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SOJ Artists ยท Takeshi Obata
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What else has Takeshi Obata drawn?

Almost everything on this list is a collaboration. Obata is the artist half of every famous credit he has.

Takeshi Obata's career is the case study of the specialist illustrator. After one early series he wrote himself, every major work pairs his art with another writer's story: Masaru Miyazaki, Yumi Hotta, Tsugumi Ohba, Ryosuke Takeuchi, Nisio Isin, Akinari Asakura. The series below run from 1989 to the present decade and include two of the best-selling manga of their eras.

Alongside the serials sit the side doors: character designs for the Wii fighting game Castlevania Judgment, character designs for two novels adapted in the Aoi Bungaku anime, a new shinigami drawn for the 2016 film Death Note: Light Up the New World, and the manuscripts he drew for the live-action Bakuman film. The one-shots show his range when editors pair him with novelists: Masanori Morita on Hello Baby and Nisio Isin twice.

THE SERIES

Story by others, drawn by Obata, with one exception at the start
Cyborg Jii-chan G (1989)
His debut, and the only series he both wrote and drew, published under the pen name Shigeru Hijikata.
Karakurizoshi Ayatsuri Sakon (1995 to 1996)
A ventriloquist detective series with writer Sharakumaro, and the first Obata work adapted into an anime.
Hikaru no Go (1998 to 2003)
With Yumi Hotta. 189 chapters, 23 volumes, a national go boom and two major awards.
Death Note (2003 to 2006)
With Tsugumi Ohba. 108 chapters, 12 volumes, over 30 million copies in circulation.
Blue Dragon Ral Grad (2006 to 2007)
A dark fantasy manga built on the Blue Dragon video game, with writer Tsuneo Takano.
Bakuman (2008 to 2012)
With Ohba again. 176 chapters, 20 volumes, a manga about making manga.
All You Need Is Kill (2014)
Seventeen chapters in Weekly Young Jump, from Hiroshi Sakurazaka's novel, with storyboards by Ryosuke Takeuchi.
Platinum End (2015 to 2021)
The third Ohba series, monthly in Jump Square. 14 volumes of angels and God candidates.
Show-ha Shoten! (2021 to 2025)
A comedy duo coming-of-age series with novelist Akinari Asakura, in Jump Square.

ONE-SHOTS AND DESIGN WORK

The side doors of the bibliography
500 Konen no Shinwa (1985)
The one-shot that won a Tezuka Award while Obata was still a schoolboy.
Hello Baby (2007)
A short story in Jump Square with writer Masanori Morita.
Uro-oboe Uroboros! (2008)
A one-shot with novelist Nisio Isin, who wrote the Death Note novel Another Note.
Castlevania Judgment (2008)
Character designs for Konami's Wii fighting game, redesigning 22 years of Belmonts.
Death Note one-shots (2008 and 2020)
The C-Kira chapter in 2008 and the 87-page a-Kira special one-shot in Jump Square in February 2020.
Aoi Bungaku (2009)
Character designs for Madhouse's anime versions of No Longer Human and Kokoro.
What is Hikaru no Go, the series Obata drew before Death Note? → More from the Library →
MORE FROM THE TAKESHI OBATA ARCHIVE →
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THE FIRST WORD

New pages and new pieces, first.