The anime and manga community at large doesn’t just make a habit of deifying the larger-than-life spikey-haired characters that grace their favorite shows, they also revere the visionaries behind the pen of their favorite epics in equal measure. The pinnacle of said praise will eternally belong to the late Dragon Ball Z creator Akira Toriyama, whom the anime community has lovingly dubbed the “Father of Shonen.” Over the course of his storied career, Toriyama’s legendary works not only served as a gateway into the wonderful world of manga and anime for generations of fans, but they also played a pivotal role in simultaneously inspiring other creators in their own series like the mangaka behind Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece.
While the world continues to lament Toriyama’s passing as the end of an era for a once-in-a-generation talent who served as the linchpin for equally gifted manga creators, we have actually been unknowingly bearing witness to another influential source of inspiration yielding a bountiful harvest of its own with Chainsaw Man mangaka Tatsuki Fujimoto.
Whereas Toriyama’s influence over the “big three” creators can be likened to Master Roshi teaching Goku the wonders of having fun while enacting heroic feats, Fujimoto’s impact in the space is akin to a friendly rival encouraging his peers to let their freak flags fly. What's more, not only did the folks Fujimoto inspire work directly under him as assistants on his first major series, but they also went off to make successful manga-to-anime series of their own with shows like Spy x Family, Hell’s Paradise, and the upcoming Netflix anime, Dandadan.
Chainsaw Man’s anime debut in the fall of 2022 on Crunchyroll—much like its manga debut in Weekly Shōnen Jump in the Winter of 2018—sparked a newfound interest in the unique stories the shonen genre was still capable of telling. None of Chainsaw Man’s upward trajectory in the space would have been made possible had it not been for Fujimoto’s explosive debut with his first serialized manga, Fire Punch, a series that, by all accounts, pushed the boundaries of a debut series to their absolute limits on Shonen Jump+ with its unconventional premise, shocking imagery, and provocative storytelling. Fire Punch’s success not only ushered in Fujimoto's meteoric rise in the industry— yielding an anime film adaptation for Chainsaw Man and his one-shot, Look Back, in its wake— it also resulted in his assistants getting their foot in the door to become household names in the shonen, dark fantasy, and sci-fi genres themselves.
Shortly after Fire Punch’s conclusion in early January 2018 came the manga debut of Yuji Kaku’s dark fantasies series Hell’s Paradise. Hell’s Paradise follows a group of deadly criminals and the executioners tasked with overseeing them scour a treacherous island called Kotaku for the elixir of life in exchange for their freedom from the Shogun. Things naturally go awry when the makeshift suicide squad falls prey to Kotaku’s poisonous animals and the immortal plant-like denizens who can change their gender at will.
In a 2019 interview with Shonen Jump+, Fujimoto revealed that Kaku solidified and incorporated a myriad of ideas and character designs for Hell’s Paradise from conversations he had with Fujimoto while working together on Fire Punch.
“There are various changes in detailed settings, for example, which character is strong, but the designs are still as they were when we discussed it back then,” Fujimoto told Shonen Jump+, adding that he advised Kaku against sandwiching character backgrounds and explanations between stories because readers don’t actually read them.
In the same interview, Fujimoto confessed that Kaku’s penchant for drawing “cute girls” like Saigiri later influenced his own approach to designing the type of female characters he likes while working on Fire Punch.
“I learnt that you should just include your favorite elements in the female characters. That’s why in Chainsaw Man I keep in mind for the girls that they’re ‘all cute,” Fujimoto said.
Like Chainsaw Man before it, Hell’s Paradise garnered an anime adaptation from Mappa—the same studio behind Chainsaw Man’s anime—in April 2023, which has since been renewed for a second season.
Shortly after Chainsaw Man began serialization in 2018, Fujimoto’s former assistant Tatsuya Endo made his presence known with the debut of his family-oriented comedic super-spy thriller, Spy x Family the following March. Whereas Hell’s Paradise embodies the fantastical world-building elements found in Fire Punch, Spy x Family encompasses the vitriolic politics of Fujimoto’s debut title while breaking up its heaviest moments with some much-needed comedic levity.
