Takashi Nagasaki

Takashi Nagasaki is a Japanese manga editor, producer and writer whose long collaboration with Naoki Urasawa has made him an unusually important figure in the authorship of modern long-form manga. Born in Miyazaki in 1956, he worked at Shogakukan and became editor-in-chief of Big Comic Spirits before moving into freelance work. Nagasaki helped develop and produce major Urasawa series including 20th Century Boys and Pluto, functioning not simply as a production editor but as a close narrative collaborator whose discussions with Urasawa shaped structure, research and story direction.

His own credits also include original-story work on manga such as ILIAD. The official Pluto anime interviews document a relationship with Urasawa stretching back to the artist’s early career and explain Nagasaki’s role in bringing the Tezuka-derived Pluto project into being.