By Aw Yong Kaixu, TD01, 2201057C
Hirohiko Araki is a well known Japanese manga artist. Having created his own iconic art style over the years through his most famous manga, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. He was born in Sendai, Japan, June 7, 1960. During his childhood, Araki grew fond of reading Manga and books relating to art. He saw it as an escape from his younger twin sisters who constantly annoyed him. Even mentioning once during a talk that he may have done something drastic if he didn’t have art. Eventually, Araki would begin drawing his own manga having been inspired by his father’s art books and being influenced by the works of a French artist Paul Gauguin.
After a school friend praised his manga, he would begin drawing manga secretly without his parents knowing. Later on during his first year of high school, Araki started to try submitting his art to a magazine. However, all submissions would be rejected.
Later on, he would leave Miyagi University of Education before graduating. Making his debut in the 80s, his first serialization known as Cool Shock B.T.. Following up with Baoh in 1984 and The Gorgeous Irene in 1985 where he developed his signature art style of drawing muscular characters.
The next manga series would become his most iconic manga, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. It started in 1987 and is still currently ongoing. Its art style evolving slowly throughout the series, moving from highly muscular figures to more a flamboyant style. It’s evolution being highly unique and extreme.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure would eventually come to prominence during the early 2010’s. Having been introduced more globally in the form of an animated series in 2012. The animated series would lead to JoJo becoming more globally renown, becoming more and more popular amongst the youth. Araki’s later style would become more inspired by Renaissance sculptures, being more slim and proportional compared to his early works.
Here is a video of Araki making a poster for JoJo in his latest art style, https://youtu.be/8JnRq10bmsI. His works have been featured at the Louvre art museum and he has also collaborated with Gucci and Spur.
As shown, Araki’s art is also very inspired by modern fashion having very unique and strange fashion featured in his manga. Similar to clothes worn in fashion shows where models are dressed in bombastic and loud fashion making them very distinct from one another. Araki has also mentioned that he that the clothes and poses used for his characters are usually based off of fashion magazines such as Vogue. He also uses a lot of musical references throughout the manga as names for certain characters.
Hirohiko Araki’s Intentions
Hirohiko Araki is a simple and humble man, evident from his openness and response to media and fans all around the world. Despite having a large and constantly growing fanbase, he has not been influenced by them in any way to change or to conform. He simply does what he enjoys and what makes him happy when creating JoJo. His intention is to have fun and to continue having his readers enjoy while he creates his own stories.
Icons used by Hirohiko Araki
The symbol Hirohiko Araki uses is a hand with a callous on it. The callous shows the hard work and time put into art produced by him and his studio. Quality is something that Araki always ensures whenever he produces manga.
Themes often discussed
A theme most often brought up when talking about JoJo is its highly flamboyant characters that often wear “gay” fashion according to many on the internet.
The theme of JoJo being “gay” is often brought up by people who dismiss the art style as strange or too flamboyant. In fact, Araki had to address his views on LGBTQ+ as an edited video of him was made where it’s subtitles were changed into highly homophobic remarks. Araki stated that he supports the LGBTQ+ community, even reflecting and showing some of his positive thoughts and views on it. However, the theme of JoJo being gay has continuously been brought up throughout its decade spanning run.
Conclusion
All in all, Hirohiko Araki just wants to have fun. To follow his passion and creativity to make whatever he feels like making for his fans, and most importantly himself. His evolution in art shows that he is experimenting and growing while making his manga, his style never exactly consistent throughout each part. His love for renaissance sculptures and anatomy shining through his latest works. I see myself a lot in him, making art for fun and trying to develop it in everyway possible overtime. In fact, it was JoJo that inspired me to start drawing human anatomy, It’s style just caught my interest and love. The Araki’s values and growth also motivate me to work for myself and to not give in to pressure about my art.