Riichiro Inagaki (Japanese:稲垣 理一郎,Hepburn:Inagaki Riichirō, born June 20, 1976) is a Japanesemanga writer fromTokyo. He started his career in 2001 publishing works forShogakukan's magazineBig Comic Spirits. After threeone-shots, he moved toShueisha'sWeekly Shōnen Jump, in which he started the work he is best known for,Eyeshield 21. In collaboration with the artistYusuke Murata,Eyeshield 21 was serialized between July 2002 and June 2009 inWeekly Shōnen Jump. Between 2010 and 2015, Inagaki collaborated with several artists, including Bonjae, Katsunori Matsui, andRyoichi Ikegami, and published one-shots in different magazines. He started a new series titledDr. Stone inWeekly Shōnen Jump in 2017, in collaboration withBoichi. He has 3 children withOrie Kimoto.
Born on June 20, 1976, inTokyo,[1] Inagaki started to like manga when he readFujiko Fujio'sManga Michi in middle school.[2] In 1994, he competed at the third Manga Kōshien, a high school manga contest based inKōchi Prefecture.[3] As it only demanded a one-panel story, Inagaki just threw some ink on the paper to look like he had messed up the story. He said, "People really liked that for some reason. But Manga Koshien isn't something I'm so fond of remembering".[4] After finishing school, he enrolled in a manga and film production company as animation assistant.[5] He started his career as professional manga writer by publishing works inShogakukan'sBig Comic Spirits.[6] He debuted in October 2001 withNandodemo Roku Gatsu Jū San Hi,[7] and also wrote for the magazineSquare Freeze andLove Love Santa, published in November 2001 and in February 2002 respectively.[8][9] He later moved toShueisha'sWeekly Shōnen Jump, in which he won the 7th "Story King" award for a storyboard ofEyeshield 21.[1][10]
When he planned to createEyeshield 21, the editorial department asked if he wanted to both write and draw the series, but Inagaki felt he was "so rookie".[11] So he asked Yusuke Murata to be the illustrator.[10] In 2002, they published twoone-shots calledEyeshield Part 1 (前編,Zenpen) and Part 2 (後編,Kōhen) on March 5 and 12 inWeekly Shōnen Jump.[12][13][14] The series began to be regularly published on July 23 of the same year in the same magazine,[15] and spanned 333 chapters, the last one being published on June 15, 2009.[16] Collected in 37tankōbon volumes by Shueisha,[17][18] the series became his most known work.[19] It has sold more than 20 million copies in Japan,[20] has been published in seven countries, including in the United States,[a] and gained ananime adaptation that aired for 145 episodes from April 2005 to March 2008 onTV Tokyo.[30][31] For the release ofEyeshield 21 anime he created the Kome Studio, a company of copyright management to ensure the right of the original creators of manga.[32] The company name, which translates to "rice", was chosen for three reasons: 1) because "Inagaki" contains akanji ("稲") that can be translated to rice; 2) because "rice" kanji ("米") is also used to represent the United States; and 3) because of theRice Bowl, an American football championship in Japan.[4][32]
In 2006, he was chosen, along withAkira Toriyama andEiichiro Oda, to be a committee member for theTezuka Award.[33] In June 2010, he publishedKiba&Kiba inWeekly Shōnen Jump along with Bonjae,[34] and his collaboration work with Katsunori Matsui,Shinpai Kato No Face, was published in the 2011 first issue ofWeekly Young Jump.[35] He published another collaborative work with Matsui,Alpha Centauri Dōbutsuen; a two-chapter series, it was published on January 10 and February 10, 2014 in theJump X magazine.[4][36] Along withRyoichi Ikegami, he published the one-shotKobushi Zamurai in Shogakukan'sBig Comic Superior on August 12, 2015.[37]
On March 6, 2017, he started to serializeDr. Stone inWeekly Shōnen Jump with collaboration of illustratorBoichi.[38] In January 2019,Dr. Stone was elected the bestshōnen manga of 2018 at the 64thShogakukan Manga Awards.[39] Shueisha collected its 232 individual chapters in 26tankōbon volumes, released between July 7, 2017,[40] and July 4, 2022.[41] An additional volume was released on April 4, 2024.[42][43] The series has been popular; it has over 18 million copies in circulation in Japan,[44] and has been published in nine countries.[b] It was also adapted into an anime series—the 24-episode first season aired onTokyo MX between July and December 2019,[54] and aired a second season between January and March 2021, with a television special scheduled to air in 2022 and a third season in 2023.
On December 11, 2020, he started to serializeTrillion Game inBig Comic Superior, once again in collaboration with Ryoichi Ikegami.[55]
^An English-language translation of the manga is published by Viz Media since September 2018.[45] It has also been published in Brazil and Mexico by Panini Comics,[46][47] in France by Glénat,[48] in Hong Kong byJade Dinasty,[49] in Italy byStar Comics,[50] in Poland byWaneko,[51] in Spain byEditorial Ivrea,[52] and in Taiwan by Tong Li Publishing.[53]
^Inagaki, Riichiro (April 17, 2007).モネ展(下) (in Japanese). Kome Studio. Archived fromthe original on April 8, 2009. RetrievedJune 8, 2013.
^作家データベース/原作者リスト [Author's Database/Original Work's List] (in Japanese). Jump J Books. Archived fromthe original on October 1, 2010.
^Inagaki, Riichiro; Murata, Yusuke (March 5, 2002).アイシールド21 前編 [Eyeshield 21 Part 1].Weekly Shōnen Jump (in Japanese) (14).Shueisha:143–178.
^Inagaki, Riichiro; Murata, Yusuke (March 12, 2002).アイシールド21 後編 [Eyeshield 21 Part 2].Weekly Shōnen Jump (in Japanese) (15). Shueisha:113–142.
^Inagaki, Riichiro; Murata, Yusuke (July 23, 2002).黄金の脚を持つ男 [The Boy With the Golden Legs].Weekly Shōnen Jump. Eyeshield 21 (in Japanese) (34).Shueisha:9–74.
