Hirohiko Araki

Background

Hirohiko Araki was born and raised in Sendai, Japan, by his parents and his younger identical twin sisters. He attributes his time alone in his room reading manga to his sisters’ annoyances, naming “Ai to Makoto” as his favorite. His father’s art books, he believes, inspired him to draw manga. After a schoolmate complimented his manga, he began drawing them behind his parent’s backs. In his first year of high school, he submitted his first piece to a magazine. All of his submissions were turned down and he decided to go to the publishers’ offices in Tokyo to find out why, bringing “Poker Under Arms,” which he had stayed up all night to finish. The editor of “The Shueisha” highly criticized it, but said it had potential and that he should submit it for the upcoming Tezuka Awards.

The artist made his debut with “Poker Under Arms” in 1980. In 1983, he published “Cool Shock B.T.,” a story about a young magician who solves mysteries but it was 1984’s “B.A.O.H.” that first featured his trademark amount of gore. It was adapted into an O.V.A. in 1989, and the manga was released in the United States by “Viz Media” in 1990.

His next series, 1987’s “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure,” would become his magnum opus. The series begins in 1880s England and follows Jonathan Joestar and his adopted brother, Dio Brando, as he plots to murder their father in order to be granted his share of the inheritance. When confronted, Dio dons an ancient mask, which transforms him into a vampire. “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure,” which is still being serialized over 30 years later, has been transformed into several different types of media, and by December 2016, the manga had 100 million collected volumes in print.