is a Japanese

manga artist A manga artist, also known as a mangaka (), is a Cartoonist, comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist before entering the indus ...

, best known as the creator of the popular ''

Shaman King is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiroyuki Takei. It follows the adventures of Yoh Asakura as he attempts to hone his shaman skills to become the Shaman King by winning the Shaman Fight. Takei chose shamanism as the m ...

''.

Career

Hiroyuki Takei started drawing manga with writer EXIAD on SD Département Store Series which they created for a fanzine. Early in his career, he became the assistant to Tamakichi Sakura on ' as in 1992 and Kōji Kiriyama ('' Ninku''). At that time, he also submitted his first yomikiri Dragdoll Group to the Tezuka Award but was rejected. In 1994, Takei submitted his short story ''Anna the Itako'' to the 48th Tezuka Award and won the honorable mention. He was later introduced to

Nobuhiro Watsuki , better known by his pen name , is a Japanese manga artist. He is best known for his samurai-themed series '' Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story'' (1994–1999), which has over 70 million copies in circulation, and a sequel he is cur ...

and became his assistant along with

Eiichiro Oda is a Japanese manga artist and the creator of the series ''One Piece'', the best-selling manga in history and the best-selling comic series printed in volume. With more than 520 million copies of ''One Piece'' in circulation worldwide ...

on ''

Rurouni Kenshin is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki. The story begins in 1878, the 11th year of the Meiji era in Japan, and follows a former assassin of the Bakumatsu, known as Hitokiri Battosai. After his work against ...

''. Takei published his short story ''Death Zero'' in ''

Weekly Shōnen Jump is a weekly Shōnen manga, ''shōnen'' manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the ''Jump (magazine line), Jump'' line of magazines. The manga series within the magazine consist of many Action (fiction), action scenes and a fair ...

'' winter special and '' Butsu Zone'' in the summer special of 1996. A reworked version of '' Butsu Zone'' became his first manga series published in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' of 1997. Takei's longest-running series, ''

'' began serialization in Shueisha's ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' in 1998, though was forced to conclude in 2004. In 2007, Takei returned three years after the conclusion of ''Shaman King'' with a new ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' series, entitled '' Jumbor Barutronica''. Set in the distant future, construction workers pilot

mecha In science fiction, or mechs are giant robots or machines, typically depicted as piloted, humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese (language), Japanese after shortening the English loanword or , but the meaning in Japan ...

. One of them is killed and his memories are implanted in his clone, a thirty-year-old man in a five-year-old superpowered construction tool body. The series was canceled after ten issues and released in one volume. During the Jump Festa 2008, Shueisha announced a kanzenban reprint of ''Shaman King''. This release reprinted the entire series in 27 volumes complete with new covers while concluding the never-before-published "true ending." On March 4, 2008, Japanese publisher

Shūeisha is a Japanese publishing company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Shueisha is the largest publishing company in Japan. It was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The ...

announced that Takei would be collaborating on '' Karakuri Dôji Ultimo'' with American comic creator

Stan Lee Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber ; December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book author, writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Comics which later bec ...

. The project launched with the new ''Jump SQ.II'' (Jump Square Second) spinoff manga magazine on April 18, 2008. The announcement of the partnership was made in the April issue of ''

Jump Square , also written as , is a Japanese monthly manga magazine. Published by Shueisha, the magazine premiered on November 2, 2007, as a replacement for ''Monthly Shōnen Jump'', another manga anthology that Shueisha discontinued in June of that year. ...

'' magazine. As of 2010, Takei is working on two monthly series: ''Jumbor'', written by and ''Karakuri Dôji Ultimo'' with Stan Lee. On February 15, 2017, when answering a fan's question, Hiroyuki Takei revealed on his official Twitter that he received an offer for an anime remake of his representative work ''Shaman King'', but had to turn it down because they were not able to use the first anime's voice actors and soundtrack music. In June 2020, a new anime television series was announced, which aired from April 1, 2021 to April 21, 2022 and featured several returning cast members from the 2001 anime series in both the Japanese and the English dub.

Inspiration

Takei named

Hirohiko Araki , better known as , is a Japanese manga artist. He is best known for his long-running series '' JoJo's Bizarre Adventure'', which began publication in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' in 1987 and has over 120 million copies in circulation, making it one ...

