Career Guideline

The Person Behind The Success of Manga "Attack on Titan"

Hajime Isayama is a Japanese manga artist. His first and currently ongoing series, Attack on Titan, has become one of the best-selling manga series of all time with 100 million copies in circulation as of December 2019.

Born: 29 August 1986 (age 34 years)

Isayama was born in Ōyama, Ōita Prefecture, Japan, which is now part of Hita. He first started submitting manga works to contest when he was in high school. In 2006, he applied for a magazine that is promoted by Kodansha Ltd. and his work, Attack on Titan, was given the Fine Work award. 

In 2009, his first serial work, Attack on Titan, appeared in the Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine, a monthly magazine. And in 2011 Attack on Titan was awarded the 35th Kodansha Manga Award in the Shōnen category.

Originally, he also offered his work to the Weekly Shōnen Jump department at Shueisha, where he was advised to modify his style and story to be more suitable for Weekly Shōnen Jump. He declined and decided instead to take it to the Weekly Shōnen Magazine department at Kodansha Ltd.

It won the Shōnen category of the 35th Kodansha Manga Award in 2011,[8] and was nominated for both the 4th annual Manga Taishō award and the 16th annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize.

His work Attack on Titan is released in English by Kodansha USA and has inspired five spin-off manga series, three light novel series, a televised anime adaptation, several visual novels and video games, and a two part live-action film. 

Attack on Titan has gained a strong popularity not only in Japan, but also throughout the world. It appeared in a newspaper in China and Taiwan, including advertisments for Subaru, Snickers and Wonda Coffee. It's Characters are also been referenced in The Simpsons, The Amazing World of Gumball, the Korean Drama Surplus Princess and in an Japanese Fashion Brand Yoshikimono.

With his work having a more than 100 million copies it is no doubt that he is one of the most richest manga artists with having net worth of estimated to be about $45 to $50 million.

Isayama confirmed that he was married in 2018 but the artist chose to keep the identity of his spouse private. Despite his newlywed status, Isayama has no plans to slow down his manga production and is continuously producing new chapter every month. He estimated his basic monthly timeline as one week to storyboard and three weeks to actually draw the chapter. The story is planned out in advance.

Isayama said that Attack on Titan will end in 2020. 

While there is no other works he's planning to do, He said in an interview that once Attack on Titan is over he will open a "Spa, a Japanese Onsen not a Manga".