again (implying that they are estranged at this point). He then started to enjoy the things that other kids were interested in and he saw the world of manga and he realized all the creative and colorful potential there and realized he could use his imagination that he's always had in him.

Creation

The characters of Bakuman were all created by Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba, the same creative team behind Death Note, and like many successful mangakas before them they kept character designs from their previous works alive in these characters. It is said that the design for Akito came from the protagonist of Death Note, Light Yagami, with similar shaped face and hair, but he also shares his intelligence and strategic mind with Light. As for his character itself, Akito and Mashiro are partners on their manga series, just like Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba have been partners, with one being the writer and one being the artist, so it is said that he is meant to represent Tsugumi, especially with how many of Akito's series that he's created have shared similar dark tones and intellectual heroes anti-heroes that Tsugumi specializes in.

Character Evolution

Akito began the series as a fourteen year old in middle school who was focused on his school work. However as soon as he teamed up with Mashiro he began to show off his fun loving and goofy side. Throughout the series he and Mashiro have gone from close friends to jaded co-workers and back to close friends again. And he's not the only person that Akito has developed a close relationship with, as he has grown close to Kaya and even married her. Currently in the series both of them are focusing on building a family and thinking about if its the right time to have children. Who could have ever known that this clownish genius would become a settled down family man, but he still retains his love of manga and seeks to become the best.

Major Story Arcs

The Birth of a Partnership

Akito pitches his mangaka proposition to Mashiro

Akito begins the series as a normal middle school student who spies Moritaka Mashiro working on some sketches of a girl he likes, Miho Azuki. He tells him that he won't tell her about this, if he decides to do a manga with him. This takes Mashiro completely by surprise but he refuses to do it. However Akito learns from Kaya Miyoshi that Miho actually dreams of becoming a voice over actress, so in an attempt to sway Mashiro he takes him over to Miho's house and has the two confront one another, spilling to Mashiro that Miho wants to be a voice over actress and to Miho that Mashiro wants to draw manga. This fuels Mashiro and he comes out and tells Miho what he thinks of her and they agree that if Mashiro can get an anime made from his manga series then she'll do the voice of the heroine and they'll get married.

Their hard work pays off as Akira Hattori becomes their editor

With Moritaka now on board they move into Moritaka's uncle's old drawing studio. The first thing they notice is that it is full of old mangas that he had collected before he died. They begin developing ideas for what kind of series they should make by reading the old mangas that are scattered around the room. They eventually create a series called Money and Intelligence which is about a future where people can buy someone else's thoughts and intellect. They submit this to a contest in Akamaru Jump and it is accepted. The one shot is published and is highly praised, which is when Eiji Niizuma first takes note of his future rivals. Using this popularity they arrange a meeting at Shonen Jump to speak with an editor. Akira Hattori meets with them and is instantly stunned by what they've drawn and written, so he agrees to help them by giving them his business card.

Excited by this turn of events the two of them get to work on their next idea. They agree that it would be better not to stick with Money and Intelligence since it might be too out there for Shonen Jump, so instead they start focusing on something more mainstream. As they work on this Akito's life becomes more hectic, as Kaya Miyoshi, the girl who told him about Miho wanting to be a voice over actress, says that they should go on a date even though he never agreed to it, not to mention that Aiko Iwase (the smartest girl in their class) also says they had agreed to a date just because she shook his hand once. Akito agrees to date Kaya, much to the dismay of Aiko. And to top off his troubles at school another "artist" from their class, Hidemitsu Ishizawa, who only draws simple basic headshots of girls, insults Moritaka's art. This infuriates Akito and he punches Hidemitsu, getting him in trouble for the first time ever at school. And things aren't looking much better at Shonen Jump for them, as he and Moritaka finally meet Eiji, the young prodigy who everyone has been talking about. He tells the two of them he was such a fan of their comic, however before they can be grateful for the praise he then sits down and draws out the Name for his next series, right there in front of them without even thinking about it. It is then that they realize he truly is the rival they must defeat if they want to become number one.

A kiss that could end a partnership?

