Takeshi Obata chose to be a manga artist because he always loved drawing. As a child he re-read Shotaro Ishinomori's Cyborg 009 over and over.[1] His first published manga was in Higashi-Yamanoshita Elementary's school newspaper when he was in the third grade. It was about a hero who turned into a disposable pocket warmer when in trouble.[2] Obata originally became noticed in 1985 when he took a prize in the Tezuka Award for his one-shot500 Kōnen no Shinwa.[3] Joining the Weekly Shōnen Jump staff, he mentored under Makoto Niwano before starting his first major series, writing and drawing Cyborg Jii-chan G in 1989. After this series, Obata began collaborating with other writers.
In 2003 he teamed up with Tsugumi Ohba to create Death Note. It became his biggest hit to date, with 30 million copies in circulation,[6] an anime adaptation, five live-action films, two live-action TV drama and a musical. Obata served as the artist of Blue Dragon Ral Grad, a manga adaptation of the fantasy video game Blue Dragon, from December 2006 to July 2007.
He then reunited with Tsugumi Ohba for Bakuman., which ran from August 2008 to April 2012. It was Shueisha's first manga to be released online in multiple languages before becoming available in print outside Japan and had over 15 million copies in publication as of May 2014.[9][10] In 2014, he drew a manga adaptation of All You Need Is Kill with Ryōsuke Takeuchi, basing the character designs on Yoshitoshi ABe's original cover to the novel.[11] He reunited with Nisio Isin for the one-shot "RKD-EK9", that ran in the December 2014 issue of Jump Square.[12]
Obata followed this by working with Nobuaki Enoki to relaunch Enoki's School Judgment: Gakkyu Hotei digital one-shot as a serial in the first issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump for 2015.[13] However, the magazine stopped publishing it after the year's 24th issue and the series finished in the digital Shōnen Jump+ on May 27.[14][15] It was serialized in English in the digital Weekly Shonen Jump.[16]
From 2015 to 2021, Obata created another series with Ohba called Platinum End. Starting in the December 2015 issue of Jump Square on November 4, 2015, the manga ended on January 4, 2021.[17] The series had over 4.5 million copies in circulation by December 2020, and an anime adaptation began airing on television in October 2021.[18] In October 2021, Obata teamed up with novelist Akinari Asakura to start the owarai-themed manga series Show-ha Shoten! in the November issue of Jump Square.[19]
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 kept the knife in his car for when he goes camping.[26][27]
Works
Manga
500 Kōnen no Shinwa (500光年の神話) (1985)
Cyborg Jii-chan G (CYBORGじいちゃんG（サイボーグじいちゃんジー）) (1989)
Arabian Lamp Lamp (魔神冒険譚(アラビアン)ランプ・ランプ) with Susumu Sendo (1991–1992)
Chikarabito Densetsu -Oni o Tsugu Mono- (力人伝説 -鬼を継ぐもの-) with Masaru Miyazaki (1992–1993)
Sakon, the Ventriloquist (人形草紙あやつり左近, Karakurizōshi Ayatsuri Sakon) with Sharakumaro (1995–1996)
