Shoutarou Ishinomori was a manga and tokusatsu legend who basically defined what Japanese superheroes could be. Born Shoutarou Onodera in Tome, Miyagi, he spent most of his career under the name Shoutarou Ishimori before changing it to Ishinomori in 1986.
He's best known for creating Cyborg 009 in 1963, which kicked off the whole superpowered team concept in Japan. But his real cultural impact came through tokusatsu—he created Kamen Rider in 1971, the transforming superhero show that basically launched an entire genre. That "henshin" formula (human-sized hero, dramatic pose transformation, martial arts fights against weekly monsters) became the template everyone's copied since. He didn't stop there, either. Ishinomori cranked out superhero series constantly for Toei: Secret Task Force Goranger (the first Super Sentai), Android Kikaider, Inazuman, Robotto Keiji, and way too many others to list.
Beyond tokusatsu, he worked on manga series and even animated shows like Hoshi no Ko Chobin, which somehow became huge in Italy. He illustrated a 12-chapter comic adaptation of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for Nintendo Power in 1992, serialized over the course of that year.
Ishinomori's style clearly came from his mentor Osamu Tezuka—they met around 1955 when Tezuka noticed his contest entry for Manga Shonen magazine and brought him on to help with Astro Boy. He won the Shogakukan Manga Award twice: in 1968 for Sabu to Ichi Torimono Hikae and again in 1988 for Hotel and Manga Nihon Keizai Nyumon.
He died of heart failure on January 28, 1998, just three days after turning 60. His final work was the tokusatsu series Voicelugger, which aired a year after his death. Every Heisei-era Kamen Rider series credits him as creator, and the franchise itself was revived with Kamen Rider Kuuga two years later.
The Ishinomori Manga Museum opened in Ishinomaki, Miyagi in 2001 to honor his legacy, complete with special trains on the Senseki Line decorated with his art. After his death, he was awarded the Guinness World Record for most comics published by a single author—over 128,000 pages total.
Died: January 28, 1998 (aged 60)
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
