is a Japanese manga artist working for various magazines within the

Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The foll ...

lines, including ''

Weekly Shōnen Jump is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the ''Jump'' line of magazines. The manga series within the magazine consist of many action scenes and a fair amount of comedy. The chapters of the series that run ...

'' and '' Super Jump''. Born in Ōtoyo in the prefecture of Kōchi on March 1, 1959, he originally got notice from a placing entry in the 17th

Akatsuka Award The is the name of a semi-annual award presented to mangaka by the Japanese publisher Shueisha. The award has been given since 1974 and it aims to reward new manga artist in the comedy manga category. Its counterpart award, Tezuka Award, awards n ...

for his story in 1982. His first series, , soon followed, running between 1983 and 1985 in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' and quickly established him as not only a gag manga artist but one who balanced in dramatic elements into his stories as well. His most well known work, (a bizarre take on Edgar Rice Burroughs' famous jungle hero

Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adv ...

), became a ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' staple during its run between 1988 and 1995. At the same time as his ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' success, he also had a successful series in ''Super Jump'' by way of , running between 1986 and 1990. Other notable more recent series in the ''

seinen is an editorial category of Japanese comics marketed toward young adult men. In Japanese, the word ''seinen'' literally means "youth", but the term "''seinen'' manga" is also used to describe the target audience of magazines like '' Weekly Ma ...

'' magazine include and . Tokuhiro incorporates many of his loves in his stories, including guns,

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and muscular physiques (for both males and females) as well as

Shorinji Kempo is a Japanese martial art claimed to be a modified version of Shaolin Kung Fu. The name ''Shōrinji Kempo'' is the Japanese reading of ''Shàolínsì Quánfǎ''. It was established in 1947 by , a Japanese martial artist and former military ...

. One of the few assistants he has used in his work was a young

Eiichiro Oda is a Japanese manga artist and the creator of the series ''One Piece'' (1997–present). With more than 516.5 million ''tankōbon'' copies in circulation worldwide, ''One Piece'' is both the best-selling manga in history and the best-se ...

, who has admitted to taking many of the ideas and styles from Tokuhiro but has had little contact with him since those days.

Works

*''Shape Up Ran'' (シェイプアップ乱 Sheipu appu Ran),

(1983 - 1986, 14 volumes) *''Fundoshi Keiji Ken-chan to Chako-chan'' (ふんどし刑事ケンちゃんとチャコちゃん), Super Jump (1986 - 1990, 2 volumes) *,

(1988 - 1990, 7 volumes) *,

(1990 - 1995, 20 volumes) *''Kyōshirō 2030'' (狂四郎2030), Super Jump (1997 - 2004, 20 volumes) *''Fuguman'' (ふぐマン), Super Jump ( 2008 - 2010, 6 volumes) *''Teishu Genki de Inu ga Ii'' (亭主元気で犬がいい),

Big Comic Superior is a semimonthly seinen manga magazine published since July 1, 1987 by Shogakukan in Japan. Its target audience is somewhere between the audience for ''Big Comic Original'' and ''Big Comic Spirits''. The magazine has published works by a numb ...

(2010 - 2013, 8 volumes) *''Kōmon-sama - Suke-san no Yūutsu'' (黄門さま〜助さんの憂鬱〜),

Grand Jump is a Japanese semi-monthly seinen manga magazine published by Shueisha under their ''Jump'' line of magazines. Launched in November 2011 as a merging of '' Business Jump'' and ''Super Jump'', it carried over nine series from the former and thre ...

(2013 - 2015, 6 volumes)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tokuhiro, Masaya 1959 births Living people Manga artists from Kōchi Prefecture