Manga artist Hirohiko Araki, best known for his iconic JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure series, will release a follow-up to his earlier book, Hirohiko Araki’s Manga Techniques (荒木飛呂彦の漫画術). The previous book released in Japan on April 17, 2015 and has now sold over 200,000 copies. VIZ Media released it in English on June 13, 2017, titled Manga in Theory and Practice: The Craft of Creating Manga.
This new book, titled Hirohiko Araki’s New Manga Techniques: How to Create a Villain (荒木飛呂彦の新・漫画術 悪役の作り方), releases in Japan on November 15, 2024. It promises to reveal deeper insights into Araki’s creative process, particularly the art of creating compelling villains. It will be available in paperback format with 224 pages and priced at 1,034 yen (including tax).
The cover features a new self-portrait of Araki alongside Rohan Kishibe.
Introduction
It has been almost 10 years since the release of Hirohiko Araki’s Manga Techniques, a classic work that has been translated and published in 16 countries and regions around the world. However, at some point, Araki began to think, “If someone read Manga Techniques and became a manga artist, shouldn’t I share even deeper insights?”
How are the charm and realism of the iconic villains from the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure series and other works by Araki created?
What is essential to continue walking the royal road of manga?
This new book delves into the “trade secrets” of manga artist Hirohiko Araki, which have never been told before.
Table of Contents
- Chapter 1: Review and Deep Dive into the “Four Basic Structures of Manga”
- Araki talks about characters, story, world, and theme
- Chapter 2: Super Important! The Basics of Creating Villains
- Contains the character info sheets of Dio Brando, Yoshikage Kira, and Funny Valentine
- Column: About the Enemies of JoJo Throughout History
- Araki shares insights on Dio Brando, Kars, Wamuu, Esidisi, Yoshikage Kira, Diavolo, Enrico Pucci, Funny Valentine, and Toru
- Practical Section 1: How to Create Kyoka Izumi, Editor of Rohan Kishibe
- According to Araki, the most troublesome villains are the ones that are close to the protagonist, but unknowingly lead their life in a bad direction or are a hindrance
- Practical Section 2: Creating a Villain from Scratch
- Araki creates a mushroom-loving boy named Kinjiro
- Chapter 3: Continuing on the Royal Road of Manga
- Araki’s concluding messages
- Extra Section: Discussing the panel layout of Chapter 1 of The JOJOLands
Araki originally published this book in two parts within JOJO magazine 2022 WINTER and JOJO magazine 2023 WINTER. However, this new individual book contains extra details such as the section about The JOJOLands and the character sheets of Kira and Valentine.
About Hirohiko Araki
Hirohiko Araki is a manga artist from Sendai, the capital city of Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is his most successful series being in serialization for 37 years and highly regarded internationally. The ninth part of the series began in February 2023. The series currently has 976 chapters in total.
Araki switched magazines from Weekly Shonen Jump to Ultra Jump on March 19, 2005. At the time, the seventh part of the series, Steel Ball Run, was on its 24th chapter. Ultra Jump has published JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure monthly since then.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has an anime adaptation that began in 2012 and completed up to the sixth part of the series in December 2022. The series also has an older OVA adaptation, several video games, and many light novel spin-offs.
Other books that he has written include Hirohiko Araki’s Super-Favorites! Rules of Movies and Hirohiko Araki’s Bizarre Horror Movie Analysis.
