In 1976, Buichi Terasawa moved to Tokyo to become an assistant for Osamu Tezuka, where he was mentored by him and worked for the manga department of Tezuka Productions. In 1977, Terasawa made his debut with the one-shot Cobra, a sci-fi manga about an immortal man named Cobra with a Psychogun attached to his left arm who goes on adventures with his partner, the Lady Armaroid. In 1978, Cobra was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump until 1985, with the manga selling more than 30 million copies and being adapted into an animated film and TV anime in 1982. In the early 1980s, Terasawa began experimenting using personal computers in his works, and in 1885 serialized his next series, BLACK KNIGHT BAT, which utilized computer coloring. In 1992, Terasawa started his series Takeru, which is said to be the world's first fully computer drawn manga, giving rise to the term "digital manga."
In 2003, Terasawa announced on his official website that he had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in 1998. Despite undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment, the cancer returned and paralyzed the left side of his body after the second surgery. Even after being wheelchair bound due to the aftereffects of the surgery, Teresawa continued working as a manga artist, publishing the most recent version of the Cobra manga in 2020. On September 11, 2023, Terasawa's studio announced that he had died on September 8, 2023 due to a heart attack.
Work with Araki
Terasawa's connection with Hirohiko Araki dated back to the 80s when he read the manuscript for Araki's debut manga, Poker Under Arms, submitted to the Tezuka Awards. Terasawa noted that while Araki wasn't very skilled at drawing, he still had a talent for storytelling. He also noted that the elaborate methods Araki used for composing stories would be better suited for writing novels and screenplays than for drawing manga.[2] Terasawa would go on to support Araki saying, "I encouraged him because he could tell stories better than he could draw them." The initials "B.T." in Araki's first series, Cool Shock B.T., were also a reference to Terasawa's name.[3][4][5]
In 1985, Terasawa appeared at the end of the first volume of Araki's second series, Baoh the Visitor. He said the sci-fi elements in the series were very reminiscent of the ones that appear in his own.[2] In 2014, Araki said that the idea for Hol Horse might've been inspired by the titular main character of Terasawa's manga, Cobra. A gun-slinging outlaw who always smokes and has the power to fire projectiles without having a line-of-sight.[6] In 2015, Araki contributed an illustration of Cobra's partner, Lady Armaroid, for the book Cobra Great Dissection. The reason Araki drew her was because "If you visit space and need a companion at your side, the Lady Armoroid is the only one for you! (Erotic, gorgeous and dependable)."[7]
Works
"Black Jack" (ブラック・ジャック) (1973-1983) (Assistant to Osamu Tezuka)
I think my first contact with Araki was when I read his submission for the Tezuka Awards. Looking at his manuscripts, I was surprised and delighted at how similar are styles were. Araki is very meticulous with how he crafts his story, going over it several times before putting pen to paper. He's the type of person who only starts writing once he has a complete grasp of the dynamics of his characters, the circumstances they face, their outlook on the world, and so on. This method is the same one used by novelists and screenwriters, but for a serial manga artist is very detrimental.
Most of these subtle attentions to detail go unnoticed by the reader, like the sci-fi themes scattered throughout the story and the deliberate awe created by the protagonist. Nonetheless, this is precisely where a science fiction writer gets to put their skills to the test, trying to visualize what we can only see in our wildest dreams. I mentioned earlier that our styles were similar. That's because I felt that his approach to drawing manga was very close to mine. There are very few artists who can make sci-fi manga entertaining without compromising the overall quality of their work, and Araki is one of them. Given his current style, I think he'll continue to grow as a manga artist in the future.
It's important to recognize that science fiction manga isn't the same as novels or films. At first, this seems obvious, but I think it's something necessary to keep in mind. I hope the both of us will continue drawing science fiction manga until we truly understand what it means.
