Eiichiro Oda

At the age of 17, Oda submitted his work Wanted! and won several awards, including second place in the coveted Tezuka Award. That got him into a job at the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine, where he originally worked as assistant to Shinobu Kaitani's series Suizan Police Gang before moving to Masaya Tokuhiro on Jungle King Tar-chan and Mizu no Tomodachi Kappaman, which gave him an unexpected influence on his artistic style. At the age of 19, he began working as an assistant to Nobuhiro Watsuki on Rurouni Kenshin, before winning the Hop Step Award for new artists. Watsuki credits Oda for helping create the character Honjō Kamatari who appears in Rurouni Kenshin.

During this time, Oda drew two pirate-themed one-shot stories called "Romance Dawn", which were published in Akamaru Jump and Weekly Shōnen Jump respectively in late 1996. "Romance Dawn" featured Monkey D. Luffy as the protagonist, who then became the protagonist of One Piece.

Manga

• Wanted! (1993)
• God's Present for the Future (神から未来のプレゼント Kami Kara Mirai no Purezento, 1993)
• Ikki Yakō (一鬼夜行?, 1993)
• Wanted! Eiichiro Oda Short Stories (WANTED! 尾田栄一郎短編集 Oda Eiichirō Tan Henshū?, collection of previous short stories, 1998)
• Monsters (1994)
• Romance Dawn (first version, 1996)
• Romance Dawn (second version, 1996)
• One Piece (1997 – ongoing)
• Cross Epoch (2007) – with Akira Toriyama
• Taste of the Devil Fruit (実食! 悪魔の実!! Jisshoku! Akuma no Mi!!, 2011) – with Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro

Akira Toriyama

In 1984, Weekly Shōnen Jump began serializing Toriyama's Dragon Ball, which became an instant hit. To date it has sold over 156 million copies in Japan alone, making it Shueisha's second best-selling manga of all time. It began as an adventure/gag manga but later turned into a martial arts fighting series, considered by many to be the "most influential shōnen manga". Dragon Ball was one of the main reasons for the magazine's circulation hitting a record high of 6.53 million copies (1995). The series' success encouraged Toriyama to continue working on it from 1984 to 1995. At the series' end, Toriyama said that he asked everyone involved to let him end the manga, so he could "take some new steps in life". During that 11-year period, he produced 519 chapters that were collected into 42 volumes. Moreover, the success of the manga led to five anime adaptations, several animated movies, numerous video games, and mega-merchandising. The third anime adaptation, Dragon Ball GT, was not based on his manga; however, Toriyama was still involved in coming up with the name and designing the main cast. Although the fifth, Dragon Ball Super, is also not based on the manga, Toriyama is credited with its story and character designs. Aside from its popularity in Japan, Dragon Ball was successful internationally as well, including in Europe and North America, with a total of 240 million copies of the manga sold worldwide.

Manga

• Awawa World (あわわワールド Awawa Wārudo)
• Mysterious Rain Jack (謎のレインジャック Nazo no Rein Jakku)
• Wonder Island (ワンダー・アイランド Wandā Airando)
• Wonder Island 2 (ワンダー・アイランド2 Wandā Airando Tsū)
• Today's Highlight Island (本日のハイライ島 Honjitsu no Hairai Shima)
• Tomato, Girl Detective (ギャル刑事トマト Gyaru Keiji Tomato)
• Dr. Slump
• Pola & Roid
• Escape
• Mad Matic
• Pink
• Hetappi Manga Kenkyūjo
• Chobit
• Dragon Boy (騎竜少年 Doragon Bōi)
• The Adventure of Tongpoo (トンプー大冒険 Tonpū Dai Bōken)
• Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater Vol.1
• Dragon Ball

Masashi Kishimoto

Kishimoto's first successful manga pilot was Karakuri (カラクリ lit. "Mechanism"?), which he submitted to Shueisha in 1995. This earned him an honorable mention in Shueisha's monthly "Hop Step Award" in 1996, granted to promising rookie manga artists. At this point he was assigned an editor, Kosuke Yahagi, and worked on a number of rejected drafts including a slice-of-life manga, Michikusa (道くさ lit. "Wandering Detour"?), and an action manga, Asian Punk (アジアンパンク Ajian Panku?). In 1997, he wrote a one-shot version of Naruto (NARUTO－ナルト－?) which was published in Akamaru Jump Summer.

