Kachō Hashimoto
Description
Kachō Hashimoto is a Japanese manga creator, originally from Kanagawa Prefecture, born on February 22. The decision to become a professional manga artist was made during secondary school, influenced by reading Kazuhiro Fujita’s Ushio to Tora. After completing secondary school, Hashimoto attended a drawing school and subsequently worked as an assistant to Daisuke Higuchi, the creator of the manga Whistle!.
The debut as a professional came in January 2000 with the publication of the manga Uso demo ī kara in Weekly Shōnen Sunday Tokubetsu Zōkan R. Early works were published under the real name, Aiko Nagayama, as well as the pseudonym Yasumi Nagayama. A series of these early short works appeared in Shōnen Sunday publications between 2000 and 2004.
The original web manga Cagaster, which later gained international recognition, was published serially on a personal website under the pseudonym Hashimoto Chicken from 2005 to 2013. Initially, the work was compiled as a series of nine dōjinshi (self-published works). For several years, offers from Japanese publishers were declined, but in 2012, a deal was made with the French publisher Éditions Glénat for worldwide publication rights excluding Japan. The French edition of Cagaster was released in six volumes from 2014 to 2015, marking the first official collected edition of the series. The manga was later published in Japan by Tokuma Shoten in 2016.
The series was adapted into an original net animation titled Cagaster of an Insect Cage. Produced by Gonzo and later Studio Kai, the 12-episode series was directed by Koichi Chigira and released internationally on Netflix in February 2020.
Around the time of the French release of Cagaster, Hashimoto adopted the primary pseudonym Kachō Hashimoto. The Japanese characters used in this name signify both “flower” and “bird.” Beginning in 2015, the manga Arbos Anima began serialization under this name in the magazine Monthly Comic Ryū.
The artistic identity draws on a range of influences, with Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis cited as a conceptual foundation for Cagaster, specifically the idea of a man transforming into an insect. The thematic focus in this work is described as exploring how people strive to live normal lives within a dystopian setting, rather than solely emphasizing the horror of the premise. In addition to narrative-driven manga, work has included biographical educational manga, such as a profile on the war photographer Robert Capa.
The debut as a professional came in January 2000 with the publication of the manga Uso demo ī kara in Weekly Shōnen Sunday Tokubetsu Zōkan R. Early works were published under the real name, Aiko Nagayama, as well as the pseudonym Yasumi Nagayama. A series of these early short works appeared in Shōnen Sunday publications between 2000 and 2004.
The original web manga Cagaster, which later gained international recognition, was published serially on a personal website under the pseudonym Hashimoto Chicken from 2005 to 2013. Initially, the work was compiled as a series of nine dōjinshi (self-published works). For several years, offers from Japanese publishers were declined, but in 2012, a deal was made with the French publisher Éditions Glénat for worldwide publication rights excluding Japan. The French edition of Cagaster was released in six volumes from 2014 to 2015, marking the first official collected edition of the series. The manga was later published in Japan by Tokuma Shoten in 2016.
The series was adapted into an original net animation titled Cagaster of an Insect Cage. Produced by Gonzo and later Studio Kai, the 12-episode series was directed by Koichi Chigira and released internationally on Netflix in February 2020.
Around the time of the French release of Cagaster, Hashimoto adopted the primary pseudonym Kachō Hashimoto. The Japanese characters used in this name signify both “flower” and “bird.” Beginning in 2015, the manga Arbos Anima began serialization under this name in the magazine Monthly Comic Ryū.
The artistic identity draws on a range of influences, with Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis cited as a conceptual foundation for Cagaster, specifically the idea of a man transforming into an insect. The thematic focus in this work is described as exploring how people strive to live normal lives within a dystopian setting, rather than solely emphasizing the horror of the premise. In addition to narrative-driven manga, work has included biographical educational manga, such as a profile on the war photographer Robert Capa.
Works
- Topics: Anime overview