was a Japanese

manga artist A is a comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. As of 2006, about 3,000 professional manga artists were working in Japan. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist bef ...

known for dealing with controversial and incendiary topics in many of his works. He was born the second boy of five siblings. He had an older brother and older sister, as well as a younger brother and younger sister. His father was Korean and an artificial flower craftsman.

Biography

Akiyama quit high school and moved to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

to become a manga artist. After working briefly as a book wholesaler, he became an assistant for manga artist Kenji Morita. He made his major debut in 1966 with the gag-manga ''Gaikotsu-kun'', which was published in ''Bekkan Shōnen Magazine'', and shocked readers in 1970 with ''Ashura'', which contained numerous unsettling depictions of human life. The first chapter of ''Ashura'' contains a scene where a woman commits cannibalism to prevent herself from dying of starvation, and later attempts to eat her own child as well. The August 2, 1970, edition of ''

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 ...

'', which first published this chapter, was banned in several regions as a result of this scene, propelling Akiyama to infamy within the manga industry. Akiyama continued his career with ''Kokuhaku'' (lit. "Confessions"), which began serialization in the 11th edition of ''

Weekly Shōnen Sunday is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga magazine published in Japan by Shogakukan since March 1959. Contrary to its title, ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' issues are released on Wednesdays. ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' has sold over 1.8billion copies since 1986, ...

'' in 1971. This manga took on an unprecedented format where Akiyama would make a confession each week (for instance, in one chapter he confesses that he is a murderer), only to admit that his confession was a lie in the following week's chapter. After repeating this for the duration of the manga, Akiyama suddenly announced his retirement, cutting off all of the serializations he held on various magazines to embark on a solo journey across Japan. Akiyama came out of retirement only 3 months later with ''Bara no Sakamichi'', which began serialization in the 34th edition of ''

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 ru ...

'' in 1971. He started his longest work, ''

Haguregumo is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by George Akiyama. It has been serialized by Shogakukan in '' Big Comic Original'' from 1973 to 2017 and collected in 112 tankōbon volumes. ''Haguregumo'' received the 1979 Shogakukan Mang ...

'', on '' Big Comic Original'', which won him the

Shogakukan Manga Award The is one of Japan's major manga awards, and is sponsored by Shogakukan Publishing. It has been awarded annually for serialized manga and features candidates from a number of publishers. It is the oldest manga award in Japan, being given since ...

in 1979. The series ended in 2017, and spanned 112 volumes since its inception in 1973. The series was also adapted into an

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, 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 Japane ...

film by

Toei Animation () is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It has produced numerous series, including ''Sally the Witch,'' '' GeGeGe no Kitarō,'' '' Mazinger Z'', '' Galaxy Express 999'', '' Cutie Honey'', '' Dr. Slu ...

and Madhouse in 1982. Akiyama died on May 12, 2020, at the age of 77 of unspecified causes.

Notable works

References

External links

Official Website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Akiyama, George 1943 births 2020 deaths Manga artists from Tochigi Prefecture Japanese people of Korean descent