Yoshihiro Togashi

Yoshihiro Togashi (冨樫 義博, Togashi Yoshihiro, born April 27, 1966 in Shinjō, Yamagata) is a Japanese manga artist. He began drawing manga at an early age; while he attended college, the publishing company Shueisha recognized his talent. Togashi has authored numerous manga series in different genres during the past three decades. He is perhaps best known for writing and illustrating the YuYu Hakusho and Hunter × Hunter series, both of which have been published in the popular Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine. Togashi is married to Naoko Takeuchi, the author of Sailor Moon.

Biography

Early life

Born in Shinjō, Yamagata, Togashi began drawing manga casually in his first to second year of elementary school. In high school, Togashi joined the fine-arts club; he later enrolled at Yamagata University where he studied education in the hope of becoming a teacher. During college he submitted some of his manga work to Weekly Young Jump, published by Shueisha. In 1986, at age 20, he authored a manga titled Buttobi Straight (ぶっとびストレート, Buttobi SutorÄ"to) for which he received the Tezuka Award, the most prestigious award for new comic artists in Japan. Another manga by Togashi titled Jura no Mizuki (ジュラのミヅキ) was an honorable mention in Shueisha's first annual Hop Step Award Selection magazine, published in 1988. After having given up his goal of becoming a teacher, Togashi was contacted by an editor of Weekly Shōnen Jump during his senior year of college, who asked him to move to Tokyo.

Career

Togashi's earliest published works for Shueisha included ÅŒkami Nante Kowakunai!! (狼なã‚"て怖くない!!, lit. I'm Not Afraid of the Wolf!!), a collection of comedy manga short-stories. Weekly Shōnen Jump published some of the stories prior to a tankōbon release in 1989. Between 1989 and 1990, Togashi authored Ten de Shōwaru Cupid (てã‚"で性悪キューãƒ"ッド, lit. An Ill-tempered Cupid in Heaven), a four-volume romance manga involving the relationship between a normal, human boy and a beautiful, devil girl.

In 1990, Togashi made a name for himself with his next series YuYu Hakusho (幽☆遊☆白書, lit. Poltergeist Report). Based on his interests in the occult and in horror films, the plot features the character Yusuke Urameshi, who is killed and brought back to life as an "Underworld Detective". The manga, which lasted 175 chapters over 19 tankōbon from 1990 to 1994, went on to sell 49,000,000 copies in Japan, earned Togashi a Shogakukan Manga Award in 1994, and received a hit anime adaptation. In 1995, he created Level E (レベルE), a science fiction-comedy manga. Comprising three volumes, it was first published in Weekly Shōnen Jump in 1995 and ran until 1997. Level E was adapted into an anime television series in 2011.

Togashi's next major series Hunter × Hunter (ハンター×ハンター), an action-adventure manga, began serialization in 1998. The story revolves around the protagonist Gon Freecss, a young boy in search of his father, who is a legendary, elite member of society called a "Hunter". This manga also performed very well commercially, with the first 20 volumes selling nearly 55,000,000 copies in Japan as of August 2011. In 2008, Togashi tied with One Piece author Eiichiro Oda as the fifth favorite manga artist from a poll posted by the marketing research firm Oricon.

Personal life

Togashi is married to Naoko Takeuchi, the manga artist of Sailor Moon. The two were introduced at a party hosted by Kazushi Hagiwara in August 1997. The following year, Takeuchi assisted Togashi for short time by adding screentone to his manga Hunter × Hunter. Togashi and Takeuchi were married on January 6, 1999. In attendance for the ceremony were several fellow manga artists and voice actors from both the Sailor Moon and YuYu Hakusho anime series. The couple have two children and have collaborated on a children's book titled Ooboâ€" Nuâ€" Tochiiboâ€" Nuâ€" (おおぼーぬーとちぃぼーぬー), which Takeuchi wrote and Togashi illustrated. Togashi is also one of the favorite artists of Masashi Kishimoto, the author of Naruto.

Togashi enjoys board-game-style video games and bowling with his family. He also likes watching horror movies, and considers Don't Look Up and Dawn of the Dead his favorites. Togashi cites visual effects designer H. R. Giger as a major influence. Togashi suffered from an immense amount of stress while working on YuYu Hakusho, which caused him inconsistent sleep patterns and chest pain. Togashi has taken numerous breaks in recent years while writing Hunter × Hunter, the first of which was due to illness. On March 29, 2011, Togashi and his fellow manga artist posted messages on the official Shōnen Jump website in support of the victims of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. He has a younger brother named Hideaki Togashi, who is also a manga artist.

Works

Manga

• SensÄ"ha Toshishita!! (1986, later featured in Ten de Shōwaru Cupid Volume 4)
• Jura no Miduki (1987, featured in Hop Step Award Selection Volume 1)
• ÅŒkami Nante Kowakunai!! (1989, tankōbon published by Shueisha)
  • Buttobi Straight (1987)
  • Tonda Birthday Present (1987, published in Weekly Shōnen Jump)
  • Occult Tanteidan (1988â€"1989, two parts published in Weekly Shōnen Jump)
  • Horror Angel (1988, published in Weekly Shōnen Jump)
  • ÅŒkami Nante Kowakunai!! (1989, published in Weekly Shōnen Jump)
• Ten de Shōwaru Cupid (1989â€"1990, serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump)
• YuYu Hakusho (1990â€"1994, serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump)
• Level E (1995â€"1997, serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump)
• Hunter × Hunter (1998â€"ongoing, serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump)

Other

• Yoshirin de Pon! (1994, YuYu Hakusho dōjinshi distributed at 1994 Summer Comic Market)
• Biohazard 3: The Last Escape Official Guidebook (1999, published by ASCII)
• Official Hunter × Hunter Guide (2004, published by Shueisha)
• YuYu Hakusho Who's Who Underworld Character Book (2005, published by Shueisha)
• YuYu Hakusho Illustrations (2005, published by Shueisha)
• Ooboâ€" Nuâ€" To Chiiboâ€" Nuâ€" (2005, published by Kodansha)
• Hetappi Manga KenkyÅ«jo R (2011, published by Shueisha)

References

External links

• Transcript of interview in American Monthly Shonen Jump
• Profile at takeuchi-naoko.com
• Yoshihiro Togashi at Anime News Network's encyclopedia