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Context Creator / ShotaroIshinomori

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1[[quoteright:234:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shotaro_ishinomori_3425_2971.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:234:You're looking at the man responsible for the creation of both ''Franchise/KamenRider'' and ''Franchise/SuperSentai''.]]
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4Shotaro Ishinomori, born Shotaro Onodera, (January 25, 1938 – January 28, 1998) was one of the most influential men in Japanese entertainment, being dubbed "the King of Manga" and held the title in drawing more comic pages than any other manga author. In his youth he was the president of a manga study group and got his first big break working as an assistant to Creator/OsamuTezuka himself (who famously remarked that Ishinomori, then going by the name Onodera, resembled a talking potato) on the ''Denkou The Invisible Robot'' story in ''Manga/AstroBoy''. On the manga and anime side, he created ''Manga/Cyborg009'', which was one of the first animated super-teams.
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6But more famously in the west, he created ''Franchise/KamenRider'', one of the major live-action {{Tokusatsu}} franchises. KR was based on Ishinomori's ''Manga/SkullMan'' manga, which was eventually remade by his protege, Kazuhiko Shimamoto, who was specifically commissioned to do so. He also created ''Series/HimitsuSentaiGoranger'', launching the ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' franchise, which stands alongside ''Kamen Rider'' as a major live-action Toku franchise, though he had little to do with it after ''Series/JAKQDengekitai''[[note]]In fact, ''Goranger'' and ''JAKQ'' were merely considered spiritual predecessors to ''Super Sentai'' for a long time instead of actual installments[[/note]].
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8Due to the large number of superheroes he created, many of them were much grimmer and more "realistic" than what the competition was putting out at the time while still retaining an endearing sense of over-the-top garishness, he is often considered to be the Japanese equivalent of Creator/StanLee.
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10Also, he was known as "Ishimori" until 1986, supposedly due to a misprint that stuck.
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12In 2007, he was [[https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-comics-published-by-one-author posthumously awarded]] the Guiness World Record for most comics published by a single author.
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14A fictional incarnation of Ishinomori, played by Fuku Suzuki, appears in the 2021 film ''Film/KamenRiderSaberPlusKikaiSentaiZenkaigerSuperHeroSenki'', a MilestoneCelebration for both ''Kamen Rider'' and ''Super Sentai''.
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16----
17!!Notable Ishinomori Series:
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19[[index]]
20* ''Manga/ZeroZeroNineOne''
21* ''Series/Akumaizer3''
22* ''Series/BishoujoKamenPoitrine''
23* ''Series/ChoujinBibyun''
24* ''Manga/Cyborg009''
25* A manga [[BandToon based on]] Music/DavidBowie, with appearances from Music/MickJagger!
26* ''Series/Daitetsujin17''
27* ''Anime/DaikyouryuNoJidai''
28* ''Fantasy World Jun''
29* ''Flying Phantom Ship''
30* ''Ganbare Robocon''
31* ''Manga/{{Gilgamesh}}''
32* ''Series/HenshinNinjaArashi''
33* ''Series/HimitsuSentaiGoranger''
34* ''Hyoga Senshi Guyslugger''
35* ''Series/{{Inazuman}}''
36* ''Series/JAKQDengekitai''
37* ''Series/KaiketsuZubat''
38* ''Franchise/KamenRider''
39* ''Series/{{Kikaider}}''
40* ''Series/KyodaiKenByclosser''
41* ''ComicBook/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast1992'' (''Magazine/NintendoPower'' OELManga)
42* ''[[Manga/JapanInc Manga Nihon Keizai Nyumon]]''
43* ''Anime/RainbowSentaiRobin''
44* ''Series/RobotDetective''
45* ''Anime/RyuTheCaveBoy''
46* ''Manga/RyusPath''
47* ''Sabu to Ichi Torimonohikae''
48* ''Anime/SarutobiEcchan''
49* ''Series/SeiunKamenMachineman''
50* ''Manga/SkullMan''
51* ''Series/SpaceIronmenKyodain''
52* ''Series/{{Voicelugger}}'' (the last series he worked on before his death)
53[[/index]]
54----
55!!Commmon Tropes in his works:
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57* AuthorAvatar: In his manga Ishinomori would often pop up as a super-deformed, round headed bald character, sometimes as a CreatorCameo or as this trope. In some cases he would draw himself slightly more realistically, like in the 1978 manga [[https://i.imgur.com/tbrVpZq.png ''Peeping through a fusuma'']], where he appears in the prologue and epilogue AsHimself to provide the FramingDevice for the series, or in his [[https://i.imgur.com/SphtATw.jpg 1994 comedic adaptation]] of the [[Myth/JapaneseMythology Kojiki]], in which he [[Main/FromBeyondTheFourthWall appears for a couple of panels]] to make an AsideComment about a particular moment of the story, leaving O no Yasumaru confused about what just happened.
58* CreatorCameo:
59** He appears as a fisherman who falls victim to [[MonsterOfTheWeek Isoginjaguar]] in episode 84 of ''Series/KamenRider'', which he directed and co-wrote.
60** He appears as a fisherman and MrExposition in the ''Series/KamenRiderBlack'' movie and a scientist in ''Film/ShinKamenRiderPrologue''.
61** In the original Japanese version of Anime/DaikyouryuNoJidai he voiced the father of the main character.
62* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: Ishinomori apparently had a thing against transhumanism. While several of his manga do feature cyborgs as the heroes, they usually had their powers forced upon them by evil-doers and tended to grapple with their humanity because of it, while the villains often-times willingly underwent cybernetic procedures to gain more power at the cost of their humanities.
63* DarkerAndEdgier: Most of the [[ComicBookAdaptation manga adaptations]] wrote of the Toku series he helped create tended to be darker and more serious than their TV counterparts.
64* HenshinHero: The undisputed king of this trope.
65* HollywoodCyborg: Who needs [[ComicBook/SpiderMan radioactive spiders]] or [[ComicBook/FantasticFour cosmic rays]] when there's tons of perfectly "realistic" ways to give your heroes superpowers? Like lots and lots of [[{{Zeerust}} transistors]].
66* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: Played with in quite a few of his works. Most of time, while his works greatly acknowledged that humans are capable of evil, humanity as a whole is presented as something ultimately good and the [[BigBad originator of evil]] in the story is usually an inhuman force that corrupts humans with promises of power. Effectively, Ishinomori recognized that the worst thing humans could do is forsake their human qualities and embrace their worse impulses.
67* PhlebotinumRebel: A recurring theme in many of his works, starting with ''009'', Ishinomori could be considered the patron saint of this trope.
68* PlayingWithSyringes: By the same token, his bad guys tend to resemble the stars of a Medical Fetishist's wet dreams.
69* ReusedCharacterDesign: While each manga drawn by Ishinomori sported a CastOfSnowflakes, he also tended to reuse quite a few character models through his various series, with the [[Manga/Cyborg009 doctor Gilmore, 004]] and Jun lookalikes being the most recurring and recognizable ones. Partially justified due to the sheer quantity of stuff he drew in his career, and by how it would also be a visual cameo of his style.
70* SaintlyChurch: Ishinomori's depictions of Christianity were always very respectful.
71* SameFaceDifferentName: In 1959 he illustrated a few [[Main/ShoujoDemographic shoujo]] manga using two different aliases - the first, ''Kintoki-san'', as Teiko Minami, and another couple of short stories (''Tai-chan'' and ''Sei-chan'') under the name Asuka Izumi. Two years prior, in 1957, he illustrated a manga written by [[Manga/OsomatsuKun Fujio Akatsuka]], ''Sono kamen wo tore!'' (Take off that mask!), which they signed with the portmanteau name Fujitaro Ishizuka.
72* ShoutOut: Modern ''Kamen Rider'' series occasionally reference the franchise creator:
73** Yuusuke Onodera, the new [[Series/KamenRiderKuuga Kuuga]] in ''Series/KamenRiderDecade'', has Ishinomori's original surname; Shotaro Hidari, the hero of ''Series/KamenRiderDouble'', obviously shares his first name.
74** ''Series/KamenRiderFourze'' did this in a broader sense; each of the show's movies featured a re-imagining of one or more of Ishinomori's famous characters, usually as villains. In ''Film/KamenRiderXKamenRiderFourzeAndOOOMovieWarMegaMax'' it's the Galaxy King[[note]]BigBad of the ''Series/KamenRiderSkyrider'' movie ''8 Riders vs. Galaxy King''[[/note]], in ''Everyone, it's Space Time!'' it's the Space Ironmen Kyodain and Daitetsujin 17[[note]]With the added bonus of the Kyodains' enemy Gaburin Queen being re-imagined as a hero[[/note]], ''Film/KamenRiderXKamenRiderWizardAndFourzeMovieWarUltimatum'' has a three-fer with new versions of Inazuman, Poitrine, and the Akumaizers, and in ''Film/KamenRiderHeiseiGenerationsFinalBuildAndExAidWithLegendRiders'' it's Dark General Gaburin from ''Kyodain''[[note]]Referenced as the gigantic mechanical hands of the Enigma device[[/note]].
75** ''Movie War Ultimatum'' also has its theme song "Forest of Rocks", whose title is a direct English translation of "Ishinomori".
76** In ''Series/KamenRiderGhost'', Ishinomori is one of the historical figures that Ghost can draw power from (potentially, anyway; the Ghost Driver is programmed for it but Drivers always have extra sounds that are never used in the show). A minor character is also named Onodera, the same as ''Decade'''s Kuuga was.
77** ''Series/KamenRiderZiO'' has a more oblique and unintentional reference, as protagonist Sougo Tokiwa's name in Eastern format resembles [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokiwa-sō Tokiwa-sō]], an apartment building famous for being the living quarters of several legendary mangaka including Ishinomori himself. According to the producers, this wordplay was just a neat coincidence and not a conscious decision.
78* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Most of Ishinomori's works tend to be in-between. With some leaning on the idealistic side (Cyborg 009, the Showa Kamen Riders, and Sabutori Ecchan), and some leaning towards cynicism (Skull Man, and the Kikaider manga).
79* {{Transhuman}}: Quite a few of his works deal with this. Usually it's used to either emphasize a villain's cruelty by showing them having [[TranshumanTreachery cast aside their human qualities as a means to gain power over their fellow man]], or to demonstrate humanity as a transcendent concept by having the hero hold onto their humanity in spite of their [[UnwillingRoboticization forceful transformation]].
80* WarIsHell: The majority of Ishinomori's works tend to demonstrate that war is a terrible thing, and is not afraid to show the horrors and consequences of warfare.

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