Hiroyuki Takei began his career drawing the series 'SD Hyakkaten' for a fanzine. During the 1990s he served as an the assistant of the manga artists Tamakichi Sakura, Koji Kiriyama and Nobuhiro Watsuki, while submitting some solo works to the Tezuka Awards. He contributed stories to the video game weekly Famicon Tsuushin, and published his short stories 'Death Zero' and 'Butsu Zone' in Shônen Jump in 1996. This manga weekly also ran his subsequent serials, the first being a reworked version of 'Butsu Zone', in 1997. His second series was the spitirual 'Shaman King', that ran from 1998 to 2004. A sequel called 'Shaman King Flowers' was launched in JumpX magazine in 2012.
Shaman King Flowers
Takei then took a three year hiatus, but returned in 2007 with the futuristic 'Jambor Barutronica'. A special reprint release of 'Shaman King' was published in 2008 in 27 volumes, with new covers and an alternate ending. In that same year, Takei cooperated with US comic book legend Stan Lee on 'Karakuri Dôji Ultimo' ('Mechanical Boy: Ultimo'), that was published from 2009 to 2015. Since 2010, Takei also works on the two-monthly serial 'Jumbor' with writer Hiromasa Mikami. He has also participated on the character design of the anime 'Garo - Honou no Kokuin'.
Karakuri Dôji Ultimo