's series ''

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki. It was originally serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1987 to 2004, and was transferred to the monthly manga magazine ''Ultra Jum ...

'' and '' Baoh'' as his favorite manga when he was younger. In an interview with ''Shonen Jump'', he also cited ''Taiyo Kosoku'' by Baru, ''

Blade of the Immortal is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiroaki Samura. It was serialized in Kodansha's Seinen manga, manga magazine ''Monthly Afternoon'' from June 1993 to December 2012, with its chapters collected in 30 volumes. The ...

'' by

Hiroaki Samura is a Japanese manga artist, known for ''Blade of the Immortal'', as well as several other short works. He has also done various illustrations for magazines and ero guro work. Education Samura says that he always wanted to be a manga artist. Ho ...

, and ''

Hellboy Hellboy is a superhero created by Mike Mignola and appearing in comic books published by Dark Horse Comics. The character first appeared in ''San Diego Comic-Con Comics'' #2 (August 1993), and has since appeared in various miniseries, one-shots ...

'' by

Mike Mignola Michael Mignola (; born September 16, 1960) is an American comic book writer best known for creating ''Hellboy'' for Dark Horse Comics, part of a Hellboy Universe, shared universe of titles including ''B.P.R.D.'', ''Abe Sapien'', ''Lobster Johns ...

as favorites. Takei has also been influenced by

American comic books An American comic book is a thin periodical literature originating in the United States, commonly between 24 and 64 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publ ...

Mecha anime Mecha, also known as giant robot or simply robot, is a genre of anime and manga that feature mecha in battle. The genre is broken down into two subcategories; " super robot", featuring super-sized, implausible robots, and " real robot", where ...

and

Osamu Tezuka Osamu Tezuka (, born , ''Tezuka Osamu'', – 9 February 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist and animator. Considered to be among the greatest and most influential cartoonists of all time, his prolific output, pioneering techniques an ...

Works

Serializations

One-shots

Shaman King specials

Fanzines

* *''Jumbor Japon'' (Self-published at

Comiket , more commonly known as or , is a semiannual Doujinshi convention, ''doujinshi'' convention in Tokyo, Japan. A grassroots market focused on the sale of ''doujin'' (self-published) works, Comiket is a not-for-profit fan convention administered ...

73)

Unreleased

* (Concept/Script:EXIAD) * (Rejected submission for the Tezuka Awards)

Character design

Anna Kyoyama is a fictional character created by manga author Hiroyuki Takei. She appears in ''Shaman King'' as a primary character, while an alternate character with the same name and similar appearance appears in ''Butsu Zone'', and ''Itako no Anna'', a one- ...

from ''

'' is the mascot for the police station in the

Aomori Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori (city), Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is border ...

. * was a series of toys and a manga created for

Takara Tomy (trade name, trading as Takara Tomy in Asia and Tomy elsewhere) is a Japanese toy company. It was established in 1924 by Eiichirō Tomiyama as , became known for creating popular toys like the B-29 friction toy and luck-based game Pop-up Pi ...

. Takei was hired as art supervisor and one of his assistants, , drew the manga which ran in ''

V Jump is a Japanese shōnen manga magazine, focusing on manga as well as video games based on popular manga. The magazine's debut was in 1990 by Shueisha under the '' Jump'' line of magazines. History In the early 1990s, Shueisha directed ''Weekly ...

'' during issue number 8 to 10 in 2006. The series was canceled after 3 chapters and never met the intended 197 pages announced in the first chapter. *Character design of and his axe True Hash for '' Phantasy Star Portable 2''. *Original character designs of '' Garo: The Animation''. *Original character designs for the original anime series, '' Shine On! Bakumatsu Bad Boys!''. *Original character designs for the ''Bikkurimen'' anime series based on the stickers from the wafer snack, Bikkuriman.

Other works

* Illustrator for the ''

Cardfight!! Vanguard is a Japanese multimedia franchise jointly created by Akira Itō, Satoshi Nakamura, Mitsuhisa Tamura, and Bushiroad president Takaaki Kidani. It currently consists of multiple anime television series, an official t ...

'' Trading Card Games.

References

External links

Official TwitterHiroyuki Takei - the soul of Shaman King
- Documentary portrait of Hiroyuki Takei {{DEFAULTSORT:Takei, Hiroyuki 1972 births Living people Manga artists from Aomori Prefecture Yomogita, Aomori