Yoshihiro Togashi is one of the most respected manga artists in the industry. He is known for his exceptional storytelling abilities and unique artistic style.
Over the years, Yoshihiro Togashi has created a lot of amazing stories and series. That has captured millions of fans all around the world.
His work not only includes thrilling action-packed stories, but he has also amazed fans with his perception of paranormal sequences. He has shown his remarkable talent in crafting engaging and complex stories throughout his career.
His major works have had a lasting impact on the manga industry. From his early success with one of the popular series, Yu Yu Hakusho, which was based on supernatural martial arts, to the complex plot of globally popular, Hunter x Hunter, he has consistently won over fans.
Yoshihiro Togashi’s Strategic Shift In Response to Shonen Jump Trends
With the success of Yu Yu Hakusho, Yoshihiro Togashi, intentionally transformed the series from a gripping storyline into a battle-focused manga series. That has also played a major role in the current popularity of Shonen Jump magazine.
After that, Togashi decided to showcase a different side of his creative abilities with his next release, Level E. He launched his sci-fi manga in an attempt to challenge the image that he had created with the popularity of Yu Yu Hakusho.
In 1998, Yoshihiro Togashi launched his next major work, Hunter x Hunter, still ongoing today. He revealed his mindset while writing Hunter x Hunter at that time in an interview.
“This isn’t a very charming way to put it, but since I was creating manga for Shonen Jump, I mainly focused on making my next one a ‘hit.’ Since the latter half of Yu Yu Hakusho, I started paying really close attention to reader polls. Instead of just focusing on my own ranking, I would look at them all, zeroing in on which artist and story were number one. Analyzing those polls made me realize that, in order to get votes, I’d have to do a sports manga or a battle manga, which have clear winners and losers. So I decided a battle manga would be good for my next one.”
Togashi’s strategic shift clashed with the growing popularity of Eiichiro Oda‘s One Piece, which premiered a year before the debut of Hunter x Hunter. It seems like the success of One Piece has served as a wake-up call for Togashi.
Yoshihiro Togashi Wanted To Be A Teacher
When Yoshihiro Togashi first started going to college, he pursued a degree in order to be a teacher. However, at the same time, he was also submitting his manga work to the Shonen Jump magazine.
When he was 20 years old, Togashi also received the reputed Tezuka Award, which recognized amazing new manga artists, for his work with the manga series, Buttobi Straight. He has also gained recognition for Jura no Mizuki, over the next few years.
All these early successes resulted in approval from Weekly Shonen Jump when he was still in college. This was when he abandoned his dream of becoming a teacher and moved to Tokyo.
You can watch Yoshihiro Togashi’s Hunter x Hunter on Crunchyroll.
