Yoshiki Takaya is the
author and
very talented
illustrator of the great
manga Guyver : Bio-Booster Armor.
During college, he and his friends formed a
fan fiction magazine called "PEN Touch". He left the group a few months later, complaining that "Their goal was not to draw but discuss!" When he was 22, he dropped out of college and went to study with
fantasy and
science fiction illustrator Yuichi Mochizuki. Takaya says the best thing he learned from Mochizuki was how to draw "really gross-looking things". At age 24, Takaya joined the weekly monthly magazine
Shonen Captain. The editors of the magazine told him they wanted an armored hero that was "grotesque". At this time,
mecha was becoming more and more popular, so he designed a sleek, plain
mobile suit which could be called upon by the user.
The Guyver was born.
The Japanese manga (which is complete) is in 16
volumes, each with a different
collectible paper bookmark.
Viz Comics has put their
translation on what they call "indefinite hold", and are only up to Volume 7. This is probably due to the fact a lot of fans have complained that the meaning and
continuity of Takaya's original story got lost somewhere in translation.