Hiroyuki Takei

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Hiroyuki Takei (武井宏之 Takei Hiroyuki, May 15, 1972 in Yomogita, Aomori Prefecture) is a Japanese manga author.

[edit] History

Hiroyuki Takei was born at Yomogita in Aomori Prefecture, located in northern Honshū.

His beginning was marked by the manga series SD Hyakkaten which he created for a fanzine. He grew successful and became the assistant to famous mangaka like Nobuhiro Watsuki (Rurouni Kenshin) and Tamakichi Sakura (Sabaki no kaminari). It was with his first manga series "Butsu Zone", published in Weekly Shonen Jump, that his career truly took off.

Takei is a friend of Watsuki and mangaka Eiichiro Oda (One Piece), who was also an assistant of Watsuki. First time finalist of Tezuka's prize with his manga Doragu Doll Dan, he actually ended up winning the award because of the one-shot Itako no Anna.

One of his influences was Hirohiko Araki of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fame. His most recent and longest running work is Shaman King, published in Weekly Shonen Jump.

In 2007, Takei returned three years after the conclusion of Shaman King with a new Weekly Shonen Jump series; Jūki Ningen Jumbor. 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 with thirty five pages of maps, setting and character data, as well as extensive liner notes between the chapters.

On March 4, 2008, Japanese publisher Shūeisha announced that Takei would be collaborating on Karakuridôji Ultimo with American comic creator Stan Lee. The project is set to launch 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.^[1]