Gosho Aoyama

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gosho Aoyama (青山 剛昌, Aoyama Gōshō^?), born Yoshimasa Aoyama (青山 剛昌, Aoyama Yoshimasa^?), is a manga writer born June 21, 1963 in Daiei, Tottori Prefecture, Japan. He is most well known as the creator of the manga series Detective Conan (known in the USA, Canada, and the UK as "Case Closed").

Aoyama was a genius in drawing ever since he was young. When he was in Grade 1 (in elementary school), his painting of "Yukiai War" won a competition and was displayed at the Tottori Daimaru Department Store.

He graduated from high school at Ikuei High School, a local high school. After finishing high school, he studied to Nihon University College of Art in Tokyo. During his university years (winter 1986), Aoyama joined a comic contest for freshmen and won, which was a stepping-stone for his career as a manga artist (mangaka) and author, as well as a turning point for his life.

Aoyama's maiden work was a manga named Chotto Mattete, which was published in the weekly magazine Shonen Sunday on winter 1987. Shortly after that, Magic Kaito was published on the same magazine.

At the beginning of the 90's, another story done by Aoyama named Yaiba was out. This 24-volume manga won the Shogakukan manga contest in 1992. Other works were released as tankōbon included Third Baseman No.4, Gosho Aoyama's Collection of Short Stories, and Detective Conan.

On May 5, 2005, he married voice actress and singer Minami Takayama, the Japanese voice for Conan of the Detective Conan anime.[1]

[edit] Manga works

Wait a Minute (ちょっとまってて, Chotto Mattete^?) (1987)

Aoyama's first manga series, published in Shonen Sunday.

Yaiba (1990-1993)

Tells the adventures of the young samurai Yaiba Kurogane. It won the 1992 Shogakukan manga contest and was adapted into a 51-episode anime series.

3rd Base 4th (4番サード, Yonban Sādo^?)

A 1-volume baseball manga.

Magic Kaito (まじっく快斗, Majikku Kaito^?) (1988-1994)

A 3-volume manga series which tells the comical adventures of Kaitou Kid, a gentleman thief who often uses his skills in magic and disguise in every robbery he commits. Although the manga series is on pause, Kaitou Kid still appears regularly in "Detective Conan", another manga series by Aoyama.

Gosho Aoyama's Collection of Short Stories

Various short works written over the years.

Detective Conan or Case Closed (名探偵コナン, Meitantei Konan^?) - 1994-present

Aoyama's most well-known manga series. It tells the story of Jimmy Kudo (Shin'ichi Kudo in the Japanese version), a high school detective who, while witnessing a crime being committed, was knocked unconscious and forced to drink a drug which was supposed to kill him. But instead, he shrank into the size of a kid. Hiding his real name, Jimmy now lives with his childhood sweetheart Rachel Moore (Ran Mori) under the name of Conan Edogawa and hoping to find some clues about the men in black through clients and cases of Rachel's father, Richard Moore (Kogoro Mori), a pathetic second-class detective who quickly became well-known through secretive helps from Conan. The manga series was first published in August 1994 and was adapted into a long-running anime series in 1996.