Akito and Moritaka work on their next idea for series but none of them feel right to them. Summer comes along and Kaya begins hanging out at their office more often, much to Moritaka's displeasure. Akito however defends her being there because she supports them (plus the two of them are dating). Kaya however has decided that she wants to start her own writing career online and Akito decides to help her out, but this just frustrates Moritaka more because now he's sure that Akito isn't focusing solely on their series. However Kaya does start to help out Akito with his writing, agreeing to fight him so that he can learn what it's like to be in a real battle, which he figures will help him with writing a battle manga. Later Akito goes off on a date with Kaya and she asks him if she's causing him to be distracted from the series, he tells her no she isn't and he begins to actually fall for her as the two of them share their first kiss. However unknown to him Moritaka just happened to be passing by the park as this happened and saw it, which made him decide to leave for the summer to be an assistant for Eiji. Moritaka gives Akito an ultimatum, telling him that he has to come up with a series by the end of Summer or else their partnership is over.

Akito continues to suffer from writer's block throughout the rest of summer until the end of the season, when he finally gets an idea to write a detective series. However he can't finish it by Moritaka's deadline and the two of them break up their partnership. However Akito shows his idea to Hattori and he then realizes these two are destined to work together because their completely in sync. He gets Akito to go back to Moritaka and show him what he's been working on, and they then learn that both of them spent the summer working on a detective series. With that their partnership is reborn and they begin working on their new series.

Detective Trap

Meet your new editor, Goro Miura

With the two of them now working on a detective series, they come up with the idea for a detective who catches his criminals through a series of traps, calling the series appropriately enough, "Detective Trap." The series is submitted to Shonen Jump and they are serialized. This is a huge victory for the two, however it comes with a bit of a consequence, as Hattori, the man who helped them all this way and guided them to become the team they are, was not chosen to be their editor. They are assigned the youthful and inexperienced Goro Miura, whose energetic attitude continues to keep the duo pumped up and excited about their new series.

They quickly get situated and learn what it means to be real Mangakas, including getting assistants and paychecks. They even go to the annual New Years Party for the Shonen Jump employees where they win a big screen TV for their studio as well as meet their new rival Kazuya Hiramaru. Their new series starts off slowly with Goro telling them it's fine, but Akito can tell something is wrong, starting with chapter seven he begins rewriting the series even up to the last minute to try to improve it, however this doesn't improve it either and Moritaka believes they just have to trust that their audience will grow over time once people get used to a Mystery series. It turns out that he was right and the series slowly starts to rise in popularity until it is even tying Eiji's series Crow each week. However, Akito and Moritaka are still in school, and the stress of having to do both eventually get to Moritaka as he feints one day while drawing. He is rushed to the hospital and Akito spends as much time as he can helping him recover, but neither one of them wants to admit that they can't actually make this work, that they can't be mangakas and high school students. Unfortunately the Editor in Chief of Shonen Jump, Hisashi Sasaki, says that he won't allow this to go on and puts Detective Trap on hiatus until Moritaka makes a recovery. However, this doesn't stop Akito and Moritaka from working, they both know that they can make this work so they both keep writing and drawing the series even while Moritaka is in the hospital. When they get out, the two partners and their editor Goro go into the office of Hisashi Sasaki and present all the chapters they've finished while in the hospital, and with that they are reinstated immediately. They are overjoyed by this and receive a hug from Hattori as their reward for their hard work.

Gag Mangas and Marriage

However unfortunately the hiatus they took caused them to lose most of the fans they had taken so long to build up, and their ratings continued to drop, until they were eventually canceled. However, while at first they were depressed over it, they were quickly energized again to begin writing a new series. Goro suggest that they try their hand at a gag manga, which Moritaka doesn't think they're suited for, however after Goro compliments Akito's comedic skills enough times it causes him to change his mind and actually like the idea. However after he starts working on ideas he quickly realizes that Moritaka was right, that this isn't the kind of series he should be writing.

