Tsuyoshi Takaki
Description
Tsuyoshi Takaki is a Japanese manga artist known for creating action-oriented series published by Shueisha. His professional career began after he graduated from college and submitted his work to publishers, leading to his first publication in the pages of Jump Square magazine. Before launching a serialized series, he published a short story titled Freaks in January 2016.
Takaki is best known as the author and illustrator of Black Torch, which became his first multi-volume series. The manga was serialized in Shueisha's monthly magazine Jump Square from December 2016 to March 2018 before transferring to the Shonen Jump+ digital platform, where it ran from April to July 2018. The complete series was compiled into five tankobon volumes released between April 2017 and August 2018. In North America, the series was licensed for English release by Viz Media. More than five years after the manga concluded, an anime television series adaptation produced by 100studio was announced in March 2025.
Black Torch blends modern-day ninja with supernatural elements, featuring a protagonist who can communicate with animals and becomes fused with a mononoke, or evil spirit. In an interview, Takaki explained that he wanted to create an action manga set in the contemporary world and chose ninja as a theme accessible to both Japanese and international audiences, pairing them with traditional Japanese monsters such as yokai and ayakashi as natural antagonists. The series concluded after five volumes, which Takaki noted covered the initial story arc involving the character Amagi, though he had ideas for continuing the story for more than ten volumes exploring character backgrounds and family histories.
Following Black Torch, Takaki began a new series titled Heart Gear, a post-apocalyptic science fiction story set in a future world featuring a human girl and an android traveling together. He described his long-standing interest in science fiction, particularly post-apocalyptic stories with robots, and noted that he developed the pairing of a human and robot protagonist to make the genre more accessible to readers while allowing for contrasting perspectives between emotional human experience and robotic logic. The series is published by Shueisha and has been released in English by Viz Media.
Regarding his artistic approach, Takaki has emphasized that in action scenes his primary concern is making the sequence easy for readers to follow rather than simply creating flashy imagery. He considers the challenges of depicting movement across manga panels to be the most demanding yet most exciting aspect of his work, focusing on panel composition, camera angles, and rhythm to convey action clearly. His art style has been noted for its visual energy, and his work has been described as appealing to readers who enjoy shonen action series.
Takaki is best known as the author and illustrator of Black Torch, which became his first multi-volume series. The manga was serialized in Shueisha's monthly magazine Jump Square from December 2016 to March 2018 before transferring to the Shonen Jump+ digital platform, where it ran from April to July 2018. The complete series was compiled into five tankobon volumes released between April 2017 and August 2018. In North America, the series was licensed for English release by Viz Media. More than five years after the manga concluded, an anime television series adaptation produced by 100studio was announced in March 2025.
Black Torch blends modern-day ninja with supernatural elements, featuring a protagonist who can communicate with animals and becomes fused with a mononoke, or evil spirit. In an interview, Takaki explained that he wanted to create an action manga set in the contemporary world and chose ninja as a theme accessible to both Japanese and international audiences, pairing them with traditional Japanese monsters such as yokai and ayakashi as natural antagonists. The series concluded after five volumes, which Takaki noted covered the initial story arc involving the character Amagi, though he had ideas for continuing the story for more than ten volumes exploring character backgrounds and family histories.
Following Black Torch, Takaki began a new series titled Heart Gear, a post-apocalyptic science fiction story set in a future world featuring a human girl and an android traveling together. He described his long-standing interest in science fiction, particularly post-apocalyptic stories with robots, and noted that he developed the pairing of a human and robot protagonist to make the genre more accessible to readers while allowing for contrasting perspectives between emotional human experience and robotic logic. The series is published by Shueisha and has been released in English by Viz Media.
Regarding his artistic approach, Takaki has emphasized that in action scenes his primary concern is making the sequence easy for readers to follow rather than simply creating flashy imagery. He considers the challenges of depicting movement across manga panels to be the most demanding yet most exciting aspect of his work, focusing on panel composition, camera angles, and rhythm to convey action clearly. His art style has been noted for its visual energy, and his work has been described as appealing to readers who enjoy shonen action series.
Works
- Topics: Anime overview