Takashi Nagasaki

Takashi Nagasaki (長崎尚志) is a Japanese author, manga writer and former editor of manga.

He started his professional career at Shogakukan in 1980 and worked as an editor on the publisher's various manga magazines, including as editor-in-chief of Big Comic Spirits from July 1999 to 2001.

Since becoming freelance, Nagasaki has worked as an author under various pen names, such as Keishi Edogawa (江戸川啓視), Garaku Toshusai (東周斎雅楽), Big O (ビッグ・オー) and Richard Woo (リチャード・ウー).

Nagasaki joined publisher Shogakukan as an editor in 1980.

He worked on their manga magazines Big Comic, Weekly Shōnen Sunday, Big Comic Original and Big Comic Superior.

In the mid-1980s, he was editor to Takao Saito on Golgo 13.

Nagasaki is also one of the people credited for editing Rumiko Takahashi's Ranma ½.

It was Nagasaki who came up with the premise for Urasawa and Kazuya Kudo's Pineapple Army (1985–1988).

Nagasaki was a co-author of Urasawa and Hokusei Katsushika's adventure series Master Keaton (1988–1994).

From 1994 to 2001, Nagasaki collaborated with Urasawa on the story for the thriller Monster.

It was later adapted into a television anime and original video animation series between 1998 and 2000.

In July 1999, he became editor-in-chief of Big Comic Spirits and held the position until leaving Shogakukan in 2001.

Nagasaki first met Naoki Urasawa when he was assigned to be the editor of the newly debuting manga artist.

The two collaborate so frequently, that Nagasaki has been called Urasawa's "producer."

However, Nagasaki said he does not call himself a producer and described his "workload" as being the same as a manga editor's. Although they continue to collaborate even after Nagasaki became freelance, they rarely socialize outside of work.

The duo also collaborated from 1999 to 2007 on the story for the science fiction mystery 20th Century Boys and its sequel 21st Century Boys.

After becoming freelance in 2001, Nagasaki has worked as an author under his own name and various pen names, such as Keishi Edogawa, Garaku Toshusai, Big O and Richard Woo.

He explained that he never intended to become famous as an author, and so felt that anything would be fine for a pen name.

They co-wrote a companion novel titled Another Monster in 2002, and the manga was adapted into an anime in 2004.

He is best known for his collaborations with Naoki Urasawa, such as Pluto (2003–2009) and Billy Bat (2008–2016).

The Kobe Shimbun wrote that Nagasaki brought the concept of a producer into the manga industry, and in doing so "established a new relationship with manga artists."

Brian Ruh of Anime News Network described Nagasaki as the only editor who "has risen to the level of co-creator alongside the artist."

Due to his father's job, Nagasaki lived in Hiroshima from first to fourth grade.

With Urasawa, Nagasaki co-authored Pluto (2003–2009), a re-imagining of Astro Boy by Osamu Tezuka.

It won numerous awards including, the ninth Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize (2005), an Excellence Prize at the seventh Japan Media Arts Festival (2005), and the 2010 Seiun Award for Best Comic.

From 2006 to 2009, Richard Woo worked with Shinichi Sugimura on Dias Police: Ihō Keisatsu for Kodansha's Morning.

The two series earned them the 2008 Seiun Award for Best Comic, and won many other awards.

Nagasaki was also one of the scriptwriters of the three live-action film adaptations of 20th Century Boys, released between 2008 and 2009.

In 2008, Nagasaki and Urasawa began the mystery series Billy Bat in Morning.

Also in 2008, Nagasaki and Urasawa took guest teaching posts at Nagoya Zokei University, where they taught "Modern Expression Course: Manga Classes" two to three times a year, although the class met every month.

In 2009, he created the two-part manga SQ with Kira for Shueisha's You.

Nagasaki wrote the historical novel Arutantahā Tōhō Kenmonroku Kitan for Kodansha's Pandora Vol.2 Side-B magazine, before it was published as a standalone book in 2010.

Nagasaki teamed up with Junji Ito and former diplomat Masaru Sato to create Yūkoku no Rasputin (2010–2012), based on Sato's personal experiences in Russia, for Big Comic.

That same year, Nagasaki teamed up with Seimu Yoshizaki for the female detective manga Deka Girl, which ran in Kodansha's Kiss Plus until August 2011.

To celebrate the 90th anniversary of Shogakukan, Nagasaki produced a 2011 picture book adaptation of Kosuke Hamada's story Red Oni Cries that was illustrated by Urasawa.

In April 2012, Shinchosha published the first novel in what would become Nagasaki's Daigo Shinji no Hakuran Suiri Files franchise that follows a manga editor who solves mysteries.

Richard Woo and Koji Kono's Kurokōchi ran in Nihon Bungeisha's Weekly Manga Goraku from 2012 to 2018.

The manga won the 2014 Max & Moritz Prize for Best International Comic, before ending in 2016.

In 2016, the manga was adapted into a 10-episode TV drama and a theatrical film, and the duo created a short sequel arc subtitled 999-hen.

As of 2018, it is composed of three novels and two TV drama adaptations broadcast by Wowow that star Arata Furuta as the title character.