Bakuman - S01E01: Dreams and Reality

Moritaka Mashiro, an average student with a talent for drawing, forgets his notebook at school, where his classmate Akito Takagi finds and looks through it. Takagi likes his drawings and asks Mashiro to team up with him to create a best-selling manga. Mashiro refuses because his uncle was a manga artist until he died from overworking, while deeply in debt, which derails his dream. Takagi soon invites him to visit Miho Azuki, the girl Mashiro has an unrequited crush on, and Takagi tells her of his plan to create a manga that will become an anime, in which she will play the heroine. Mashiro also proposes to marry Azuki when both their dreams come true, and she agrees that they will, but shall not see each other until then. With this motivation, Mashiro decides to become a manga artist.

Director: Reiko Yoshida, Noriaki Akitaya

Cast: Atsushi Abe, Satoshi Hino, Saori Hayami, Sayuri Yahagi, Nobuhiko Okamoto, Tomoyuki Shimura, Ayako Kawasumi, Ayumi Fujimura