is Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 manga author

Mangaka

is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...

. He is best known for the manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 series Ikki Tousen

Ikki Tousen

, also known as Battle Vixens, is a manga series written and illustrated by Yuji Shiozaki, based on the classic Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms...

, also known as Battle Vixens in English.

Biography

Shiozaki made his debut in Shueisha

Shueisha

is a major publisher in Japan. The company was founded in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The following year, Shueisha became a separate, independent company. Magazines published by Shueisha include Weekly Shōnen Jump, Weekly Young Jump,...

's Young Jump. After creating several series for Shueisha, including Karen (1997–1998), Happy Man (1999), and Nikkan Tachibana (2000) in seinen

Seinen

is a subset of manga that is generally targeted at a 20–30 year old male audience, but the audience can be older with some manga aimed at businessmen well into their 40s. In Japanese, the word Seinen means "young man" or "young men" and is not suggestive of sexual matters...

 magazines aimed at businessmen, he left Shueisha in 1998 to create Ikki Tousen

Ikki Tousen

, also known as Battle Vixens, is a manga series written and illustrated by Yuji Shiozaki, based on the classic Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms...

for Wani Books

Wani Books

is a Japanese publishing company focused on manga-related publication, including magazines and books. The company was established in November 1979. It publishes one manga magazine Comic Gum.- Wink Up : is an idol magazine published since July 1988....

. With the success of Ikki Tousen, he has since published a variety of series for different publishers, including a version of Zoids

Zoids

is a multi-media model-kit-based franchise originating from Japanese toy company Tomy ; though now produced by various companies through licenses. The majority of the franchise is built around and focused on the various model kit series...

 called Zoids ZI (2002–2003), Battle Club

Battle Club (manga)

is a manga series written and illustrated by Yuji Shiozaki, the creator of Ikki Tousen. The series follows Mokichi & Tamako, two high school students who are members of the Swan Academy Wrestling Club...

(2004), and Frontier Roots (2004). The most successful of these has been Battle Club, which is noted for its extensive fan service

Fan service

, fanservice, or , is a term originating from anime and manga fandom for material in a series which is intentionally added to please the audience. It is about "servicing" the fan - giving the fans "exactly what they want"...

, but his main project remains Ikki Tousen.

His stated hobbies include baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

, traveling abroad, and vegetable gardening.

External links

• Profile at The Ultimate Manga Page