Takeshi Obata (edit name/settings)

Takeshi Obata is a Japanese mangaka (a person who draws manga). He originally became noticed in 1985 when he took a prize in the Tezuka Award for his one shot 500 Kōnen no Kaiwa. Joining the Weekly Shonen Jump staff, he mentored under Makoto Niwano before starting his first major series, writing and drawing Cyborg Jii-chan G in 1989. Having difficulty for several years in finding a hit, Obata began collaborating with other writers on their stories. He finally began the series that established his name when he teamed with Yumi Hotta on Hikaru no Go starting in 1998.

He is most well-known as the artist of Hikaru no Go, for which he received the Shogakukan Manga Award in 2000 and the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2003, and Death Note.