Shuichi Shigeno

Shuichi Shigeno (重野 秀一 or しげの 秀一 Shigeno Shūichi, born March 8, 1958) is a Japanese manga author famous for his manga Initial D.

Before writing Initial D he also created Baribari Densetsu ("Baribari Legend"), Dopkan, and Tunnel Nuketara Sky Blue ("First Love in Summer"). In 1985, he received the Kodansha Manga Award for shōnen for Bari Bari Densetsu.

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Despite living in Niigata, he convinced his parents to let him attend college in Tokyo. He was into motorcycles as a teenager, and this likely inspired him to write Baribari Densetsu.

He bought himself a Toyota AE86 with the first royalty check from Baribari Densetsu. He says he chose the car as he wanted something stylish, instead of an old sedan, and that he only bought a car so he could talk to the girl he was dating at the time when driving, which he couldn't do on a motorcycle. He later crashed this AE86 into a guardrail while driving on a mountain pass, and he has said this experience was useful when he later wrote Initial D.

After finishing Baribari Densetsu, he wrote several short manga, but none of them were popular enough to sell. A good friend of his suggested that he write a series about cars, which Shigeno initially resisted, as he thought it would be too easy to go from writing about motorcycles to writing about cars.

He has owned several cars featured in the series, most notably a Toyota Sprinter Trueno GT-APEX (AE86) with a carbon bonnet, the same as Takumi Fujiwara's AE86, which would later be featured in the Gran Turismo series. He has also owned a Mazda RX-7 (FD3S) and a Subaru Impreza WRX STi Coupe Type R Version V (GC8F) with a STi sports bumper, the same as Bunta Fujiwara's Impreza. He has said that the Impreza is the best car he has owned.

Despite writing a series with the Trueno as the main car, he has said that he prefers the Levin, singling out its look and its reduced weight (due to its headlights being fixed, and thus lacking the pop up mechanism). Despite it's age, Shigeno still owns his Trueno, and while he has had a variety of other cars, its the only car he hasn't gotten rid of.

His favourite Initial D character is Koichiro Iketani. His favourite moments in the series are when Takumi discovers Natsuki Mogi with her Papa, and the battle between Ryosuke Takahashi and Rin Hojo.

He was previously the assistant of Makoto Kobayashi, Akira Hio and Masami Yuki. He has had several notable assistants, such as Takeshi Kobayashi, Maakou, and Jyoji Morikawa. He was dating, and was at some point married to, fellow Mangaka Yoku Hayami before her passing in 2015.

Works

 * Baribari Legend (1983-1991, serialized in Shonen Magazine, Kodansha)
 * Tunnel Nuketara Sky*Blue (1992, serialized in Young Magazine, Kodansha)
 * Shō (1992, serialized in Shonen Magazine, Kodansha)
 * DO-P-KAN (1993-1995, serialized in Young Magazine, Kodansha)
 * Initial D (1995-2013, serialized in Young Magazine, Kodansha)
 * Amazing Hana (2014, serialized in Young Magazine, Kodansha)
 * Sailor Ace (2015-2017, serialized in Young Magazine, Kodansha)
 * MF Ghost (2017-ongoing, serialized in Young Magazine, Kodansha)

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 * Blood Type A
 * Pisces