- Born
- Died
- Mistuteru Yokoyama was born on June 18, 1934 in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. As a boy, he loved reading magazine novels and manga. He got his first inspiration to draw manga after reading Osamu Tezuka's manga "Metropolis". In his own words, Tezuka's ability to write interesting stories, his graceful lines, and the fact that they were both from the city of Kobe, moved and inspired him to draw manga himself. Returning to Kobe from Tottori after the war (World War II), Tezuka's "Metropolis" and the burned-down city of Kobe gave him the impetus to draw. In his own words, he was not so good at drawing and had no confidence in his story or artwork, but from middle school through high school whenever he had time he drew manga and sent the drafts to the publishers. After graduating from high school, he worked for a bank in Kobe. Even then he was not so determined to be a manga writer, but he kept up his periodic submission of his work to the publishers. Around that time he realized that working for the bank left him little time to draw, so he quit his job after four months. Next, he worked as an advertising agent for one of the film distribution companies in the Hanshin District (i.e., Kobe - Osaka) of Japan. There he was doing art work for film fliers, but was only busy before the release of a new film. So he used his remaining time to draw and sent his work to the publishers. About half of his work was accepted and half was rejected. Around that time, Japan had publishers who specialized in rental books where book stores rented their books to customers and charged per diem. Japan's economy was still weak and people had little money to buy books so, especially for children, these books were in high demand. One such publisher, Tokoudo of Osaka, asked Yokoyama to write a feature-length manga. The manga he wrote for this publisher was "Otonashi no ken" ("The Silent Sword"). He was 20 at the time. The manga was well received by the audience and he soon got a follow-up order for a second manga. Next, he wrote a manga called "Shirayuri monogatari" ("The White Lily Story"). The third manga that he wrote was "Maken Reppu ken" ("Demonic Whirlwind Sword"), and the fourth manga that he was starting to write, "Tetsujin 28 go" ("Ironman #28" a.k.a. "Gigantor") was to change his life forever. His parents, who were against him for wanting to become a manga artist, slowly accepted his career choice as they saw money coming in from his artistic career. Having seen his work in Osaka Kobundo, a publisher from Tokyo, asked him to draw for one of their magazines targeted for girls titled "Shoujyo". His idol Osamu Tezuka was one of the contributing artists for this magazine, so this request was a dream come true for him. In this magazine a modified version of "Shirayuri Monogatari" was reprinted, and he was also asked to write for its sister magazine for boys titled "Shounen". He submitted "Tetsujin 28 go", which he was planning to write for Tokoudo. This was first published in July 1956 and was instantly ranked as the number 1 favorite story of the readers. Osamu Tezuka's "Tetsuwan Atom" ("Astro Boy") had started five years earlier also on "Shounen", and these two robot genre manga by Yokoyama and Tezuka, respectively, became the greatest science fiction/action manga of post-war era Japan. Yokoyama's veracity for drawing manga was well-known at the time, as he was able to draw a page in 30 minutes. He continued to expand into period manga like "Iga no Kage maru", which was featured in the weekly magazine "Shounen Sunday", followed by "Ninja Aka Kage", which became a TV series along with "Tetsujin 28 go". "Tetsujin 28 go" was syndicated in "Shounen" until May 1966 when it ended. Yokoyama's other works, such as "Mahotsukai Sally" ("Sally the Witch") which was targeted for girls, also became anime TV series. Today, Yokoyama is remembered as one of the two giants and founding fathers of the genre we now call "manga" along with Osamu Tezuka.- IMDb Mini Biography By: ebiros2
- He employed calculated story deployment and elaborate settings in conjunction with fairly one-dimensional characters who get little development.
- Often wrote manga which featured a giant robot that obeyed the commands of its human controller such as "Tetsujin nijuhachi-go" ("Gigantor"), "Jaianto robo" ("Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot"), and "Babel nisei" ("Babel II").
- He entered the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation after graduation from high school, but quit his job before five months had passed because there was no time to draw a manga. He found a new job as a publicity department member for a film company based in Kobe and pursued his manga artist career there on his free time.
- Osamu Tezuka's "Metropolis" manga made a deep impression on Yokoyama, who wished to become a manga artist in earnest, so he contributed his works to a comic book back in his high school days.
- Yokoyama established the formats of various genres of current Japanese manga and anime. Whereas many manga artists preferred their original stories not to be changed when adapted, Yokoyama was realistic and tolerant, so many of his manga were easily made into anime/tokusatsu adaptations.
- Yokoyama died from severe burns over most of his body received during a fire at his home in Tokyo. He was found unconscious in bed and died 16 hours later at a nearby hospital. Police found an ashtray by Yokoyama's bedside and suspected that the fire was caused by a lit cigarette. He was already in such a state of health that he was not able to move freely, which likely contributed to his death.
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