- 10.8KShares
This post is by guest writer Zachary Kozinski.
Anime is filled with iconic characters, scenes, and soundtracks, celebrated throughout the ages. Yet, there are some unspoken heroes of the anime and manga industry, especially from behind the scenes. Whether they’re an author, an artist, or even an editor, these people work their hearts out to bring us the medium that fuels our lives. That being said, let’s celebrate the uncelebrated, and start by talking about six of the most important people in the shounen genre.
Before Akira Toriyama had begun his work on manga, he was employed by an advertisement company that had him drawing posters, a job he held for three years before quitting. He went on to pursue work as a manga artist, beginning with an amateur contest in order to win the cash prize. Toriyama didn’t win, but he was encouraged to continue working on manga.
His official debut came in the form of a story named Wonder Island, which was originally published in Weekly Shounen Jump. Yet, the story wasn’t a rousing success, and he wouldn’t have his breakout until he created the comedy series Dr. Slump in 1980. Then later, his popularity became fully cemented with the instant classic Dragon Ball, first published in 1984. Dragon Ball quickly became Shuiesha’s top selling manga series, running for 11 years until Toriyama decided to finally end the manga. He did eventually come back to work on the series again when Dragon Ball GT and Dragon Ball Super came about.
Akira Toriyama’s works don’t just end at manga, however, as he is also known for his work in video games. One of the most popular examples would be the RPG known as Chrono Trigger, which is considered on of the greatest video games of all time. He was also working to help design Dragon Quest, another popular roleplaying game in its era.
Noriaki Kubo, better known by his pen name Tite Kubo, was born in 1977 in Hiroshima, Japan. After having read Saint Saiya, Kubo decided that he desired to become a manga artist. His first official work came in the form of a series named Zombiepowder., which fell through after only a measly 27 chapters. Shortly after the cancellation of Zombiepowder., Kubo went on to submit his next idea: a story about shinigami fighting beings named Hollows, titled Bleach. Bleach had been originally rejected, but the young manga artist received a letter of encouragement from Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball, to continue his work.
Bleach now has, as of April 2016, 671 chapters and over 82 million copies sold. While Tite Kubo has worked on other projects, he has yet to really branch off of his most popular series. He has assisted Madhouse in designing characters for anime such as Sakura no Mori no Mankai no Shita, The Spider’s Thread, and Hell’s Rant.
Hirohiko Araki was originally drawn to manga from his long days alone in his family’s reading room, attempting to escape the annoyances of his younger twin sisters. Being inspired by his father’s art books, especially those about an artist named Paul Gauguin, he began drawing manga. He entered a manga contest in his first year of high school, having lost with every single one of his submissions. When he personally went to the publishers’ offices in Tokyo in order to find out why, he was able to, with some heavy criticism, mold his creation into his debut manga, Poker Under Arms. His next notable work was a series named Baoh, which began the signature amount of blood and gore commonly found in Araki’s work.
In 1986, Hirohiko Araki released the work that would become one of the most iconic manga of all time, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, which is still ongoing. Combining influences from sources such as his prior works, Fist of the North Star, and even classic rock, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure has left its imprint on pop culture by being referenced in many other anime, video games, and online videos.
In 2009, Araki was asked to complete a work for an exhibit at the famous French museum, the Louvre. The exhibit was titled Le Louvre invite la Bande Dessinée (The Louvre Invites the Comics), creating the work titled Kishibe Rohan Louvre e Iku (Rohan Kishibe at the Louvre). That work placed a character from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure in the famed museum, acting as a testament to how much of a cultural icon his manga has become.
When Eiichiro Oda was four years old, he vowed to himself that he would become a manga artist so he wouldn’t have to get, in his own words, “a real job.” His first contact with the manga scene came when he submitted a character to be used in a manga series named Kinnikuman. That character was called Pandaman, and it would go on to cameo in many of Oda’s works.
When Oda was 17, he had written a manga titled Wanted!, which won the young manga artist many awards and, more importantly, a position working at Weekly Shounen Jump. From ages 17 to 19, he worked as an assistant on manga ranging from Jungle King Tar-chan to even Rurouni Kenshin. During this period, Oda had written two one shots serialized under the name Romance Dawn, with the main character named Monkey D. Luffy.
