Makoto Raiku

Makoto Raiku (雷句誠) is a manga artist whose works have appeared prominently in Shogakukan's publication Shonen Sunday. Starting off an assistant for Kazuhiro Fujita on his manga Ushio & Tora, he started creating several one-shots for the shonen manga anthology such as Bird Man (about a young pilot), Hero Ba-Ban (about a cheerful, but weak superhero) and Genmai Blade (about a teenage medicinal exorcist, of which he created both a one-shot and a two-part story). By 1999, he had created the series Newtown Heroes, which was published in Shonen Sunday Super, a seasonal publication featuring upcoming mangaka and one-shots from the main Sunday book.

Debut
In 2001, Raiku started the manga series Konjiki no Gash!!, which began publication in Shogakukan's Shonen Sunday, and in 2003, inspired an anime version (Konjiki no Gash Bell!!) produced by Toei Animation. Both versions are very popular in Japan. In the U.S., both the manga and anime are known as Zatch Bell!. In one chapter of the Konjiki no Gash Bell!! manga, Raiku makes an appearance with his own story, and also plays the role of Umagon's partner in the game, Konjiki no Gash Bell!!: Electric Arena (prior to the introduction of Kafka Sunbeam). In 2003, Konjiki no Gash!! received the 48th Shogakukan Manga Award in the Shōnen category.

Civil Trial
In June 2008, Raiku brought a case against Shogakukan to Tokyo District Court because they lost 5 of his coloured works. He demanded 3,300,000 yen as compensation. According to the beginning of his statement, he decided to do it because he doesn't want publishers and their editors to look down on manga artists. In addition, Raiku was treated extremely badly for a long time. Moreover, the price of compensation represented by Shogakukan was only 500,000 yen. Raiku claimed that they had underestimated him too much.

On July 28, 2008, they had their first public session. Shogakukan agreed they were responsible for the loss with a reservation on financial value of the lost works as it was not clear. Recommended by the judge, both parties agreed to settle the claim.

Works

 * Bird Man
 * Newtown Heroes (ニュータウン・ヒーローズ)
 * Genmai Blade (玄米ブレード)
 * Zatch Bell! (金色のガッシュ!!)
 * Grief Warrior Hero Ba-Ban (哀愁戦士ヒーローババーン)
 * Animal Country (どうぶつの国)

Master

 * Kazuhiro Fujita

Fellow Assistants

 * Kazurou Inoue
 * Tatsuya Kaneda
 * Nobuyuki Anzai

Assistants

 * Yellow Tanabe
 * Aiko Koyama
 * Youhei Sakai