Araki's biggest series, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, began in December 1986 and is divided into nine parts. It continues to be serialized, totaling 135 volumes as of August 2024, and circulating over 120 million copies as of January 2022.[11]
Hirohiko Araki's artwork and manga are inspired by numerous Western influences including music, paintings, sculptures, fashion, and films. He is one of the most well-known manga artists in the world and won several awards throughout his career. In addition to his manga, Araki has written novels, appeared on television shows, delivered lectures at universities and museums, been referenced in other manga and anime, and had his work exhibited at the Louvre.
Toshiyuki Araki was born on June 7, 1960, in Sendai, Japan, the capital city of Miyagi Prefecture. He grew up with his father who was an office worker at Japan Tobacco,[12] his stay-at-home mother, and his younger sisters, a pair of identical twins four years younger than him.[13][14] He attended Komatsushima Elementary School, where he and his friends mimicked the Boy Detectives from Edogawa Ranpo's works. Araki didn't always aspire to be a manga artist, and usually spent time playing outside or following older kids around.[15] He explored the whole city with his friends, such as nearby forests, swamps, and bomb shelters. Together, they built a secret base using wooden crates and even tried searching for buried gold they heard about in a local legend.[16]
In his youth, Araki was bullied by his sisters on a daily basis and consequently didn't look forward to coming home.[6] Although he believed his parents loved him and his sisters equally, he would feel left out seeing his sisters do everything together.[17] Araki's sisters would secretly steal his snacks which led him to believe he never had a snack to begin with.[6] He also claims they conspired together to have their parents only scold him alone after he fought with one of them. At school, his teachers would falsely suspect him whenever an incident occurred.[18] Feeling lonely and misunderstood by everyone, he spent time either by himself in his room[6] or at his grandfather's place, where he discovered manga, movies, and art.[17]
Araki credits manga for saving his life back then, reading classic series from the '60s and '70s like Tomorrow's Joe, Kamui,[6]Ring ni Kakero, Cobra, The Circuit Wolf, Boy of the Wilderness Isamu, Ajihei the Cook,[19]Osamu Tezuka's works,[14] samurai manga, and Kazuo Umezu's horror works.[20] The first manga he bought was MUYONOSUKE by Takao Saito. Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Babel II and the works of Ikki Kajiwara like Star of the Giants and Ai to Makoto significantly inspired him.[6][13] He was also particularly influenced by his grandfather, who loved making things regardless of what they were, and would make Araki things like models and kites.[17] His father was the same way, carving wood into the shape of a yacht and letting it float on water when a 5-year-old Araki asked him to buy a yacht. On the other hand, his mother was more serious, telling him to listen to musicians like Mozart rather than Led Zeppelin. However, she would still buy him old art books and manga.[12]
Aside from manga, Araki would read his father's collection of art books,[13] as well as Edogawa Ranpo's novels and the Sherlock Holmes series.[14] Moreover, he inherited his father's passion for films. In 1966, Araki wanted to watch Gamera, but his father took him to see For a Few Dollars More instead. Since then, Araki became a big fan of Sergio Leone's spaghetti Westerns and Clint Eastwood.[21] Additional major influences for him were the French artist Paul Gauguin and the American painter Jasper Johns.[13][22] Araki not only found Gauguin's work impressive, but also his way of life, citing how Gauguin lived away from society in Tahiti for his pursuit of art. Thus, Araki desired to pursue a single thing as well.[17] Around that time is when he started listening to foreign rock music such as the songs by Chicago, Yes, Led Zeppelin, Jackson Browne, and Bob Dylan. Since records were too expensive for him to buy and he didn't have a cassette recorder, he would tape songs off the radio using a huge reel-to-reel tape recorder which he told his parents he needed for English practice.[23] Magic and sleight of hand tricks also interested him, so he bought books and practiced a lot with cards, becoming quite good at it.[20]
A young Araki's art in the fictional "Shonen Thunder"
