Tōru Fujisawa (藤沢 とおる, Fujisawa Tōru, born 1967) is a Japanese manga artist. His name is romanized as Tohru Fujisawa on the Tokyopop English-language Great Teacher Onizuka books and as Toru Fujisawa on the Kodansha bilingual releases. His first serialized work was Adesugata Junjo Boy, published from 1989 in Weekly Shōnen Magazine. Fujisawa's best-known work is Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO) about a biker, Eikichi Onizuka, and his attempt to become and remain a teacher. It is a sequel to Shōnan Jun'ai Gumi! and its side story Bad Company. In 1998, Fujisawa won the Kodansha Manga Award for Great Teacher Onizuka.[2]
Personal
Fujisawa was born and raised in Hokkaido and started drawing as a child. Fujisawa originally wanted to be in animation but decided manga would give him more freedom. He based Shonan Junai Gumi at a seaside location after growing up inland. At the age of 17, he moved to Tokyo by himself to become a manga artist. He wrote science fiction Dōjinshi and submitted them to publishers. He is a fan of Initial D and was inspired by Akira.[3] He is also a fan of the beat 'em up video game Spartan X (Kung-Fu Master).[4]
In 2010, he married actress Ayano Sugiyama.[5][6][7]
