Kazuhiko Shimamoto

Kazuhiko Shimamoto (島本 和彦, Shimamoto Kazuhiko, born Hidehiko Tezuka (手塚 秀彦, Tezuka Hidehiko), born 26 April 1961 in Ikeda (early childhood in Obihiro, Hokkaidō, Japan) is a Japanese manga artist. He attended college at the Osaka University of Arts in the fine arts department. While in college in February 1982, he debuted in the spring special issue of Shōnen Sunday with Hissatsu no Tenkōsei. At this point he dropped out of college and devoted his energies to becoming a manga artist.Shimamoto is responsible for several long-running and well-known manga series. He drew Honō no Tenkōsei from 1983 to 1985, as well as the Moeyo Pen saga, which began as a 1 volume comic published in 1990 but was continued in two more series totaling 24 volumes. He also worked with Shotaro Ishinomori on a Skull Man manga based on Ishinomori's originally intended storyline, which was licensed in the US by Tokyopop. His baseball manga Gyakkyou Nine was adapted into a live-action Japanese film in 2005.His past assistants include Katsu Aki, Masaaki Fujihara, Eisaku Kubonouchi and Tetsuo Sanjou. Some of his college classmates include Gainax founders Hideaki Anno and Hiroyuki Yamaga, among others. They later appeared as characters in his manga Aoi Honoo.