Today, May 15th, Hiroyuki Takei, the creator of Shaman King, Jumbor, and Nekogahara turns 45 years old. He was born in Yomogita, Aomori, Japan in 1972 and has been working in the manga industry since 1992 where is started off as an assistant. After the success of Itako No Anna short story in 1994, he continued with new manga stories until his first success of Butsu Zone in 1997.
On Twitter, he posted the following update and image today as it relates to his birthday (Rough English translation follows):
たくさんのお祝いありがとうございます、45ちゃいになりました。これからも老眼に負けず適当にがんばってまいりますので、応援よろしくおねがいします。 ※画像は20代の時のもの
…お返しのかわりといってはなんですがサイン会決定しました。例によって私物プレゼントとかあるのでマガジンエッジ誌にて続報チェックして下さい。
Thank you for your congratulations, for now I am 45. I will continue to do my best without losing to presbyopia, so thank you for your support. ※ Image from my 20s.
… In return I will have an autograph session. Please see ‘Magazine Edge’ magazine for future information as well as to send any gifts.
Presbyopia is a medical condition which is the worsening ability to focus on close objects (such as small text). Typical treatment can involve surgery or corrective lenses. In most promotional photos and interviews he has not been wearing glasses.
The photo attached is of “Mandain Hikaru” which is most famously is the co-author of the Shaman King Character Book – Man.Ji.En. Of course this is just a running gag of Hiroyuki Takei dressed up in an alternate persona.
Hiroyuki Takei most recently had two autograph sessions to promote his current running Nekogahara manga series. The first event was at the Tokyo’s Animate Ikebukuro store on September 21, 2015. Then the 2nd event was on May 7th, 2016 which was also partially recorded for the imagine-nation TV show which had a feature on Nekogahara and Hiroyuki Takei’s works. In the second event, he also talked and did more live drawings from his more popular manga series, Shaman King. Prior to these two events, Hiroyuki Takei has also appeared at anime/manga conventions in America and France for promotion, which included autograph sessions.
