Gosho Aoyama


Gosho Aoyama is a Japanese manga artist best known for his manga series Detective Conan, known as Case Closed in some English-speaking countries. As of 2017, his various manga series had a combined 200 million copies in print worldwide.

Educational background

Aoyama was talented in drawing even at an early age. In elementary school, his painting of "Yukiai War" won a competition and was displayed at the Tottori Daimaru Department Store. He has an older brother who is a scientist and helps him out with the "gimmicks" in Detective Conan.
Aoyama graduated from Yuraikuei High School, before going on to study at Nihon University College of Art in Tokyo. In winter of 1986, Aoyama won a comic contest for freshmen students. When he was an art student, Aoyama had a part-time job working at Tokyo Disneyland, where he painted backgrounds for Pirates of the Caribbean.

Career

Aoyama made his debut as a manga artist with Chotto Mattete, which was published in the magazine Weekly Shōnen Sunday in winter of 1987. Shortly after that, he began Magic Kaito in the same magazine. Magic Kaito protagonist Kaito Kuroba later appeared in Case Closed.
In the early 1990s, he began the series Yaiba, which ran for 24 volumes. Later, he would release other manga series in single volumes, such as Third Baseman No.4 and Gosho Aoyama's Collection of Short Stories.
Aoyama began serializing Detective Conan in Weekly Shōnen Sunday on January 19, 1994. When the series was first released in English, it was given the title Case Closed.

Awards and recognition

Aoyama has won two awards for his work as a manga artist. In 1992, he won the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen for Yaiba. He would go on to win the same award for a second time in 2001, this time for Detective Conan.
Additionally, his hometown Hokuei has undertaken several machi okoshi projects in honor of his contribution as a manga artist and resident. The first projects were the Conan Bridge across the Yura River and Detective Conan statues. On March 18, 2007, the Gosho Aoyama Manga Factory, a museum that celebrates Aoyama's career as a manga artist, was opened.

Personal life

On May 5, 2005 Aoyama married Minami Takayama, the singer of Two-Mix and voice actress for Conan in the anime adaptation of Detective Conan. On December 10, 2007, the two divorced.

Manga works