is a Japanese
manga author known for the long-running series ''
Hajime no Ippo.'' Born in
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, ...
, Morikawa was inspired to become a manga artist upon reading
Tetsuya Chiba's ''
Harris no Kaze'' in elementary school.
He was previously an assistant to
Shuichi Shigeno
is a Japanese manga artist famous for creating ''Initial D''. Shigeno has also created ''Bari Bari Densetsu'', ''Dopkan'', and ''Tunnel Nuketara Sky Blue'' ("First Love in Summer") all prior to the manga that would make him famous in 1995. I ...
, while known mangaka
Kentaro Miura and Kaori Saki were past assistants to him.
'' Hajime no Ippo'', as of March 2022, has released 134
tankōbon
is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or ...
volumes. It has been adapted into several anime series, the first of which began airing in 2000 and was produced by
Madhouse studio. The first series contains 76 episodes, while the second series, which started in 2009, contains 26. The third series, named ''Hajime no Ippo: Rising'', was produced in 2013 and contains 25 episodes.
Morikawa won the
Kodansha Manga Award in 1991 for ''Hajime no Ippo''.
He is also the owner of JB Sports Gym in Tokyo.
Works
* (1983)
* (1986) (2 volumes)
* (1986) (2 volumes)
* (1989-ongoing,
Kodansha) (135 volumes)
* (2012) (1 volume)
References
External links
*
1966 births
Manga artists from Tokyo
People from Tokyo
Living people
{{Manga-artist-stub