The Bakuman manga series features a cast of characters created by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. The writer of the series, Ohba, developed the basic character traits while Obata, the artist, created the visual character designs.^{[citation needed]} The story follows talented artist Moritaka Mashiro and aspiring writer Akito Takagi, two ninth grade boys who team up to become manga artists, with Mashiro as the illustrator and Takagi as the writer. The majority of the other characters are also involved in the manga industry as artists, editors, or assistants.

Moritaka Mashiro (真城 最高, Mashiro Moritaka) was once content in following the usual life of a Japanese citizen by attending a university and becoming an office worker, however he is inspired to become a manga artist like his late uncle Nobuhiro. He has a crush on his classmate Miho Azuki that he ends up making a promise to marry her after both of them achieve their dreams. He teams up with Akito Takagi to create a manga that is worthy to be adapted into an anime.^{Volume 1} The two work under the shared pen name "Muto Ashirogi" (亜城木 夢叶, Ashirogi Muto) where he serves as the illustrator. His nickname is Saiko (サイコー, Saikō), which is an alternate reading of the kanji in his name. His favorite manga is Ashita no Joe.^{Vol. 1 ch 3}

Akito Takagi (高木 秋人, Takagi Akito) partners with Mashiro on making manga together. He specializes in story lines, some of which are unorthodox, as well as a style known as "serious comedy", where a scene with underlying seriousness comes off with humor, writing them into their manga. The two start working under the pen name Muto Ashirogi (亜城木 夢叶, Ashirogi Muto); Takagi is sometimes called Shujin (シュージン, Shūjin; lit. "prisoner"), which is an alternate spelling of his name. Prior to teaming up with Mashiro, he is a star student who attracts Aiko Iwase although the latter thought of him more as an academic rival. However, he becomes frustrated that his parents were pushing him towards becoming an office worker that he decided to do manga instead. After revealing his career aspirations, he chooses Kaya Miyoshi as his girlfriend over Iwase.^{Vol. 2} His favorite manga is Dragon Ball.^{Ch. 3}

Miho Azuki (亜豆 美保, Azuki Miho) is Mashiro's love interest in the series. She aspires to become a voice actress. Her mother is the woman Mashiro's uncle Nobuhiro fell in love with. Azuki promises to marry Mashiro after they achieve their dreams; however, they agree not to see each other until then.^{Vol. 1} She picks up voice work, although her popularity comes mostly because of her looks, and not because of her poor singing.^{Vol. 3} When her agent urges her to participate in a gravure idol photo book,^{Ch. 34} she struggles with the idea of showing her body to the public, but with Mashiro's support, she declines the offer.^{Vol. 5} She and Mashiro communicate mainly through text messages and sometimes through phone calls, but rarely meet except by chance or under special circumstances. During Mashiro's hospitalization, Miho reveals that she has liked him since the fourth grade.^{Ch. 46} After Mashiro is released, they have been talking with each other much more than before.

Kaya Miyoshi (見吉 香耶, Miyoshi Kaya) is Azuki's best friend and Takagi's girlfriend.^{Ch. 11} She has rather poor self-esteem when it comes to her looks, believing others are lying when they complement her looks. Kaya used to practice martial arts in junior high, making her stronger than most girls; she also has a temper,^{Ch. 11} which only gets worse when she gets drunk. Because her friends have high aspirations, she begins to feel left out, and decides to become a cell phone novelist.^{Ch. 21} For her first story, she wants to depict the romance between Mashiro and Azuki; however, Takagi ends up writing it for her.^{Ch. 25} She then changes her dream to support Mashiro and Takagi, with hopes of marrying Takagi; she starts by helping them read and watch through a pile of mystery-themed books and anime.^{Ch. 28} She helps out in inking the manga and generally maintaining a positive atmosphere in the studio. Mashiro and Takagi find that her optimistic presence in the studio helps cheer up what is otherwise a very stressful working environment, and feel she is part of "the team".^{Vol. 5} She is the one who came up with the "Muto Ashirogi" pen name.^{Ch. 15} Her favorite manga is One Piece.

