Akito Takagi (commonly called Shujin) is one of the two main protagonists of Bakuman. He is an aspiring manga writer who is very smart and gets the top grades in his school. Akito is classmates with Mashiro, and when he discovers Moritaka's drawing ability he proposes the idea of making a manga together. After Mashiro visits Azuki Miho's house and the two make their promise Mashiro agrees to start creating manga together with Akito. The two later become very close friends. Takagi is the second half of Ashirogi Muto, writing the stories.
Background
Takagi's father lost his job as 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 University.
Appearance
Akito is quite tall and skinny, he has longish blond hair, gold/yellowish eyes and wears glasses. He is quite often seen wearing a large pair of headphones around his neck. 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.
Personality
Akito is usually quite a happy and enthusiastic person, especially when it comes to manga. He gets along well with most people and is usually the one who does most of the talking for himself and Moritaka. He is very loyal and protective of his friends and he shows this when he punches someone who is insulting Moritaka and his art. Also, he deeply loves his girlfriend/wife Miyoshi Kaya but possibly has trouble showing it. That, or he just likes to tease her. He gets offended if someone states his stories are stupid, as shown when Aoki did not like Money and Intelligence. Like Moritaka, he is very dedicated to his job, doing everything in his power to make his work the best, as shown when nearly working himself to death working on Tanto.
Relationships
Moritaka Mashiro
Moritaka and Akito start off not knowing each other that well but after Akito convinces Moritaka to write a manga with him they become best friends. Akito and Moritaka work very well together, they are both very determined and they almost always get along. Takagi is firmly loyal to Mashiro and helps him through his problems both in his work and in his social life. Mashiro as well shows the same concern for Akito, worrying about Akito when they were doing Tanto, fearing that he would get sick. As well as willing to listen to Takagi if he did not want to quit Tanto, despite Mashiro very strongly wanted to quit.
Kaya Miyoshi
Kaya is Akito's girlfriend and 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. Kaya, due to a misunderstanding 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 him out in when help is needed or is often seen cleaning the studio. After a series of misunderstandings, Takagi proposes to Kaya. She accepts, but only until their new manga Run, Daihatsu Tanto! is published. They finally get married and start living together.
Akira Hattori
Hattori is Akito and Moritaka's former 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.
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
From her introdution she is rather cold towards Takagi. She was very self-centered and believed that she was better. After both of them have serialized manga she begins to warm up. After the cancellation of her manga Hideout Door, she starts a new manga called A Season of Green Leaves. She has trouble writing her story from a male point of view so she asks him for help. Eventually she develops a crush on him but knows that her love will be unrequited since he was engaged with Kaya.
Aiko Iwase
In the beginning of the manga, she 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 bother Kaya and her to his room and reveals that he will become a mangaka with Mashiro. She tells him that he should quit and she leaves. Much later she joins Jump and writes a story called +Natural. Takagi sees her as his rival as an author like Mashiro does with Niizuma 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 and 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.
Summary
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
The manga Takagi made Money and Intelligence
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 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 , for example Hiyamaru and Arai (Who made 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/ Marraige 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 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."[2]
Trivia
- Takagi wears Converse brand shoes and Sony brand headphones.[3]