Masakazu Ishiguro

Ishiguro was born in Fukui on September 8, 1977.^[1][2] Ishiguro was fond of Fujiko Fujio's works growing up, especially Doraemon. When Ishiguro was in middle school, his dad rented Akira from a rental store and watched it with Ishiguro, who cites it as a major influence over his work.^[3] Ishiguro later said that growing up he felt that becoming a manga artist was "the only way to go".^[4] Ishiguro eventually graduated from Osaka University of Arts in 2001.^[5][6]

Just prior to graduation, Ishiguro submitted the one-shot Hero to Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon magazine, which won the Afternoon Shiki Award [ja] in 2000. Soon after, he left Monthly Afternoon and published one-shots and short series in other magazines.^[3][6] In 2005, Ishiguro launched And Yet the Town Moves, which received an anime adaptation.^[7] In 2018, Ishiguro returned to Monthly Afternoon with Heavenly Delusion, which also received an anime adaptation.^[8]

Ishiguro has stated that the post-apocalyptic world in Heavenly Delusion was inspired by his interest in Japan's reconstruction period following World War II, during which he studied declassified American photographic archives to realistically portray landscapes in ruins.^[9]