Yoshihiro Togashi

Yoshihiro Togashi (Togashi Yoshihiro: kanji: 冨樫 義博; hiragana: とがし よしひろ, Yamagata, Japan, April 27, 1966) is a manga artist and illustrator. Most recognized for his works Hunter x Hunter (1998–2022) and Yū Yū Hakusho (1990–1994). He is married to mangaka Naoko Takeuchi, author of the manga Sailor Moon and his younger brother Hideaki Togashi is also a mangaka. Almost all of his manga works have been published in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine.

Biography

Early Years

Togashi was born in the city of Shinjō, located in the north of Yamagata Prefecture, into a family that owned a local stationery store.

He began to draw manga casually between his first and second years of Shinjo Municipal Elementary School, he would graduate from Shinjo Kita High School in Yamagata Prefecture, in this school he joined the fine arts club, then he would study at the faculty of education at yamagata university wanting to become a teacher.^{[citation needed]}

Career

First Heats

He debuted as a mangaka in 1986 at the age of 20, he created the short story one shot: "Buttobi Straight" which would win an honorable mention at the coveted Tesuka Awards in its 1987 edition, during this period he also created the short story Sensēha Toshishita!! (Sensei is younger!!).

He then creates another work called "Jura no Miduki" a work starring a girl from Jura who knows how to manipulate by talking to plants, published in volume 1 in March 1987 of the Hop Step Sho Selection, a magazine that would grant her an honorable mention of the "Hop Step&#34 prize.; Shueisha Publishing Annual, and mentioned in the awards section of Weekly Shonen Jump, in issue 21 on May 4, 1987.^{[citation needed ]} With these achievements and after putting aside his dream of becoming a teacher, he is contacted by the weekly shonen jump magazine which convinces him to focus on a career as a mangaka by moving to the city of Tokyo.

First Serializations: First compiled volume and Tende Showaru Cupid.

His first widely published work was six comedies including Buttobi Straight, All Birthday Presents, set in the real world tied to video games, Undercover Detectives, his first work with more than 40 pages published in two chapters of 1988 and 1989, a work that combines reasoning and the occult, Horror angel (angel of horror), a romantic comedy in the spirit of a mystery film where the author further explores his love for horror.

"Ōkami Nante Kowakunai" (I am not afraid of the wolf) a romantic comedy with a werewolf as the main character, being its first publication in the weekly magazine Weekly Shonen Jump in issue 20 of 1989, marking its definitive entry into the magazine and beginning with serialized works. The stories published between November 1987 and April 1989 are collected in tankōbon or volume format in 1989 titled as the one shot Ōkami Nante Kowakunai!

Then "Tende Showaru Cupid" (the evil and incapable cupid) created between 1989 and 1990 with 32 chapters and compiled in 4 volumes or tankōbon, published by the same publisher. It tells the story of Ryuji, a shy 15-year-old boy who lives with his stepsisters and his father, leader and heir to a family and tradition of conquerors and dominating men, to which Ryuji tries to flee but his father by all means seeks that your child embraces the family traditions, in this work that combines comedy with romance and the fantastic, the author is inspired by Japanese mythology, the one shot Sensēha Toshishita!! It is published in the fourth volume, the series was reissued in 1994 and in compact mode in 2002, being a first and modest success before its massive popularity with its following works.

Massive Hit: Yū Yū Hakusho and Level E

Yusuke Urameshi is a rebellious young man who after dying becomes a detective of the underworld, the series consists of 175 chapters published between 1990 and 1994 and compiled in 19 tankobond, reaps great success and makes Togashi one of the most successful and recognized, an animated adaptation is made between 1992 and 1994 increasing its popularity. Two films were also created from this work Yū Yū Hakusho Gekijōban (the kidnapping of koenma) from 1993 and Yū Yū Hakusho: Meikai Shitouhen Honoo no Kizuna (invaders from hell) from 1994, in addition to some video clip-type OVAs such as: Heizō Hakusho I and Heizō Hakusho II... between 1995 and 1996. After that, Togashi took a creative break, for reasons for fatigue.

Yū Yū Hakusho has sold over 50 million copies in Japan alone. and it has been published in several countries such as France, Italy and the United States, in Argentina by the Ivrea publishing house, in Mexico by the Vid Editorial Group and in Spain by the Glénat publishing house. In the case of the Anime, it was broadcast in Spain in Catalan by the extinct public channel K3, in Brazil by the Rede Manchete chain and throughout Latin America dubbed into Iberian Spanish broadcast on different television networks and pay television channels, the Anime was also dubbed and broadcast in different languages, in the United States where it competed with the popular Dragon Ball Z series helping the anime and manga become known in the United States.^{[citation required]}

In the mid-90's, another Togashi work called Level E appears, which is about a young university student who must restore the memory of an alien, who is actually a prince from a distant planet on which is attacked by aliens from other planets and tries through his contacts to maintain peace, published between 1995 and 1997 with 16 chapters compiled in 3 volumes.

