Kazuhiko Torishima
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is a Japanese
publishing Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
executive and former
manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...
magazine editor, who is currently serving as an
advisor An adviser or advisor is normally a person with more and deeper knowledge in a specific area and usually also includes persons with cross-functional and multidisciplinary expertise. An adviser's role is that of a mentor or guide and differs categor ...
to
Hakusensha is a Japanese publishing company. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company mainly publishes manga magazines and is involved in series' productions in their games, original video animation, music, and their animated TV series. The c ...
. He formerly worked at
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 ...
, where he began as an editor in 1976, before becoming a senior
managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
(CEO), and later a
Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions is a Japanese production company, a subsidiary of the Japanese publishing group Hitotsubashi Group. Prior to 2008, it was known as . Notable filmography * ''A Penguin's Troubles'' * '' Departures'' * ''Doraemon'' * '' Pokemon'' * '' Pokémo ...
director. When he moved to Hakusensha in 2015, he first served as
president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
, then representative director, before taking on his current role of advisor. Torishima is often associated with works from the manga magazine ''
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 ...
'', for which he was
editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...
from 1996 to 2001. He was manga author Akira Toriyama's editor during the run of ''
Dr. Slump is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama. It was serialized in Shueisha's anthology magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1980 to 1984, with the chapters collected into 18 ''tankōbon'' volumes. The series fol ...
'' and through the first half of ''
Dragon Ball is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. The Dragon Ball (manga), initial manga, written and illustrated by Toriyama, was serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1984 to 1995, with the 519 individual chapters colle ...
''. Torishima received a Special Achievement Award at the 2022
Japan Media Arts Festival The Japan Media Arts Festival is an annual festival held since 1997 by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs. The festival begins with an open competition and culminates with the awarding of several prizes and an exhibition. Based on judging by a ...
for his work in manga, including the discovering of Toriyama and establishing the now "indispensable cross-media production method".


Career

Although Torishima grew up in
Niigata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,227,496 (1 July 2019) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area ...
, he did not like the people there as they had nothing in common to talk about, so he spent his youth alone reading books. He said that because he could not get into a university, he moved to Tokyo to enter a prep school, where he was liberated having found people that were smarter than himself and shared his interests. Torishima joined Shueisha in 1976, the year he graduated from
Keio University , mottoeng = The pen is mightier than the sword , type = Private research coeducational higher education institution , established = 1858 , founder = Yukichi Fukuzawa , endowmen ...
, wanting to work on ''
Monthly Playboy , also known as or ''MPB'', was a franchise of ''Playboy'' magazine in Japan. History and profile ''Monthly Playboy'' was first published in July 1975. Influenced by the sophisticated designs and contents of ''Monthly Playboy'', a number of ma ...
'' because of their high-quality short stories. However, he was assigned as an editor at ''
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 ...
'', despite having never really had any contact with manga until Shueisha sent him their products for reference, and put in charge of ''
Doberman Deka is a Japanese hardboiled manga series written by Buronson and illustrated by Shinji Hiramatsu. It was serialized in the ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' manga anthology from 1975 (Issue 39) throughout 1979 (Issue 48), with the chapters collected into ...
''. After this series jumped from around thirteenth in the reader rankings to third and going to the
Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, comics (manga), non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the Hit ...
archives to study classic manga, Torishima finally became interested in his job. Preferring
shōjo manga is an editorial category of Japanese comics targeting an audience of adolescent females and young adult women. It is, along with manga (targeting adolescent boys), manga (targeting young adult and adult men), and manga (targeting adul ...
such as ''
Kaze to Ki no Uta is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Keiko Takemiya. It was serialized in the manga magazine '' Shūkan Shōjo Comic'' from 1976 to 1980, and in the manga magazine ''Petit Flower'' from 1981 to 1984. One of the earliest w ...
'' and ''
Poe no Ichizoku is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Moto Hagio. It was serialized in the manga magazines ''Bessatsu Shōjo Comic'' and '' Shūkan Shōjo Comic'' from 1972 to 1976, while a revival of the series has been serialized in ''F ...
