Starting off the list at number 10 is Goro Miura, an inexperienced editor at Shonen Jack with a comedic and optimistic personality that helped Takagi and Mashiro in the serialization of their Detective Trap series. Though he is a novice at being an editor, he tries his best to make his manga creators successful in giving out advice based on his personal experience. Although Miura’s ideas aren’t always the best choices to go with, his method of doing things eventually leads him to swap positions with Hattori and ends up competing against Takagi and Mashiro.

The reason that we think that Miura is one of the coolest characters is because of his strong determination and self-critical nature in doing his best to be a good editor. Despite his naivety and inexperience in the field leading to many mistakes, we think that Miura has an aura of coolness. This is because even though he loses his position as Ashirogi Muto’s editor, after becoming Iwase’s editor, he is determined to not lose to them. Which ends up pushing everyone forward, doing the right thing as an editor.

Next up at number 9 is Aiko Iwase, a former classmate of Takagi and Mashiro back in Junior High School. Iwase is an academic achiever whom competed with Takagi in exams but always ended up following behind him. She has a strict and highly competitive personality, and only respects people who are able to surpass her. Iwase believes that Takagi is a perfect match for her and pursues him as her love interest, however she doesn’t like the fact that Takagi is ‘wasting his talent’ on Manga and tries to dissuade him from walking down that path. She becomes a manga creator in order to compete directly with Takagi.

Aiko Iwase is a contender on this list because of her cool personality in trying to gain the love and acceptance of Takagi. Unlike any other girl in the series, instead of trying to appeal to him with her charms she tries to make Takagi fall in love with her by showing off her ‘superior’ abilities. She has a ‘tsundere’ sort of nature where she appears tough but deep inside she really cares for Takagi and is embarrassed to show it. She maintains her cold image and pride, as her ego takes over in trying to persuade Takagi that she is a better fit for him than Kaya.

For the next cool character, we have none other than Nobuhiro Mashiro, the late uncle of Mashiro, who as a manga artist inspired Mashiro to follow his footsteps in becoming a successful manga artist. Nobuhiro went by the pen name of Kawaguchi Taro and created the gag manga known as Superhero Legend. He loved Miyuki Haruno who is Azuki Miho’s mother and had frequently written letters for her. However he couldn’t tell her about his love until he felt successful enough, by which time it was too late and she had married someone else.

Nobuhiro is the person whom Mashiro looks up to the most, even though his manga skills were sub-par compared to the other competing artists, he still made a name for himself and never gave up. Nobuhiro had a determination to get published again after Superhero Legend finished. Even though he eventually died from overwork, he continued to create manga after learning that Miyuki had gotten married and he still believed she was still watching over him. His sheer determination and hardworking attitude is truly something to be admired, which is why he made it on this list as one of the coolest characters in Bakuman.

The following entry on the list goes to the one and only Miho Azuki, a beautiful and shy aspiring voice actress who is the love interest of Mashiro. Azuki promises Mashiro during junior high school that they will get married when she becomes the leading seiyuu in the anime adaptation of his manga. She has feelings for Mashiro but is too shy to express them and determines that they can’t see each other until they both become successful, however they are able to exchange emails to encourage each other.

Azuki is on our list because of her cool demeanour, she remains loyal to Mashiro and has a strong willingness to wait for him even if it will take ‘forever’. Even though Azuki made a promise not to see Mashiro until the time was right, she can’t help but break her promise to visit him in the hospital when he was sick. She is always there for Mashiro and will do anything to help him achieve his dreams so that they can have a happy life together. Her strong determination and loyalty, is what makes her a strong contender on this list.

Coming in at number 6 is the genius manga artist known as Eiji Nizuma, an eccentric and clever high school student who is the rival of Ashirogi Muto. Nizuma has drawn manga ever since he was a child and moved to Tokyo.
He loves manga and never fails to impress with his outstanding quantity and quality of work. Nizuma is known for his bizarre behaviour and poor manners but he shows great respect to his fellow authors. He is most notably associated with his greatest work, Crow, which was his first and also longest serialization.

Even though Nizuma is the rival of Takagi and Mashiro, he is still their fan. Admitting that he will never lose to them as a manga artist, he still gives them advice and helps to push them to become the best they can be. Nizuma can appear a little strange and still acts like a kid, however his opinion and spot-on analytical abilities are highly valued by everyone at Shonen Jack. In his own way, Nizuma is definitely one of the cooler characters found in Bakuman also because of his humble and respectful attitude.

