was a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

manga artist. Azuma made his professional debut in 1969 in the

Akita Shoten is a Japanese publishing company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded by Teio Akita on 10 August 1948. As of 2020, the company's president is Shigeru Higuchi. Magazines Male-oriented manga magazines ''Shōnen'' magazines * – Bimo ...

manga magazine '' Manga Ō''. He was most well known for his

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

'' lolicon''-themed works appearing in magazines such as ''

Weekly Shōnen Champion is a Japanese ''shōnen'' manga magazine published by Akita Shoten. History ''Shōnen Champion'' was first published on July 15, 1969. It has had numerous popular series by manga artists such as Osamu Tezuka, Go Nagai, Shinji Mizushima, Masa ...

'', as well as children's comedy series such as ''

Nanako SOS is a seinen manga series created by Hideo Azuma which ran in ''Popcorn'' and ''Just Comic'' (both published by Kobunsha) from April 1980 to July 1986. The series was adapted into 39-episode anime television series produced by Kokusai Eiga-s ...

'' and ''

Little Pollon , is a musical Greek mythology-based Japanese anime series, based on the 1977 manga series '' Olympus no Pollon'' (, , "Pollon of Olympus") by Hideo Azuma. ''Olympus no Pollon'' was serialized in ''Princess'' magazine from 1977 to 1979, per t ...

'' (which both became

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

television series in the early 1980s). He has been called the "father of ''lolicon''". In 2005 he published an autobiographical manga titled ''

Disappearance Diary is a manga by Hideo Azuma and published by East Press in Japan in March 2005. The manga is a somewhat-fictionalized autobiography of part of the author's life and of his alcohol dependency problems. It has received multiple awards inside and ...

'' that has won several awards including the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. His name is also sometimes romanized Hideo Aduma.

Career

Early years

While attending Hokkaidō Urahoro High School, Azuma participated in the Hokkaidō branch office of '' COM'', along with other artists such as

Monkey Punch , known by the pen name , was a Japanese manga artist, best known for his series ''Lupin III''. Life and career Katō was born in Hamanaka, Hokkaido; he began drawing at a very young age, but did not draw manga until junior high school, when h ...

and

Fumiko Okada is a feminine Japanese given name. Possible writings *文子 (sentence, child) - also can be read as "Ayako" *富美子 or 冨美子 (wealthy beautiful child) *芙美子 (hibiscus, beautiful child) *史子 (historical child) People with the nam ...

. In 1968, after graduating from high school, he moved to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

and found employment with Toppan Printing. He left this job after three months to work as an assistant to manga artist Rentarō Itai, where he did uncredited work for ''

Weekly Shōnen Sunday is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga magazine published in Japan by Shogakukan since March 1959. Contrary to its title, ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' issues are released on Wednesdays. ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' has sold over 1.8billion copies since 1986, ...

'' on series such as ''Mini Mini Manga''. Azuma made his professional debut in 1969 in '' Manga Ō'' with his work ''Ringside Crazy''. The following year he quit working as an assistant and doing his own work. He gradually expanded his work to include both shōjo and seinen manga. His first works tended to be light

gag A gag is usually an item or device designed to prevent speech, often as a restraint device to stop the subject from calling for help and keep its wearer silent. This is usually done by blocking the mouth, partially or completely, or attemptin ...

manga, though he began to include

elements influenced by his being a fan of the

New Hollywood The New Hollywood, also known as American New Wave or Hollywood Renaissance, was a movement in American film history from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, when a new generation of young filmmakers came to prominence. They influenced the types o ...

movement in

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

film. It was during this period that he experimented a lot with one panel manga (as opposed to four panel). Beginning in 1972, Azuma began rising in popularity due to the off-color humor in his ''

'' series ''Futari to 5-nin''. He also married his assistant the same year, with whom he had a girl in 1980 and a boy in 1983. His wife was credited as "Assistant A" in his works, and his daughter and son were respectively credited as "Assistant B" and "Assistant C".

Boom period

Azuma began serializing in 1975 his story ''Yakekuso Tenshi'' in the

semimonthly {{Short pages monitor

Awards

*2005: Grand Prize, Manga Division, 9th Japan Media Arts Awards for ''Shissō Nikki'' *2006: Grand Prize, Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize for ''Shissō Nikki'' *2008: Selection,

Angoulême International Comics Festival The Angoulême International Comics Festival (french: Festival international de la bande dessinée d'Angoulême) is the second largest comics festival in Europe after the Lucca Comics & Games in Italy, and the third biggest in the world after ...

for ''Shissō Nikki''

References

External links

Azuma Hideo Official Homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Azuma, Hideo 1950 births 2019 deaths Manga artists from Hokkaido