Eiji Nizuma (新妻 エイジ, Niizuma Eiji) is a manga creator prodigy who won the Tezuka Award at age 15. He moves from Aomori to Tokyo to work on the serialization of his manga Crow on the condition that he gets the right to cancel any series in Weekly Shōnen Jump after becoming the magazine's most popular author.^{Ch. 9} He later is drafted to illustrate Aiko Iwase's scripts in the form of +Natural, which he is able to effortlessly balance with Crow. After Crow enters its seventh year of serialization as one of Jump's flagship titles, Nizuma reveals that the series that he wants to cancel is his own, not wanting to drag it any longer than he feels necessary at the behest of readers or editors, which he achieves after holding a record-breaking 20-week poll leadership, leading into the final chapter. From there, Nizuma decides to write a manga that would be "the number one in the world", and starts working on Zombie٭Gun with that intent. He enjoys being immersed in his work and blasting loud music in the background.^{Ch. 13} He never seems to change his clothes, which consist of a sweater and sweatpants; he may not change clothes much, or has several similar outfits.^{[volume and issue needed]} Mashiro and Takagi declare him their rival, although he is very friendly upon meeting them and states he is a fan of theirs^{Ch. 18}; indeed, this admiration also fuels their mutual rivalry and determination to write ever more enjoyable works. The head editor describes the difference between Mashiro and Takagi to Nizuma is their "love of manga"; indeed, Nizuma seems to have been obsessed with drawing manga since he was six years old. Nizuma tends to act conceited because he is hailed as a genius; however, after working on Crow for quite a long time, he becomes humbler, even claiming to "not be good enough of a manga artist to be judging other people's work" when asked by his editor to judge for the Treasure magazine. Nizuma is eccentric and has a variety of odd quirks, like constantly pronouncing sound effects while he draws and speaks, working to the sound of very loud music, and appearing most of the time with drawing quills tucked into the back of his shirt's collar, resembling small wings. Despite this, he has a keen eye for truly talented manga artists just by analyzing their work, and is a good judge of character. He works under the direction of the Weekly Shōnen Jump editor Yujiro Hattori and for a time with his two assistants, Shinta Fukuda and Takurō Nakai. His favorite manga is Doraemon.

Shinta Fukuda (福田 真太, Fukuda Shinta) first appears as an assistant for Eiji Nizuma.^{Ch. 22} Hailing from Hiroshima, he received an honorable mention when he tried for the Tezuka Award with U-400 and also gets fifth place in the same issue of Akamaru Jump with Ashirogi's Money and Intelligence one-shot.^{Ch. 11} He becomes friends with Mashiro and also competes with Ashirogi in the Gold Future Cup with his original manga Kiyoshi Knight.^{Ch. 28-29} Fukuda then gets serialized and is an aspiring rival to Ashirogi, Nizuma, and Nakai, going on to achieve considerable popularity with his following series, the motorcycle racing-themed Road Racer Giri. Among them, he is considered to have the worst drawings, though that they often border on grotesque apparently matches his stories.^{Vol. 4} He can be extremely conceited, abrasive and competitive at times, yet helps out his rivals, who are also his friends. When he heard of the rumors on the internet about Mashiro and Azuki, he went on the radio and scolded the listeners who badmouthed them. His favorite manga include romantic comedies To Love-Ru, Strawberry 100%, and I"s.^{Ch. 24}

Takuro Nakai (中井 巧朗, Nakai Takurō) is a former assistant of Eiji Nizuma's. As a manga artist, he won a monthly award ten years before his introduction in the story, and has since been determined to get serialized and find a girlfriend.^{Vol. 3} He is good with drawing backgrounds and angles. He originally started as an assistant for Eiji Nizuma and then turned into an assistant for Kō Aoki,^{Ch. 29} whom he was attracted to, for Hideout Door. Once the serialization ended, he confessed his love for Kō but was rejected. He eventually showed up again as an assistant for Takahama, who as an assistant for Muto Ashirogi who got serialized. Eventually, when Kō asked him to draw for her, he told her he would, on the condition that she became his girlfriend. Kō slapped him and told him to never speak to her again. After Takahama's series was canceled, and being rejected by another girl who was assisting with him, he gave up and returned to his home in Akita, despite protests from Kō, Shinta Fukuda (who was another assistant with him for Eiji) and both Mashiro and Takagi. However he eventually comes and becomes Nanamine Toru's assistant for his work "What is required for a good school life" He is later employed as Hiramaru's assistant, being manipulated by Mr. Yoshida. His favorite manga is Kimagure Orange Road.