They agree to try writing two different one shots, one serious and one a gag manga, whichever one gets higher ratings will be the one they work with. Their plan is that they'll prove to their editor that they just aren't suited for Gag Mangas, so they write one serious story about a man with a watch allowing him to time travel, and another one that is a gag series about a group of hitmen trying to kill each other. The gag manga runs first and comes in tenth place, which leads them to believe they will be triumphant, only to have the serious story come in ninth, just one place higher. Even though they won, they still don't feel good about this. They meet with Goro again and get into an argument, causing Akito to storm out. It looks like their partnership with their new editor is over until a package arrives and they look through it to see that it is full of gag mangas that Goro had sent them, with in depth detailed criticisms of the gags that Goro had gone through. He then shows up at their studio and he bows and appologizes, and they agree to do a new gag manga.

Akito and Aoki grow close while helping each other with their series

However Akito still does't know if he's really suited for it, and while walking around thinking about it he bumps into Aoki, one of their fellow rivals, at the zoo. They begin talking about the new series they are working on and Aoki says she has a problem because she can't write from the male perspective, which is what her editor wants her new series to be, and Akito says that his new series needs more female leading characters and he doesn't know how to write for them. It is then that Akito gets struck with a bolt of inspiration, he decides that the two of them should help each other out, that they should tell each other how to write their new series and give them critiques to assist one another. The two of them begin to call each other every night, at first talking about their series but then just getting to know one another and becoming close friends, even talking until the sun comes up without realizing it. However Akito's now serious girlfriend Kaya begins to get suspicious about why Akito is always on the phone at such strange hours.

Aoki asks to see him again at the zoo, only this time when Akito shows up he learns that it wasn't her idea, she was told to meet with him by Iwase, the girl who tried to date Akito in middle school. She hands him a copy of his book and tries to convince him to give up on writing manga, because she views it as being beneath him and an inferior form of art. He once again shows no interest in her and she is enraged, she then promises she's going to write her own manga for Shonen Jump and she will defeat him, thus giving Akito a new rival.

Caught Red Handed

However this isn't the end of his troubles, as Aoki has an uncomfortable encounter with her fellow partner Nakai where he turns from a friend into a lecher. After this she goes to Akito for consolation, meeting him at the zoo again, only to have Kaya show up at the worst possible moment. She is convinced that Akito has been cheating on her with Aoki and she runs away in tears. Akito shouts out the only thing he can think of to get her to stop, asking her to marry him. She then pauses and listens to their story and realizes that she was wrong, however Akito means what he said, they are now engaged, but they will wait until Akito gets another series sold before doing it.

Akito meets with Kaya's father, who he is worried that he will have to fight in order to get his approval to marry his daughter. However it turns out that her father knew Moritaka's uncle and the two of them are able to bond and he gives Akito his blessing, only on the condition that he will take care of her and make a good living. Another bit of good luck follows as Akito and Moritaka's new series, "Run Daihatsu Tanto" is picked up for serialization. He and Kaya move into their own place, and aside from the frilly bed that she picks out, it's actually a surprisingly good apartment. The two of them establish a rule that they will settle all their squabbles and arguments by playing a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors (Akito loses the game to pick a new bed and he's stuck with the frilly pink bed).

Akito pitches a catchphrase for his latest series

However things don't stay good for long. Akito quickly realizes that he is not meant to be writing a gag manga and the stress starts to build in him. The ratings for his series are low and he starts doing everything he can to come up with ways to keep it alive, including coming up with catch-phrases that he hopes will be popular, yet nothing really moves the series up. However because it is the only Gag series that Shonen Jump has running at the moment and because young kids love it, their superiors will not cancel it. Akito and Kaya celebrate their wedding and Hattori comes to speak at it, but his congratulations speech turns out to be a coded message telling them how disappointed he is in their latest series. This troubles Akito all the way through his honeymoon and when he gets back both he and Moritaka decide that they want to cancel this series. They present their argument to Hisashi Sasaki, and he agrees to let them cancel it, but he warns them that they only have one more chance. They can submit one more series, and then it will have only until the next serialization meeting to prove that it can compete with Eiji Niizuma, meaning it must surpass in the ratings one of the two series he is now working on (the second one being +Natural, the series he is drawing with Akito's rival, Iwase).

