Seishi Kishimoto

Japanese manga artist

Seishi Kishimoto (岸本 聖史) is a Japanese manga artist. He is best known for 666 Satan, which was serialized in Monthly Shōnen Gangan from 2001 to 2007 and licensed by Viz Media in North America as O Parts Hunter. He has since completed four more manga series, Blazer Drive (2008–2011), Kurenai no Ōkami to Ashikase no Hitsuji (2011–2013), Sukedachi 09 (2014–2016), and Mad Chimera World (2017–2019).

Seishi Kishimoto was born in Okayama Prefecture, Japan on November 8, 1974, as the younger identical twin of Masashi Kishimoto. In elementary school, Kishimoto started watching the anime adaptation of Kinnikuman alongside his brother and the two of them began to design their own superheroes. Kishimoto's first manga was the one shot Trigger published in Square Enix's Gangan Powered in 2001. With the story he wanted to write about "faith and parent child relationships," but had trouble fitting it within the page limit. He began his first serialized work, 666 Satan, in Monthly Shōnen Gangan in 2001. The manga continued for six years and has been translated and released in several foreign countries, including in North America by Viz Media. A year after 666 Satan ended, Kishimoto launched Blazer Drive in the April 2008 debut issue of Kodansha's Monthly Shōnen Rival. Preceded by a prequel one shot titled Tribal in the final issue of Comic BomBom, Blazer Drive ran until December 2010 and received a video game adaptation. He then created the one shot Jūniji no Kaneganaru, which was published in the monthly shōjo magazine Aria in 2011. In the January 2012 issue of Monthly Shōnen Rival, Kishimoto debuted Kurenai no Ōkami to Ashikase no Hitsuji, which ran until 2013. In 2014, Kishimoto began work on Sukedachi 09, a pair of linked print and digital series in Monthly Shōnen Gangan and Gangan Online which take place at the same time but follow different protagonists. The print series debuted in the November 2014 issue of Monthly Shōnen Gangan on October 11, while the digital series was released in Gangan Online on October 16. Sukedachi 09 ended in the August 2016 issue, published on July 12. In July 2016, digital distributor Crunchyroll acquired the manga for English release on their website. Kishimoto began the seinen action series Mad Chimera World in the June 2017 issue of Kodansha's Monthly Morning Two magazine, which was released on April 22. A special one shot of the series was published in the November 16, 2017, issue of Weekly Morning to celebrate the magazine's 35th anniversary. The series ended in the magazine's March 2019 issue, which was released on January 22. On January 20, 2021, DeNA's free Manga Box website and application published the one shot Yobigami, which Kishimoto drew for the second episode of the TBS TV show Oh! My Boss! Koi wa Bessatsu de. He was credited by the name Ukyō Arazome (荒染右京) for the work, after the character who drew the manga on the show. To celebrate Manga Box's eighth anniversary, Kishimoto launched the weekly "battle fantasy" shōnen manga Monster Life and the Earth, which expands the world of Yobigami, on December 4, 2021.

Seishi and his twin brother Masashi have been drawing manga together since early childhood, thus their styles are similar. As a result, each of them has frequently been accused of copying the other, not just artwork, but story elements as well. Seishi himself notes that the similarities are not intentional but are likely because they were both influenced by many of the same things.