Makoto Raiku


Makoto Raiku is a manga artist whose works have appeared prominently in Shogakukan's publication Weekly Shōnen Sunday. Starting off an assistant for Kazuhiro Fujita on his manga Ushio & Tora, he started creating several one-shots for the shōnen manga anthology such as Bird Man, Hero Ba-Ban and Genmai Blade. By 1999, he had created the series Newtown Heroes, which was published in Shōnen Sunday Super, a seasonal publication featuring upcoming manga artists and one-shots from the main Sunday book.

Biography

Debut

In 2001, Raiku started the manga series Konjiki no Gash!!, which began publication in Shogakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday, and in 2003, inspired an anime version produced by Toei Animation. In the U.S., both the manga and anime are known as Zatch Bell!. In one chapter of the Konjiki no Gash Bell!! manga, Raiku makes an appearance with his own story, and also plays the role of Umagon's partner in the game, Konjiki no Gash Bell!!: Electric Arena. In 2003, Konjiki no Gash!! received the 48th Shogakukan Manga Award in the Shōnen category.

Civil trial

In June 2008, Raiku brought a case against Shogakukan to Tokyo District Court because they lost 5 of his coloured works. He demanded 3,300,000 yen as compensation. According to the beginning of his statement, he decided to do it because he doesn't want publishers and their editors to look down on manga artists. In addition, Raiku was treated extremely badly for a long time. Moreover, the price of compensation represented by Shogakukan was only 500,000 yen. Raiku claimed that they had underestimated him too much.
On July 28, 2008, they had their first public session. Shogakukan agreed they were responsible for the loss with a reservation on financial value of the lost works as it was not clear. Recommended by the judge, both parties agreed to settle the claim.
After the case was settled, Makoto Raiku announced he would no longer do business with Shogakukan, and switched to Kodansha. His first work for Kodansha was Animal Land, which was serialized in Bessatsu Shonen Magazine.

Works