Shibata, Yokusaru

After graduating from high school, Yokusaru Shibata moved to Tokyo and worked as an assistant to Makoto Kobayashi, Harold Sakuishi, and Jun Watanabe before making his debut in 1992 with Tanikamen in the Young Animal magazine.

His most famous work is Air Master, a long-running series that was also made into a TV anime in 2003. In high school, Yokusaru Shibata was a member of the amateur wrestling club, and this work is full of descriptions that make use of his own experiences. Yokusaru later switched from Young Animal to Weekly Young Jump because he "couldn't draw what he really wanted to draw".

In fact, Yokusaru wanted to be a professional shogi player when he was a child. He played against professional shogi players in an exhibition match and received letter of appreciation from Japan Shogi Association in 2008.

Another popular work of his is 81 Diver, which received a live-action TV series, games for Playstation 2, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, and pachinko machines that contains animated scenes from the manga.

In addition to working on manga, Yokusaru also did some character designs for the PS Vita game Samurai & Dragons (サムライ&ドラゴンズ). He also really likes Tokusatsu and Super Sentai, especially from Super Hero Taisen.

Twitter: @yokusaru_works