Daisuke Igarashi
Description
Daisuke Igarashi is a Japanese manga artist known for creating detailed depictions of nature intertwined with spiritual and surreal themes. He was born on April 2, 1969, in Saitama, a suburb of Tokyo, and is a graduate of the painting department at Tama Art University. His formative years spent in a centuries-old grove of trees inspired him to start drawing, and he has cited Hayao Miyazaki's film My Neighbor Totoro as a key influence on his decision to pursue manga professionally.
Igarashi began his professional career in 1993 after winning the Afternoon Shiki Sho (Seasons Prize) for his short story Ohayashi ga kikoeru hi, which was published in Monthly Afternoon in 1994. This story became the first chapter of his early series Hanashippanashi, a collection of short stories serialized until 1996. He gained wider recognition with the series Little Forest, which he published in Monthly Afternoon from 2002 to 2005. Based on his own three-year experience living self-sufficiently in the countryside of Iwate Prefecture, Little Forest was later adapted into two live-action Japanese films in 2014 and 2015, as well as a South Korean live-action film in 2018.
His other notable original manga works include Witches, serialized in Monthly Ikki from 2003 to 2004, which received an Excellence Prize at the 2004 Japan Media Arts Festival and was nominated for the Best Album prize at the 2007 Angoulême International Comics Festival. He is perhaps best known internationally for Children of the Sea, serialized in Monthly Ikki from 2006 to 2011. This series won the Excellence Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival and was adapted into an animated film by Studio 4°C in 2019. Igarashi has also produced Saru, a two-volume series created as a collaborative "duet" with novelist Kotaro Isaka, and later works such as Designs, serialized in Monthly Afternoon from 2015 to 2019.
Recurring themes in Igarashi's work include a focus on the beauty and depth of the natural world, particularly the sea and forests, rendered with a high degree of realism. His narratives frequently explore spiritual themes, folklore, and mythology, often with female protagonists. He has stated that he draws many of his human characters in a simpler, sketched style to differentiate them from the highly detailed natural backgrounds, and that he is less interested in depicting humans than nature. Unusually for the manga industry, Igarashi draws without assistants. His distinctive artistic style has earned comparisons to the films of Hayao Miyazaki, and his work has been praised by fellow manga artists such as Taiyo Matsumoto, Hiroaki Samura, and Naoki Urasawa.
Igarashi is respected in critical circles, with several of his works translated into multiple languages, and his contributions to the medium have been recognized with major awards, including the Excellence Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival for both Witches and Children of the Sea.
Igarashi began his professional career in 1993 after winning the Afternoon Shiki Sho (Seasons Prize) for his short story Ohayashi ga kikoeru hi, which was published in Monthly Afternoon in 1994. This story became the first chapter of his early series Hanashippanashi, a collection of short stories serialized until 1996. He gained wider recognition with the series Little Forest, which he published in Monthly Afternoon from 2002 to 2005. Based on his own three-year experience living self-sufficiently in the countryside of Iwate Prefecture, Little Forest was later adapted into two live-action Japanese films in 2014 and 2015, as well as a South Korean live-action film in 2018.
His other notable original manga works include Witches, serialized in Monthly Ikki from 2003 to 2004, which received an Excellence Prize at the 2004 Japan Media Arts Festival and was nominated for the Best Album prize at the 2007 Angoulême International Comics Festival. He is perhaps best known internationally for Children of the Sea, serialized in Monthly Ikki from 2006 to 2011. This series won the Excellence Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival and was adapted into an animated film by Studio 4°C in 2019. Igarashi has also produced Saru, a two-volume series created as a collaborative "duet" with novelist Kotaro Isaka, and later works such as Designs, serialized in Monthly Afternoon from 2015 to 2019.
Recurring themes in Igarashi's work include a focus on the beauty and depth of the natural world, particularly the sea and forests, rendered with a high degree of realism. His narratives frequently explore spiritual themes, folklore, and mythology, often with female protagonists. He has stated that he draws many of his human characters in a simpler, sketched style to differentiate them from the highly detailed natural backgrounds, and that he is less interested in depicting humans than nature. Unusually for the manga industry, Igarashi draws without assistants. His distinctive artistic style has earned comparisons to the films of Hayao Miyazaki, and his work has been praised by fellow manga artists such as Taiyo Matsumoto, Hiroaki Samura, and Naoki Urasawa.
Igarashi is respected in critical circles, with several of his works translated into multiple languages, and his contributions to the medium have been recognized with major awards, including the Excellence Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival for both Witches and Children of the Sea.
Works
- Topics: Anime overview