Hiroyuki Takei (Shaman King)

Hiroyuki Takei (武井宏之 Takei Hiroyuki^?, born May 15, 1972 in Yomogita, Aomori Prefecture) is a Japanese manga artist, best known as the creator of the manga and anime Shaman King.

Career

Hiroyuki Takei started drawing manga with writer EXIAD on SD Département Store Series which they created for a fanzine. Early in his career, he became the assistant to Tamakichi Sakura on The Form of Happiness (しあわせのかたち Shiawase no Katachi^?) as Turtle-san (カメさん Kame-san^?) in 1992 and Kōji Kiriyama (Ninku). At that time, he also submitted his first yomikiri Dragdoll Group to the Tezuka Award but was rejected. In 1994, Takei submitted his short story Anna the Itako to the 94th Tezuka Award and won the honorable mention. He was later introduced to Nobuhiro Watsuki and became his assistant along with Eiichiro Oda on Rurouni Kenshin. Takei published his short story Death Zero in Weekly Shōnen Jump Winter Special and Butsu Zone in the Summer Special of 1996. A reworked version of Butsu Zone became his first manga series published in Weekly Shōnen Jump of 1997. In 2007, Takei returned three years after the conclusion of Shaman King with a new Weekly Shōnen Jump series; Jumbor Barutronica. Set in the distant future, construction workers pilot mecha. One of them is killed and his memories are implanted in his clone - a thirty year old man in a five year old superpowered construction tool body. The series was canceled after ten issues and released in one volume. During the Jump Festa 2008, Shueisha announced a kanzenban reprint of Shaman King. This release reprinted the entire series in 27 volumes complete with new covers while concluding the never-before-published "true ending." On March 4, 2008, Japanese publisher Shūeisha announced that Takei would be collaborating on Karakuridôji Ultimo with American comic creator Stan Lee. The project launched with the new Jump SQ.II (Jump Square Second) spinoff manga magazine on April 18, 2008. The announcement of the partnership was made in the April issue of Jump Square magazine.
As of 2010, Takei is working on two monthly series with Jumbor written by Hiromasa Mikami (御上裕真 Mikami Hiromasa^?) and Karakuridôji Ultimo with Stan Lee.

Inspiration

In an interview with Shonen Jump he stated that his favorite manga by other authors included Taiyo Kosoku by Baru, Blade of the immortal by Hiroaki Samura, and Hellboy by Mike Mignola. He also cites American comic books, Mecha Anime, Hirohiko Araki of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fame, and Osamu Tezuka as influences.

Works

Serializations and one-shots

Name	Year	Information
Anna the Itako (ＩＴＡＫＯのＡＮＮＡ "Itako no Anna"?)	1994	48th Tezuka Award, honorable mention
Death Zero (デスゼロ "Desu zero"?)	1996	Weekly Shōnen Jump Winter Special
Butsu Zone (仏ゾーン "Butsu Zōn"?)	1996	Weekly Shōnen Jump Summer Special
Butsu Zone (仏ゾーン "Butsu Zōn"?)	1997	Weekly Shōnen Jump, 3 tankōbon
Shaman King (シャーマンキング "Shāman Kingu"?)	1998—2004	Weekly Shōnen Jump, 32 tankōbon
Exotica (エキゾチカ "Ekizochika"?)	2003	Weekly Shōnen Jump Issue #40
Jumbor Barutronica (重機人間ユンボル "Jūki Ningen Yunboru"?)	2007	Weekly Shōnen Jump, 1 tankōbon
Karakuri Dôji Ultimo:0 (機巧童子ULTIMO:0 "Karakuri Dōji Urutimo: zero"?)	2009	Jump SQ. II (Second), Stan Lee (concept)
Karakuri Dôji Ultimo (機巧童子ULTIMO "Karakuri Dōji Urutimo"?)	2009—	Jump SQ, Stan Lee (concept), 7 tankōbon
Jumbor (ユンボル "Yunboru"?)	2009	Ultra Jump #11, Hiromasa Mikami (writer)
Jumbor - The Desert With a Floor Heater (ユンボル 「荒野の床暖房」 "Yunboru - areno no yukadanbō"?)	2010	Ultra Jump #3, Hiromasa Mikami (writer)
Jumbor (ユンボル "Yunboru"?)	2010—	Ultra Jump, Hiromasa Mikami (writer), 3 tankōbon
The Little Battlers - Kaidō Jin Gaiden (ダンボール戦機 海道ジン外伝 "Danbōru Senki Kaidō Jin Gaiden"?)	2011	CoroCoro G Summer Issue (credited as HIRO)
Shaman King 0 (シャーマンキング0 "Shāman Kingu zero"?)	2011—	Jump X #5

Fanzines

• SD Departement Store Series (ＳＤ百貨店シリーズ "SD Hyakkaten Series"^?)
• Jumbor Japon (Self-published and sold out at Comiket 73)

Unreleased

• Thunder of Judgement (裁きの雷 "Sabaki no kaminari"^?) (Concept/Script:EXIAD)
• Dragdoll Group (ドラグドール団 "Doragu dōru dan"^?) (Rejected submission for the Tezuka Awards)

Character design

• Anna-san is the mascot for the police station in the Aomori Prefecture.
• Smash Bomber (スマッシュボマー^?) was a series of toys and a manga created for Takara Tomy. Takei was hired as art supervisor and one of his assistant, Katō Gaito (加藤大悟 Gaito Katō^?) drawn the manga who ran in V-Jump during issuer number 8 to 10 in 2006. The series was canceled after 3 chapters and never met the intended 197 pages announced in the first chapter.
• Takei did the character design of Hanhel Tsunagin (ハンヘル・ツナーギン Hanheru Tsunāgin^?) and his axe True Hash for Phantasy Star Portable 2.