Hisashi Eguchi

Hisashi Eguchi (江口寿史, Eguchi Hisashi, born March 29, 1956) is a Japanese manga artist. He is regarded as one of Japan's most prominent female character illustrators. He made his professional manga debut with Susume!! Pirates in the manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump in 1977. Other notable works include Stop!! Hibari-kun! (adapted into an anime television series in 1983), and the gag series Charamono. Eguchi married Japanese idol Mari Mizutani in 1990.

Biography

Hisashi began drawing at an early age, fascinated by the then-starting Japanese TV broadcasting. He got to know manga through Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy. During his childhood, other superheroes like Ultraman and Ultra Seven also gripped him.

>In 1977, he won the Young Jump award (Twelve Newcomers Manga Award since 2003) for Osorubeki Kodomotachi. That same year, his Hachi-jihan no Kettō was a finalist at Akatsuka. The publication of Hisashi's baseball manga Susume!! Pirates followed in 1979 as a reward for winning the Young Jump contest.

After deciding to become a professional manga artist, Eguchi began drawing female characters: "I thought it was strange not to have girls. Also, I knew that it would be popular if the girls were cute." By the time he started Stop!! Hibari-kun!, there was a romantic comedy boom in shonen manga. However, his dislike of plotless stories made him emphasize a sarcastic tone, reflected not only with words but also by the manga itself: "The images too, they're drawn in a way that you can see that it is comedy manga right away".

In the animation field, he worked as a character designer for Roujin Z and Spriggan. Eguchi used his now current wife as a model for Roujin Z '​s Haruko. Perfect Blue characters were based on Hisashi's designs. In 1990, the short story manga collection Nantoka Narudesho! was adapted into an OVA, which mixed anime, live action and puppetry.

Eguchi stated that American pop art has been an influence on his work, citing artists such as Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. Hisashi describes his style as simple: "I like to use organized lines. The less lines the better".

In 1994, Eguchi founded Comic Cue, an alternative yearly manga magazine: "I wanted to make something like the all-star game in baseball. Or Avengers. All-hero, I wanted to have a festival of Avengers. All the heroes! With all my favorite artists". Katsuhiro Otomo was a contributor to the first issue.

Advertising

Eguchi's eye on beauty and fashion has granted him several jobs on advertising:

• Real Wine Guide covers.
• Flyers to promote his home town, Minamata.
• Hisashi Eguchi x atré "My Favorite Town. Kichijoji".
• CD Jackets: "Shit Happening", mini album "Lodge"; "Ging Nang Boyz", album "young alive in love".
• Denon D-F07 manual cover.
• Denny's Japan.
• Kanebo Ltd. Xanax.
• Acer Inc. Intel Core i5.
• Renai Koza Real Age PlayStation game.
• Several telephone card designs.

Notes and references

Japanese

References

External links

• Official website (Japanese)
• Hisashi Eguchi at Anime News Network's encyclopedia