Seiki Tsuchida

Tsuchida made his professional manga debut while he was still a teenager in 1986. That year, he was a finalist for the prestigious Tetsuya Chiba Prize with his submission _Zansho_, which became the first installment of his _Miseinen_ series. His breakthrough work was _Orebushi_, a 1991 Weekly Big Comic Spirits series about a high school who travels from rural Tsugaru to Tokyo to seek his fortune as an traditional enka singer. Three years later, he launched _Henshuo_, his hit series about a former boxer who becomes a manga editor. Tsuchida launched his best-known work, _Under the Same Moon_, in Shogakukan's Young Sunday magazine. It won the Excellence Prize in the Media Arts Festival Awards in 1999, and inspired a 2005 film starring Yosuke Kubozuka. His latest series, _Kazoku_, ran in Thursday's issue of Nihobungeisha's Weekly Manga Goraku magazine. He was set to contribute to Shueisha's Grand Jump Premium magazine, which just launched in December. Passed away in 2012 from cirrhosis. (Source: MU)