Who has never heard of it Cat eyes is City hunters? These two were very famous souls who also came to Italy a few decades ago and accompanied several generations of young viewers. The two titles are inspired by the two manga of the same name, which were designed by the same person, the mangaka Tsukasa Hojo.
The success of these two products was so great that one of the two returned to the silver screen last year with City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes, also distributed in Italy. However, all of this also begs the question: what happened to Tsukasa Hojo? Let’s retrace his career.
After the classic debut oneshots, Tsukasa Hojo appeared in June 1981 with Weekly Shonen Jump Cat eyeswhich became a lasting success and was published for 4 years in the well-known Manga magazine. From the manga comes the anime, which became a success in Japan and also in Italy and was published again on Mediaset in these years.
Tsukasa Hojo submitted the manga about thieves in January 1985, wasting no time, and returns the following month City hunters, also in Shueisha Home Magazine. That of Ryo and Kaori is another adventure that has become immortal in this district of Shinjuku. This adventure is a long one too, with serialization lasting until November 1991.
During all this time, the author will continue to propose a few self-contained chapters that publish enough to get three unique volumes from the publisher between 1980 and 1995. But it will be in the early 90s, immediately after the City Hunter graduation, that Tsukasa Hojo will disappear from the mangaka’s names with the work in progress.
Weekly Shonen Jump is attempting to release two series: Komorebi no Moto De, completed with 3 volumes between 1993 and 1994, and Skin rash !!The author has left the magazine and the publisher that made him famous for good after only publishing two volumes between 1994 and 1995.
Post F.Compo in Manga Allman between 1996 and 2000 with 14 volumes. At that point, he made a permanent move to Coamix Publishing, which was founded by a former Shueisha in-house editor who could no longer bear to rely on reader surveys to decide which series should or shouldn’t be canceled.
Tsukasa Hojo was one of the most famous names – the other was that of the duo Buronson and Hara – to take part in this new adventure. That’s how Comic Bunch came about Angel heart, the longest manga series that lasted from 2001 to 2010 with 33 volumes. The story then continues with Angel Heart 2nd Season, comprised of 17 additional volumes published between 2010 and 2017. At the same time he ran the spin-off Cat’s Ai, which focused on the young thief Ai of the Cat’s Eye trio.
It is therefore from 2017, from the completion of the second phase of Angel Heart, that The mangaka no longer has an active publication. It must also be said that the author of Kitakyushu is 61 years old and may have decided to hang the feather on a nail. However, we will not forget the seductive adventures of the three thieving sisters of Cat’s Eye and Ryo on the streets of Tokyo in City Hunter.
