One fact that goes unknown by most people who are fans of manga is that the majority of the manga creators that exist today at one point worked under another creator. Creating a manga is difficult work, and manga creators often hire multiple assistants to help with things like designing backgrounds or working on the inks for their pages. After all, unlike American comics which come out monthly, many manga series expect a chapter a week, which can be grueling work.
With that in mind, it helps for new creators to find someone to work under where they can learn the ropes of how to become a better and more consistent artist who can tell stories, but also one who understands how a production pipeline goes for publishers who want their work on time.
10 Hirohiro Araki (Creator Of JoJo's Bizarre Adventures) Mentored Hideo Shinkai (Creator Of Soul CatcherS)
Author Hideo Shinkai worked on multiple series in the past, including the series Light Wing which ran twenty-three chapters and the more successful series Soul Catcher(S), which ran for ninety chapters and eleven volumes. Both series ran in Weekly Shonen Jump, though only one has the honor of being one of the longest-running series in shonen history, with Soul Catcher(S) only finishing back in 2016. Shinkai is a relatively young manga creator and worked with Hirohiro Araki on JoJo for roughly five years.
9 Hiromu Arakawa (Creator Of Fullmetal Alchemist) Mentored Aiya Kyu (Creator Of Rising Of The Shield Hero)
Responsible for one of the most popular shonen series of all time, Hiromu Arakawa unsurprisingly has multiple assistants who have gone on to make something of themselves in the manga world. But the most well-known creator is Aiya Kyu. She’s done series like Antimagia and Mofu Men and a Persona 4 adaptation, but her best work is Rising of the Shield Hero. Of course, Rising of the Shield Hero is a light novel series, but Aiya takes care of the manga adaptation.
8 Naoko Takeuchi (Creator Of Sailor Moon) Mentored Miwa Ueda (Creator Of Peach Girl)
Miwa Ueda has a number of major creations under her belt, but the one everyone really remembers is Peach Girl. Peach Girl was one of the bigger shojo anime series during the 2000’s era, following a young girl and her troubles with love thanks to her tanned skin, which comes with unfortunate connotations in Japan. Ueda originally worked with Naoko Takeuchi, creator of the legendary series Sailor Moon, though Peach Girl is pretty legendary in its own right, especially as shojo anime has undergone plenty of changes since Sailor Moon. though she’s been publishing her own work since long before Sailor Moon launched.
7 Hiro Mashima (Creator Of Fairy Tail) Mentored Miki Yoshikawa (Creator Of Yamada-Kun & The 7 Witches)
Miki Yoshikawa was originally an assistant for Hiro Mashima, the hardest working man in manga, who’s done work for Fairy Tail, Rave Master, and Eden’s Zero, a series coming to Netflix this fall. Yoshikawa has been quoted as saying Mashima taught her everything she knows.
Yoshikawa’s biggest creation is Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, but she’s also done Mr. Delinquent And Miss Glasses. Mashima also did a crossover one-shot series with her in Fairy Megane, where characters from Yankee-kun work part-time jobs at Fairy Tail’s base.
6 Hirohiro Araki (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure) Mentored Hiroshi Shiibashi (Creator Of Nura: Rise Of The Yokai Clan)
Hiroshi Shiibashi worked with Hirohiro Araki back when he was working on the Steel Ball Run series, or the seventh part of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Since then, the creator has been known for multiple series, but the most popular one is Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan. Following the story of a young middle school student who learns he’s part youkai, Rikuo Nura uses his powers to help other people. This series was popular enough to be turned into an anime in 2010 that ran for two seasons and 48 episodes.
5 Takeshi Obata (Creator Of Death Note) Mentored Yusuke Murata (Creator Of Eyeshield 21)
Takeshi Obata is one of the most successful manga artists of the modern era. He isn’t just responsible for Death Note, but for Bakuman, showing the creator has incredible range. He’s also had multiple incredibly talented creators working under him. One of those creators was Yusuke Murata, who was originally known for his work on Eyeshield 21, one of the only Japanese sports manga about football. Murata is also doing the manga adaptation of One-Punch Man, something he’s been working on for the last nine years.
4 Tsukasa Hojo (Creator Of City Hunter) Mentored Takehiko Inoue (Creator Of Slam Dunk)
Takehiko Inoue is a case of the student very clearly surpassing the master, even though the master is also amazing. Inoue is responsible for the manga series Slam Dunk, a shonen series that remains popular to this day and sold over one hundred million copies.
He’s also done the series Vagabond, a samurai manga about the swordsman Musashi Miyamoto. Inoue originally was the assistant to Tsukasa Hojo, who worked on series like City Hunter and Cat’s Eye in the 80s.
3 Takeshi Obata (Death Note) Mentored Katsura Hoshino (Creator Of D.Gray-man)
Inspired by Naoko Takeuchi’s Sailor Moon, Katsura Hoshino got into drawing when she was still in high school. After working under Takeshi Obata as an assistant, she would go on to create one of the most unique shonen manga of the 2000’s, D.Gray-man. D.Gray-man at this stage is one of the longest-running non-Weekly Shonen Jump action manga, with the series now nearly two decades old.
2 Akira Toriyama (Creator Of Dragon Ball) Mentored Hisashi Tanaka (Creator Of Mabo-Chan Day By Day)
Hisashi Tanaka is known for having studied under Akira Toriyama and was actually his very first assistant. He worked on Dr. Slump with Toriyama for several years under a psuedonym HISAwaSHI before moving on to create his own work. His longest-running projects are Ninja Boy DonDon Tobimaaru and Mabo-chan Day By Day. The creator is also responsible for a number of other series that generally ran only a few volumes, like CAN Eburidei and Radical 16.
1 Kazuki Takahashi (Creator Of Yu-Gi-Oh!) Mentored Akira Ito (Creator Of Cardfight! Vanguard)
Akira Ito was responsible for the Yu-Gi-Oh! spin-off manga, Yu-Gi-Oh! R. Their work with Kazuki Takahashi as an assistant clearly left a mark on them as they continued to create card game-based manga after the two no longer worked together. Ito also worked on the series Cardfight! Vanguard as a creator, which is one of the only card game anime to actually compete with Yu-Gi-Oh in terms of longevity and popularity, though hopefully its anime involves rules that make a bit more sense.