is a Japanese manga artist. His first series, '' Attack on Titan'' (2009–2021), became one of the best-selling manga series of all time with 110 million copies in circulation as of September 2022.

Biography

Isayama was born in Ōyama, Ōita Prefecture, Japan, which is now part of Hita. He was attending Hita Rinko Senior High School when he began submitting manga works to contests. After graduating, he matriculated in the manga design program of the arts department at Kyushu Designer Gakuen. In 2006, he applied for the Magazine Grand Prix known as MGP promoted by Kodansha Ltd. and a short version of ''Attack on Titan'' (''Shingeki no Kyojin'') was given the "Fine Work" award. At age twenty, he moved to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

and worked at an

Internet café An Internet café, also known as a cybercafé, is a café (or a convenience store or a fully dedicated Internet access business) that provides the use of computers with high bandwidth Internet access on the payment of a fee. Usage is generall ...

in order to pursue a career in writing manga. This one-shot would later be included with the first

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

of the

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

adaptation. Originally, he offered his work to the ''

Weekly Shōnen Jump is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the ''Jump'' line of magazines. The manga series within the magazine consist of many action scenes and a fair amount of comedy. The chapters of the series that run ...

'' department at

Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The foll ...

, where he was advised to modify his style and story to be more suitable for ''Weekly Shōnen Jump''. He declined and decided instead to take it to the ''

Weekly Shōnen Magazine is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga anthology published on Wednesdays in Japan by Kodansha, first published on March 17, 1959. The magazine is mainly read by an older audience, with a significant portion of its readership falling under the male hig ...

'' department at Kodansha Ltd. In 2008, he applied for the 80th ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' Freshman Manga Award, where his work ''Heart Break One'' was given the Special Encouragement Award. His other work, ''Orz'', was chosen as a selected work in the same contest the following year. In 2009, his first serial work, '' Attack on Titan'', started in the monthly ''

Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine is a Japanese monthly manga magazine published by Kōdansha. The magazine was started in September 2009 as a spin-off of another Kōdansha magazine, ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine''. Currently running manga series Past series * '' ×××Holic ...

''. It won the '' Shōnen'' category of the 35th Kodansha Manga Award in 2011, and was nominated for both the 4th annual

Manga Taishō The is a Japanese comics award recognizing achievement in manga. It is awarded annually to a manga series published in the previous calendar year of eight or fewer collected volumes in length. The Manga Taishō was founded with the aim of re ...

award and the 16th annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. ''Attack on Titan'' is released in English by

Kodansha USA Kodansha USA Publishing, LLC is a publishing company based in New York, USA, and a subsidiary of Japan's largest publishing company Kodansha. Established in July 2008, Kodansha USA publishes books relating to Japan, Japanese culture, and manga, ...

and has inspired five spin-off manga series, three

light novel A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a '' wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English languag ...

series, a televised anime adaptation, several

visual novel A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...

s and video games, and a two part live-action film. The resort Bungo Oyama Hibiki no Sato in his hometown of Ōyama, ran a free exhibit displaying copies of Isayama's manuscripts for the manga in 2013. A special ''Attack on Titan'' event was held in Hita on November 1, 2014, with Isayama and approximately 2,500 spectators attending. The following day, Isayama gave a speech at the Patria Hita cultural hall and was named the Tourism Ambassador of Hita by the city's mayor Keisuke Harada. In December 2018, he announced in his blog that he had gotten married earlier that year.

Works

Awards

References

External links

Hajime Isayama official blog
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Isayama, Hajime 1986 births Living people Manga artists from Ōita Prefecture People from Ōita Prefecture Attack on Titan