| Taiyō Matsumoto 松本 大洋 | |
|---|---|
 Matsumoto in 2017 | |
| Born | (1967-10-25)October 25, 1967 (age 58) |
| Area | Manga artist |
Notable works | |
| Awards |
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Taiyō Matsumoto (Japanese:松本 大洋,Hepburn:Matsumoto Taiyō; born October 25, 1967) is a Japanesemanga artist. Active as a professional manga artist since the 1980s, he is known for his experimental style and genre-blending works such asTekkonkinkreet,Ping Pong, andNo. 5. Influenced byKatsuhiro Otomo and Frenchbande dessinée, his art combines psychological depth with rough, expressive lines. Matsumoto has won multiple awards, including theEisner Award andTezuka Osamu Cultural Prize.
Matsumoto was born inTokyo. Originally, he wanted to become a soccer player. but changed to artist as an occupation instead after readingKatsuhiro Otomo'sDomu: A Child's Dream. While studying literature atWako University, he started drawing manga. He was an admirer of the manga artistSeiki Tsuchida and sent his work to the newcomer contest Comic Open ofKodansha's magazineMorning that Tsuchida was working for. After his initial success in the Comic Open contest, he did a self-financed tour of France in 1986, visiting theParis-Dakar Rally, an event that became a significant point in his career.[9][10][11]
Matsumoto published his first manga in 1987 at the age of 20 inMorning withStraight. While he published a few works there, he didn't gain enough popularity and was eventually not able to publish anymore in big magazines likeMorning. Instead, he came in contact with Yasuki Hori, editor atShogakukan, who pushed him to draw a manga about boxing, which becameZero and was published in the magazineBig Comic Spirits between 1990 and 1991.[12]
In 1993, he began work on theTekkonkinkreet manga, which became a success in theBig Spirits magazine, and published a series of short stories in a collection calledNihon no Kyodai that was publicized at the time byComic Aré magazine.Ping Pong appeared inBig Spirits in 1996, soon followed by the seriesNo. 5 in Shogakukan'sMonthly Ikki magazine in 2000.[9][13]
TheTekkonkinkreetanime was released in Japan in late 2006, and both the anime and manga have been published in English.[11]
The manga he produced covers a variety of topics, fromsports manga to family comedies to science fiction epics. Manga criticNatsume Fusanosuke divided his manga series in 2021 into different distinct categories: Manga likeZero,Hanaotoko andPing Pong that work within the artistic framework ofshōnen manga andseinen manga and that were developed with the pressure of editors in mind that wanted him to fit into the industry's standards. However,dystopian science-fiction manga likeTekkonkinkreet andNo. 5 as well as the autobiographical orphanage storySunny in a lot of ways break with many conventions of the manga industry's norms. Fusanosuke analyzes that these manga follow a path that has been developed after the success ofKatsuhiro Otomo and are influenced by Frenchbande dessinée.[12]
His worldbuilding often, for example inNo 5 andTakemitsuzamurai, includes with emotionally expressive animals— who observe the action with equal narrative weight as the human characters. This constant decentering, according to Sean McTiernan, introduces a kind of “planet-building,” shifting focus from protagonist drama to ambient life, undermining the usual ego-centric logic of genre fiction.[10]
His work is seen as "meta manga", often criticizing the genres within which they operate.[12] The mangaTakemitsuzamurai breaks with traditions of historical samurai stories by highlighting inner psychology of characters and avoiding normalized depictions of violence.[14]
Matsumoto draws free-hand, with sketchy wavering lines. His lines are, according to Natsume Fusanosuke, often messy, aggressive, and “ugly”, conveying not beauty but psychological friction and intensity. This aligns with what Fusanosuke termsarasa (荒さ, roughness) andbōryokusei (暴力性, violence), key terms in Japanese art criticism that point to Matsumoto’s deliberate embrace of disorder and raw emotion.[12]
Matsumoto uses skewed angles, contorted facial expressions, and cramped compositions to evoke sensations that go beyond narrative clarity. As Fusanosuke writes, “his drawings may be hard to read, but they leave an impact.”Panels often appear unfinished or asymmetrical, with frequent use of extremeclose-ups andfisheye perspectives, heightening the reader’s sense of disorientation or immersion. Especially in works likePing Pong, these techniques reflect the inner states of characters more than external realism, what Natsume calls a “psychological realism” through form. The panel composition inPing Pong is used to evoke the feeling of speed.[15][12]
Matsumoto has citedMoebius,Enki Bilal,Katsuhiro Otomo,Shotaro Ishinomori and Tsuchida Seiki as influences on his work.[16] He has been influenced by theNew Wave movement in manga.[17]
His work has been translated in English as early as 1997, which makes him one of the earlier manga artists whose work was translated. The early English-language translations of his work were commercially not successful, but were later seen as important on shaping appreciation for alternative manga. Later re-releases were positively received.[10]
Ping Pong andBlue Spring have been adapted into live-action feature films. Animation studioStudio 4°C adaptedTekkonkinkreet into an animated feature film, it was released in Japan in late 2006, and both the anime and manga have been published in English.