Manga

• Karakuri one-shot (1996; Hop Step Award winner, published in Hop Step Award Selection 18 ('95~'96) (1996), Akamaru Jump Winter (1997), and Naruto: The Official Premium Fanbook (2009))
• Naruto one-shot (1997; published in Akamaru Jump Summer (1997) and Naruto: The Official Fanbook (2002))
• Karakuri (December 21, 1997; debuted and canceled in Weekly Shōnen Jump 1998 No. 4-5)
• Naruto (September 21, 1999 – November 10, 2014; serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump, debuted in Weekly Shōnen Jump 1999 No. 43)
• Bench one-shot (October 11, 2010, published in Weekly Shōnen Jump 2010 No. 45)
• Mario one-shot (May 2, 2013, published in Jump Square 2013 No. 6)
• Naruto: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring (April 27, 2015 – July 6, 2015; serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump, debuted in Weekly Shōnen Jump 2015 No. 22-23)
• Naruto: The Path Lit by the Full Moon (April 25, 2016, published in Weekly Shōnen Jump 2016 No. 21-22 and Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Volume 1)
• Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, editorial supervisor (May 9, 2016 – ongoing; serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump, debuted in Weekly Shōnen Jump 2016 No. 23)

Tite Kubo

Both of Kubo's serialized works are shōnen manga with a heavy focus on action. His fight scenes are noted for swift cuts and dramatic angle changes between panels, as well as minimal inclusion of background art or splash pages. As a character designer, Kubo held to a distinctively angular and lanky style through Zombiepowder. and the early portions of Bleach, which filled out somewhat as Bleach continued. His designs often incorporate elements of body horror.

Prior to being serially published, Tite Kubo wrote and illustrated several one-shot manga. Three of these were later published in English, included in Viz Media's collected volumes of Zombiepowder. These short manga display the rapid development of Kubo's artstyle in the mid-90s.

• Ultra Unholy Hearted Machine (1996, Weekly Shōnen Jump, Shueisha.) Crime fiction. Kubo's first published manga, his trademark angular designs are absent.
• Rune Master Urara (1996, Weekly Shōnen Jump, Shueisha.) Fantasy. Has rough art and an in-between style.
• Bad Shield United (1997, Weekly Shōnen Jump, Shueisha.) Sci-fi. The character aesthetics that carried through Zombiepowder. and the early arcs of Bleach are in full evidence here.

Initially appearing in Weekly Shōnen Jump and published by Shueisha in Tokyo, Japan, both manga have been licensed in North America by Viz Media.

• Zombiepowder. (1999–2000, Weekly Shōnen Jump, Shueisha. Collected in four volumes and discontinued.)
• Bleach (2001—2016, Weekly Shōnen Jump, Shueisha. Collected in 74 volumes.)

Hajime Isayama

In 2009, his first serial work, Attack on Titan, started in the monthly Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine. It won the Shōnen category of the 35th Kodansha Manga Award in 2011, and was nominated for both the 4th annual Manga Taishō award and the 16th annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. Attack on Titan is released in English by Kodansha Comics USA and has inspired five spin-off manga series, three light novel series, a television anime adaptation, several visual novels and video games, and a two part live-action film. The resort Bungo Oyama Hibiki no Sato in his hometown of Ōyama, ran a free exhibit displaying copies of Isayama's manuscripts for the manga in 2013.[4] A special Attack on Titan event was held in Hita on November 1, 2014, with Isayama and approximately 2,500 spectators attending. The following day, Isayama gave a speech at the Patria Hita cultural hall and was officially named the Tourism Ambassador of Hita by the city's mayor Keisuke Harada.

Works

• "Attack on Titan" (進撃の巨人 Shingeki no Kyojin, 2006, one-shot version)
• "Heart Break One" (2008)
• "orz" (2008)
• Attack on Titan (進撃の巨人 Shingeki no Kyojin, 2009–present)
• Attack on Titan Inside (進撃の巨人 INSIDE 抗 Shingeki no Kyojin INSIDE Kou, 2013) - Characters profile, interviews.
• Attack on Titan Outside (進撃の巨人 OUTSIDE 攻 Shingeki no Kyojin OUTSIDE Osamu, 2013) - Concept art, interviews. Includes a draft from chapter 1 (2009).
• Attack on Avengers (2014) - Story by Isayama. Art by Axel Alonso and Joe Quesada. Crossover with Marvel Comics, published in Brutus and in the Colossal Edition Vol. 2 by Kodansha USA.
• "The Killing Pawn" (2014) - Art by Ryōji Minagawa.