'', he felt that ''Jump'' manga at the time "had no intelligence or depth" and decided to help foster manga he found interesting as long as they ranked high with readers. He also studied the first chapter of ''
Ore wa Teppei is a manga written and illustrated by Tetsuya Chiba. It ran in '' Weekly Shonen Magazine'' for nearly eight years and received an anime adaptation in 1977. The series received the Kodansha Cultural Children's Award (not to be confused with ...
'' panel by panel and the layout and angles in each one, because he felt it was the easiest manga to read and tried to impart this basic structure to his artists. Torishima was most notably editor to Akira Toriyama during ''Dr. Slump'' (1980) and the beginning of ''Dragon Ball'' (1984), and to
Masakazu Katsura is a Japanese manga artist, known for several works of manga, including ''Wing-Man'', ''Shadow Lady'', ''DNA²'', '' Video Girl Ai'', '' I"s'', and '' Zetman''. He has also worked as character designer for '' Iria: Zeiram the Animation'', ''Ti ...
during ''
Wingman A wingman (or wingmate) is a pilot or UAV who supports another pilot in a potentially dangerous flying environment. ''Wingman'' was originally the plane flying beside and slightly behind the lead plane in an aircraft formation. According to t ...
'' (1983). Torishima is a fan of
video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
s and was therefore put in charge of the first video game-related articles in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'', for which he brought in
Yuji Horii (also written as Yuuji Horii; born January 6, 1954) is a Japanese video game designer and scenario writer best known as the creator of the ''Dragon Quest'' series of role-playing games, supervising and writing the scenario for ''Chrono Trigger' ...
to help. When his manager told him to figure out why ''
CoroCoro Comic is a Japanese monthly manga magazine published by Shogakukan, established on May 15, 1977. Its main target is elementary school-aged boys, younger than the readers of shōnen manga, shōnen manga. Several of its properties, like ''Doraemon'' and ...
'' was doing so well, Torishima determined it was because of the sealed pages that had to be cut opened and included cheats and tips for video games. In addition to including similar pages in ''Jump'', they also began to rate games, something new at the time, with the resulting content being voted third in the magazine's reader polls. This was the birth of , the video game section of ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' issues. After finding success with video game articles and wanting to show readers of ''Jump'' how one is developed, the magazine decided to develop their own
role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...
like '' Ultima'' so that they would have exclusive coverage of it. He decided to have Horii, who had begun working at
Enix was a Japanese video game publisher that produced video games, anime and manga. Enix is known for publishing the ''Dragon Quest'' series of role-playing video games. The company was founded by Yasuhiro Fukushima on September 22, 1975, as . Th ...
, write the scenario and Toriyama design the characters. Torishima claimed that he purposefully had Enix fully fund the game, intentionally keeping Shueisha out of the decision making process for the good of the product while still reserving the option to create a manga based on it and not pay any royalties. The video game was '' Dragon Quest''. Torishima was editor-in-chief of the video game-themed ''
V Jump is a Japanese shōnen manga magazine, focusing on new manga as well as video games based on popular manga. The magazine's debut was in 1993 by Shueisha under the ''Jump'' line of magazines. History A prototype magazine called '' Hobby's Jump ...
'' when it launched in 1993. In February 1996, he took over as editor-in-chief of ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' during declining sales. While circulation continued to decline, blockbuster series such as ''
Yu-Gi-Oh! is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kazuki Takahashi. It was serialized in Shueisha's ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' magazine between September 1996 and March 2004. The plot follows the story of a boy named Yugi Mutou, w ...
'', ''
One Piece ''One Piece'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It has been serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' since July 1997, with its individual chapte ...
'', and ''
Naruto ''Naruto'' is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. It tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, a young ninja who seeks recognition from his peers and dreams of becoming the Hokage, the leader of his village. T ...
