Takei, Hiroyuki

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Hiroyuki Takei

Born May 15, 1972 (Yomogita, Aomori Prefecture, Japan)
Japanese author, illustrator

Japanese manga artist Hiroyuki Takei is one of several younger manga creators whose works have become a big hit outside Japan thanks to the international publication of magazines linked to Weekly Shonen Jump, the most popular manga magazine in Japan. Takei's breakthrough hit is Shaman King, the tale of a thirteen-year-old shaman—someone with the power to communicate with spirits and ghosts—who hopes to win the great Shaman Fight and become the Shaman King, a religious visionary with close links to God. The series ran in thirty-two tankoubon (graphic novel) volumes in Japan between 1998 and 2004, where it sold more than sixteen million copies. Viz began publication of the series in English in 2003, reaching volume seven in the series by 2005.

"I want to have a bigger perspective on things. I want to broaden my mind."

Achieves early success

Like so many Japanese manga-ka (manga creators), Takei has kept many of the details of his life private. He was born on May 15, 1972, in Yomogita, in the Aomori Prefecture, which lies on the northern end of the main Japanese island of Honshu. His first success in creating manga came when he published a short series called SD Hyakkaten for a fanzine, an amateur magazine created by manga fans. Takei then created the story Itako no Anna, which introduced the character of Anna, a young female shaman who would go on to play a large role in Takei's later works. Itako no Anna also helped Takei win the Osamu Tezuka Award, which is named for Japan's most famous manga artist, and the Hop Step Award, given to new manga artists. For a time in the early to mid-1990s, Takei worked as an assistant for established manga artists Nobuhiro Watsuki (1970–) and Tamakichi Sakura.

In 1997, Takei broke into the upper ranks of Japanese manga when his series Butsu Zone debuted in Weekly Shonen Jump, Japan's leading weekly manga magazine, which is read by millions of Japanese, young and old. Butsu Zone is an action-packed story that follows the efforts of a young boy named Senju who must find and protect someone believed to be a reincarnation of a sacred Buddhist religious figure, the Buddha Miroku. Like many shonen manga (action-oriented manga most popular with teenage boys), Butsu Zone favors action scenes and monsters over plot and character development. The series ended abruptly after being collected into three tankoubon and has not been translated into English.

The reign of Shaman King

When Takei quit work on Butsu Zone and began drawing a new series called Shaman King for Weekly Shonen Jump in 1998, it quickly became clear that he had created a storyline and a set of characters suited to a long-running series. The story begins when Yoh Asakura, is enrolled as a new student at the Shinra Private Academy, a middle school in Tokyo. Yoh Asakura is no ordinary student, in a number of ways: first, he's a slacker who walks around in a slouch, listening to music on his headphones and avoiding schoolwork; second, he's a shaman, which means that he can communicate with all the spirits of the underworld—ghosts, forest spirits, wandering souls of the dead, and ancient gods. In the ongoing series, Takei follows Asakura as he makes friends and battles enemies in both the mortal world of school and the immortal world of ghosts and demons.

Best-Known Works

Graphic Novels (in English translation)

Shaman King, 7 vols. (2003–).

The driving force behind Shaman King is Asakura's quest to become the Shaman King, a figure who will become the savior of the world by communicating directly with God, or the Great Spirit. But Asakura is not the only one who wants to become the Shaman King; in fact, as the story goes on shaman from throughout the world converge on Tokyo to battle against each other to see who will attain the title. Asakura is aided by Amidamaru, a samurai warrior who has been dead for 600 years but whose powers Asakura can access when he communes with Amidamaru's spirit. On a more pragmatic level, Asakura is also helped by his school friend, Manta Oyamanda; by his fiancée, Anna Kyoyama (who also appeared in Takei's earlier works); and by several others.

Puzzling Evidence

Manga fans wishing to know more about the creators of their favorite stories must often rely on the small comments that authors insert in the text of the manga, or in introductory notes published in graphic novel compilations of ongoing series. Thanks to the Japanese tendency toward privacy, however, these brief notes can sometimes prove very puzzling and mysterious.

Shaman King author Hiroyuki Takei occasionally adds brief notes and pictures to his graphic novels, but anyone hoping to learn deep secrets about the author will be dissatisfied. For example, in the endnote to the U.S. version of Shaman King, Vol. 1: A Shaman in Tokyo, Takei writes: "It's difficult to go through love and a manga series a second time because I think about it too much. Mainly because I am afraid of being hurt again. But this needs to be overcome, or you can never get involved with manga or marriage. Anyways, I'll try my best." Is Takei speaking about stopping work on his first manga series, Butsu Zone, and starting work on Shaman King? Is he referring to events in his own personal life that we know nothing about? It is very hard to tell. Later, he wonders whether his son will be embarrassed by the manga he has drawn, and—in his most obscure comment—he writes: "I love deer. When I'm around them, all my thoughts stop and my mind is at peace." Perhaps this comment offers a key to understanding the deeper meaning of Shaman King …or not!

Throughout the series, Asakura battles against a range of enemies, typically pitting Asakura and his "ghost companion" Amidamaru against another Shaman and his or her otherwordly counterpart, each of whom has different powers and skills. As with most shonen manga, the action scenes are a very important component of the series and have become the basis for the video games and card games developed from the story. But action isn't everything. Takei depicts the slow growth in sensitivity and seriousness of young Yoh Asakura, who learns important moral and religious lessons from the battles that he fights. For example, in Shaman King, Vol. 3: The Lizard Man, Asakura saves his rival Ryu from death by placing himself in great personal danger; and as a result, he learns the importance of trust. Amidamaru relates this lesson learned when he says: "Hatred fosters only hatred. Salvation for a self-sufficient man like you required that someone place trust in you, and that you entrust yourself to them." Such moral lessons, as well as musings about the environment, the meaning of religion, friendship, and other issues, give Shaman King an underlying seriousness that is not immediately apparent.

Shaman King soared in popularity in Japan soon after its introduction in 1998, becoming one of the most popular manga series in that country. The series producers introduced a 64-episode anime (animated cartoon) series in 2001. As with other popular titles like Yu-Gi-Oh, Shaman King was also made into trading card games and action-packed video games. The cross-marketing of the series made Shaman King a natural transfer to English-speaking markets, which began experiencing their own manga craze in the early 2000s. The series began appearing in Shonen Jump magazine when that magazine was introduced in the United States and Britain in 2003, and the graphic novels began to be published that same year, reaching volume seven by the fall of 2005. The anime version of Shaman King was also prepared for release in English-speaking countries in 2005. (The series is also published in France, Germany, Italy, Norway, and Sweden, among other European countries.)

The future of Shaman King, both in Japan and overseas, remains unclear, however. In late 2004, Weekly Shonen Jump announced the end of the Shaman King run at 285 episodes and 32 graphic novels, but suggested that the series could continue if 50,000 fans wrote in. In the United States, more translated versions of the graphic novels still needed to be published before the series reached the existing Japanese conclusion. For his part, Hiroyuki Takei has written several smaller tales in Japan that relate to characters he developed for Shaman King, including the stories Funbari no Uta and Mappa-Douji. It is not certain, however, if Takei will continue to work on Shaman King or if he planned to turn his talents to other manga series.