Toshio Maeda

Toshio Maeda (real name: Toshio Kawasaki; September 18, 1953-) is a Japanese manga artist. He was born in Osaka and dropped out of Osaka Prefectural Fuse Technical High School.

He became familiar with manga before entering elementary school and entering high school in 1969. In his second year of high school, he learned that Kenji Namba was looking for an assistant in "Shonen Jump" (Shueisha) magazine, and applied for the position, for which he was hired. He then dropped out of high school and moved to Tokyo, where he studied for three years at Namba Productions. After becoming independent, he made his debut at the age of 20 with "Kakubou Kouren-tai" in "Comic Magazine" (Houbunsha).

He mainly draws manga for adults. He specializes in bizarre violence, and many of his works, such as "La☆BlueGirl," "Yoju Kyoshitsu," "KOJI - Pleasure Murder Investigator," and "Chojin Densetsu Urotsuki Doko," have been made into anime. He is also known for popularizing the tentacle torture manga genre, which is sometimes categorized as erotic horror. His works include "Kick Off Tomorrow" and "Evil Spirit Island".