Great Manga Created By Mangaka Duos

I don’t remember exactly when this happened but for the majority of the time that I’ve been a fan of manga, I always thought that there was only one mangaka in the process. I thought that there was only one person developing the story and bringing out these crazy character, environmental and battle designs. My whole perception was changed when I first read one of my favourite manga, Bakuman. So I thought it would be cool to talk a bit about some duos that I think have created some great manga and maybe this will give you some cool recommendations.

Bakuman

Synopsis from MAL:

Despite being a talented artist, middle school student Moritaka Mashiro is unsure about his future, accepting that he will simply lead a normal life. After seeing one of Mashiro’s drawings in class, Akito Takagi—an aspiring writer—insists that they write a manga together. But Mashiro is hesitant—his uncle, a mangaka, had died from overworking just a few years prior. However, when Mashiro hears that his crush, Miho Azuki, aims to be a voice actress, he becomes determined to create a manga that can be adapted into an anime for her to star in. Reciprocating Mashiro’s feelings, she agrees to get married once they have both achieved their dreams.

Bakuman. chronicles Mashiro and Takagi’s successes and struggles in their attempts to be serialized in Weekly Shounen Jump and become famous mangakas. Will their gamble pay off, or will they join the countless number of failures?

Bakuman follows a mangaka duo and also is written by a mangaka duo, Tsugumi Ohba as a writer and Takeshi Obata as the artist. If these names aren’t familiar to you, this is the duo that also created Death Note.

This is probably the manga I recommend the most to people for insight on Shounen Jump and how the process is because you get to watch these two work towards becoming great mangaka together. They talk plenty not only about the infrastructure of these companies but the process of a manga’s popularity, where the popularity can take it and how it can also be its downfall.

Bakuman is also a complete anime streaming on Hulu and Yahoo!

Death Note

Synopsis from MAL:

A shinigami, as a god of death, can kill any person—provided they see their victim’s face and write their victim’s name in a notebook called a Death Note. One day, Ryuk, bored by the shinigami lifestyle and interested in seeing how a human would use a Death Note, drops one into the human realm.

High school student and prodigy Light Yagami stumbles upon the Death Note and—since he deplores the state of the world—tests the deadly notebook by writing a criminal’s name in it. When the criminal dies immediately following his experiment with the Death Note, Light is greatly surprised and quickly recognizes how devastating the power that has fallen into his hands could be.

With this divine capability, Light decides to extinguish all criminals in order to build a new world where crime does not exist and people worship him as a god. Police, however, quickly discover that a serial killer is targeting criminals and, consequently, try to apprehend the culprit. To do this, the Japanese investigators count on the assistance of the best detective in the world: a young and eccentric man known only by the name of L.

As I talked a bit about Bakuman, you can already tell I have a ton of respect for the mangaka duo that created Death Note. They made a cult classic that will seem to never go away. We even had a live-action adaption on Netflix not too long ago. Pretty bad but moving on…

This series was a great example of amazing writing/storytelling and also some spectacular art. I would even say it ages pretty well versus some of the other manga out around this time. The only issue is how rough the second half was and how aimless it seemed to become. Losing popularity slowly killed off the series and we were given such a mediocre end after watching the great duel that we had with Light versus L. Still worth a watch/read for those who haven’t checked it out.

Death Note is a complete anime series streaming on Hulu, Yahoo and Netflix

Food Wars

Synopsis from MAL:

Ever since he was a child, fifteen-year-old Souma Yukihira has helped his father by working as the sous chef in the restaurant his father runs and owns. Throughout the years, Souma developed a passion for entertaining his customers with his creative, skilled, and daring culinary creations. His dream is to someday own his family’s restaurant as its head chef.

Yet when his father suddenly decides to close the restaurant to test his cooking abilities in restaurants around the world, he sends Souma to Tootsuki Culinary Academy, an elite cooking school where only 10 percent of the students graduate. The institution is famous for its “Shokugeki” or “food wars,” where students face off in intense, high-stakes cooking showdowns.

As Souma and his new schoolmates struggle to survive the extreme lifestyle of Tootsuki, more and greater challenges await him, putting his years of learning under his father to the test.

I don’t really have anything much to say about this series regarding it having a mangaka duo. I actually only learned that it was one when I was looking through my manga shelf. It’s one of those series that I probably should’ve expected but I just had absolutely no idea. I also learned that they also had someone that would specifically contribute to the recipes for the series.

Thanks to this find, I will probably have to catch back up. I used to watch the anime but fell off around season two.

Currently streaming on Crunchyroll, HiDive, Hulu, and Yahoo.

