| Takehiko Inoue | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Inoue inTokyo, 2024 | |
| Born | Takehiko Nariai (1967-01-12)12 January 1967 (age 58) |
| Area | Manga artist |
Notable works | Slam Dunk Vagabond Real |
| Awards | Tezuka Award (1988) Shogakukan Manga Award (1995) Kodansha Manga Award (2000) Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize (2002) |
Takehiko Inoue (井上 雄彦,Inoue Takehiko; born 12 January 1967) is a Japanesemanga artist. He is best known for the basketball seriesSlam Dunk (1990–1996), and thejidaigeki mangaVagabond, which are two ofthe best-selling manga series in history. Many of his works are about basketball, Inoue himself being a huge fan of the sport. His works sold in North America throughViz Media areSlam Dunk,Vagabond andReal, althoughSlam Dunk was earlier translated byGutsoon! Entertainment. In 2012, Inoue became the first recipient of the Cultural Prize at theAsia Cosmopolitan Awards. In 2024, Inoue received the MEXT Arts Encouragement Prize (Media Arts division).[1]
Inoue was born in Ōkuchi, now part ofIsa, Kagoshima, and was fond of drawing since he was a child. During elementary and junior high school, Inoue joined thekendo and basketball clubs, becoming captain of the latter. In his third year at Kagoshima Prefectural Oguchi High School, Inoue took a summer course at an art preparatory school with the plan of enrolling into an art university, but such schools were too expensive so he ended up going toKumamoto University near his hometown.[2] There he majored in literature. His submission toWeekly Shōnen Jump caught the attention of editor Taizo Nakamura and, at the age of 20, Inoue dropped out of college to move to Tokyo and pursue a career as a manga artist.[3][4][5]
Before his debut, Inoue was an assistant toTsukasa Hojo onCity Hunter. He made his debut in 1988, whenPurple Kaede (楓パープル) appeared inWeekly Shōnen Jump magazine. It won the 35th annualTezuka Award. His first serialization was in 1989 withChameleon Jail, for which he was the illustrator of a story written by Kazuhiko Watanabe.
Inoue's first real fame came with his next manga,Slam Dunk, about a basketball team from Shohoku High School. It was published inWeekly Shōnen Jump from 1990 to 1996 and has sold over 170 million copies worldwide.[6] In 1995 it received the 40th annualShogakukan Manga Award forshōnen manga and in 2007 was declared Japan's favorite manga.[7]Slam Dunk was adapted into a 101 episodeanime television series and four films. The manga's popularity caused a surge of interest in basketball among Japanese youth,[8] leading to Inoue and his publisherShueisha creating theSlam Dunk Scholarship program in 2006[9] and Inoue receiving commendation from theJapan Basketball Association for helping popularize basketball in the country.[10]
Inoue launchedBuzzer Beater as anonline comic in May 1996 on the Sports-i ESPN website (nowJ Sports).[11] It is about a basketball team from Earth that attempts to compete on the intergalactic level, it appears on his official website in four languages: Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean.Buzzer Beater was produced into a 13 episode anime series in 2005. In 2007, a second 13 episode series was produced. Both seasons were animated byTMS Entertainment.
Vagabond was Inoue's next manga, adapted from the fictionalized accounts byEiji Yoshikawa of the samuraiMiyamoto Musashi, which he began drawing in 1998. The series won theKodansha Manga Award for General manga in 2000[12] and the Grand Prize of the 6thOsamu Tezuka Culture Awards in 2002,[13] receiving his award alongside fellowmangaka,Kentaro Miura.[14]
While still working onVagabond, Inoue began drawingReal in 1999, his third basketball manga, which focuses onwheelchair basketball. It received an Excellence Prize at the 2001Japan Media Arts Festival. Inoue also created character designs for theXbox 360 RPG,Lost Odyssey, based on initial material provided byHironobu Sakaguchi.[15] Sakaguchi sought out Inoue for his talent of depicting "people" and his ability to "illustrate the internal emotions of a character" since the goal of the video game was to explain people.[16]
In March 2011, Inoue painted large images of the Buddhist leaderShinran on twelvefolding screens for display at theEast Hongan Temple inKyoto. The paintings include Shinran andHōnen wading through water with a group of followers and an image Shinran with a bird.[17]
In 2013, Inoue published an illustrated travel memoir on the life and architecture ofAntoni Gaudí titledPepita: Takehiko Inoue Meets Gaudí, detailing his thoughts and travels inCatalonia.[18][19]
In 2013, Takehiko Inoue was appointed by the Japanese Foreign Ministry to serve as an ambassador to celebrate Japan and Spain 400 years of goodwill until July 31, 2014.[20]
In 2022, Inoue made his directorial debut with the anime film adaptation of hisSlam Dunk manga, titledThe First Slam Dunk. Inoue also wrote the screenplay and story for the film.[21] In 2024, he received the Best Director and Best Screenplay award for his work at theTokyo Anime Award Festival.[22]The First Slam Dunk was Japan’s top-grossing domestic film of 2023 (¥158.7 billion) and grossed about $281.1 million worldwide. It also won Animation of the Year at the 46th Japan Academy Film Prize.[23][24]
In March 2024, he received the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's Fine Arts Award in the Media Arts division.[25][1]
