Shôtarô Ishimori

While he was in high school, Shôtarô Ishimori, whose real name was Shôtarô Onodera, made his debut with 'Nikyu tenshi' in Manga Shônen (1954). Like most of the Japanese artists, Ishimori was influenced by Osamu Tezuka. He moved to Tokyo after graduation, where he continued to work as a mangaka, starting with the war story 'Kaiketsu Harimao' in 1959. Subsequently, he produced hit mangas such as the science-fiction series 'Cyborg 009' (1964-70) and the historic 'Sabu to Ichi Torimono Hikae' (Big Comic, 1968-72). Other 1960s work by Ishomori is 'Yûreisen' (1960), 'Mutant Sabu' (1961), 'Shônen Dômei' (1962) and 'Genma Taisen' (1967), as well as the humorous 'Bon Bon' (1965).

In 1975, he began another historic series, 'Sandarobotchi', which ran until 1981. In the 1970s, Ishimori created metamorphosis manga such as 'Kamen Rider' and in the 1980s, he became a pioneer of a new category of manga. He published 'Hotel' in 1984, followed by the educational 'Manga Nihon Keizai Nyumon' (1986) and the synical look on society, 'Kurodaïku'. In 1985, in order to celebrate his 30th anniversary as a manga artist, he changed his name to Ishinomori. In 1989, he commenced working on a large series about the history of Japan, 'Manga Nihon no Rekishi', which remained unfinished due to the artist's death on January 28th, 1998 at the age of 60.