One Punch Man

Synopsis from MAL:

The seemingly ordinary and unimpressive Saitama has a rather unique hobby: being a hero. In order to pursue his childhood dream, he trained relentlessly for three years—and lost all of his hair in the process. Now, Saitama is incredibly powerful, so much so that no enemy is able to defeat him in battle. In fact, all it takes to defeat evildoers with just one punch has led to an unexpected problem—he is no longer able to enjoy the thrill of battling and has become quite bored.

This all changes with the arrival of Genos, a 19-year-old cyborg, who wishes to be Saitama’s disciple after seeing what he is capable of. Genos proposes that the two join the Hero Association in order to become certified heroes that will be recognized for their positive contributions to society, and Saitama, shocked that no one knows who he is, quickly agrees. And thus begins the story of One Punch Man, an action-comedy that follows an eccentric individual who longs to fight strong enemies that can hopefully give him the excitement he once felt and just maybe, he’ll become popular in the process.

At this point, One Punch Man is a household name even for those non-anime fans. This series took the world by storm when it began airing in 2015. Though it could’ve been completely different if the anime was animated with the art that was originally made for it.

Originally One Punch Man was drawn and written by ONE until the manga was republished as a digital manga. It is now illustrated by Yusuke Murata. He is a great artist who occasionally likes to draw his favourite comic book hero, Spiderman. He was even asked to draw something for the recent live action spiderman movie.

Figured many people knew that One Punch was done by a duo but if you didn’t, now you know. And if you haven’t watched, it’s currently streaming on Hulu, Netflix, and Yahoo.

Kakegurui

Synopsis from MAL:

Unlike many schools, attending Hyakkaou Private Academy prepares students for their time in the real world. Since many of the students are the children of the richest people in the world, the academy has its quirks that separate it from all the others. By day, it is a normal school, educating its pupils in history, languages, and the like. But at night, it turns into a gambling den, educating them in the art of dealing with money and manipulating people. Money is power; those who come out on top in the games stand at the top of the school.

Yumeko Jabami, a seemingly naive and beautiful transfer student, is ready to try her hand at Hyakkaou’s special curriculum. Unlike the rest, she doesn’t play to win, but for the thrill of the gamble, and her borderline insane way of gambling might just bring too many new cards to the table.

Like Food wars, this is a series I should’ve just known it was done by a mangaka duo. There is a spinoff manga that recently came out for this series featuring a different artist, though the style doesn’t change much if you wanted to check that out.

Kakegurui has a very unique art style from other current series’ but the story is pretty meh. So for me, I wouldn’t really say that this series truly benefits from having one person illustrating and one person writing. Maybe you can argue that all that effort is put into the games themselves and not developing the story and characters.

Currently streaming on Netflix.

Dr Stone

Synopsis from VIZ:

One fateful day, all of humanity was petrified by a blinding flash of light. After several millennia, high schooler Taiju awakens and finds himself lost in a world of statues. However, he’s not alone! His science-loving friend Senku’s been up and running for a few months and he’s got a grand plan in mind—to kickstart civilization with the power of science!

Before I start talking about this series, I do want to see that IF you do read shounen manga, you should definitely check this series out because it is great. It is currently running in Shounen Jump and will be animated sometime this year by the studio that made Megalobox, TMS Entertainment. A Shounen series based almost entirely on science.

I knew right off the bat that this series was created by a mangaka duo mostly because I recognize the art style from a manga I used to read called Sun-Ken Rock. It was illustrated by a Korean artist by the name of Boichi. His art tied together with Riichio Inagaki’s writing, packs a massive punch.

The Promised Neverland

Synopsis from MAL:

At Grace Field House, life couldn’t be better for the orphans! Though they have no parents, together with the other kids and a kind “Mama” who cares for them, they form one big, happy family. No child is ever overlooked, especially since they are all adopted by the age of 12. Their daily lives involve rigorous tests, but afterwards, they are allowed to play outside.

There is only one rule they must obey: do not leave the orphanage. But one day, two top-scoring orphans, Emma and Norman, venture past the gate and unearth the harrowing secret behind their entire existence. Utilizing their quick-wittedness, the children must work together to somehow change their predetermined fate.

I think it’s safe to say that The Promised Neverland is one of the best anime of this season. I recently wrote an article about it myself earlier this week(I think). It is so damn good. I’m caught up on the manga at this point but I know that the anime watchers will see why I highlight this series very soon.

This is once again a product of a mangaka duo. The art doesn’t really get to show how amazing is until you get deeper into the story, to be honest, but you can already get an idea of how deep this series will be.

Currently streaming on Crunchyroll, Funimation, Hulu, and HiDive.

Sorry if this was a very random post but it was just something I’ve been kicking around for a bit and thought it was interesting to see how many Mangaka duos we had and how some made some insanely popular series. Hopefully, you now have how some anime/recommendations to go out or you may even want to do your own research on this topic. Love to hear your thoughts in the comments below! Have a great weekend!