In the middle of the list we have Yuriko Aoki, a female manga artist who is first seen as extremely judgemental and dogmatic, but later becomes more kind and friendly over the course of her time as an artist. In a lot of ways similar to Iwase, however she has a distrust of men despite never having a romantic relationship. Aoki was initially extremely stubborn and was a difficult artist to work with, though she opens up more as she develops better relationships with the others authors at Shonen Jack, especially Takagi. Aoki has an innocent personality and also develops a crush on Takagi.

At first, Aoki doesn’t trust men because she believes they are unreliable, but eventually learns to trust them after gaining more experience in the field. She ultimately gets engaged to Kazuya Hiramaru after he wins over her love. Initially, Aoki is a challenging author to work with, but has a willingness to learn and improve. After she develops better relations with the other characters, she becomes a kinder and more agreeable kind of person. Her strong character developing into a gentler person is what makes her a very cool character indeed.

At number 4, we have the highly competitive manga artist Shinta Fukuda.
Fukuda is a rash and rather conceited individual that will sometimes do things only if he gets something beneficial in return. He is the rival of the other manga artists in Shonen Jack and his editor is Yujiro Hattori. Fukuda has a strong fighting personality, never giving up and trying his best to win in his own way. Fukuda knows a lot about manga and has a unique approach to the kind of manga he wants to create, where he expresses that more ‘unhealthy’ boys manga is needed in the world.

Though Fukuda may seem hot headed and conceited at times, he has a good heart and he is willing to help his rivals, who he also sees as his friends. He has a cool demeanour that emanates from his personality and he also rides a motorcycle. Once an assistant of Nizuma, a manga artist he respects and aspires to be like, Fukuda tries to compete on his own against his former manga teacher and against Ashirogi Muto, using his own style and methods to reach the top.

Akira Hattori is our 3rd place recommendation. He is the first editor of Ashirogi Muto at Shonen Jack and has a calm type of personality. Hattori has a valuable ability as an editor to be able to see and give wise advice to manga creators based on their skills. He believes strongly in both Takagi and Mashiro, and even when they have problems with each other, Hattori goes out of his way to mend their relationship. He also helps Miura out in giving ideas that would be passed down to Ashirogi Muto, even though he was not their editor at the time.

Hattori has a level of dedication to Takagi and Mashiro that is admirable, even expressing that he would quit his job if he were not allowed to be their editor again. He has a very caring attitude and is seen as one of the best editors in Shonen Jack. Hattori is a very cool person because not only is he very good at his job but also compassionate in helping others succeed.

Our runner up for the coolest character in the series goes to Moritaka Mashiro, one of the main protagonists in the series. Mashiro is a highly talented artist who is very competitive and has a perfectionist sort of personality. His best friend is Takagi ever since they started making manga together. Mashiro can be a little strict when it comes to manga deadlines and he is one of the most hardworking characters in Bakuman, and will do anything to make his dream come true. Mashiro is very sensitive and a bit obstinate, he is able to read people’s feelings very well but is quite stubborn in the sense that he doesn't give up easily.

After promising the girl of his dreams, Azuki, he will not stop at anything until that dream does come true. He is a highly motivated individual but can be quite hopeless when it comes to romance, still acting like a child when he interacts with Azuki. However, we think that Mashiro deserves to be one of the coolest characters because of his sheer determination to achieve his dream for the love of his life.

At the top of our list of coolest Bakuman characters, we have the one and only Akito Takagi. The writer behind the Ashirogi Muto duo and the other protagonist of the series, he is an intelligent and friendly character who also tries his best in everything he does. His dream is to create a manga but lacks the drawing skills himself to do so and when he finds out about Mashiro's drawing ability, he is the one to propose teaming up to create manga. Takagi sacrifices his chance for a better life and to go to a better high school, to be in the same school as Mashiro, in order to achieve their dreams.

Takagi has a very observational personality and is easily frustrated, but will not stop at any cost to keep up with Mashiro and his rivals. The reason we think that Takagi deserves the top spot on our list is because of his cool personality. He takes care of Mashiro whilst working on his various manga scripts, all while dating Kaya. Takagi has always been a high achiever in school therefore he doesn't like losing to anyone, his determination to win is very admirable and a very valuable trait to have.