Who is the man behind the success of HikaGO? Yappari! It's none other than Obata Takeshi (or Obata Ken), a professional mangaka who was born in Niigata on February 11 and also the 'sensei' of Watsuki Nobuhiro (Rurouni Kenshin). Obata-sensei have a typical style in drawing male chara with feminine look tatoeba Sai and Sakon (Karakuri Zoushi Ayatsuri Sakon). You can see how remarkable artwork he had in Hikaru no GO artbook. And the 'mother' of HikaGO is Hotta Yumi. Hotta-sensei is the one who made the story arc and also the manga artwork. She fell in love with manga since she was in the 5th grade, she even drew on her notebooks (I did that too ^^). Early before she made HikaGO, she had created a manga about horse racing. Together with Obata-sensei, she won the nominee for manga with the most attractive storyarc and artwork in the 45th Shogakukan Comic Prize. Omedetou Gozaimasu!!! Last but not least, Yukari Umezawa (3-Dan) as the GO techniques consultant. Because of his participation in the making of HikaGO, we can learn many techniques of GO (Onegaishimasu 'bow'). And now he won the popularity among the teenagers as a professional GO artist. So I guess they deserved it, desu yo? They had made a great work with their on-going dedication to GO and manga. BANZAI!!! |
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