Araki believes that he first started drawing when he was in kindergarten or first grade by trying to reproduce Sanpei Shirato's Watari and Tetsuya Chiba's Harris no Kaze.[23] He attended art classes in his neighborhood[24] and started drawing more at the age of seven.[20] Araki drew his very first manga while he was eight years old in fourth grade, which was when a childhood friend complimented the composition of his art.[12][16] This friend discussed the differences between Japanese and American heroes, and the different ways that creators like Shigeru Mizuki and Kazuo Umezu depict fear, helping Araki develop his analytical skills. One day, after Araki drew a side character more impressively than the protagonist, his friend praised the manga as being interesting, prompting Araki to decide to become a manga artist.[12] However, manga did not have a good public image at the time,[24] and his parents and teachers warned him that reading manga would make him stupid.[19] Therefore, Araki had to draw behind his parents' backs using India ink to pursue his passion.[24]
Araki played little league baseball while he was in elementary school, but didn't enjoy the aspect of group sports. For example, if he made an error, then he'd be looked down on by the others.[23] He also felt annoyed when another kid would constantly be subbed in, as Araki considered himself a better player.[14] A few years later, he went to Dainohara Junior High School.[12] Declaring he never wanted to take part in a team sport again, he switched to practicing kendo, influenced by the manga Ore wa Teppei.[14][25] His experience at kendo seems to have been lukewarm, as he says nobody praised him whether he won or lost a match.[26] However, being in the kendo club saved him during one situation when he was passing by a group of four to five senior delinquents at a place he referred to as "Shakedown Road". Although they threatened Araki at first, they released him upon realizing he was in the kendo club, as they had acquaintances in the club as well.[12] Educationally, his favorite subjects were social studies and sciences, but he also performed well in mathematics.[14] On the other hand, he considered himself poor in English.[6]
Professional Debut
Shogakukan (left) and Shueisha (far right) HQs.
Araki began submitting work to publishers during his first year at Tohoku Gakuin Tsutsujigaoka High School.[27] However, all of his submissions were rejected.[13] Araki also applied his works to the Tezuka Awards, having at one point been nominated in the 14th edition in 1977 for a one-shot named "The Bottle" then submitted under the name Toshi Arakino (荒木之利, Arakino Toshi).[28] At the same time, other artists who were around his age continued to make big splashes with their debuts (Ex: Yudetamago, Masakazu Katsura). Araki could not understand why he was being rejected, so one day in 1979, he decided to pay a visit to an editorial department in Tokyo for direct feedback on his most recently finished work. At first, he intended to visit Shogakukan, which published Weekly Shōnen Sunday, but was intimidated by the size of their building, and decided to take his submission into the smaller Shueisha (Publishers of Weekly Shonen Jump) building next door. It was noon when he visited, but one rookie editor named Ryosuke Kabashima happened to be there. Kabashima, after reading the first page, promptly quipped "your white-out's leaked (You haven't fixed it)": he was criticized every time the editor flipped through each page. Araki, exhausted from having been up all night, felt like he was going to pass out, but was told to fix it up for the Tezuka Awards. Months later, Araki would submit a one-shot by the name of "Poker Under Arms", which won the runner up prize at the Tezuka Awards.[13][29]
On November 30, 2016, Araki won the 45th Annual Best Dresser Awards in Tokyo in the "Academic and Cultural Arts" division. When questioned about his youthful appearance, Araki said that he washes his face every morning with Tokyo's tap water.[30]
Araki was given an art award for the year 2018 by the Agency for Cultural Affairs for his art exhibition Ripples of Adventure.[31]
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
A cover of Weekly Shonen Jump featuring Araki's JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
Published in Weekly Shonen Jump between 1987 and 2004 and from 2004 to the present in Ultra Jump, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure represents Hirohiko Araki's primary brand and body of work.
The JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series brought fame to Araki as its popularity skyrocketed during the publication of Stardust Crusaders and Araki kept working on the series even after the end of the third part, which was the end of what he had planned for the stories beforehand.[32]
The dust jacket of every volume of JoJo contains a note to the reader; a relatively great source of Araki's direct opinions.
In 2012, Araki celebrated his 30th year as a manga artist and the 25th anniversary of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. A special exhibition was held in Sendai, Japan, which included the announcement for the TV Anime and All-Star Battle.
