Kazuki Takahashi

Kazuki Takahashi (高橋 和希 Takahashi Kazuki), born October 4, 1961 in Tokyo, is the creator of the manga, Yu-Gi-Oh!, which led to the anime versions of it, Toei's Yu-Gi-Oh! and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (internationally known as Yu-Gi-Oh!), as well as a spinoff manga (Yu-Gi-Oh! R), two spinoff animes (Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX in Japan, and Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's), as well as several video games.

History
As a child, Takahashi liked to draw, but did not start putting manga together until he was in high school.

Takahashi worked for a game company, but aspired to create manga. In 1990, he managed to create 100 pages of manga and 200 pages of sketches before bringing his first proposal to Weekly Shōnen Jump. The editor he met was bothered by the size of his submission, but read through all of it and understood that Takahashi wanted to do a battle story. In the end that manga idea was rejected.

His first work was Tokio no Tsuma, published in 1990. One of his earliest works was Tennenshokudanji Buray (天然色男児BURAY), which lasted for two volumes and was published from 1991 to 1992. Takahashi didn't find success until 1996 when he created Yu-Gi-Oh!.

Takahashi's popular Yu-Gi-Oh! manga started the creation of the Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, known within the series as Magic and Wizards and later Duel Monsters. However, he never intended to focus his manga on the card game he created. The original format of the manga was set in episodic chapters with a different game being played in each chapter, and the Magic and Wizards card game was originally intended to only appear in two chapters. Shueisha, the publisher of the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine, received so many letters and fan-mail asking about the Magic and Wizards game that Takahashi decided to extend it.

Influences
Takahashi has always been interested in games. He claims to have been obsessed as a kid and still interested in them as an adult. In the games he considered the player to become a hero. He decided to base the Yu-Gi-Oh! series around such games and used this idea as the premises; Yugi was a weak childish boy, who became a hero when he played games.

He admits that it is difficult to come up with many unique monsters. He tries to fit the creature's characteristics into the monster he is creating, such as giving Seto Kaiba vicious cards to suit his personality.

With friendship being one of the major themes of Yu-Gi-Oh!, he based the names of the two major characters "Yūgi" and "Jōnouchi" on the word "Yūjō" (友情), which means "friendship". Henshin, the ability to turn into something or someone else, is something Takahashi believed all children dreamed of. He considered Yugi's henshin Yami Yugi, a savvy, invincible games player, to be a big appeal to children. The character Seto Kaiba is partly based on an arrogant collectible card game player Takashashi heard of.

Before writing the original Shadi storyline, Takahashi visited Egypt to gather information.

Creations
Takahashi personally created, among other monsters, the "Elemental Heroes", "Junk Synchron", "Stardust Dragon" and "Red Dragon Archfiend" (another of his "Hellraiser" inspirations besides "Jinzo"). As expected, he also created and hand drew the Yu-Gi-Oh! protagonists (Yugi Muto, Jaden Yuki and Yusei Fudo) as well as several key characters.

Personal life
Takahashi likes to play games, such as Shogi (Japanese chess), Mahjong (the traditional Chinese tile game), card games, and tabletop role playing games.

Takahashi and Mike Mignola, the creator of the Hellboy comic book series, once participated in an art exchange. Takahashi, who is a fan of American comics, drew a picture of Hellboy with Yugi Mutou's hairdo, a Millennium Puzzle, and a duel disk. Mignola drew a picture of Hellboy wearing a Millennium Puzzle and a Yugi T-Shirt, and the two exchanged their artwork. He also collaborated with Yoshio Sawai by sending him a picture of Yugi that was used in the manga Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo (Bobobo makes Yugi come out of his afro). In return, Takahashi included the 'nu' handkerchief in one of the panels in Yu-Gi-Oh! during the Egypt arc.