Mitsuru Adachi facts for kids

Mitsuru Adachi (Japanese: あだち 充 or 安達 充, Hepburn: Adachi Mitsuru, born February 9, 1951) is a famous Japanese manga artist. A manga artist is someone who creates Japanese comics. After finishing high school in 1969, Adachi worked as an assistant for another artist named Isami Ishii. He started his own manga career in 1970 with a story called Kieta Bakuon. This story was published in a manga magazine called Deluxe Shōnen Sunday.

Adachi is very well known for his romantic comedy and sports manga, especially stories about baseball. Some of his most popular works include Touch, H2, Slow Step, Miyuki, and Cross Game. People describe him as a great storyteller who is good at showing everyday life. He is also one of the few manga artists who has been popular in magazines for different age groups: boys, girls, and adults.

His manga have appeared in many different magazines like Weekly Shōnen Sunday, Ciao, and Big Comic. Most of his works are published by companies like Shogakukan and Gakken. He was also a main author for the new Monthly Shōnen Sunday magazine when it started in 2009. Some of his short story collections, like Short Program, have even been released in North America.

Mitsuru Adachi chose to spell his family name (あだち) differently from the usual way (安達). He did this because his older brother, Tsutomu Adachi, who was also a manga artist, spelled his name that way. It's also thought that the realistic way he shows brothers and sisters competing in Touch might come from his own experiences growing up with his older brother.

Mitsuru Adachi's Career Journey

Early Days as a Manga Artist

Before 1969, Mitsuru Adachi started sending his drawings to a manga magazine called COM. In 1969, he followed his older brother's path and moved to Tokyo. There, he began working as an assistant for Isami Ishii. The next year, in 1970, he officially started his professional career with Kieta Bakuon.

Throughout the 1970s, he continued to publish many short stories and shorter series. These were often based on ideas from other creators. One well-known example is his version of Rainbowman from 1972 to 1973. In 1978, he released his first original series, Nine, in Weekly Shōnen Sunday. He also created two other original series: Hiatari Ryōkō! (1979-1981) and Miyuki (1980-1984).

Becoming a Household Name

Adachi became very famous when he published his series Touch from 1981 to 1986 in Weekly Shōnen Sunday. In 1982, Hiatari Ryōkō! was made into a live action TV drama series. The year 1983 was a big one for Adachi. He won the 28th Annual Shogakukan Manga Award for his two series, Touch and Miyuki. This award is a big deal in the manga world.

His Miyuki series was turned into both an anime TV show and a live-action movie. Also, Nine was adapted into three movies, with another one coming out in 1984.

Continued Success and Adaptations

Touch was adapted into an anime TV series in 1985. This show was very popular and ran for two years on Fuji TV. Adachi's romantic manga series for girls, Slow Step, was published from 1986 to 1991. Another romantic comedy, Rough, appeared in Weekly Shōnen Sunday from 1987 to 1989. He then released Niji Iro Tōgarashi, a fantasy romantic comedy set in medieval times, from 1990 to 1992.

Jinbē, a romantic comedy about a stepfather and stepdaughter, was published from 1992 to 1997. Adachi's longest manga series, H2, was published from 1992 to 1999 and collected into 34 books. This manga was also made into an anime TV series that aired from 1995 to 1996.

From 2000 to 2001, Adachi published a fantasy romantic comedy called Itsumo Misora. His next long series was the boxing romantic comedy, Katsu!, published from 2001 to 2005. In 2005, H2 was adapted into a live-action drama series in Japan. Touch was also made into a live-action movie that year. He also started his manga series Cross Game in 2005. The next year, Rough was adapted into a live-action movie.

Because his manga sales reached over 200 million copies, Weekly Shōnen Sunday dedicated a special issue to Adachi and his works in 2008. In 2009, Adachi won another Shogakukan Manga Award for Cross Game. This series was also adapted into an anime TV show that started airing in April 2009.

Adachi began Q and A in the first issue of Monthly Shōnen Sunday in June 2009. He finished Q and A in May 2012 and started his new series, Mix, which is a kind of sequel to Touch set 30 years later. Mix began in June 2012 and is still ongoing. As of today, Adachi's works have sold over 200 million copies worldwide.

Mitsuru Adachi's Manga Works

Original Series

These are the main manga series that Mitsuru Adachi created himself.

Short Stories and Collections

Many of Adachi's shorter works have been collected in a series called Short Program, which has four volumes. These are often one-shot stories or very short series.

• What's Going On? (1985)
• Purple (1985)
• Change (1985)
• At the Intersection (1986)
• Plus 1 (1986)
• Short Program (1987)
• Take Off (1988)
• 4 on the Richter Scale (1988)
• The Road Home (1989)
• Square Sea (1998)
• Sayonara Game (1991)
• Before Spring Comes... (1992)
• Blowing Any Which Way (1992)
• Spring Call (1993)
• Spring Passes (1993)
• A Stop on the Way (1994)
• Target Wakaba (1995)
• Angel's Hammer (1998)
• Geta and Diamonds (1999)
• Memory Off (2000)
• White Summer (2002)
• The Runaway God (2005)
• Short Mail (2006)
• Asaoka High School Baseball Club Diary: Over Fence (2011)

People Connected to Mitsuru Adachi

His Brother, Tsutomu Adachi

Mitsuru's older brother, Tsutomu Adachi, was also a manga artist. He worked as an assistant for another famous artist, Fujio Akatsuka. Sadly, Tsutomu passed away in 2004. In 1982, he wrote a manga called Mitsuru Adachi Monogatari, which told the story of Mitsuru's early life as a new manga artist.

Shinji Nagashima, His Mentor

Adachi became a big fan of Shinji Nagashima when he was about 10 years old. He even started tracing Nagashima's drawings to learn. After high school, Adachi worked as an assistant for Nagashima for a short time. However, Nagashima suddenly moved overseas. So, Adachi then became an assistant to Isami Ishii. In 2005, Adachi published a short story called The Runaway God as a way to remember Nagashima.

Friendly Rivalry with Rumiko Takahashi

Starting in the early 1980s, both Adachi and Rumiko Takahashi were very popular artists in Weekly Shōnen Sunday magazine. They had a friendly competition. Adachi even said that he felt he had to work hard to keep up with how popular Takahashi was, especially since it was a magazine for boys. They would meet a few times a year to share their ideas. In 2006, when asked what pen name they would choose if it wasn't their own, Takahashi replied, "Adachi Mitsuru."

See also

In Spanish: Mitsuru Adachi para niños