Bakuman, the manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and draw by Takeshi Obata, the same creator of Death Note, has the metalanguage as the central idea, in other words, the mangá talking about mangá, the cinema talking about cinema, the language talking about language. The main discussion that can been about this (and the positivest too) is it's not resume only in a autoavaliation like art work, with discussions about composition and narrative like citations in mangá, but a autoavaliation like media product in a big mass cultural industry (japonese editorial market, in this case), that work in a hierarquic and hard system positions and excessive quality control in all work maded. The metalanguage in Bakuman, knowing the anime serie has mangá like main theme and central approach, is caracterizated by the legacy of the biggest classics of Weekly Shounen Jump, magazine where Ohba and Obata work and other famous mangás like Naruto, One Piece and Slum Dunk was published. It's clear the Mashiro love for Ashita no Joe and Takagi for Dragon Ball, that is artistic and personal inspiration for the pair. They, working hard to produze a work that comes to the first places in Shonen Jack classifications, the ficticial magazine of the anime, search inspirations not only in the mangás, but in games, books, movies too, like when Takagi read and watch many thriller movies and books to create "Detective Trap". It's shows japaneses mangás has many influencies in other media products, main american movies of Hollywood and Walt Disney animations, and its metalanguage can be used and interpretate not only in mangas, but in all types of art.
In same time that Bakuman metalanguage shows the influencys both in own work and in characters development, it has many problems in add something to the manga creation process. It, basically, take the same clichês already worked in many classics Jump battle shounen mangás and repete all of this in Bakuman. If in the beginnig of story Ashirogi Muto was creating works like "Money and Inteligence", a which, constantly, were pointed out as differentiators compared to what is normally published in Shounen Jack (something that happen with Death Note in Shounen Jump too), the own mangá, in its development, is transformed less in a "Money and Inteligence" to be more a generic battle shounen that Shounen Jump normally publish, where Mashiro and Takagi has the same posture and behavior of any other shounen protagonist like Naruto, Luffy or Midoroya, with empty and repetitive speeches like meritocracy, "power of friendship", "fight for your dream", individualism, non-sense rivalities, family and romance as motivations, etc. The main problem of this approach in Bakuman is not the fact all of this is cliches and ready-made formulas, but the fact Bakuman was showed as something different of all this, like a work with a mission of "show to readers how is made the stories that everybody loves and what is the process behind this", but Bakuman fail with this "mission".
The story of Ashirogi Muto in mangaka career is a overcoming story with difficulties and changellens, and one of this many changellens don't only frightens PCP and Reversi creators, but editors and other artistas as Fukuda and Hatorri, which is the authoritarianism of magazine superior positions, that follows the instructions of the command of publishing company and keep all the status quo. Bakuman, however, contains a certain fear of making direct and explicit criticisms of the Japanese publishing market, trying to be the most neutral possible about it to don't displease who pain their payment, that is the biggest and most important Japan mangá magazine. It was just this fear to be subversvive that Bakuman didn't make any development to be a different mangá, transforming in a Weekly Shounen Jump generic work. To not be unfair to anime serie and say it didn't any development about it, some episodies and moments shows actors revolting against some actions and decisions of Shounen Jack magazine, like Fukuda and him group with Ashirogi and Nakai to opposite the participation of Koogy in the concourse, like when Niizuma, Fukuda, Nakai, Hiramaru, Aoki and others protest against the interruption of Detective Trap while Mashiro was in hospital, like when Ashirogi want to create a work with their preferences, when Niizuma want to finish Crow and many other examples. But all of this cases all these examples are just brief manifestations with short-term consequences, as this, at no time, changed anything in the structure and organization of the magazine. Niizuma finish Crow, but he must to produce Zombie Gun with the same requirements. Ashirogi Muto created the manga style that want, but must to made stories and characters that editor require. The "Fukuda team" to overcome with its works the mediocre work of Koogy, but nothing prevents the magazine from doing the same thing again in the future with another subcelebrity. All of this are behaviors that showed as "revolucionary" does not affect the status quo of Shounen Jack at all. The mangakas characters, in all anime serie, uttering slogans and cute little speeches such as "change Jack", "make unorthodox fight manga" and "defending the authors' position vis-à-vis the magazine/publisher", attributed to Fukuda, Ashirogi and Hattori, respectively, but which almost cause consequences serious and irreversible to itself, as in the arc where Ashirogi Muto was almost expelled from the magazine.
The scenare and context of mangá takes turn between profissional life of artists in mangaka career and their personal lifes with friends, boy/girlfriends and, mainly, as society members. Bakuman fail in show the anguish and tiredness of artistas in rotine (romantizaded every time), but it's very competent to show their personal lifes as Japaneses young adults. The main motivation of characters in mangaka career is the idead mangás are a way out of the monotonous, depressive, and boring lives imposed by conventional society careers as a lawyer, doctor, teacher, or someone who works daily in an office. Mashiro and Takagi, for example, has in beginning a dream of life besides college study or office work. Kanai-san feels like a failure without social or love life and see mangas like the only end for this. Hiramaruhe bets on mangaka's career as an alternative to his tiring and conventional work, even if his new routine as an artist is not very different from that (this disillusionment of the character is precisely the main comic relief of the work). All this examples has the idea of mangá as hope to a "better life", even the own serie shows mangaka life so stressing than any other job and Japanese editorial market is so perverse and authoritary than any other industry, but it, obvious, can't be showed explicity.
Any critic that Bakuman cound make to Japanese industry mangás (basicly it object of analysis) is totally destructed by ready-made formulas that only likes this industry and stupidies romatizations of any problem (of health, personal, psychologial, etc) of mangakas. One of the main examples of this (and possibly one of the most absurd) is how the obssesion of Niizuma Eiji for mangás is retrated like "genius trait" and, main, self effort, something saw as childish and sickly to any person in real life. Bakuman is a great experience to who wants explore varying a little visual elements and sets already wearily seen in samurai, vampire and demon stories in isekais and shounens, but not also want the approach to be different from what is put in the mainstream. It has a original and excellent idea, but thrown away when it story ins't also good. Bakuman born with "mission" of explain manga industry, but the result is the same as a making-off movie: marketing, propaganda and absence of taking a critical position on the studied object.
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