Tetsuo Hara
{{Infobox Person | image = | image_size = 150px | | name = Tetsuo Hara | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = 2 September 1961 | birth_place = Tokyo, [[Japan | death_date = | death_place = | death_cause = | nationality = Japanese | residence = | known_for = Hokuto no Ken | occupation = Manga artist | website = Official webpage }} Tetsuo Hara (原哲夫 Hara Tetsuo, born 2 September 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
A native of Tokyo, Hara attended Hongo 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 Fist of the North Star, he worked on shorter series and one-shots, including three different adaptations of Ryu Keiichiro's novels (Keiji, Tokugawa Ieyasu and Sakon). His current series is Fist of the Blue Sky, which has been serialized in the Weekly Comic Bunch since 2001. He suffered from an eye condition 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 | Year | Collected |
|---|---|---|
| Super Challenger | 1982 | Unpublished |
| Mad Fighter | 1982 | One-shot |
| Clash Hero | 1982 | One-shot |
| Tetsu no Don Quixote (The Iron Don Quixote) | 1982-1983 | 2 tankōbon |
| Hokuto no Ken | 1983 | 2 one-shots, prototype to the later series of the same name. |
| Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star) | 1983-1988 | 27 tankōbon, later reassembled as 15 aizoban/bunkokan editions and 14 kanzenban editions. |
| Cyber BLUE | 1988-1989 | 4 tankōbon |
| Hana no Keiji (Keiji) | 1990-1993 | 18 tankōbon |
| Zhí Yè Xiōng Shǒu | 1993 | One-shot |
| Kagemusha Tokugawa Ieyasu | 1994-1995 | 6 tankōbon |
| Kaen no Shō | 1995 | One-shot |
| Takaki Ryūsei | 1995 | 3 tankōbon |
| Kiseki Moyuru Toki | 1996 | One-shot |
| Sakon | 1997-2000 | 6 tankōbon |
| Hydra | 1997-1998 | 1 tankōbon |
| Nakabō Rintarō | 1998-2000 | 2 tankōbon |
| Aterui II | 2000 | 1 tankōbon |
| Souten no Ken (Fist of the Blue Sky) | 2001-ongoing | 18 tankōbon |
Novels
- Kōryū no Mimi - (4 volumes, 1991-1993)
- Hokuto no Ken: Jubaku no Machi (1 volume, 1995)
Non-manga works
- Saturday Night Slam Masters/Muscle Bomber (1993 arcade game) - illustrations.
- Itadaki Muscle! (2006 TV series) - illustrations for the opening intro.
- Mori no Senshi Bonolon (2006 anime series) - producer, character designer
External links
- Hara Tetsuo Official Website
- Tetsuo Hara's works (in Italian)