Artist Profile: Shotaro Ishinomori
Today I happened to stumble across Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, the American version of Kamen Rider Ryuki. I only caught half of it, but from what I saw and read on-line, it has more potential than the previous attempt to bring the famous tokusatsu series overseas (Saban's Masked Rider... anybody remember that?). It inspired me to write about the creator of the Kamen Rider Series, Shotaro Ishinomori. Although he is an influential figure in anime, manga, and tokusatsu TV shows, his name isn't as well known outside of Japan, making him the perfect person to profile first.
Name: 石ノ森 章太郎, Shotaro Ishinomori (Romanized name is written with family name last.)
Date of birth: January 25,1938
Hometown: Tome, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan
Notable works: Cyborg 009, Skull Man, Kamen Rider, Kikaider, Himitsu Sentai Go-Ranger
Date of death: January 28, 1998
Shotaro Ishinomori was born Shotaro Onodera. His pen name came from the area of Tome he grew up in, Ishinomori. He created his first manga, Nikyu Tenshi, while in high school. After graduating, he moved to Tokyo. His work caught the attention of the "Father of Anime", Osamu Tezuka, who asked Ishinomori to collaborate with him on Astro Boy. In 1964, Ishinomori published Cyborg 009. The characters in the manga were the first superpowered team from Japan. Superheroes who weren't completely human would become his trademark.
Kamen Rider, probably Ishinomori's most well-known work, premiered on Japanese television in 1971. Ishinomori originally intended it to be a live-action adaptation of his manga Skull Man, but he wound up changing the character design. The show was a huge hit, and it led to the creation of other live-action henshin (transforming) superhero series, including the first Super Sentai series (better known in America as Power Rangers), Himitsu Sentai Go-Ranger. To this day, new Kamen Rider and Super Sentai series are being produced. Ishinomori continued to play a role in the production of subsequent Kamen Rider series until his death.
Cut-out of the original Kamen Rider at the Ishinomori Shotaro Furusato Memorial in Tome
In 1997, Ishinomori asked up-and-coming manga artist Kazuhiko Shimamoto to turn his one-shot manga, Skull Man, into a series. The following year, he died of a heart attack. He had been planning a revival of the Kamen Rider Series, which was absent from TV in 1990s. Part of his plans would be incorporated in Kamen Rider Kuuga, the first of the new Heisei Kamen Rider Series.
The Ishinomori Manga Museum opened in 2001 in Ishinomaki, a city near Tome. A second museum, the Ishinomori Shotaro Furusato Memorial, was created in Tome to display his personal belongings and a reproduction of his apartment in Tokyo in addition to his works. In 2008, the Guinness World Records awarded him the record of "most comics published by one author" (Anime News Network). During a career that spanned over 40 years, Ishinomori wrote 770 stories, which totaled to 128,000 pages.
References
Anime News Network
Ishinomori@Style - source of Ishinomori photo
Name: 石ノ森 章太郎, Shotaro Ishinomori (Romanized name is written with family name last.)
Date of birth: January 25,1938
Hometown: Tome, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan
Notable works: Cyborg 009, Skull Man, Kamen Rider, Kikaider, Himitsu Sentai Go-Ranger
Date of death: January 28, 1998
Shotaro Ishinomori was born Shotaro Onodera. His pen name came from the area of Tome he grew up in, Ishinomori. He created his first manga, Nikyu Tenshi, while in high school. After graduating, he moved to Tokyo. His work caught the attention of the "Father of Anime", Osamu Tezuka, who asked Ishinomori to collaborate with him on Astro Boy. In 1964, Ishinomori published Cyborg 009. The characters in the manga were the first superpowered team from Japan. Superheroes who weren't completely human would become his trademark.
Kamen Rider, probably Ishinomori's most well-known work, premiered on Japanese television in 1971. Ishinomori originally intended it to be a live-action adaptation of his manga Skull Man, but he wound up changing the character design. The show was a huge hit, and it led to the creation of other live-action henshin (transforming) superhero series, including the first Super Sentai series (better known in America as Power Rangers), Himitsu Sentai Go-Ranger. To this day, new Kamen Rider and Super Sentai series are being produced. Ishinomori continued to play a role in the production of subsequent Kamen Rider series until his death.
Cut-out of the original Kamen Rider at the Ishinomori Shotaro Furusato Memorial in Tome
In 1997, Ishinomori asked up-and-coming manga artist Kazuhiko Shimamoto to turn his one-shot manga, Skull Man, into a series. The following year, he died of a heart attack. He had been planning a revival of the Kamen Rider Series, which was absent from TV in 1990s. Part of his plans would be incorporated in Kamen Rider Kuuga, the first of the new Heisei Kamen Rider Series.
The Ishinomori Manga Museum opened in 2001 in Ishinomaki, a city near Tome. A second museum, the Ishinomori Shotaro Furusato Memorial, was created in Tome to display his personal belongings and a reproduction of his apartment in Tokyo in addition to his works. In 2008, the Guinness World Records awarded him the record of "most comics published by one author" (Anime News Network). During a career that spanned over 40 years, Ishinomori wrote 770 stories, which totaled to 128,000 pages.
References
Anime News Network
Ishinomori@Style - source of Ishinomori photo