Institute / Research Cases / QS-RC-122
Naoki Urasawa
Yawara!, Master Keaton, Happy!, Monster, 20th Century Boys, Pluto, Billy Bat. A girl who gives her youth to judo, the riddle of serial murders set in Germany, the end of the world that begins in a boyhood secret base, a robot story that redraws Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy — Naoki Urasawa kept drawing long-form works that pull readers on to the next issue, chapter after chapter, and lifted Japanese manga onto the shelf of the world's stories. Born in Fuchu, Tokyo, he debuted in 1983. Yawara!, begun in 1986, became a social phenomenon and won the Shogakukan Manga Award in 1990. Monster in 1994, 20th Century Boys in 1999, Pluto in 2003: through his thirties and forties he released his major works one after another, twice won the Grand Prize of the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize, and received the award for best long-form work at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in France. On 30 August 2008 the first film of 20th Century Boys opened nationwide, and the story spread beyond manga readers to society as a whole. Why did his major works cluster in these twenty years? What was the vessel promised at his birth? We read the vessel he was born with against his destiny and the phases of time.
At a Glance
The case
- Subject
- Naoki Urasawa (浦沢直樹) — Manga artist
- Period analysed
- 1960–2026
- Three pillars
- Day 己丑 / Month 丙子 / Year 己亥
- Void branches
- 午未 (Horse–Goat)
- Destiny area
- 0.59 The area of the triangle formed by the three pillars on the sixty-cycle circle (maximum 1.30)
- Format
- PDF, 14 pages — written in Japanese
- Price
- ¥50,000 including tax
Research Brief
What the case shows
- His destiny gathers the ground of daily life and work into a single colour of wealth and popularity. It is the vessel of an entrepreneur, one who keeps wealth and popularity turning.
- Two protective forces appear on the surface, yet neither has a footing in reality. It is a destiny that opens its own path by its own ability, without leaning on protection.
- The twenty years from age twenty-nine to forty-eight are the period in which his central star surfaces. Almost all of his major works were born within it. The success of this period came from his own ability, and it also carries the rise of his fortune afterwards.
- He holds two stars that change form without being bound by experience and rise again from setbacks as many times as needed. They match a career that changed its subject with every work.
- The twenty years from age forty-nine are a period in which the flow of time shifts greatly. The release of the 20th Century Boys film came in the last year just before it.
Questions
The questions the report answers
- Why did his major works cluster in the twenty years of his thirties and forties?
- What overlapped on 30 August 2008, the day the 20th Century Boys film opened?
- Where in his destiny was the author who kept pulling readers on to the next issue born?
- Where in the phases of time do the twenty years from age forty-nine lie?
Public Record
The record, year by year
Selected events from the public record. Analysis and judgement are given in the report itself.
| 1983 | 癸亥 | Debuts as a manga artist |
| 1986 | 丙寅 | Yawara! begins serialisation |
| 1988 | 戊辰 | Master Keaton begins serialisation |
| 1990 | 庚午 (天) | Shogakukan Manga Award for Yawara! |
| 1994 | 甲戌 | Monster begins serialisation |
| 1999 | 己卯 | Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Grand Prize; 20th Century Boys begins |
| 2003 | 癸未 (天) | Pluto begins serialisation |
| 2004 | 甲申 | Angoulême International Comics Festival, best long-form work |
| 2008 | 戊子 | 30 August: the first 20th Century Boys film opens |
| 2011 | 辛卯 (天) | Eisner Award |
| 2023 | 癸卯 (天) | Pluto anime, streamed worldwide |
Year pillars change at Risshun, in early February. (天) = void year or void decade. (天天) = void year within a void decade.
Contents
14 pages
- Destiny profile and chart
- Yin and yang charts
- Axis and type of destiny
- Ten-year phases
- Composite numerical table
- The single water branch and the wealth chart
- Two rootless guardians
- The Horse–Goat void and its two stars
- The twenty years of the surfacing main star
- The twenty years of the great-luck void
- The four layers of 30 August 2008
- Timeline chart
- Public record
- Conclusion
Purchase
Order this Research Case
¥50,000incl. tax · PDF · Japanese
Email the case number QS-RC-122. We reply with an invoice; the PDF follows once payment is confirmed.
Analysis supervised by FAITH (Makoto Tokunaga) — MSc Economics, University of Warwick · CICP · Shugakuin Saii