Tetsuo Hara
Tetsuo Hara (原哲夫 Hara Tetsuo, born September 2 1961) is a Japanese manga artist famous for drawing the series Hokuto no Ken, known in English as Fist of the North Star, which he wrote with Buronson. He also did the character designs for the arcade game Saturday Night Slam Masters.
Career
Tetsuo Hara was born in Shibuya, Tokyo on September 2, 1961 and raised in Koshigaya, Saitama. As a child he was a fan of manga especially Fujio Akatsuka's Tensai Bakabon and Naoki Tsuji's Tiger Mask. Hara attended Hongō Junior and Senior High School and worked as an assistant to manga artist Yoshihiro Takahashi after graduating. As an amateur, he won the first prize of the 33rd Fresh Jump award for his one-shot Super Challenger. Hara's professional career began with his first published work: Mad Fighter in 1982. His first serialized work in the Weekly Shonen Jump was the Iron Don Quixote, which lasted only ten weeks in serialization. He did not achieve fame until the publication of Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star) in 1983, which he co-wrote with Buronson and ran for six years. After the completion of Hokuto no Ken, he worked on shorter series and one-shots, including three different adaptations of Keiichiro Ryu's novels (Hana no Keiji, Tokugawa Ieyasu and Sakon). In 2001 he did a prequel to Hokuto no Ken called Souten no Ken, which was serialized in the Weekly Comic Bunch.
His influences include Neal Adams. His cousin is "Rocketman" Ryo Fukawa.
He suffers from an eye condition called keratoconus which left him blind in one eye, so all his work must be fixed by his assistants due to errors in perspective and he can no longer ink his own work.
Works
Manga
| Title | Japanese | Romaji | Year | Writer | Collected |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Super Challenger | スーパーチャレンジャー | Super Challenger | 1982 | One-shot (featured in the Jump Super Ace edition of Iron Don Quixote) | |
| Mad Fighter | マッドファイター | Mad Fighter | 1982 | One-shot (featured in Iron Don Quixote) | |
| Clash Hero | クラッシュヒーロー | Clash Hero | 1982 | One-shot pilot for Iron Don Quixote (featured in the Jump Super Ace edition of Iron Don Quixote) | |
| The Iron Don Quixote | 鉄のドンキホーテ | Tetsu no Don Quixote | 1982-1983 | 2 tankōbon | |
| Fist of the North Star | 北斗の拳 | Hokuto no Ken | 1983 | 2 one-shots (featured in Tetsu no Don Quixote Vol. 2) | |
| Fist of the North Star | 北斗の拳 | Hokuto no Ken | 1983-1988 | Buronson | 27 tankōbon, later reassembled as 15 aizoban/bunkokan editions and 14 kanzenban editions. |
| Cyber Blue | サイバーブルー | Cyber Blue | 1988-1989 | Bob Ryuichi Mitsui |
4 tankōbon |
| Keiji of the Flowers: On the Other Side of the Clouds | 花の慶次 ―雲のかなたに― | Hana no Keiji: Kumo no Kanata ni | 1990-1993 | Keiichiro Ryu Izumi Fujimori |
18 tankōbon |
| The Hitman | 職業兇手 | Zhí Yè Xiōng Shǒu | 1993 | One-shot | |
| Doppelganger Tokugawa Ieyasu | 影武者徳川家康 | Kagemusha Tokugawa Ieyasu | 1994-1995 | Keiichiro Ryu Shō Aikawa |
6 tankōbon |
| The Blazing Palm | 火焔の掌 | Kaen no Shō | 1995 | One-shot | |
| The Mighty Ryūsei | 猛き龍星 | Takaki Ryūsei | 1995 | 3 tankōbon | |
| When The Pyroxene Burns | 輝石燃ゆる時 | Kiseki Moyuru Toki | 1996 | One-shot (featured in Aterui Nisei Vol. 1) | |
| Chase | チェイス ―追跡― | Chase: Tsuiseki | 1997 | Buronson | One-shot |
| Sakon: Record of the Upheaval of the Warring States | 左近 -戦国風雲録- | Sakon: Sengoku Fūun Roku | 1997-2000 | Keiichiro Ryu Shingo Nihashi |
6 tankōbon |
| Hydra | 九頭龍 | Hyudora | 1997-1998 | Tadashi Ikuta | 1 tankōbon |
| Misappropriation Investigator Rintarō Nakabō | 公権力横領捜査官 中坊林太郎 | Kōkenryoku Ōryō Sōsakan Nakabō Rintarō | 1998-2000 | 2 tankōbon | |
| Aterui II | 阿弖流為Ⅱ世 | Aterui Nisei | 2000 | Katsuhiko Takahashi | 1 tankōbon |
| Fist of the Blue Sky | 蒼天の拳 | Souten no Ken | 2001-2010 | Nobuhiko Horie | 22 tankōbon |
| Child of War: The Legend of Oda Nobunaga | いくさの子 織田三郎信長伝 | Ikusa no Ko: Oda Saburō Nobunaga Den | 2010- | Nobuhiko Horie | 11 tankōbon |
Novels
- Kōryū no Mimi (黄龍の耳) - (2 volumes, 1993-1994)
- Hokuto no Ken: Jubaku no Machi (1 volume, 1995)
- Miyamoto Musashi (7 volumes, 2013)
Non-manga works
- Saturday Night Slam Masters (Muscle Bomber, 1993 arcade game) - illustrations.
- Ring of Destruction: Slam Masters II (Super Muscle Bomber, 1994 arcade game) - character designs
- Mori no Senshi Bonolon (森の戦士ボノロン, 2005 story books/anime) - producer, character designer
- Itadaki Muscle! (いただきマッスル! 2006 TV series) - illustrations for the opening intro.
- K-1 World Grand Prix 2007 Final pamphlet cover
Tetsuo Hara artwork
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Indiana Jones
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Eddie Murphy
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Lum
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Guts
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Super Saiyan Son Gokou
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Ryo Saeba and Hitomi Kisugi
Rank Kingdom
In 2014, Tetsuo Hara was a guest on the ranking show Rank Kingdom (ランク王国, Rank Ōkoku) and listed his personal Top Five Hokuto no Ken characters, villains and death cries (断末魔, danmatsuma).
Top Five Characters:
Top Five Villains:
Top Five Danmatsuma:
- HIDEBU! (ひでぶっ!!)
- TAWABA! (たわば!!)
- ABESHI! (あべし!!)
- DOEHEPU! (どぉえへぷ!!)
- UWARABA! (うわらば!!)