Kazuki Takahashi

Date of death: July 6, 2022

Kazuo Takahashi, known professionally as Kazuki Takahashi, was a Japanese manga artist. He is best known as the author of Yu☆Gi☆Oh! (遊☆戯☆王), published in Weekly Shounen Jump from 1996 to 2004. The manga spawned a Trading Card Game of the same name, which holds the Guinness World Record for the best-selling TCG of all time.

Kazuo Takahashi was born in Tokyo on October 4, 1961. Disinterested in his studies, Takahashi was shamed by his homeroom teacher as "a poop-making machine" in front of other students, saying that all Takahashi did was "eat, sleep, and poop". Angered by the humiliation, Takahashi decided to become a manga artist.

In 1981, Kazuo Takahashi won the Shogakukan New Comic Award with the one-shot Ing! Love Ball (ING!ラブボール) under the pen name "Hajime Miyabi". From 1982 to 1983, he submitted more four one-shots to Weekly Shounen Sunday. Following this, in 1986 he was chosen to draw the manga adaptation of Gou-Q-Chouji Ikkiman (剛Q超児イッキマン) for Weekly Shounen Magazine. In the meantime, Takahashi explained that he experienced extreme poverty as his home lacked electricity and he made thirty-six times of credit card installments in the magazine.

George Morikawa, Takahashi's mahjong companion and also the author of Hajime no Ippo, described his living place from that time as "dilapidated Showa era wooden apartment that people immediately thought of", and because his early works were unprofitable, Takahashi switched his direction to Shueisha. In 1990, his one-shot Tokiou no Taka (闘輝王の鷹) was published in Weekly Shounen Jump. The following year, after publishing another one-shot called Battle Mind (バトルマインド), he started his first serialization in the magazine with the wrestling manga Tennenshoku Danji Buray (天燃色男児BURAY), from 1991 to 1992.

In 1996, Takahashi started Yu☆Gi☆Oh! under the pen name "Kazuki Takahashi" in Weekly Shounen Jump, where it was serialized until 2004. The series became a huge success and has sold more than 40 million copies. It has also received several anime adaptations, spin-offs manga, and video games, as well as a Trading Card Game developed by Konami. He participated in the production and development of the GX, 5D's, and Zexal seasons, and also worked on the films Bonds Beyond Time and The Dark Side of Dimensions, primarily assisting with concepts and character creation. In 2015, Takahashi received the Inkpot Award from Comic-Con International for his outstanding contributions to comics.

Takahashi enjoyed playing games such as shogi, mahjong, card games, and tabletop role-playing games. His favorite mangas were JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken, Dragon Ball, Akira, Doraemon and Mataro ga Kuru!!. He also loved American comic books, with his favorite being Hellboy. According to Takahashi, illustrators such as Drew Struzan, Alphonse Mucha, and Norman Rockwell had a great impact on his art style. Takahashi was a great fan of wrestling and admired Antonio Inoki. He also loved watching movies, with his favorites being Jaws, Alien and Star Wars. Takahashi's late pet dog, a shiba inu named Taro, was the basis for the Yu☆Gi☆Oh! monster card "Shiba-Warrior Taro"; the card's artwork was personally drawn by Takahashi. He also enjoyed sea diving and visited the Okinawa seaside each July.

Takahashi occasionally expressed his political views in his art, such as when he posted a drawing on Instagram of Yu☆Gi☆Oh! characters criticizing Shinzo Abe's government and asking his followers to "vote for justice" in the 2019 House of Councillors election. He later apologized. Nevertheless, his work contains numerous veiled criticisms of capitalism and the culture of war. In 2003, he openly criticized the Iraq War in one of the Yu☆Gi☆Oh! volumes, wishing that one day people could live in harmony.

Around 10:30 a.m. on July 6th 2022, his body was found floating off the coast of Nago City, Okinawa Prefecture, wearing snorkeling equipment. Later reports stated that Takahashi died while assisting in the rescue of three other people who were caught in a rip current.