is a Japanese manga artist

Mangaka

is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...

. After graduating from art school he joined Hudson Soft

Hudson Soft

, formally known as , is a majority-owned subsidiary of Konami Corporation is a Japanese electronic entertainment publisher headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with an additional office in the Hudson Building in Sapporo. It was founded on May 18, 1973...

 as a graphic artist. He made his manga debut in 1994 in Afternoon

Afternoon (magazine)

is a Japanese seinen manga magazine published by Kodansha. It is a monthly anthology, and each issue typically has around thirty ongoing stories by various authors and runs about 800 pages...

with a story for which he won the fall Afternoon Four Seasons Award, a prize he received three more times over the next two years. He is best known in the West for his work on King of Thorn and Chikyu Misaki

Chikyu Misaki

is a 3 volume manga series by Yūji Iwahara, and was released in the United States by CMX Manga.The story follows young Makishima Misaki as she returns to her Grandfather's old house following his death. She is accompanied by her father, Kyoichi, an awkward widower...

, both of which have been licensed in English. He also drew the art for Quest, a short-lived title in the Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

 imprint Tsunami.

His other works include the manga adaptation of the videogame Koudelka

Koudelka

is a role-playing game developed by Sacnoth for the Sony PlayStation. The game was released on December 16, 1999, in Japan, June 29, 2000, in North America and September 29, 2000, in Europe.- Gameplay :...

. His recent series Cat Paradise, which has been serialized in Champion RED

Champion Red

is a monthly Japanese shōnen manga magazine published on the 19th each month by Akita Shoten since . is a special edition of Champion Red.-Current serializations:*Chaotic Rune Es*Domina No Do!*Desperado*Franken Fran...

since April 2006, is licensed in English. In 2007, he contributed the original character designs to the anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 television series, Darker than Black: Kuro no Keiyakusha

Darker than Black

is an anime television series, created, directed and written by Tensai Okamura and animated by Bones. It premiered across Japan from April 5, 2007 on MBS, TBS, and its affiliated broadcast stations, with its satellite television premiere in Japan on Animax in May 2007. The music for the series is...

.
He's also the artist of Darker Than Black - Shikkoku no Hana -, a new Darker than BLACK

Darker than Black

is an anime television series, created, directed and written by Tensai Okamura and animated by Bones. It premiered across Japan from April 5, 2007 on MBS, TBS, and its affiliated broadcast stations, with its satellite television premiere in Japan on Animax in May 2007. The music for the series is...

 manga started in 2009. A new near-future science fiction manga titled Dimension W is scheduled to be serialized onto Young Gangan magazine in September.

Iwahara's illustration process was featured in the March 2001 issue of Newtype

Newtype (magazine)

is a monthly magazine publication originating from Japan, covering anime and manga . It was launched by publishing company Kadokawa Shoten on March 8, 1985 with its April issue, and has since seen regular release on the 10th of every month in its home country...

.

External links

• Yūji Iwahara at Comic Beam