Hiroyuki Takei

武井宏之

Hiroyuki Takei is a Japanese manga artist, best known as the creator of the multicultural hit, Shaman King.

Hiroyuki Takei started drawing manga with writer EXIAD on SD Département Store Series which they created for a fanzine. Early in his career, in 1992, he became the assistant to Tamakichi Sakura on Shiawase no Katachi and Kouji Kiriyama on Ninku. At that time, he also submitted his first yomikiri Dragdoll Group to the Tezuka Award but was rejected. Two years later in 1994, he submitted his short story Anna the Itako to the 48th Tezuka Award and won the honorable mention. He was later introduced to Nobuhiro Watsuki and became his assistant along with Eiichirou Oda on Rurouni Kenshin.

Takei published his short story Death Zero in Weekly Shounen 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 Shounen Jump of 1997. Takei's longest-running series, Shaman King began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shounen Jump in 1998, though was forced to conclude in 2004. In 2007, Takei returned three years after the conclusion of Shaman King with a new WSJ series; Jumbor Barutronica. 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, it was announced that Takei would be collaborating on Karakuridouji Ultimo with renown American comic creator Stan Lee. The project launched with the new Jump Square Second spinoff manga magazine on April 18, 2008.

On February 15, 2017, when answering a fan's question, Hiroyuki Takei revealed on his official Twitter that he received an offer for an anime remake of his representative work Shaman King, but had to turn it down because they were not able to use the first anime's voice actors and soundtrack music. Though, on June 12, 2020, the official Shaman King manga website announced that the manga is inspiring a brand-new television anime that will premiere April 2021. It is set to adapt all 35 volumes of the manga’s new complete edition.

Takei was also recently interviewed in a Youtube video by Archipel.

(Sources: Wikipedia, Anime News Network)