Inoue Takehiko

Takehiko Inoue (井上 雄彦, Inoue Takehiko, born 12 January 1967) is a Japanese manga artist. He is best known for the basketball series Slam Dunk (1990–1996), and the jidaigeki manga Vagabond, which are two of the best-selling manga series in history. Many of his works are about basketball, Inoue himself being a huge fan of the sport. His works sold in North America through Viz Media are Slam Dunk, Vagabond and Real, although Slam Dunk was earlier translated by Gutsoon! Entertainment. In 2012, Inoue became the first recipient of the Cultural Prize at the Asia Cosmopolitan Awards.

His real name is Nariai Takehiko (成合雄彦).

Inoue Takehiko first started playing basketball in high school as a means to winning attention from the opposite sex, he was in kendo club in elementary school and junior high. After being immersed in the competitive sport, he became a huge basketball fan. His love for the sport can be easily seen both from his choice in using it as a central theme in his works, as well as the unmistakable ability in capturing the details of it all.

He went to Kumamoto University but dropped out, and became assistant to Hojo Tsukasa for ten months during City Hunter.

Hara Yasuhisa, Tatsuzawa Katsumi, Mihara Kazuto and Yuki Izumi are former assistants of his.

Mizushima Shinji’s Dokaben was one of the works that made him to become a mangaka.

He is the artist for the X360 RPG "Lost Odyssey".

Married and has a son.