In 2011 an Anime of that series was made by the same animation studio that produced the Yū Yū Hakusho series, Studio Pierrot together with TV Tokyo, and David Production, under the direction of Toshiyuki Katou with 13 episodes.

Hunter x Hunter and news

On March 3, 1998, Togashi reappears with the Hunter X Hunter Manga published by the same publisher as in his previous works, this time Togashi takes up several formulas used in Yu Yu Hakusho while preserving elements of action, comedy and horror. It tells us about the adventures of Gon who seeks to become a hunter to understand his father's motivations, along with Killua, Kurapika and Leorio, four young people with different motivations and backgrounds who will become friends, finding obstacles and rewards that will show them a world full of mysteries., adventures, obstacles and contradictions in the different paths they choose to achieve their goals.

A first anime adaptation would be seen in an episode shown on the “Jump Super Anime Tour" of 1998, adapted to the Anime. In 1999, under the direction of Kazuhiro Furuhashi and the production of Nippon Animation in which Togashi would be more immersed, this adaptation would have a great reception in Japan and a momentary end after reaching the manga in its history. At the request of the fans, three series of ovas were made in 2001 directed by Satoshi Saga, in 2003 and 2004 directed by Yukihiro Matsushita and Makoto Sato respectively, in 2011 a second adaptation was made by the Madhouse studio, covering up to volume 28 of the manga., this same team made the film Hunter × Hunter: Phantom Rouge, with a completely original script.

Hunter X Hunter is one of the most famous Togashi titles in Japan, spreading throughout the world including anime, however, health problems that had already been manifesting during the making of Yu Yu Hakusho worsened, this work has been Affected by an intermittence in its very marked publication, to date Hunter x Hunter has become his longest running work with 390 chapters collected in 36 volumes and most successful with 78 million volumes sold.

In 2001 Togashi was the seventh editor-in-chief of "Weekly Shonen Jump".^{[citation needed]}

In 2017 he wrote the two-chapter manga Akuten Wars (悪天ウォーズ) illustrated by Hachi Mizuno and published in the September and December issues of Grand Jump, this same year he illustrated manga versions of the singer Jun Togawa and the band of rock Vampillia on the occasion of a joint album.

Personal life

On January 6, 1999, Togashi married the famous mangaka Naoko Takeuchi, author of the famous manga "Bishoujo Senshi: Sailor Moon"; the two were introduced at a party hosted by Kazushi Hagiwara in August 1997. The following year Takeuchi helped Togashi as her assistant for a brief time by providing textures and shading for her Hunter X Hunter manga. Several friends and manga artists attended the wedding, as well as the voice actors for the Yu Yu Hakusho and Sailor Moon series, their first child was born in 2001, to date they have two children and collaborated on a children's book in 2005 entitled Oobo— Nu— Tochiibo— Nu— (おおぼーぬーとちぃぼーぬー), where Takeuchi writes and Tokashi illustrates. Thanks to this marriage, Togashi became known to otakus as Mr. Takeuchi. ^{[citation required]}

Togashi's character is that of a comic manga author, and is, in the words of his own wife, "a weirdo, disorganized and a real video game maniac" They make a curious couple, however Naoko says that her husband is an honest, nice guy with a very good sense of humor, as evidenced by his habit of portraying himself in his free talks as a dog with glasses, as it appears in a cameo he made in the anime Hunter x Hunter, in addition to sharing with her an attraction to esoteric and occult themes.

Togashi enjoys playing board game-style video games and bowling with his family. He also likes watching horror movies, and considers Don't Look Up ((女優霊, Joyû-rei, lit) and Dawn of the Dead to be his favorites. Togashi cites visual effects designer H. R. Giger as a big influence.

Togashi underwent an immense amount of stress while working on Yu Yu Hakusho, which caused him to experience inconsistent sleep patterns and chest pain. On March 29, 2011, Togashi and his fellow manga artists 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 an artist. sleeve.

The Togashi stationery store run by his mother is still open in Shinjō, Yamagata, his favorite food is curry rice.

Style and influences

Manga critic Jason Thompson refers to Togashi as an unordinary manga author who does things her own way, noting that her early work on short stories was a mix of comedy "splattered with horror film references", and then at the age of 24 he creates the supernatural comedy "Yu Yu Hakusho" being one of the many obvious copies of the Dragon Ball formula "It starts out as a comedy and then, once the readers like the characters, you have them kicking each other's to each other” but rather than continue and maximize profits, Togashi ends the series abruptly returning the combat series to a comedy one, then gives way to creating the series 0% combat and 100% sci-fi horror humor Level E.^{[citation required]}

Yū Yū Hakusho shows inspiration from Esotericism, demons, parallel and dimensional worlds, including the movie Poltergeist, horror stories and Japanese folklore, in Level E, Togashi explores comedy with sci-fi elements throughout.

