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 bef ...

from

Katsushika, Tokyo is a special ward located in Tokyo, Japan. The ward calls itself Katsushika City in English. As of May 1, 2015, the ward has an estimated population of 444,356, and a population density of 12,770 people per km². The total area is 34.80 ...

. He is best known for his long-running

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

series '' KochiKame: Tokyo Beat Cops'', which was continuously published in ''

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 ru ...

'' for 40 years from 1976 to 2016. With 1,960 chapters collected into 201 ''

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 held the

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

for "Most volumes published for a single manga series" from September 2016 to July 2021. The series has sold over 155 million copies, making it one of the

best-selling manga series The following is a list of the best-selling Japanese manga series to date in terms of the number of collected ''tankōbon'' volumes sold. All series in this list have at least 20 million copies in circulation. This list is limited to Japanese m ...

in history. Akimoto has been creating the Western series '' Black Tiger'' since 2017.

Career

Before becoming a professional manga artist, Akimoto worked at the animation studio Tatsunoko Production on series such as '' Science Ninja Team Gatchaman''. Akimoto made his manga debut with '' KochiKame: Tokyo Beat Cops'' (often shortened to ''Kochikame'') under the pen name of in 1976. He changed to using his real name in 1978, after the series reached its 100th chapter. The manga was continuously serialized in ''

'' for 40 years from 1976 to 2016 and has sold over 155 million copies, making it one of the

in history. On December 31, 2016,

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 fol ...

reprinted the ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' issue that included the final chapter of ''Kochikame'', marking the first time the magazine has ever been reprinted. ''Kochikame'' has spawned a large media franchise that includes adaptations both animated and live-action; an anime television series, several animated films, a live-action film, live-action TV drama, and stage adaptations. In 1985, Akimoto started the action comedy series '' Mr. Clice'', which follows the Japanese secret agent Jin Clice, who has the body of a woman but the mind of a man. It was originally serialized in ''

Monthly Shōnen Jump was a shōnen manga magazine which was published monthly in Japan by Shueisha from 1970 to 2007 under the ''Jump'' line of magazines. It was the sister magazine to '' Weekly Shōnen Jump''. History The ''Monthly Shōnen Jump'' magazine start ...

'' from 1985 to 2007, before being revived in ''

Jump SQ. , also written as , is a Japanese monthly '' shōnen'' manga magazine. Published by Shueisha, the magazine premiered on November 2, 2007 as a replacement for ''Monthly Shōnen Jump'', another manga anthology that Shueisha discontinued in June of t ...

'' in 2017 and transferring to ''Jump SQ. Rise'' in 2018. In November 2010, Akimoto was one of several manga artists that held a press conference in opposition to Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance Regarding the Healthy Development of Youths's Bill 156. In February 2014, he drew the one-shot "Vocalo" which is set 50 years after the rise of

Vocaloid is a singing voice synthesizer software product. Its signal processing part was developed through a joint research project led by Kenmochi Hideki at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, in 2000 and was not originally intended to b ...

technology and ran in the

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 ...

magazine ''

Margaret Margaret is a female first name, derived via French () and Latin () from grc, μαργαρίτης () meaning "pearl". The Greek is borrowed from Persian. Margaret has been an English name since the 11th century, and remained popular through ...

''. The following year, '' Grand Jump'' published his "Allie, Shoot Your Gun" Western one-shot in January 2015. In addition to resuming ''Mr. Clice'', Akimoto launched three new manga series in three different Shueisha magazines in 2017. The Western '' Black Tiger'' has been serialized in ''Grand Jump'' since the second issue of 2017, which was released in December 2016. '' Finder: Kyoto Jogakuin Monogatari'' was serialized in '' Weekly Young Jump'' from February 2017 until March 2018. It follows a group of four girls at an all-female high school in Kameoka, Kyoto. A "sequel" to ''Kochikame'', '' Ii Yu da ne!'' ran in ''

Ultra Jump is a Japanese monthly seinen manga magazine published by Shueisha under the Jump line of magazines. Originally, the magazine was a special issue of '' Weekly Young Jump'' which was first issued in 1995. On October 19, 1999, the special issue bec ...

'' from March 2017 to June 2019. Set in a bathhouse in

Shitamachi and are traditional names for two areas of Tokyo, Japan. Yamanote refers to the affluent, upper-class areas of Tokyo west of the Imperial Palace.Iwanami Japanese dictionary, 6th Edition (2008), DVD version While citizens once considered it as ...

, Gorō Kuma and his grandson are deeply moved when the Brazilian wife of Kuma's son arrives to save the bathhouse from having to close. In 2019, Akimoto published ''Akimoto Osamu no Shigoto-jutsu'', an instructional book that explains how he used schedule management to serialize a successful manga for 40 years.

Awards and accolades

In 2005, ''Kochikame'' was one of two winners of the Special Judges Award at the 50th Shogakukan Manga Awards in 2005. With 200 ''

'' volumes, Akimoto and ''Kochikame'' held the

for "Most volumes published for a single manga series" from September 2016 to July 2021. Also in 2016, Akimoto received the 64th

Kikuchi Kan Prize The honors achievement in all aspects of Japanese literary culture. It was named in honor of Kikuchi Kan. The prize is presented annually by the literary magazine '' Bungei Shunjū'' and the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Literature. Hist ...

for creating ''Kochikame'' for 40 years without breaks. The following year, he received the Special Prize at the 21st

Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Named after Osamu Tezuka, the is a yearly manga prize awarded to manga artists or their works that follow the Osamu Tezuka manga approach founded and sponsored by Asahi Shimbun. The prize has been awarded since 1997, in Tokyo, Japan. Curre ...

for the series, and the Seiun Award for Best Comic. In 2019, the Japanese government gave Akimoto the Medal with Purple Ribbon for his contributions to the arts.

Works

* * '' Mr. Clice'' (1985–2007, 2017–present, serialized in ''

'', ''

'' and ''Jump SQ. Rise'') * * "Vocalo" (2014, published in ''

'') * * '' Black Tiger'' (2016–present, serialized in ''Grand Jump'') * *

Assistants

Hiroshi Aro , better known by his pen name , is a Japanese manga artist. He is mostly known for being the author of '' Futaba-Kun Change!'', ''Morumo 1/10'' and ''Yuu and Mii''. Aro worked as an assistant to manga artist Osamu Akimoto. He admitted that ''Futa ...

*Naoki Azuma *Yoshihiro Kuroiwa *

Usune Masatoshi 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 apprent ...

*Shōgo Sakamoto *Chinatsu Tomizawa

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Akimoto, Osamu 1952 births Living people Manga artists from Tokyo Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kōen-mae Hashutsujo Winner of Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize (Special Award) Recipients of the Medal with Purple Ribbon