Takahashi Kazuki

Name In Native Language: 高橋和希

Born Takahashi Kazuo (高橋一雅) in Tokyo on October 4, 1961, for much of his childhood he was a fan of manga and anime such as Tiger Mask, Ultraman, Mazinger Z, and Devilman. In his youth his teacher called him “the poop machine that knows nothing except eating, sleeping and pooping”, which insulted him so much that he decided to become a mangaka in retaliation. He started submitting manga to Shogakukan under the pen name Hajime Miyabi in 1981 and to Kodansha using his real name in 1986, but suffering from extreme poverty he decided to try his hand at Shueisha instead. Inspired by the D’Arby battles in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, he started writing the gaming manga Yu-Gi-Oh in 1996, which quickly ballooned into a massively popular franchise and one of the most popular trading card games in the world.

After completing Yu-Gi-Oh in 2004, in lieu of resting on his laurels, Takahashi-sensei continued to work behind the scenes. Acting as supervisor for the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise, he provided ideas and character designs for its sequel series such as Yu-Gi-Oh GX and Yu-Gi-Oh 5D’s, as well as monitoring their manga adaptations. He was no slouch on his own, either - he made a short series The Comiq in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2018, and in 2019 he partnered with Marvel to release Secret Reverse on Jump+, a short series about Spider-Man and Iron Man fighting a game-loving supervillain. In fact, Takahashi-sensei loved American comics - Hellboy was his favorite, and its author Mike Mignola even did a collaboration with Takahashi-sensei.

On July 4, 2022, Takahashi-sensei drowned off the coast of Okinawa while snorkeling (apparently a favorite pastime of his). According to eyewitnesses, he was assisting in the rescue of three others who were caught in a rip current.