Hunter x Hunter is inspired by his hobbies of collecting objects, in the creation of his work he invented an alien-style alphabet adapting it into the Hiragana alphabet, for the signs of the cities and objects of the series. Naturally styled, much like Jean Giraud and The Hermetic Garage, only Togashi employs with fountain pens, less mechanical plotting in his work during which he has used few or no assistants.

Togashi's art style began by making use of textures and shadows to gradually shift to minimalism, both Rika Takahashi of EX.org and Claude J. Pelletier of Protoculture Addicts found the art style in Hunter × Hunter to be much simpler than Yu Yu Hakusho and Level E.

Thompson noted that the illustrations during the weekly issue in Hunter × Hunter magazine are often "incomplete" and funds are lacking, but Togashi returns and arranges for his tankōbon compilation release.

He also wrote that Togashi loves gore, and pointed out that some panels in Hunter × Hunter are apparently gore-censored by being covered with screentone, textures, and shadows.

Since 2006, Togashi has taken numerous long hiatuses while serializing Hunter × Hunter. Some were due to illness and lower back pain, while the reasons for others were never revealed. Thompson speculated that Togashi's slow performance is due to him being a perfectionist who wants to do everything himself, noting that if he really wanted to, he could have his assistants do everything. In his 2017 book, Hakusho Sensei, recounting his time working as Togashi's assistant from 1990 to 1997, Kunio Ajino stated that Togashi was unusually generous with his staff.

Togashi has commented how he finds influence from what he sees around him, it could be from a song or a television program, he has declared his interest in horror movies, within his work it is common to find references to different religions and beliefs, within his work his works have been influenced by other mangakas such as Junji Ito or Akira Toriyama and Kazuki Takahashi at different times in his career.

Manga artists Nobuhiro Watsuki and Pink Hanamori have cited Togashi and Yu Yu Hakusho as an influence. He is one of the favorite artists of Naruto author Masashi Kishimoto. Gege Akutami and his Jujutsu Kaisen series were heavily influenced by Togashi and inspired by both Yu Yu Hakusho and Hunter × Hunter.

Jobs

• Sensēha Toshishita!! (1986, compiled in Volume 4 of Tende Showaru Cupid)
• Jura no Miduki (1987), published in Hop Step Award Selection Volume 1 and Ten of Shōwaru Cupid Volume 4)
• ⋅kami Nante Kowakunai (1989)
  • Buttobi Straight (1987)
  • Tonda Birthday Present (1987, published in Weekly Shōnen Jump special)
  • Occult Tanteidan (1988–1989, two parts published Weekly Shōnen Jump special)
  • Horror Angel (1988, published in Weekly Shōnen Jump special)
  • ⋅kami Nante Kowakunai! (1989, published in Weekly Shōnen Jump)

• Tende Showaru Cupid (1989-1990), published in Weekly Shōnen Jump)
• Yu Yu Hakusho (1990-1994), published in Weekly Shōnen Jump)
• Church! (GRUNTING) Chāchi![Togashi and co., self-publication]
• Level E (1995-1997, published in Weekly Shōnen Jump)
• Hunter x Hunter (1998-Update, published in Weekly Shōnen Jump)
• Akuten Wars (2017, published in Grand Jump Premium, solo historia, illustrated by Hachi Mizuno)

Others

• Kamuten (chanting) design [Official Helmet of Shinjō City] (1994)
• Yoshirin de Pon! (1994, Yu Yu Hakusho dōjinshi, distributed in the summer Cómic Market of 94)
• Biohazard 3: The Last Escape Official Guidebook (1999, Published by ASCII)
• Some [non-revealed] art and illustrations for "Dragon Kingdom" (・ ゴ,のののののののののののののの 。 Doragon Kingudamu) card game (2000).
• Official Hunter × Hunter Guide (2004, Posted by Shueisha)
• YuYu Hakusho Who's Who Underworld Character Book (2005, published by Shueisha)
• YuYu Hakusho Illustrations (2005, published by Shueisha)
• Oobo— Nu— To Chiibo— Nu— (2005, Kodansha published)
• Hetappi Manga Kenkyūjo R (2011, Posted by Shueisha)
• Special Hunter × Hunter magazine cover (9 August 2016, Kōhō Shinjō [Shinjō Public Relations] August magazine number 704)
• "Jun Togawa with Vampillia" illustrations and portraits of the group (2017)