Shirimoto
Description
Shirimoto is the creator credited with the manga Nmeneko, which was adapted into a short anime series that premiered in April 2025 on the TBS channel in Japan. The Nmeneko manga is posted on the creator's social media account and depicts the humorous daily lives of two cats, the titular character Nmeneko and Usukuro, who wish to live a carefree existence focused only on fun activities. The short anime adaptation features Megumi Han as the voice of Nmeneko and Hiro Shimono as Usukuro, with Tommy Hino directing at the animation studio Kumarba and Hideaki Shirasaka in charge of series scripts.
The name Shirimoto appears to be closely associated with the established manga artist Kazuhiko Shimamoto, a Japanese creator born Hidehiko Tezuka on April 26, 1961 in Ikeda, Hokkaido. Shimamoto made his professional debut in 1982 with the one-shot Hissatsu no tenkosei, also known as Killer Transfer Student, and subsequently dropped out of the Osaka University of Arts, where he had been studying fine arts, to pursue manga full-time. He adopted the pen name Shimamoto to distinguish himself from the legendary manga creator Osamu Tezuka.
Shimamoto is responsible for numerous long-running and influential manga series. His early breakthrough came with Honō no Tenkōsei, or Blazing Transfer Student, serialized from 1983 to 1985. He also created the Moeyo Pen saga, a series about the struggles of a manga artist that began as a single volume in 1990 and expanded into a multi-part series. His baseball manga Gyakkyou Nine was adapted into a live-action film in 2005. Another notable work is Aoi Honō, or Blue Blaze, a semi-autobiographical manga chronicling his time as a young art student in the early 1980s, which won the Excellence Award in the Manga Division at the 18th Japan Media Arts Festival and the General category award at the 60th Shogakukan Manga Awards. Aoi Honō was later adapted into a live-action television drama in 2014.
Shimamoto has also collaborated with legendary manga creator Shotaro Ishinomori, producing a remake of the Skull Man manga based on Ishinomori's original vision. He contributed character design cooperation to the anime Mobile Fighter G Gundam and has provided character designs for video games such as Live A Live and Rival Schools. His past assistants include Katsu Aki and Masaaki Fujihara, and his college classmates included Gainax founders Hideaki Anno and Hiroyuki Yamaga, who later appeared as characters in his manga Aoi Honō. As of 2022, Shimamoto served as the president and representative director of Aibic Co., Ltd., continuing to produce ongoing serialized manga such as Hero Company.
The name Shirimoto appears to be closely associated with the established manga artist Kazuhiko Shimamoto, a Japanese creator born Hidehiko Tezuka on April 26, 1961 in Ikeda, Hokkaido. Shimamoto made his professional debut in 1982 with the one-shot Hissatsu no tenkosei, also known as Killer Transfer Student, and subsequently dropped out of the Osaka University of Arts, where he had been studying fine arts, to pursue manga full-time. He adopted the pen name Shimamoto to distinguish himself from the legendary manga creator Osamu Tezuka.
Shimamoto is responsible for numerous long-running and influential manga series. His early breakthrough came with Honō no Tenkōsei, or Blazing Transfer Student, serialized from 1983 to 1985. He also created the Moeyo Pen saga, a series about the struggles of a manga artist that began as a single volume in 1990 and expanded into a multi-part series. His baseball manga Gyakkyou Nine was adapted into a live-action film in 2005. Another notable work is Aoi Honō, or Blue Blaze, a semi-autobiographical manga chronicling his time as a young art student in the early 1980s, which won the Excellence Award in the Manga Division at the 18th Japan Media Arts Festival and the General category award at the 60th Shogakukan Manga Awards. Aoi Honō was later adapted into a live-action television drama in 2014.
Shimamoto has also collaborated with legendary manga creator Shotaro Ishinomori, producing a remake of the Skull Man manga based on Ishinomori's original vision. He contributed character design cooperation to the anime Mobile Fighter G Gundam and has provided character designs for video games such as Live A Live and Rival Schools. His past assistants include Katsu Aki and Masaaki Fujihara, and his college classmates included Gainax founders Hideaki Anno and Hiroyuki Yamaga, who later appeared as characters in his manga Aoi Honō. As of 2022, Shimamoto served as the president and representative director of Aibic Co., Ltd., continuing to produce ongoing serialized manga such as Hero Company.
Works
- Topics: Anime overview