Perfect Crime Party and Their Last Chance

To beat Eiji they must use everything they've learned

With only one final chance to make a hit series, Akito and Moritaka begin working on their next project, and their editor Goro Miura starts giving them instructions on what to write, but they're totally different from what he normally pitches. He tells them that they should revisit Money and Intelligence, but add another layer to it. After this one shot he tells them to write something Mainstream, because they have never seriously attempted it before. After these two attempts, Miura reveals to them that Hattori has been the one telling him what to say this whole time, and now the two of them are going to tell help them create a hit. Hattori tells them they'll have to try and incorporate everything they've learned up to this point into a series to make a winner, as well as incorporating new techniques, such as "serious humor" as he calls it.

Akito comes up with an idea to get him out of his writer's block, he plans on following Hattori around all day and spying on him, figuring that something interesting has to eventually happen to him that will give him an idea. He and Matori spend all day following him around in disguise, from his meeting with Iwase (since he is her editor for +Natural) to a drinking session with his fellow editors. At the end of the night all this spying and sneaking around gave Akito an idea for the series they should be writing, a series about committing the perfect crime. They both agree that all this spying got their blood pumping, so they test it out again by swapping out a present that Kaya bought for Miho while she's asleep. After doing this they are convinced that this is the type of story they should be writing. Akito comes up with the idea of a group of elementary school students who set out to commit perfect crimes, crimes where no one is hurt (in fact most of the time they're actually helping people) and they can't get caught. They name the series "PCP" short for "Perfect Crime Party," and it is submitted and accepted for serialization, however it just barely passed the vote. Hattori once again is assigned as their editor, a sign that the boys are back on the right track.

With Hattori back and a new team of assistants the boys are back on track, however both Eiji and Iwase aren't pulling their punches. If by the next serialization meeting PCP hasn't surpassed either Crow or +Natural in the ratings then Akito and Moritaka will lose their jobs as Mangakas from Shonen Jump no matter how well their series is doing. Eiji picks his game up with an issue with no dialogue, telling his story completely through action and his art, and Iwase spends nights working Eiji over until she finally convinces him to do a crossover issue, having his character Crow appear in her series +Natural. However Iwase doesn't want to lose to Akito that easily, and she calls him on the phone one night to tell him he better step his game up or else it won't mean anything to crush him, which only serves to encourage and cheer him on.

Akito and Iwase settle their issues

Akito comes up with an idea to win this match, but it's a gamble. He says that they should do a story arc, three issues long which introduces a rival character in PCP. They only have three issues left to surpass one of Eiji's series, so if this doesn't work its their last shot. Before the last issue comes out he runs into Iwase and the two of them have another talk, this time Akito thanks her for being his rival, because of that he has been able to push himself harder and grown stronger as a Mangaka. They shake hands again and encourage each other to do their best. The third issue resolves the arc and it is able to surpass +Natural, which actually falls rather far as a result of Iwase's own gamble of having Crow guest star.

From here Akito and Moritaka see the success of PCP spread. The series gets its own Drama CD which Miho does a voice on, and they even see some kids at a playground acting out scenes from the manga. However they are hit with some bad news following this, when they are informed that because of the controversial nature of their series, it will probably never receive an anime adaptation.

"Rabuta and Peace"

Akito stands by Shun

Even with the unfortunate news about not receiving an anime, Akito and Moritaka enjoy the success of PCP. They encourage their new assistants to pursue their own series, and one of them, Shun Shiratori, actually has a fairly good grasp on art and a fun idea for a series based on his relationship with his pet dog. However, his ability to write a good story is a bit lacking as he doesn't quite understand things like pacing, character development and introduction, and other basics. Akito helps Shun out with this by giving him some pointers, but when Shun's rich family learns about him wanting to become a Mangaka they show up at the studio and tell Shun they are dragging him home so he can stop this pursuit of his dreams. Akito becomes enraged by this and stands up to Shun's family and tells them that he will work with Shun to turn his series, "Rabuta and Peace" into something the Shiratori family will be proud of.

