Our creators
Author
Keisuke Itagaki
Long before his fighters chased the title of strongest on Earth, Keisuke Itagaki chased it himself, serving in Japan’s elite 1st Airborne Brigade before turning to manga. His landmark martial arts series Baki, which began in 1991 with Baki the Grappler, marked its 35th anniversary in 2026 and has more than 100 million copies in print.
Author
Mitei Hattori
Mitei Hattori made his serialized debut with Smile!, a human drama about a grieving writer drawn into a religious group that preaches the power of smiling. Working like a film storyboard artist, he pares back dialogue and lets faces carry the story. The series concluded in Japan in 11 volumes, and a live-action adaptation is in development.
Author
Hiroki Miyashita
Hiroki Miyashita is the creator of Me and the Alien Mumu, a comedy about a cat-like alien studying household appliances, which was adapted into a TV anime in 2025. To keep its jokes grounded, he tours appliance factories and interviews the people who build them. His other works include Yakuza Reincarnation.
Author
Yuzuko Hoshimi
Calling herself an apprentice witch, Yuzuko Hoshimi creates work that moves between picture book, fairy tale, and manga. Her full-color fantasy collection MAGICA began as stories shared online, and its English edition won Best Translation at the 2026 American Manga Awards.
Author
Boichi
Boichi spent a decade in South Korean girls’ manga before launching his first action series, Sun-Ken Rock, in 2006. He has since created ORIGIN, winner of the Japan Media Arts Festival’s Manga Division Grand Prize, and illustrated Riichiro Inagaki’s Dr. STONE, winner of the Shogakukan Manga Award.
Author
Hisae Iwaoka
Hisae Iwaoka won the Manga Division Grand Prize at the 15th Japan Media Arts Festival for Saturn Apartments. The creator of The Magical Forest of Hoshigahara is known for her hand-drawn stippling, a technique she began as a teenager because screentone wasn’t sold where she lived.
Author
Shiten Akiyama
In 2023, Shiten Akiyama’s short manga Hero won the Spirits Shinjin-ō, a Shogakukan new-talent award judged by Inio Asano, whom Akiyama has also assisted. Now the creator of HORIZON, he aims to make the manga his younger self wanted to read.
Author
Jiro Matsumoto
A sculpture student turned manga creator, Jiro Matsumoto launched his career in 1992 with a runner-up prize in Kodansha’s Tetsuya Chiba Award. His works include Freesia, adapted into a live-action film in 2007, as well as Joshi Kohei and Beautiful Place.
Author
Hiroshi Takahashi
Hiroshi Takahashi is the creator of Crows, a legend of delinquent manga, and its sequel, WORST, which together have more than 90 million copies in print. Crows inspired Takashi Miike’s hit film Crows Zero, and Takahashi later co-wrote the screenplay for HiGH&LOW THE WORST.
Author
Tetsuo Hara
Tetsuo Hara, the legendary artist of Fist of the North Star, written by Buronson, also drew the 1980s science-fiction series Cyberblue. He designed Kenshiro by combining Bruce Lee, Yusaku Matsuda, and Mel Gibson’s Mad Max hero.
Author
Hanaichi Nozaki
Biography coming soon.
Author
Shiro Yoshida
Biography coming soon.