is a Japanese

manga artist A is a comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. As of 2006, about 3,000 professional manga artists were working in Japan. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist be ...

. After graduating from art school he joined

Hudson Soft was a Japanese video game company that released numerous games for video game consoles, home computers and mobile phones, mainly from the 1980s to the 2000s. It was headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo ...

as a graphic artist for video games such as '' Mega Bomberman'' and '' Kishin Dōji Zenki FX: Vajra Fight''. He made his manga debut in 1994 in ''

Afternoon Afternoon is the time after solar noon. It is the time when the sun is descending from its peak in the sky to somewhat before its terminus at the horizon in the west. In human life, it occupies roughly the latter half of the standard work and s ...

'' with a story for which he won the fall Afternoon Four Seasons Award, a prize he received three more times over the next two years. He is best known in the West for his work on ''

King of Thorn is a Japanese fantastique manga series written and illustrated by Yuji Iwahara. It was published in by Enterbrain in the seinen magazine '' Monthly Comic Beam'' between October 2002 and October 2005 and collected in six bound volumes. It ...

'' and ''

Chikyu Misaki is a Japanese manga series by Yūji Iwahara. The series was released in the United States by CMX Manga and follows a young girl as she returns to her grandfather's house after his death, only to get drawn into a series of misadventures with a m ...

'', both of which have been licensed in English. He was scheduled to draw ''Quest'', a title in the

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

imprint

Tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...

, with writer

Andi Watson Andrew Watson (born 1969) is a British cartoonist and illustrator best known for the graphic novels ''Breakfast After Noon'', ''Slow News Day'' and his series ''Skeleton Key'' and ''Love Fights'', published by Oni Press and Slave Labor Graphics ...

but the series was cancelled before any issues were completed. His other works include the manga adaptation of the videogame ''

Koudelka is a role-playing video game developed by Sacnoth for the PlayStation. The game was published by SNK in Japan in 1999, and by Infogrames internationally in 2000. Set in the haunted Nemeton Monastery in Wales, the plot follows protagonists K ...

''. Another one of his series, ''

Cat Paradise is a fantasy action manga written and illustrated by Yuji Iwahara. It was serialized in the monthly ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Champion Red'' from June 2006 to December 2008. Chapters were collected by Akita Shoten in five ''tankōbon'' volum ...

'', which has been serialized in ''

Champion RED is a monthly Japanese ''seinen'' manga magazine, published on the 19th each month by Akita Shoten since August 19, 2002 (cover date October 2002), initially published as a ''shōnen'' magazine. Since 2015, the magazine slogan is . was a sp ...

'' since April 2006, is licensed in English. In 2007, he contributed the original character designs to the

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, 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 Japane ...

television series, ''

Darker than Black , is a Japanese anime television series created and directed by Tensai Okamura and animated by studio Bones. Twenty-five episodes were broadcast on MBS, TBS and their affiliated stations from April to September 2007. The series is set ...

''. He is also the artist of '' Darker than Black: Shikkoku no Hana'', a ''Darker than Black'' spin-off manga started in 2009. A near-future science fiction manga titled ''

Dimension W ''Dimension W'' is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yūji Iwahara. It was published in Square Enix's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Young Gangan'' from September 2011 to November 2015 and later in ''Monthly Big Gangan'' from D ...

'' has been released in the ''

Young Gangan is a manga imprint owned by Square Enix Holdings. It originated as a manga imprint for Enix before the company re-branded as Square Enix. It publishes manga in several anthologies aimed at different reader demographic groups in the Japanese mark ...

'' magazine since September 2011. Dimension W finished in 2019 with the release of its 16th volume. Iwahara's illustration process was featured in the March 2001 issue of ''

Newtype is a monthly magazine publication originating from Japan, covering anime (and to a lesser extent, tokusatsu, manga, Japanese science fiction, seiyuu, and video games). It was launched by publishing company Kadokawa Shoten on March 8, 1985, with i ...

''.

Works

* ''

'' (1999) * ''

Ookami no Dou ''Ōkami'' is an action-adventure video game. Okami or variants may also refer to: People * Kei Okami (1859–1941), Japanese physician * Yushin Okami (born 1981), Japanese mixed martial artist Other uses * Japanese wolf, historically ōkami, ...

'' (2001) * ''

'' (2002–2005) * ''

Wreckage X Wreckage may refer to: * Debris Music * ''Wreckage'' (album), a 2002 album by Overseer * ''Wreckage'' (1969 band), a late 1960s band notable for featuring future Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury as a member * ''Wreckage'', a 1997 EP by the band ...

'' (2004) * ''

'' (2006–2008) *'' Darker than Black: Shikkoku no Hana'' (2009-2011) * ''

'' (2011–2019) * '' Cleavatess'' (2020-ongoing)

References

External links

Yūji Iwahara
at ''Comic Beam'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Iwahara, Yuji Living people Manga artists from Hokkaido Year of birth missing (living people)