The legacy of Monkey D. Luffy wouldn’t die there, however, as Oda’s next work broke the roof of the shounen genre. That work was One Piece. Debuting in 1997, One Piece became an instant phenomenon, quickly becoming one of the best selling manga series in the world. The popularity of One Piece is so widespread that multiple issues of the manga have broken Japanese publishing records.
During a poll in 2008, Eiichiro Oda was voted as one of the five most beloved mangaka (manga author) of all time, and in 2010 was named the fourth biggest mangaka that changed the history of the world.
When Masashi Kishimoto was a child, he idolized the manga powerhouse that was Akira Toriyama, enjoying his work on Dr. Slump, Dragon Ball, and even Dragon Quest. Unable to afford each individual issue of his favorite manga, Kishimoto would enjoy his idol’s work through his friend’s Weekly Shounen Jump magazine. Yet, even with his enjoyment of Akira Toriyama, Kishimoto lost interest in manga and instead took up sports. This was until he saw a promotional poster for the animated movie Akira, which fascinated the somewhat grown Kishimoto with its art style.
This inspired him to create his own manga, which originally resembled seinen (young adult) manga as opposed to shounen, which was his original goal. After meeting with and doing some research on multiple people from the manga industry, Kishimoto eventually molded their styles into his own. After much effort, he noted that his work began resembling the shounen style that he longed to create.
Kishimoto’s first published work was Karakuri, which was submitted in 1995. This work won him the monthly Hot Step Award, given to newer manga artists which show promising potential. From 1996 to 1997, Kishimoto worked on different manga that never saw the light of day, such as Asian Punk and Michikusa, until he struck gold in a one shot published in Akamaru Summer Jump — the original Naruto manga. After going into a bit of a dark period of his career due to a failed Karakuri reboot and the attempt to publish seinen manga, Kishimoto returned in 1999 with the debut of the serialization of the ninja manga Naruto.
Naruto exploded in popularity throughout its run, eventually ending in November of 2014 with over 700 chapters and 70 volumes. During this time, Kishimoto actually developed a bit of a rivalry with fellow mangaka Eiichiro Oda, one that was entirely returned by the other party.
While other mangaka might have had more interesting back stories, Yoshihiro Togashi’s was a little more simple. His start in the world of manga began while he was in elementary school, where he began to draw manga for fun. He would continue this trend of casually creating manga into high school, when he joined the fine arts club, and then into college, where he was studying to become a teacher. While he was attending university, he entered a manga contest for Weekly Shounen Jump, which ended up getting published. After that he authored a manga titled Buttobi Straight, where he received the extremely prestigious Tezuka Award, awarded only to new comic artists. Eventually, Togashi decided to stop his steps towards becoming a teacher, and was soon offered a job at Weekly Shounen Jump, which he gladly accepted.
At the start of his career at Weekly Shounen Jump, Togashi released a few notable works, such as Okami Nante Kowakunai!! (I’m Not Afraid of the Wolf!) and Ten de Showaru Cupid (An Ill-Tempered Cupid in Heaven). Those pieces weren’t the biggest hits with audiences, but they weren’t necessarily bombs either. Togashi wouldn’t receive much critical acclaim until the release of the manga Yu Yu Hakusho (Poltergeist Report), which took Togashi’s love of the occult and horror and turned it into one of the biggest manga of the ’90s. The manga powerhouse soon received a hit anime adaptation, a trend that would continue with many of Togashi’s popular works.
After Yu Yu Hakusho, Togashi created Level E, a science fiction comedy that didn’t quite hit the same mark as his prior work. However, Togashi would soon feel the limelight once more with the release of Hunter x Hunter, receiving just as much critical acclaim as Yu Yu Hakusho, if not more.
In 2008, Togashi had tied with One Piece author Eiichiro Oda as the fifth most popular manga artist of all time. Togashi is also married to another famous mangaka, Naoko Takeuchi, who created Sailor Moon.
- 10.8KShares
- 10.8KShares