Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro

Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro (島袋 光年 Shimabukuro Mitsutoshi, born 19 May 1975 in Okinawa, Japan) is a Japanese manga artist. He made his debut in 1996 in Weekly Shōnen Jump and received a Akatsuka Award for best new comic manga writer.[citation needed] He is best known for Seikimatsu Leader den Takeshi! (世紀末リーダー伝たけし!, "A Tale of a Leader in the End of the Century Takeshi!") (1997–2002, 24 volumes), for which he won the 2001 Shogakukan Manga Award for children's manga. His current series is Toriko (トリコ), which began serialization in Weekly Shōnen Jump in 2008.

In 2002, he was arrested and convicted of violating child prostitution laws, including paying a 16-year-old girl ¥80,000 to have sex. As a result of the arrest, Seikimatsu Leader Den Takeshi! was cancelled by Weekly Shōnen Jump.

n 2004, Shimabukuro returned to manga with a sports/comedy manga, Ring, which continued for 3 volumes (24 chapters) in Super Jump magazine

His current series is Toriko (トリコ?), began serialization in Weekly Shōnen Jump in 2008 and became one of its top sellers. It was nominated for 2nd Manga Taisho Award 2009. Toriko was adapted as an anime series produced by Toei Animation, the first episode premiered on April 3, 2011.

Shimabukuro is friends with Eiichirō Oda, author of One Piece. and Yoshihiro Togashi, author of Yu Yu Hakusho and Hunter × Hunter