Spy x Family follows a renowned spy named Loid as he embarks on an undercover mission to infiltrate the prestigious school of a politician’s son to thwart an all-out war from breaking out between two bordering countries. To do so, Loid assembles a fake family who, unbeknownst to him, are concealing their own secret identities: His adopted daughter, Anya, is a telepath; his wife, Yor, is a deadly assassin; and the family dog, Bond, is clairvoyant.
Spy x Family is arguably the most popular work of the three Fire Punch alumni because it seamlessly strikes a balance between the side-splitting humor derived from its odd-couple family and the show’s earnest portrayal of the fallout of war for civilians caught in the crossfire. In an interview with Sheuisha, Spy x Family editor Shihei Lin revealed that while writing comedy comes easy for Endo — his perfectionist tendency to plot out every intricate component of a story and highlight contradictions had a positive impact on Fujimoto while he worked as his assistant.
In the five years since its manga debut, Spy x Family hasn’t only had clothing collaborations with Uniqlo — an unofficial rite of passage for a smash-hit anime series — It has also been renewed for three seasons jointly animated by Wit Studios and Cloverworks, garnered praise for the theatrical run of its original film, and is the first of the three to gets release its video game.
Last but certainly not least in the lineup of successful mangaka who were former assistants to Fujimoto is Yukinobu Tatsu, the creator of Dandadan. Dandadan is a series that, as the kids say, has the sauce.
Dandadan, which premiered in April of 2021, follows two high schoolers named Momo Ayase and Ken Takakura. Their burgeoning friendship-turned-romance is spurned by a dare where the two attempt to disprove each other's belief in ghosts and aliens. Much to their shared horror, they’re both right, resulting in Momo’s abduction and a ghost stealing Ken’s private parts. What follows is an irreverent manga that pays tribute to classics like Dragon Ball Z, Ranma ½, and Godzilla— to name a few—and only gets wilder with each chapter.
Dandadan weaves the carnally unnerving horror made famous from Junji Ito’s most shocking page-turn reveals with some of the best comedic, romantic, and mind-blowing action paneling in contemporary manga. What’s more, Tatsu pulls off these Kentaro Miura-esque visual feasts on a weekly basis on Shonen Jump+ much to the continued bewilderment of his day-one readership. This should come as no surprise considering Tatsu's tenure as an assistant was spent soaking up knowledge from Fujimoto on Fire Punch and Chainsaw Man as well as with Kaku’s Hell’s Paradise. Dandadan’s upcoming Netflix anime, due this October, is animated by the acclaimed anime studio Science Saru of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off and Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken fame.
What’s so special about the upward trajectory of Fujimoto’s assistants is that their connection with Fujimoto is less of a mentor-mentee relationship, but that of peers who talk shop over beers. “Rather than feeling frustrated, I feel rushed. [Kaku and Tatsu] started the series when I was taking a break, and these stories are so interesting and drawings are amazing,” Fujimoto told Rolling Stone Japan (translation by @kylescouter). “So I think, ‘Gah! I shouldn’t take a rest anymore.”
Witnessing his assistants' triumph in the space inversely serves as a positive feedback loop for Fujimoto to up his own manga game.
“I liked [Hell’s Paradise] so much that I thought I had to draw as well as [Kaku] and create an interesting story,” Fujimoto said. “So I practice drawing a lot and watched movies I didn’t really like to get more input. Now I see Dandadan the same way I did [Hell’s Paradise] back then.”
— ?暗森透? (@noririn4696) May 13, 2024
Not only have Endo, Kaku, and Tatsu found success in the anime realm with their immensely popular series, but other Fire Punch assistants like Oto Toda and Tohru Kuramori have carved out paths for themselves as evocative storytellers on the rise respectively with To Stripe the Flesh, an emotionally resonate one-shot about transitioning; and Centuria, a gripping new-age dark fantasy tale in the stylings of Berserk meets Vinland Saga.
The output of Fujimoto’s assistants is made all the more impressive when you take into consideration that Fujimoto didn’t start out the same. Instead of serving under a bigger fish in the industry, Fujimoto got his start releasing one-shot manga that have earned official prints in the U.S. following the success of Chainsaw Man and Fire Punch. Suffice it to say, mangaka who got their start orbiting Fujimoto’s star are bound to be success stories in their own right.
Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN.