'' were launched. He was the magazine's editor-in-chief until June 2001. He became a member of the
board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...
at Shueisha and was appointed full-time Director of Business in August 2004. He served during the establishment of
Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions is a Japanese production company, a subsidiary of the Japanese publishing group Hitotsubashi Group. Prior to 2008, it was known as . Notable filmography * ''A Penguin's Troubles'' * '' Departures'' * ''Doraemon'' * '' Pokemon'' * '' Pokémo ...
in 2008. Torishima became a managing director ( CEO) at Shueisha in August 2009 and promoted to Senior Managing Director in August 2010. In December 2010, he spoke at the New Manga Creators Awards in response to the
Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance Regarding the Healthy Development of Youths The is a prefectural law passed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly on August 1, 1964. Its purpose is to promote the healthy development of people under the age of 18 by restricting their access to published material that is considered inappro ...
's controversial passing of the industry opposed
Bill 156 The is a prefectural law passed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly on August 1, 1964. Its purpose is to promote the healthy development of people under the age of 18 by restricting their access to published material that is considered inappro ...
. There he challenged new manga artists to "produce manga that would blow away okyo Governor
Shintaro Ishihara was a Japanese politician and writer who was Governor of Tokyo from 1999 to 2012. Being the former leader of the radical right Japan Restoration Party, he was one of the most prominent ultranationalists in modern Japanese politics. An ultra ...
." Torishima retired from Shueisha in August 2015 and became
president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
of
Hakusensha is a Japanese publishing company. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company mainly publishes manga magazines and is involved in series' productions in their games, original video animation, music, and their animated TV series. The c ...
in November 2015. His term as president was set for two and a half years. In November 2018, Torishima was promoted to Representative Director. As of 2022, he was working as an
advisor An adviser or advisor is normally a person with more and deeper knowledge in a specific area and usually also includes persons with cross-functional and multidisciplinary expertise. An adviser's role is that of a mentor or guide and differs categor ...
to Hakusensha. He was a member of the
Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games The (TOCOG) was the organisation responsible for overseeing the planning and development of the 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games. History The Organising Committee was launched on 24 January 2014, and is composed of members of the Jap ...
' Mascot Selection Panel, who determined the process for choosing the mascots of the
2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...
. The panel decided to allow children a hand in the selection of the mascot for the first time at an Olympic Games. Torishima said, "Kids' minds work differently from adults'. As a member of the panel, I like to think my job is to help bridge that gap."


Influence on fiction

In 2016, Torishima claimed that when he became a deputy editor at ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' he created teaching materials for how the editors should help their manga artists that are still used to this day. As a rookie editor, Torishima was put in charge of ''Doberman Deka'', which had already been chosen to end in a few months due to low rankings in the reader surveys. Believing that its artist Shinji Hiramatsu was good at action but bad at drawing women, Torishima gave him an issue of the actor and idol magazine ''Myojo'' and told him to model the face of a new policewoman character after that of the most popular idol at the time,
Ikue Sakakibara is a Japanese actress and a J-pop singer. Biography In 1976, Sakakibara took part in the Talent Scout Caravan organised by Horipro, and won the competition. She made her musical debut on January 1, 1977, with the single ''"Watashi no Sensei"'' ...
. After which, ''Doberman Deka'' jumped from around thirteenth in the reader rankings to third, and made Torishima finally interested in his job. Torishima convinced Toriyama to make
Arale is a fictional character and the protagonist of the '' Dr. Slump'' manga series, created by Akira Toriyama. She is a robot built by Senbei Norimaki who looks like a young girl. She is known for her naïveté, energetic personality, lack of common ...
the main character of ''Dr. Slump'' instead of
Senbei Norimaki The ''Dr. Slump'' manga series features an extensive cast of characters created by Akira Toriyama. It follows the humorous adventures of the little girl robot Arale Norimaki, her creator Senbei Norimaki and the other residents of the bizarre ...