Personal life
Araki is often commented on for his unchanging youthful demeanor over the years. He cites training at the gym and Hitomebore rice as methods for staying fit while over the age of 50,[33] as well as swimming.[34] In his 2007 Eureka Interview, he is complimented by Japanese psychologist and critic, Tamaki Saito, but states that the main reason he switched to a monthly serialization was from no longer being able to handle the weekly schedule.[35] Araki has revealed that after he was operated for gastroenteritis, Araki realized that he could no longer completely devote himself to his manga and sought to enjoy life more and practice other activities such as traveling or cooking.[36]
Araki's wife, Asami
Araki is well known for his position on staying healthy. He enjoys going on walks and riding a bike, particularly to Japanese shrines, and has commended it as his coping mechanism when exhausted from work. He considers exercise as a great way to discipline one's self and that carrying too many things can be a burden; Araki will typically only carry a raincoat, water, and an iPod when going out.[37][38]
Araki lost his ancestral house in Sendai during the Tohoku earthquake. The house was destroyed by the tsunami following the earthquake, which shocked Araki.[39]
Family
Married to Asami Araki, Araki is the father of two girls. A couple years after his debut, Araki met Asami in a group meet-up, and the two got married three months later.[40][41]
Araki's drawing commonly involves idealized figures in broad, expressive poses at adventurous scales and angles; with sharply inked lines and scattered, blackened planes; lending them a sculptural effect. In color illustrations and pages, Araki varies roughly complementary color juxtapositions.
In terms of cartooning, a comparison can be drawn between Phantom Blood, Battle Tendency, and Stardust Crusaders (1987 - '92) and the hypermasculine (and highly dimorphic) anatomical ideals applied by Tetsuo Hara in Fist of the North Star, and referenced by Araki in relation to action heroes of the 1980s.[32]Diamond is Unbreakable ('92 - '96) marks a transition to a more intersexual model; while Steel Ball Run (2004 - '11) sees greater realism, along with further incorporation of ideals of beauty consistent with the mode in fashion design. When he started JoJolion (2011 – '21), Araki expressed a will to draw in a looser style and things he never drew before. Hence, he says, he bust shots and increased the amount of white panels and included more white elements in his drawings, in contrast to the darkness of his style present in previous works.[42]
Reference to illustrations by artists including Antonio Lopez and Tony Viramontes informs a number of individual illustrations and character poses in Araki's work from 1987 - 1992; decreasing from then along with increased use of photographic references.[43] Limited examples of costumes borrowed from contemporary fashion design have been identified.
As a film fan, in the 1980s Araki noted the popularity of action movies and the muscular physiques characteristic of their stars (such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone). By this example, Araki would ponder; "Who is the strongest person in the world?". Subjects such as immortality and justice occurred to him as things that humans innately value and seek. Araki had also been on a trip to Italy two years prior to the creation of Part 1: Phantom Blood, where he identified the exaltation of overt human beauty characteristic of renaissance art. Araki was particularly struck by the aesthetic of the sculpture Apollo and Daphne by Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The baroque sculpture's striking figures and realistic yet idealized bodies stuck in remarkable poses inspired Araki to heavily incorporate poses in his art and develop his own style.[44] Araki would combine these examples in the formulation of the basic plot and visual style of Phantom Blood.[32]
Araki has described his drawing method as "classical".[32] He has indicated admiration for Leonardo da Vinci in the text of the manga and otherwise; and in a video feature in JOJOVELLER, he is seen making visual reference to a book of Michelangelo's work[45] during the construction of a piece.
Manga that Araki has named as admirable or having had particular influence on him include Ai to Makoto by Ikki Kajiwara and Takumi Nagayasu, the most significant of his youth;[13]Ore wa Teppei by Tetsuya Chiba, which inspired him while in middle school to join the kendo club;[13] and Babel II by Mitsuteru Yokoyama, particularly influential for the concept of combat defined by special rules or laws.[32]
Araki has authored a book on the subject of Horror film and its influence on his work.
Araki has described his habit of naming characters and Stands after musicians and their works as "a simple hobby", and has indicated a strong preference for Western popular music.
On October 2011, Araki was deemed one of the 100 most influential people in Japan by the business magazine "Nikkei Business", in the category "creator".[46]
I'd play with them like crazy every day, assembling and breaking them, making things and tearing them apart. But I think that they contain the ideology of western art.
Hirohiko Araki's Top 10 Movies That Had Him Squirming in His Seat (The ten best movies I wished would stop but I kept watching anyway.) (From the Author's Note in Volume 32)
Araki's Top 10 Heroes (ヒーロー) from JOJO A-GO!GO! (2000) - Araki Hirohiko Described as Araki's inspirations; those with the courage to innovate when it came to design or fashion. They are not in any specific order.
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