Hisashi Eguchi

Hisashi Eguchi (江口 寿史, Eguchi Hisashi, born March 29, 1956) is a Japanese manga artist and one of Japan's most prominent illustrators of female characters. He made his professional manga debut with Susume!! Pirates in the manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump in 1977. Other notable works include Stop!! Hibari-kun! (adapted into an anime television series in 1983), and the gag series Charamono. Eguchi married idol Mari Mizutani (ja:水谷麻里) in 1990. Eguchi began drawing at an early age, fascinated by the then-starting Japanese TV broadcasting. He got to know manga through Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy. During his childhood, other superheroes like Ultraman and Ultra Seven also gripped him.

In 1977, he won the Young Jump award (Twelve Newcomers Manga Award since 2003) for Osorubeki Kodomotachi. That same year, his Hachi-jihan no Kettō was a finalist at Akatsuka. The publication of Hisashi's baseball manga Susume!! Pirates followed in 1979 as a reward for winning the Young Jump contest.

After deciding to become a professional manga artist, Eguchi began drawing female characters: "I thought it was strange not to have girls. Also, I knew that it would be popular if the girls were cute." In the animation field, he worked as a character designer for Roujin Z, Mujin Wakusei Survive, and Otaku no Seiza and had the anime Eguchi Hisashi no Kotobuki Goro Show based on his work. Eguchi used his now current wife as a model for Roujin Z's Haruko. Perfect Blue characters were based on Hisashi's designs. In 1990, the short story manga collection Nantoka Narudesho! was adapted into an OVA, which mixed anime, live action and puppetry. Eguchi (on his favorite scene)“[Nantoka Narudesho] was a story of a blind girl, and it’s dark all the way through. The dark scene continues for a long period of time. I heard that animator had a hard time. It was all black and he used various ideas for that."Eguchi has stated that American pop art has been an influence on his work, citing artists such as Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. He has also cited European cartoonists Moebius and Hergé as figures who have influenced his work. Eguchi describes his style as simple: "I like to use organized lines. The less lines the better".In 1994, Eguchi founded Comic Cue, an alternative yearly manga magazine: "I wanted to make something like the all-star game in baseball. Or Avengers. All-hero, I wanted to have a festival of Avengers. All the heroes! With all my favorite artists". Katsuhiro Otomo was a contributor to the first issue.