Tsukasa Hojo

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Tsukasa Hojo (北条司, Hōjō Tsukasa^?) is a Japanese mangaka, or manga artist. Hojo was born on May 5th, 1959, in Kyushu, Japan. He studied technical design at university. While still at university, he began to draw manga. He worked on several manga series before releasing his most well-known works: City Hunter, Cat's Eye and Angel Heart.

Hojo claims that he really did not have any inspiration other than having to finish a deadline, and that he wrote down a few things, he thought about a few things, and one day the ideas just came to him, out of thin air. In reality, the actual process is a lot more complicated, and editors are involved, but fans get the benefit of Hojo's sense of adventure and humor.

The City Hunter anime was adapted from Hojo's original manga. Hojo spent 6 years of grueling 17-hour days illustrating the series, and it has left a lasting impression on manga fans. More than a decade after the City Hunter manga ended, fans still want to hear Hojo tell how he created the characters and the stories. The anime came out in the mid-80s and early 90s. It caught the attention of anime fans of the 1990's who claimed, "I didn't know you could put that in a cartoon!" The adventures of lead character Ryo Saeba showed new anime fans how intense and attractive anime could be.

City Hunter also introduced North American fans' to the honored tradition of the huge hammer wielded by a female, used to bop a male character on the head. Many fans would ask "Why hammers?" to which Hojo would respond that he thought it was funnier to have a woman hit Saeba with a hyperhammer than to kick him in the shins.

After the success of Cat's Eye and City Hunter, Hojo went on to work on other series such as Family Compo. He is currently working on the Angel Heart series, which many fans believe is a sequel to City Hunter, despite the fact that the series is set in an alternate universe to City Hunter. As of November 2006, the series is on its 21st volume and continues to be published by Coamix magazine Bunch Comics.

Tsukasa Hojo is Takehiko Inoue's mentor. Inoue worked as an assistant to Hojo during the production of "City Hunter".