Keiichi Tanaka
Description
Keiichi Tanaka is a Japanese manga artist and creator born on May 4, 1962, in Hirakata, Osaka Prefecture. He graduated from the Department of Law at Kinki University. During his university years in 1983, he enrolled as a first-term student at Koike Kazuo's Gekigason-juku in Kobe, a school for manga creators. He made his professional manga debut in 1984 with a work titled Mr. Coward, which was published in Comic Gekigason-juku.
Tanaka is credited as the original creator of Doctor Chichibuyama, a manga series that began in 1986. The series was serialized in Comic Gekigason-juku and later became one of his most recognized works, gaining a degree of popularity that led to its adaptation into a two-episode television anime. The Doctor Chichibuyama anime premiered on April 3, 1988, produced by Ashi Productions and aired on Fuji Television. The story follows the titular doctor at a hospital in Saitama Prefecture, whose eccentric and abnormal character leads to absurd and troublesome situations. The anime is categorized in the comedy and ecchi genres.
Throughout his career, Tanaka has maintained a distinctive identity as a gag manga artist, often employing surreal humor and risqué subject matter. After his debut, he balanced his creative work with a parallel career as a corporate employee. He was employed at the toy company Takara following his university graduation, during which time he also irregularly serialized the manga A Bug's Life: Adventures of P-suke in Weekly Shonen Sunday from 1889 to 1991. After leaving Takara, he continued to work in various companies, including game and software firms, while remaining active as a manga creator, a path that established him as a notable dual-career artist.
In later years, Tanaka has been involved in a variety of projects, including reportage manga. He authored a series titled Passion of Game Designers ~ in their early days, which drew on his experience in the game industry and featured figures such as Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. He also contributed to the anthology project ManGa Day to Day during the 2020 pandemic. In addition to his creative work, Tanaka has held positions in the software industry, serving as a general manager and later as a director at Web Technology Corporation, a company known for developing the manga creation software ComiPo!. He is also a faculty member in the manga department at Kyoto Seika University.
Tanaka is credited as the original creator of Doctor Chichibuyama, a manga series that began in 1986. The series was serialized in Comic Gekigason-juku and later became one of his most recognized works, gaining a degree of popularity that led to its adaptation into a two-episode television anime. The Doctor Chichibuyama anime premiered on April 3, 1988, produced by Ashi Productions and aired on Fuji Television. The story follows the titular doctor at a hospital in Saitama Prefecture, whose eccentric and abnormal character leads to absurd and troublesome situations. The anime is categorized in the comedy and ecchi genres.
Throughout his career, Tanaka has maintained a distinctive identity as a gag manga artist, often employing surreal humor and risqué subject matter. After his debut, he balanced his creative work with a parallel career as a corporate employee. He was employed at the toy company Takara following his university graduation, during which time he also irregularly serialized the manga A Bug's Life: Adventures of P-suke in Weekly Shonen Sunday from 1889 to 1991. After leaving Takara, he continued to work in various companies, including game and software firms, while remaining active as a manga creator, a path that established him as a notable dual-career artist.
In later years, Tanaka has been involved in a variety of projects, including reportage manga. He authored a series titled Passion of Game Designers ~ in their early days, which drew on his experience in the game industry and featured figures such as Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. He also contributed to the anthology project ManGa Day to Day during the 2020 pandemic. In addition to his creative work, Tanaka has held positions in the software industry, serving as a general manager and later as a director at Web Technology Corporation, a company known for developing the manga creation software ComiPo!. He is also a faculty member in the manga department at Kyoto Seika University.
Works
- Topics: Anime overview