, which the author agrees turned out better. Toriyama stated that Torishima enjoys
romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...
and that the relationships of Arale and
Obotchaman The ''Dr. Slump'' manga series features an extensive cast of characters created by Akira Toriyama. It follows the humorous adventures of the little girl robot Arale Norimaki, her creator Senbei Norimaki and the other residents of the bizarre ...
, Akane and Tsukutsun, and
Taro Taro () (''Colocasia esculenta)'' is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, and petioles. Taro corms are a food staple in Africa ...
and Tsururin in ''Dr. Slump'' were all his ideas. He also stated that when starting ''Dragon Ball'', Torishima had wanted
Goku Son Goku is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the ''Dragon Ball'' manga series created by Akira Toriyama. He is based on Sun Wukong (known as Son Goku in Japan and Monkey King in the West), a main character of the classic Ch ...
and
Bulma is a fictional character featured in the ''Dragon Ball'' franchise, first appearing in the manga series created by Akira Toriyama. She debuted in the first chapter "Bulma and Son Goku", published in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' magazine on June 19, 1 ...
to form a relationship. Toriyama also created the ''Dragon Ball'' character
Cell Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life Cell may also refer to: Locations * Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery ...
after Torishima, no longer his editor, was disappointed with Androids 19 and 20, and later Androids 17 and 18, as villains. Masakazu Katsura credits Torishima with coming up with ideas for ''
Video Girl Ai ''Video Girl Ai'', known in Japan as simply , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masakazu Katsura. It was serialized in Shueisha's ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from December 1989 to April 1992. It was followed by a short seq ...
''. It was Torishima who brought
Tetsuo Hara is a Japanese manga artist. He is best-known for creating the post-apocalyptic martial arts series ''Fist of the North Star'' (1983–1988) with writer Buronson, which is one of the best-selling manga in history with over 100 million copies ...
the offer from
Capcom is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...
to create the character designs for the video game ''
Saturday Night Slam Masters ''Saturday Night Slam Masters'', known in Japan as , is a 1993 pro wrestling arcade game released for the CP System by Capcom. The game features character designs by manga artist Tetsuo Hara, famous for ''Fist of the North Star''. The game was f ...
''. Torishima has been parodied often in many manga series serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump''. The most notable being the character Dr. Mashirito in Toriyama's ''Dr. Slump'', who serves as the series' most prominent antagonist and has the same name as the editor but with the syllables reversed. He also inspired other manga characters such as Matoriv in '' Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibōken'', Torishiman in '' Tottemo! Luckyman'', and the character King Bonbi in the board game '' Momotaro Dentetsu''. Direct parodies of Torishima appear in ''
Kinnikuman is a Japanese manga series created by the duo Yoshinori Nakai and Takashi Shimada, known as Yudetamago. It follows Suguru Kinniku, a superhero who must win a wrestling tournament to retain the title of prince of Planet Kinniku. ...
'' written by the duo
Yudetamago is the pen name of the Japanese manga artists duo consisting of story writer Takashi Shimada and artist Yoshinori Nakai. They are best known for the popular manga '' Kinnikuman'', '' Ultimate Muscle'' (Kinnikuman Nisei), and ''Tatakae!! Ramenman' ...
and ''
Bakuman is a Japanese manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, the same creative team responsible for ''Death Note''. It was serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from August 2 ...
'' by
Tsugumi Ohba is the pen name of a Japanese manga writer, best known for authoring the ''Death Note'' manga series with illustrator Takeshi Obata from 2003 to 2006, which has 30 million collected volumes in circulation. The duo's second series, '' Bakuman. ...
and
Takeshi Obata is a Japanese manga artist that usually works as the illustrator in collaboration with a writer. He first gained international attention for '' Hikaru no Go'' (1998–2003) with Yumi Hotta, but is better known for '' Death Note'' (2003–2006) ...
.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Torishima, Kazuhiko 1952 births Japanese chief executives Japanese magazine editors Keio University alumni Living people People from Niigata Prefecture Manga industry Comic book editors