Matsumoto influenced younger manga artists likeEiichiro Oda,[18]Masashi Kishimoto,[19] andDaisuke Igarashi.[20]
He has won several awards, including theShogakukan Manga Award, theTezuka Osamu Cultural Prize andEisner Award:
| Award | Year | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japan Cartoonists Association Award | 2001 | GoGo Monster | Won | [21] | |
| Japan Media Arts Festival | 2001 | Manga Award | GoGo Monster | Jury selection | [22] |
| 2003 | Manga Award | No. 5 | Jury selection | [23] | |
| 2007 | Manga Award | Takemitsuzamurai | Won | [24] | |
| 2016 | Sunny | Won | [25] | ||
| Eisner Awards | 2008 | Tekkonkinkreet | Won | [26] | |
| 2020 | Cats of the Louvre | Won | [27] | ||
| Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize | 2011 | Takemitsuzamurai | Won | [28] | |
| Cartoonist Studio Prize | 2014 | Sunny | Won | [5] | |
| Shogakukan Manga Award | 2016 | Sunny | Won | [29] |
Matsumoto's wife is manga artistSaho Tono, who collaborated with him onTakemitsuzamurai andSunny.[30][31] He is the cousin ofSanta Inoue, another manga artist.[11]
| Title | Year | Notes | Refs[32] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Straight (ストレート) | 1989 | Morning, Kodansha Comics, 2 volumes | |
| Zero | 1990–91 | Big Comic Spirits, 2 volumes | |
| Chaoanfanteriburu (チャオアンファンテリブル, Chao Anne fan Terrible) Taiyo Matsumoto / Katsuki Tanaka / Hiro Sugiyama | 1992 | Tokyo Comic Insider, 1 volume | [33] |
| Hanaotoko (花男, A Boy Meet a Papa and Baseball) | 1992 | Big Comics, Big Spirits Comics Special, 3 volumes | |
| Blue Spring | 1993 | Anthology collection of short stories Published by Shogakukan, 1 volume | [34] |
| Tekkonkinkreet (鉄コン筋クリート,Tekkonkinkurīto)/Black & White | 1993–94 | Serialized inBig Comic Spirits Published by Shogakukan, 3 volumes | [35] |
| Nihon no Kyōdai (日本の兄弟, Brothers of Japan) | 1995 | Mag Comics, 1 volume | |
| 100 | 1995 | Big spirits comic special, 2 volumes | |
| Ping Pong | 1996–97 | Serialized inBig Comic Spirits Published by Shogakukan, 5 volumes | [36] |
| GoGo Monster | 2000 | Published by Shogakukan, 1 volume | [37] |
| No. 5 | 2000–05 | Serialized inMonthly Ikki magazine Published by Shogakukan in 8 volumes | [13][38] |
| Hana (花, Flower) | 2002 | stage play adapted to manga novella, 1 volume | |
| Takemitsuzamurai (竹光侍) with Issei Eifuku (writer) | 2006–10 | Serialized inBig Comic Spirits Published by Shogakukan, 8 volumes | [39] |
| Sunny | 2010–15 | Serialized inMonthly Ikki andMonthly Big Comic Spirits Published by Shogakukan, 6 volumes | [40][41] |
| Cats of the Louvre (ルーヴルの猫,Rūvuru no Neko) | 2016–17 | Issued by theLouvre museum, 2 volumes | [42][43][44] |
| Tokyo These Days (東京ヒゴロ,Tokyo Higoro) | 2019–2023 | Serialized inBig Comic Original Zōkan Published by Shogakukan, 3 volumes | [45] |
| Mukashi no Hanashi (むかしのはなし) with Issei Eifuku (writer) | 2020–present | Serialized inBig Comic Superior magazine | [46][47][48] |
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| National | |
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