Akito begins to spend more time with Shun, getting Kaya's dad to help him find an apartment he can afford and playing with his dog so that he can learn more about the dog/pet owner relationship for the series, and writing the stories for his new series. However he spends so much time on this that he starts to spend less time working on PCP, less time working with Moritaka (who is desperate to get a second series started that might become an anime), and even less time at home with his wife Kaya. Kaya begins to become upset over this, as she wants to encourage Moritaka and Miho to get together and she cares about the series that they have created, but at the same time she doesn't know how to get her husband to come back to work on it. Meanwhile it ends up getting so bad that Akito won't even meet with Hattori with Moritaka anymore, instead just meeting with him whenever he gets the chance.

Their partnership is... saved?

Moritaka is so stressed he is almost ready to end their partnership, when suddenly Akito shows back up, gets a drink from the fridge, and reveals that he never had any intention of becoming the writer for "Rabuta and Peace," what he was doing this whole time was actually teaching Shun how to become a writer himself, so that way Akito could return to PCP and Shun could go off on his own without needing someone's guidance. With that the two of them are back together and the partnership is saved, however Moritaka still has some problems but this time with himself. He hates that he ever doubted his partner and demands that Akito punches him to make up for it. Akito complies but Moritaka doesn't feel like he used his full strength, or that things are yet resolved, so Akito suggest that he punch him back. The two of them then agree to get into a real fist fight to finally put all these tensions aside, plus it will teach Moritaka how to fight since he's never done it in his life. They have what is probably the most awkward fist fight in history, only to be stopped by Kaya who thinks that it's a real fight.

A New Rival Appears

A Variant Proper Battle Manga

After everything is resolved between the two of them, Moritaka and Akito get back to work on trying to come up with a second series that could become an anime. Akito suggest that they try a battle manga, but it must be different, something that will help it stand out and play more to their strengths, suggesting at first a "Corrupt Battle Manga" and then a "Variant Proper Battle Manga." However, shortly after these suggestions Hattori comes by with a new one shot that was submitted to the office, about a group of school students who are trapped in a classroom and some god-like being is forcing them to play a game where the losers die. Akito is stunned by this, it's exactly what he wanted to create. However things go from coincidental to shocking after they discover that the person who created this, Toru Nanamine, used to write Ashirogi Muto fan letters back when they were working on Detective Trap.

Nanamine is serialized in Shonen Jump and Akito and Moritaka agree to meet him, only for Nanamine's smile to fade and his true face to come out. He reveals that he has no spirit behind his manga, that it is all just calculations about what he thinks will work best. He doesn't even come up with his own ideas, he has a team of fifty people that he works with from across the internet and takes his ideas from them. Akito and Moritaka are so disgusted by this that they promise him that they will show him the errors of their way and he will crush him and get him canceled within ten weeks.

Akito won't lose to this new rival

At first Nanamine is winning this challenge, carefully calculating how to reveal new tricks to keep his ratings high. However he is so desperate to prove he is greater than Ashirogi Muto that his series is even very similar to PCP, and because of this his ratings start to drop as everyone agrees that PCP is the better of the two works. Nanamine comes up with a plan where he will force Akito to write the same story that he writes one week, so then he will prove that he can do a better story than them. However Akito knows this is a horrible idea, so he refuses to do it. But a few weeks later Nanamine's editor, Kosugi, comes to them and begs them to accept his challenge, because when they crush him with the same story then it will be the only way that he learns. They accept it this time and when the dueling stories come out PCP is in third place, and Nanamine's story is in dead last place.

Nanamine snaps and completely gives up, however Kosugi won't let him give up on manga, believing that he still has talent when it comes to manga. Later that month at the annual New Year's Party, Akito and Moritaka start seeing all their old rivals gathered, and then to their surprise they run into Nanamine. He tells them he hasn't given up on trying to defeat them and surpass them, and says that was the only reason he came as he leaves.

Bank Robberies and Writer's Block

Akito and Moritaka one night find themselves looking up at the stars and wondering if they've wasted their youths by dedicating all their free time to manga. Both of them agree that it was totally worth it and they'd do it again. However when he gets home Akito sees that someone on the news replicated one of the "perfect crimes" in his manga PCP, by braking into a bank and leaving a note saying "I was here." Akito worries they will get canceled, even though all of Shonen Jump stands behind them and tells them that they will not let anything change, that they want Akito to keep writing the way he has been.

