Biography | Shinji Imura

Shinji Imura (1949-2005) was a Osaka born, Japanese mangaka.

Some of his early work was published in "Journey"「道程」but according to himself; 'nobody found their way to these stories so he looked to reprint' and he entered ``Mixed Race Child'' (Half-breed) and 'A lonely snowy night' in Gura-con COM (Grand Companion)
Soon after posting in 'COM' (Time of Ruin, Dec '68 issue), he moved to Tokyo to become chief assistant to Jiro Tsunoda.
Jiro Tsunoda's 'Horror Newspaper' includes an episode called 'The Laughing Skeleton' in which a character is named Shin'emon Imura
Throughout the 1970's, he made a name for himself as an independent mangaka with titles such as Diamond Eye, Run!K100 & Tentacles and publications in Shonen King & Monthly Shonen Champion ...

All leading up to :

The Great Planetary War (Monthly Shonen Magazine, 1978)
Decisive Battle! Ultra Brothers (TV-kun 1978-79)
The☆Ultraman (TV-kun 1979-80)
Ultraman 80 (1980-81)
Ultraman 80 Space War (1981)
Ultra Super Legend (1981-86)
Space command
Galactic Warrior Battle 1 (Monthly CoroCoro Comic 1981)
The Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982)
Makai Scramble (SF Anime Media 1985-86)
Fight! Space Battle Corps (TV-kun 1986-87)
Famicom Ultraman (1987)
Ultra Seven King Zetton's Fukushu (1987)
Famicom Ultraman 2 Ultra Monster Battle (1988)
Ultra Seven 400,000 Years of Silence (1988)
Space 11 Kamen Rider Galaxy Wars (with Shotaro Ishinomori, TV-kun 1990)

Typhoon Chase, Deep Blue Fleet, New Deep Blue Fleet, Wave Battleship Musashi,
Special attack!! Shinten Air Control Corps ...

Thanks to his outstanding work in manga, he also made a name for himself in the world of animation, working as a designer on 'Andromeros' (1983) and 'Video Warrior Laserion' (1984) ... further works include 'Shinjuku Cordon', 'Typhoon Chase' and 'Special Detective Q'

In addition to the many manga adaptations of the Ultra series, he also had a passion for drawing war comics such as 'Konpeki no Kantai', Laws of War, Bonds on the Battlefield
Continuing from 'Deep Blue Fleet', he was planning to write 'New Deep Blue Fleet' in four volumes, but it was left unfinished because he passed away 'under suspicious circumstances' around the beginning of September 2005 !
Since he was living alone and wasn't missed, his corpse wasn't found until it was in an advanced state of decomposition and an exact date of death is thus unknown

It's fair to say that Imura's style changed a bit over the four decades that he was present in manga (and animation) but in general his style stood out with some unique, dynamic and well-defined drawing !
His version of Ultra-man alters very slightly from the original characters and in a way improves them but all in all, what stands out the most are the action scenes, which is where a masterful Imura shines ... the tension is underlined in magnificent designs, strangely with panoramic shots with little action but with extremely skillful use of depth

Note : Original artwork by Shinji Imura is very rare !