Otsuichi
Name In Native Language: 乙一
Real Name: Adachi Hirotaka (安達寛高)
Writer, screenwriter, and film director. Born October 21, 1978, in Tanushimaru (now part of Kurume), Fukuoka Prefecture. He graduated from Tanushimaru's Kawakai Primary and Secondary Schools.
A multifaceted and shy artist, Adachi Hirotaka has a love of video games, manga, anime, and movies. As a teenager, he was overweight and bullied at school, but through Dance Dance Revolution and a proper diet, he lost 20 kilograms, going from 85 to 65 kg.
Inspired by his early reading, particularly mystery novels, he began writing his first novel at 16 while attending Kurume National College from 1994 to 1999. He attempted to enter the Fujimi Prize for Novel with a fantasy novel, but was unsuccessful. In 1996, however, he won the 6th JUMP Novel Grand Prize from Shueisha, making his debut with Natsu to Hanabi to Watashi no Shitai (Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse), published by JUMP j-BOOKS and illustrated by Hataji Hideaki. Judge Kurimoto Kaoru strongly recommended the work. He later transferred to Toyohashi University of Technology, where he studied ecological engineering.
In 2003, he placed third in the Honkaku Mystery Awards. His early work focused largely on short stories and light novels, of which he became a strong advocate. GOTH: Tenohira Jiken was particularly well received and won the Honkaku Mystery Award. His early fiction was broadly divided into horror novels ("Kuro Otsuichi") and sad stories ("Shiro Otsuichi"). Under the name Otsuichi, he has mainly published with Shueisha, Kadokawa Shoten (now KADOKAWA), and Gentosha.
In 2004, his editor invited him to audition for Oshii Mamoru's film Innocence. There he met Oshii Tomoe, the director's daughter, whom he married in 2006.
Adachi Hirotaka has also written under several pseudonyms. In 2005, he published ghost stories under the name Yamashiro Asako in Media Factory's magazine Yu. He also wrote romance fiction as Nakata Eiichi for a Shodensha romance anthology and the magazine Feel Love. He deliberately fabricated biographical information for these identities, but revealed on Twitter on June 30, 2011, that he had been working under both names.
In November 2012, the Mainichi Shimbun reported on the Nakata Eiichi pseudonym after Kuchibiru ni Uta o, written under that name, was selected for the Shogakukan Children's Publishing Culture Award. In 2010, he had also participated in Makai Tantei Meiosei O, a project in which eight writers concealed their identities and each wrote a book under the name Echizen Mataro.
Under his real name, Adachi Hirotaka has directed independent films. In 2004, Gōsuto wa Shōsetsuka ga Suki was selected for the 5th Takarazuka Film Festival and Video Contest, and he made four more works through around 2015.
In 2016, Otsuichi, Nakata Eiichi, Yamashiro Asako, and Echizen Mataro published the short-story collection Kill Mary Sue, with commentary by Adachi Hirotaka, bringing his major aliases together. He also revealed that he had contributed a film essay under the previously unknown alias Yuushi Pillow. The May 2016 issue of Da Vinci featured a discussion between his three principal aliases under the title "A Miraculous Talk Was Made."
His style has influenced authors such as Tomoi Hitsuji, who received recognition in the 2012 Kono Mystery ga Sugoi! rankings and has cited Otsuichi as a fan. He is also close friends with authors Sadakane Shinji and Matsubara Makoto; after traveling to Turkey with Adachi, the three co-wrote Toruko o Ryokō-shi.
Married to Oshii Tomoe, daughter of Oshii Mamoru. They had their first child in 2010.
Friends with Sadakane Shinji and Matsubara Makoto.
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