Shotaro Ishinomori, a renowned comic artist, was born Shotaro Onodera on January 25, 1938, in Tome, Japan. With a prolific career spanning over 770 titles and exceeding 128,000 pages, he is considered one of the most successful comic artists in history.
As an early pioneer of Japanese manga, Ishinomori was among the few artists whose works were syndicated overseas, alongside Osamu Tezuka, Jiro Kuwata, Rumiko Takahashi, and Fujiko Fujio. He made his debut as a comic artist in 1954 with Nikyu Tenshi and went on to write for various genres, including adventure sci-fi action, for pre-teen boys in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Ishinomori was mentored by the late Osamu Tezuka, who was his neighbor at Tokiwa-so, a legendary apartment complex in Tokyo that housed many future comic artists of Japan. In 1956, he moved to Tokyo and began his career, eventually winning the Kodansha manga award in 1966 for his works.
In 1971, his comic Kamen Rider was adapted into a TV series, which became a massive success, and the word "henshin" (the battle cry Kamen Rider shouts before transforming) became a staple phrase among Japanese youth. He went on to create several more Kamen Rider series, as well as the Go Rangers, the first Super Sentai series, in 1975.
In 1986, Ishinomori officially changed his pen name to Shotaro Ishinomori, which was the name he had always intended for himself. During his later years, he focused on creating comics for adults, offering a unique perspective on society. Ishinomori passed away on February 28, 1998, at the age of 60, due to heart failure. He will be remembered as one of the founding fathers of manga.
