- Hearing “Takeshi Obata”, what are your impressions even if you haven’t read any of his works?
- If you’ve read any of his works, do you think his old works are better than his new ones?
- What’s your take on art only mangaka? Can they stand up on their own or are they carried by the story written by another mangaka?
- Which Story Mangaka do you think would pair well with Takeshi Obata?
Introduction
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 with Yumi Hotta, but is better known for drawing Death Note and Bakuman.
Obata has mentored several well-known manga artists, including Nobuhiro Watsuki of Rurouni Kenshin, Black Cat creator Kentaro Yabuki, and Eyeshield 21 artist Yusuke Murata.
Wikipedia article - Mangaupdates page - MyAnimeList page
Short Bio
He was first noticed in 1985 when he took a prize in the Tezuka Award for his one shot 500 Kōnen no Shinwa.
Joining the Weekly Shōnen Jump staff in 1989, he mentored under Makoto Niwano before starting his first major series, writing and drawing Cyborg Jii-chan G.
He then created Hikaru no Go with Yumi Hotta, which received the Shogakukan Manga Award in 1999 and the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2003.
In 2003 he teamed up with Tsugumi Ohba to create Death Note. It became his biggest hit to date, with 26.5 million copies in circulation, an anime adaptation and three live action films.
He then reunited with Tsugumi Ohba for Bakuman., which ran from August 2008 to April 2012.
In 2014, he drew a manga adaptation of All You Need Is Kill with Ryōsuke Takeuchi.
Author’s Works
Obata’s most notable works (which is also the focus of our discussion) are:
A regular school boy, Hikaru Shindo stumbles upon an old GO board while looking through his grandpa’s old storage room for something worth money. From inside the board came an old spirit named Sai who once dedicated his life to GO.
Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects, and he’s bored out of his mind. But all that changes when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook will die according to it’s writer’s will.
Mashiro, with his superb drawing skill, is invited by his writing genius classmate Takagi to tread the difficult path of the mangaka. His sights are set on his naive yet earnest joint dream with Miho, who is aiming to become a voice actress.
The world is in a war against an alien race called “Mimics,” who have a mission to eliminate the human race. Keiji Kiriya is a new recruit, which is battling against these “Mimics”. In his first day of deployment, Keiji encounter “Mimics” and killed, but for some inexplicable reason, after every time he dies, he is resurrected and returned back to the day before the battle.
After the death of his parents, a young Mirai Kakehashi is left in the care of his abusive relatives. Since then, he has become gloomy and depressed, leading him to attempt suicide on the evening of his middle school graduation. Mirai, however, is saved by a pure white girl named Nasse who introduces herself as a guardian angel wishing to give him happiness by granting him supernatural powers and a chance to become the new God. In order to earn the position, he must defeat 12 other “God Candidates” within 999 days. Soon, Mirai begins a struggle to survive as a terrifying battle royale erupts between himself and the candidates looking to obtain the most power in the world.
In addition to his numerous manga work, he also done character design work for the video game Castlevania Judgment, as well as illustrating several light novels.
Fun Fact
Obata is rare among shōnen artists, not only for the detail of his drawings, but in his penchant for fashion; the characters he draws often wear stylish clothes and trendy items like the latest fashionable scarf, tie, or handbag.
On September 6, 2006, Obata was arrested for illegal possession of an 8.6 cm knife when he was pulled over in Musashino, Tokyo for driving with his car’s headlights off at 12:30am. The artist claimed he keeps the knife in his car for when he goes camping.
Hello, I’ll try to make at least one mangaka discussion post per week. Let me know in the comments which one you want to see next time.
Any suggestions to make these better are welcome.
Other Mangaka Discussion
Full Disclosure: I copied the post in /r/manga word for word and just added a few stuff like the questions at the top and Platina End. Hopefully it will still be good post for discussion.
When I hear Takeshi Obata, Death Note comes to mind (I’d assume most of you would have the same thought).
I’ve read Death Note (I’ve watched the anime first), Bakuman (Manga then Anime then Manga again), All You Need is Kill (Movie first), Platina End (manga only). I’ve also watched Hikaru no Go but only knew it was Takeshi Obata’s work when creating this post. I loved all of his works besides Platina End which I only liked. His new works hasn’t reached the level of Death Note and Bakuman, unfortunately.
As much as I would like to say that it’s all about the story, I’d say his art still has a big impact to the manga. His art elevates the story to a whole new level. I couldn’t imagine Death Note drawn by another mangaka like Eyeshield 21’s Yusuke Murata, or Kaiji’s Nobuyuki Fukumoto to be the same masterpiece. The drawback is he needs a good partner, which fortunately he had with Tsugumi Ohba. Death Note and Bakuman were great, maybe even modern classics that would be relevant for years to come. On the other end, Platina End was a disappointment. The story was only fine but the art elevates the manga a bit to be likeable.
I don’t know if it would actually work well, but it was interesting to imagine Obata’s art being used on Nobuyuki Fukumoto’s work. Imagine Light Yagami playing Restricted Rock, Paper, Scissors. That’d be epic.
He has a beautiful unique style where if you a random page of any of his works on the internet, you’d know it was his.
I hope he continues to make more works, and I’ll be excited to read all of it.
Maybe I should read Hikaru no Go as well.