However, even though Akito believes them, subconsciously he is holding back, and the ratings are showing. The quality of his stories keep dropping and so do the ratings each week. Akito is taking longer and longer to think up stories and even has to use back up stories he wrote long ago just in case he couldn't think of something each week. Moritaka believes in him and lets him rewrite the series as long as it takes him, even as he has to pull all nighters to get the chapters drawn in time. Eventually Akito slowly starts to improve and his stories start getting better, but he still isn't totally back to normal.

But just when he begins to improve, this copy cat criminal once again performs another crime from the manga, this time specifically referencing it so there are no questions that he's taking his ideas from PCP. Akito completely breaks down and locks himself in his room, not even letting Kaya come in and telling her to leave him alone. When Moritaka shows up he finds Akito locked in his room shouting out "Damn it" over and over again. He thinks that Akito has finally lost it, but when he barges in he learns that it's the exact opposite. Akito has come up with a new idea, where the PCP gang actually has a copy cat criminal trying to frame them. This criminal is captured and when he asks how they knew it wasn't the actual PCP gang, the detective replies that it's because the PCP gang would never do something this low, they actually use their skills to help and never to harm and they would reject this idea. With this PCP jumps back up to it's normal rating and Akito is back to his old self.

Battle for the #1 Spot

As things start to go back to normal for the Ashirogi Muto team, Moritaka and Akito learn from Hattori about Nizuma's stipulation for when he joined Jump in that if he could become #1 in the rankings, then he could cancel any series he wanted. The news spread quickly to the rest of the members of Team Fukuda as they agreed to meet with Nizuma in order to figure out which series he would end since they were all fearful he

Team Fukuda vow to beat Nizuma

would pick one of theirs. Instead, Nizuma reveals that he wants to end his own series Crow after years of doing the same thing. Some of them understand, but Moritaka and Akito agree that ending Crow right now would not be the right thing to do after they worked so hard to surpass him as their rival. It's an easy way to get out of things and Nizuma is just failing himself. They both agree to work hard to stop Nizuma from being #1 for the next few weeks so his agreement can become void.

Akito begins to work on different things that would ultimately beat Crow as he calculates that they need to beat Nizuma in seven weeks or less. At first, he thinks that doing a major story arc to usurp Crow would work, but Moritaka knows that they've done that a few times and it doesn't work since they have never really beat Crow. However, they both come to the conclusion that the addition of a new character in PCP would work best. Namely a character that is an evil villain that is similar to the copycat criminal. Moritaka believes this can help them become less mainstream and become more popular. Akito feels excited to work on this as they finish the manuscript for the next issue of Jump. However, he and Moritaka realize that everyone else in Jump is working equally hard to best Nizuma and that it will be harder to claim the #1 spot than they hoped.

They come up with a plan to use the color front page of their chapter to play a part of the story, something no one else has ever tried. However when the results come in they have tied with second place and lost to Crow by only 17 votes. They feel bad that they never beat Crow, but they are happy for Eiji because he was able to end his series the way he wanted to. They feel like calling him up and congratulating him as their friend, however they decide just to thank him for fighting them till the end in the comments page for the next issue of Jump. After seeing this Eiji comes by their studio and thanks the duo for pushing him on, and he says that his next series won't just be the greatest in Jump history, it will be the greatest in Manga history itself.

	Name	Movies	TV Shows
	Kevin T. Collins	0	2
	Satoshi Hino	0	25

Name:	Akito Takagi
Name:	高木秋人
Romanji:	Tagaki Akito
Gender:	Male
Birthday:
1st manga book:	Bakuman. #1
1st anime episode:	Bakuman. #1
1st anime movie:
Aliases	Shūjin シュージン Ashirogi Muto

	Miho Azuki
	Moritaka Mashiro
	Kaya Miyoshi
	Eiji Nīzuma
	Akira Hattori
	Miyuki Azuki
	Shinta Fukuda
	Yuriko Aoki
	Takuro Nakai
	Goro Miura
See All »