Akito Takagi



Akito Takagi (Takagi Akito) is the deuteragonist in the series. Takagi was also the one who first found out about Mashiro Moritaka's manga drawing talent, he was the one who proposed the idea of Mashiro teaming up with him to draw manga. Like Mashiro, Takagi strives to be the best he can be. He also suggests they should all go to the same schools as Mashiro just so they can write manga together. He is also the boyfriend of Kaya Miyoshi, thanks to a misunderstanding. He is the author of the duo. Ashirogi Muto is a Rival of Eiji Niizuma.

Background
Takagi's father lost his job as a banker when Takagi was in second or third grade. His mother wanted him to avenge his father, and pushed him to study very hard, even before he was in elementary school. When he was in fifth grade Akito snapped and told his mother he would decide his own future. Since then his mother has said nothing to him of his choices. Takagi has an older brother who is in a university.

Appearance
Akito is quite tall and skinny, he has medium length blond hair, gold/yellow eyes and wears glasses. He is quite often seen wearing a large pair of headphones around his neck( Which are Sony MDR-XD100 ). He often wears a red track sweater. At the start of the manga, Akito's hairstyle was more curly and wild, but it has now flattened. His appearance and hairstyle is simlar to Light Yagami from the series 'Death Note'. He is possibly based on Light, due to Death Note coming out in 2006.

Personality
Intelligent and calculating, Takagi is very observant of his surroundings. At the beginning of the story, he stated that he doesn't have neither ability to sing nor outstanding looks, which would eventually help him through the show-business, that's why he decided to stick with manga, calling it a popular modern medium and a quick way to earn money. He dreamed of creating manga since his childhood, but lacked the skill to draw, something he made up for by teaming up with Mashiro. A good manga writer, Takagi only has trouble with gags, something that lead to the end of Tanto. He is also very awkward when it comes to romance in his younger days, often accidently insulting Miyoshi. He is not very good at hiding his frustration, such as when Tanto was failing. He also seems to have care greatly about society's opinion on his work, not being able to bear complaints on PCP from enraged parents, them saying it has bad influence on their children. Becoming more and more bothered by those complaints, he finally snaps, venting his anger on Miyoshi in the process. He hates to lose in the reader polls more than anything because of his rivalry with Iwase. He is also considerate of his friends, often coming up with advice or actions that help out. While usually calm, Takagi can be enraged quickly when others insult his friends, seen as he punched Ishizawa - not caring about being expelled from school - when the latter was making fun of Mashiro's art.

Some in the Jump editorial office say that Takagi might make a great editor, if he chooses that path in the future; Takagi had greatly helped Shun with making Rubuta & Peace in a Jump-worthy manga.

Moritaka Mashiro
Akito and Moritaka team up together as Muto Ashirogi. Takagi asked Mashiro to be partners during their third year of middle school. At first, Mashiro didn't agree; however, Takagi persuaded Mashiro by revealing Azuki's dream of being a voice actor to Mashiro and urging Mashiro to confess to her. Since then they started making manga together. After that they formed a genuine freindship along with their manga partnership, looking out for each other. However, unlike Moritaka, Akito does what he's told when asked to help out in desperate situations.

Kaya Miyoshi
Kaya is Akito's girlfriend, and later on, wife. She is also the best friend of Moritaka's girlfriend Miho Azuki. In the beginning, he only showed interest in her to get information about Miho. Due to a misunderstanding Kaya thinks that Takagi likes her, which as they hang out with each other eventually becomes true and she becomes his girlfriend. After they begin dating, they are rarely seen without each other, and even planned to get married. Kaya is extremely energetic and lightens up the studio. She is willing to help out in when help is needed and is often seen cleaning the studio. After another series of misunderstandings that threatened to break them, as well as Mashiro and Azuki, up, Takagi proposes to Kaya. She accepts, but they hold off on getting married until their new manga Run, Daihatsu Tanto!is published. They finally get married and start living together. He frequently makes jokes that nearly earn him a pummeling from his wife, but in the end, he usually manages to save himself from it. He supports Kaya's ideas when it comes to family, even willing to start having kids when she mentions it.

Akira Hattori
Hattori is Akito and Moritaka's first editor, and worked with them until the serialization of Detective Trap. His knowledge of manga has been a key part of Akito and Moritaka's success. He became their editor again during the serialization of PCP. Akito sees the strategic value of having Mr Hattori as an editor, even tailing him during the time he was editor for +Natural to see if he had a weakness to be used as leverage.

Eiji Nizuma
Eiji is considered a high school genius and has prodigious ability for creating manga.Though Eiji is a major rival to Akito and Moritaka, they compete respectfully and have a friendly relationship. Eiji respects both their abilites and is an avid fan of theirs.

Yuriko Aoki
When Aoki is first introduced she is rather cold towards Takagi. She appears very self-centered and believes that she is better. After both of them have serialized manga though she begins to warm up. After the cancellation of her manga Hideout Door, she starts a new manga called A Season of Green Leaves, a romance. However, since it is for Jump, Aoki's editor asks her to write the story from a male point of view, that gives her great difficulty. Aoki asks Takagi for help, eventually taking most of the relationships in Bakuman, such as Mashiro and Azuki's ideal love, and writing them into A Season of Green Leaves. As they talk more and more Aoki eventually develops a crush on him but does not act upon it since Takagi was engaged with Kaya.

