Hiroyuki Takei

Hiroyuki Takei (武井 宏之, Takei Hiroyuki, born May 15, 1972 in Yomogita, Aomori Prefecture) is a Japanese manga artist, best known as the creator of Shaman King.

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 The Form of Happiness (しあわせのかたち, Shiawase no Katachi) as Turtle-san (カメさã‚", Kame-san) 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 94th Tezuka Award and won the honorable mention. He was later introduced to Nobuhiro Watsuki and became his assistant along with Eiichiro Oda on Rurouni Kenshin.

Takei published his short story Death Zero in Weekly Shōnen Jump 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, Shaman King 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; Jumbor Barutronica. Set in the distant future, construction workers pilot mecha. 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 announced that Takei would be collaborating on Karakuri Dôji Ultimo with American comic creator Stan Lee. 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 magazine.

As of 2010, Takei is working on two monthly series Jumbor, written by Hiromasa Mikami (御上 裕真, Mikami Hiromasa) and Karakuri Dôji Ultimo with Stan Lee.

Inspiration

In an interview with Shonen Jump he stated that his favorite manga by other authors included Taiyo Kosoku by Baru, Blade of the Immortal by Hiroaki Samura, and Hellboy by Mike Mignola. He also cites American comic books, Mecha Anime, Hirohiko Araki of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fame, and Osamu Tezuka as influences.

Works

Serializations

One-shots

Shaman King specials

Fanzines

• SD Departement Store Series (ＳＤ百貨店シリーズ, "SD Hyakkaten Series")
• Jumbor Japon (Self-published and sold out at Comiket 73)

Unreleased

• Thunder of Judgement (裁きの雷, "Sabaki no ikazuchi") (Concept/Script:EXIAD)
• Dragdoll Group (ドラグドール団, "Doragudōru dan") (Rejected submission for the Tezuka Awards)

Character design

• Anna Kyoyama from Shaman King is the mascot for the police station in the Aomori Prefecture.
• Smash Bomber (スマッシュボマー) was a series of toys and a manga created for Takara Tomy. Takei was hired as art supervisor and one of his assistants, Daigo Katō (加藤 大悟, Katō Daigo) drew the manga which ran in V-Jump 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.
• Takei did the character design of Hanhel Tsunagin (ハンヘル・ツナーギン, Hanheru Tsunāgin) and his axe True Hash for Phantasy Star Portable 2.

References

External links

• Official Twitter