Osamu Akimoto

Osamu Akimoto (Japanese: 秋本 治, Hepburn: Akimoto Osamu) is a Japanese manga artist born on December 11, 1952 in Katsushika, Tokyo. He is best known for his long-running comedy series Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kōen-mae Hashutsujo, which was continuously published in Weekly Shonen Jump for 40 years from 1976 to 2016.^[1] With 1,960 chapters collected into 200 tankōbon volumes, it is the manga series with the highest number of volumes, being awarded a Guinness World Record for "Most volumes published for a single manga series."^[2] By February 2012, the series had sold over 155 million copies,^[3] making it one of the best-selling manga series in history. Akimoto debuted with Kochikame under the pen name of "Tatsuhiko Yamadome" (山止 たつひこ) in 1976. He changed to using his real name in 1978, after the series reached its 100th chapter.

In November 2010, Akimoto was one of several manga artists that held a press conference in opposition to Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance Regarding the Healthy Development of Youths's Bill 156.^[4]

In February 2014, he drew the one-shot "Vocalo" which is set 50 years after the rise of Vocaloid technology and ran in the shōjo manga magazine Margaret.^[5] The following year, Grand Jump published his "Arii yo Jū wo Ute!" one-shot in January 2015.^[6]

Works

• Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kōen-mae Hashutsujo (こちら葛飾区亀有公園前派出所, 1976–2016, serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump)
• Mr. Clice (1989, serialized in Monthly Shonen Jump)
• "Time..." (時は…, 2008, published in Jump SQ.)
• "Vocalo" (2014, published in Margaret)
• "Arii yo Jū wo Ute!" (2015, published in Grand Jump)

Assistants

• Chinatsu Tomizawa
• Hiroshi Aro
• Usune Masatoshi
• Naoki Azuma
• Shōgo Sakamoto
• Yoshihiro Kuroiwa

References

External links

• Osamu Akimoto at Anime News Network's encyclopedia