Aiko Iwase
In the beginning of the manga, Iwase had a deep crush on him since he beat her in the term scores. She shakes his hand and believes that he likes her back. Later he brings both Kaya and her to his room and reveals that he will become a mangaka with Mashiro. She tells him that he should quit and will regret his actions in future, but to no avail. Then she leaves and isn't seen for quite a long time. Much later she joins Jump and writes a story called +Natural, which is drawn by Eiji. Takagi sees her as his rival as an author like Mashiro does with Eiji as an artist. There is much tension between the two as Iwase wants to crush Takagi "at his own game." After she finds out that if PCP isn't successful after 25 weeks, they can't write for Jump anymore, she changes her mind of completely crushing him. She tells him that he should do his best and if not then he was never a better author than she is. Later he mutually declares her his rival and shakes her hand much like she did back when they were in middle school. Iwase still has a crush on Takagi and it is revealed that all she ever really cared about is to be acknowledged by Takagi.

Akamaru Jump
In Akamaru Jump, Akito and Moritaka created a manga called Money And Intelligence. Money and Intelligence was a one-shot story about a future where people's minds were bought and sold as commodities. The manga was published and highly praised, especially by Eiji.

Breaking Up
During the school holidays Akito promises to think up a story for the Golden Future Cup while Moritaka practices his drawings. Akito gets writers block and decides to help Kaya with her ambition to become a famous writer. Moritaka thinks that Akito doesn't care about making manga anymore and decides to split up with him and do manga on his own. Akito didn't really want to split up with Moritaka so he goes to Mr Hattori and asks him what he should do. Hattori tells Akito to keep working on his stories and then in a couple of years to go to Moritaka and ask him if they want to work together again. Akito agrees with this idea but then a couple of days later he talks to Moritaka and they find out they were both having the same idea for a manga and they get back together again.

Golden Future Cup
For the Golden Future Cup, Akito and Moritaka both came up with the idea to do a mystery manga. They end up deciding on a story called Detective Trap. The manga is about a con artist who works for the police to help catch criminals. Their manga was very successful and ended up winning.

New Years Party
At the New Year's Party, Mashiro and Takagi are introduced to many mangakas. Some of them are new artists just like Mashiro, such as Hiramaru and Arai (the authors of Otters11 and Cheese Okaki respectively).

Detective Trap's Serialization
Moritaka has been working extremely hard while Detective Trap is being serialized. He has been getting less and less sleep and he finally collapses. He was taken to the hospital after that. He is diagnosed with a liver infection which requires surgery. Mashiro wants to keep working while he is in the hospital so that the Trap won't have to go on hiatus, whereas everyone else believes that his first priority should be to get better. Mashiro tries to convince Takagi to bring him his materials, but Takagi decides to call Azuki to see if she can convince him to stop working. Azuki goes to the hospital the next day and begins talking to Mashiro from outside his room.

Help from Aoki/ Marriage Proposal
In Chapter 60 (Men And Women), Takagi is trying to think about a story for his new manga, but his problem is that he can't write about women very well. He spent the whole night thinking about the story, and considered adding an animal to the story. He decided to go to the zoo the next morning for ideas. While at the zoo, he encountered Aoki, and they talk. Aoki reveals to Takagi that she is having trouble writing from a male's point of view. Takagi tells Aoki that he is having problems writing about girls, so they decide on an exchange to help each other with writing from the POV of the opposite sex. As they talk, Takagi warns that his girlfriend Kaya might not be able to see the difference between work and play, so Takagi told Aoki to keep it on the down-low and only talk on the phone so that Kaya won't get jealous, however he told Mashiro because they are partners. He tells her that he will call her at 10 o'clock, and they ended up talking on the phone all night. The phone exchange happens for a while, and they also had meet-ups as well. When Kaya finds out Takagi is seeing her behind her back, she gets very angry. Takagi later convinces her to meet up with him at the zoo, to convince her of his faithfulness on a date. However, when Takagi gets there Aoki is there too, and when Aoki tries to tell Takagi about her problems with Nakai, Kaya shows up and sees the two standing close together. Kaya starts running away, pushing Takagi down when he comes after her. Takagi shouts to Miyoshi "Marry me!" Kaya first refuses, saying he can't get her back by copying Mashiro, Takagi refuses this and says he loves her. After hearing the whole story Kaya is happy to get married to Takagi.

Quotes

 * (To Moritaka Mashiro) "But.. I have one condition...I want you to draw a manga with me." [1]
 * (To Mashiro Moritaka) "Are you trying to play doorbell dash with me, you bastard?!"[2]
 * (To Iwase Aiko) "Before I started writing manga with Mashiro, I was just watching the days pass by, But now everyday is fun and I feel like I'm really living."
 * (To Kaya Miyoshi) "Marry me!!!"
 * (To Iwase) "If I follow my dream and it shatters, I can accept having to regret it. But I don't want to regret not pursuing it in the first place."[3]

TriviaEdit

 * Takagi wears Converse brand shoes (He wears the All Star Model) and Sony brand headphones.[4]
 * Takagi ranked 5th in Weekly Shonen Jump popularity character polls.
 * Takagi bears a slight resemblance to Light Yagami from Death Note, another manga created by Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba. He also bears a grat resembance to Utau Zeigo.
 * Takagi can be compared to Tsugumi Ohba, the writer of Bakuman partnered with illustrator Takeshi Obata.
 * Dragon Ball, by Akira Toriyama, is his favorite manga.
 * He among Moritaka Mashiro made a cameo in To Aru Majutsu no Index episode 10 walking near Accelerator.
 * Occasionally in the more recent chapters, when receiving calls from Jump, he has a smartphone resembling the Galaxy S line of phones by Samsung.
 * In the anime, Akito already has his hair the style it would be later in the manga. Possibly done, so as to not confuse anyone by the sudden change.

Articles & References

 * 1) ↑ Bakuman Chapter 1, Page 17-18
 * 2) ↑ Bakuman episode 1
 * 3) ↑ Bakuman episode 9
 * 4) ↑ Bakuman Volume 3, Chapter 19, Page 7