Dr. Stone is known as one of the best science fiction manga. I guess you might have learned more Science by watching/reading Dr. Stone than you ever learned in your school. This anime just showcases how you make anything from scratch.
I personally loved watching & reading Dr. Stone since It really opened a new world of Science in my life. Basically, I’m a big fan of Dr. Stone, so to know more about it, I did some research and found out that its mangaka used to be an H-artist.
At first, it really shocked me, but when I recall my memories of watching/reading Dr. Stone, it really started to make sense. We have seen many fan services in Dr. Stone, especially in its manga.
Almost whenever a female is introduced in the story, we basically see a lewd of her. Whether it may be Yuzuriha, Kohaku, or even Kirisame. Even if you search “Dr. Stone female character,” Google will tell you to switch to a safe search.
So you get the point that Dr. Stone Mangaka, aka Boichi, has shown his h-artist skills many times in the Dr. Stone series. So, in this article, we are not only going to see how Boichi started as an H-artist and later made Dr. Stone, but we will also give you some names of H-manga that Boichi made before writing Dr. Stone.
Journey of Bochi from an H**tai Artist to one of the best Science Fiction Mangaka
On January 29, 1973, in Seoul, South Korea, a child named Mu-jik Park was born, who was later known as Boichi. Boichi is just a pen name since Boichi is easier to say and is a much more well-known name, so that’s what we’ll be calling him Boichi for the rest of the article.
Boichi was born into a very poor family, so poor that his parent couldn’t afford to buy him a drawing book. When Boichi was young, he never had enough paper. However, that didn’t stop him from drawing. He started drawing at a really young age, we’re talking about the age of five.
So since there wasn’t enough paper in the house, he would wake up run straight to the calendar, and wait. He would wait for his mom to rip the page off the calendar so that he could use it to draw (reference, Dr Stone volume three).
So when his parents had to leave for work, Boichi’s mother used to give him some white paper and a pen to draw while he was at home. Till the age of 10, Boichi continued to draw, until he started drawing gag-manga with the story. And by the age of 10, he decided to become a mangaka.
Boichi is Korean and knows very little Japanese even though he lives in Japan now. Boichi is a really interesting guy, he wanted to be a science fiction mangaka for so long and so badly that he majored in physics in college for that singular reason.
Now, if that’s not dedication, I don’t know what it is. He even loved to watch Sci-fi movies like Space Odyssey, Close Encounter, of the third kind, Star Wars, Predator, and Terminator.
Boichi was an H-Artist
Boichi debuted in Korean Girl’s Manual magazine in 1993 while he was still in his twenties. He wanted to become an artist from a very young age, and we’re talking like before he was a teenager, and he apparently wanted to become the prime minister of South Korea before giving up on that.
In 2006, he released two science fiction one-shots. One is called The Hotel, and the second is called Present. He is currently 50 years old, and he wrote his first manga back in 2004, Space Chef Caesar.
That means he wrote his first manga when he was 31, but now you might be wondering about what he did all those years in between. Well, let’s get straight to the point: he drew hentai.
In 2005, a total of 9 out of 11 Boichi’s hentai one-shots were serialized in the Comic Aun and reunited under the volume titled Lovers in Winter. Now, this really shows in the Dr. Stone manga because there is quite a bit of fan service in it even though the anime doesn’t.
Some of his known H-manga are Home Tutor For A Nobel Prize Candidate, Hanzai wa Dame desu (No Means No), The Fiercely Horny Fiancee, and Personal lesson full of love (Now don’t just go on Google and search right away, wait till the end to know some interesting facts about him).
Honorable Things Done by Boichi
Now, Boichi isn’t just a cartoon prawn artist and has done some pretty cool things in the past. The revenue from Sun-ken Rock’s second volume was donated to the humanitarian services for children of Vietnam as an apology for Korea’s actions during the Vietnam War.
He also requested other Manhwa artists to draw a support page for the earthquake and tsunami disaster in 2011 and donated all the revenue from that to the Red Cross.
When I say Boichi’s art, you probably think of something very realistic, gory, and detailed, which we can see clearly in Sun-ken Rock and Origin. But then, when he started drawing Dr. Stone, his art changed to fit the Shonen demographic.
Boichi’s Dedication to His Work
Even if he changed his art style, though, a lot of his iconic and known version of art is present in Dr. Stone. There are fewer lines, and it looks much more laid back but still has a pretty realistic feel.
Boichi is known for switching between art styles. For example, one panel looks entirely laid back, and the next looks rough, gritty, detailed, and realistic. So, Dr. Stone is quite famous for its scenery, post-apocalyptic art, and landscape, but these panels are not only insanely hard to draw but also insanely hard to imagine.
Boichi can’t just think of some forest scenery or just cook up a stupidly beautiful panel out of nowhere. To draw these kinds of panels, he needs to get inspiration from real-life locations and places. For example, he had to go on a two-month research trip to Hokkaido in Japan so he could draw Dr. Stone in winter.
Space Chef Caisar and Sun-Ken Rock (Credits: Boichi)
He’s also been to places like Toyama for the scenery and Busan, which is a Korean town located on a seaside cliff, and he used this as inspiration for Ishigami village, which, if you haven’t noticed, is also on a coastal cliff.
Even though these are reference photos and not directly incorporated into the series, it shows how much work and research is put simply into drawing Dr. Stone, let alone writing the story.
Boichi Research for Dr. Stone
For the backstory of Ishigami Village, Boichi had to use over 1,000 reference photos because he had special feelings for Soyuz rockets, which are Russian. One of Boichi’s past manga is set in a Russian setting, which he had to do a lot of research for. By reading Russian books, listening to Russian music, and cooking Russian food.
He really wanted to nail chapters 42 to 44, which resulted in his staff and him working for several weeks on it. Boichi is currently doing the artwork for One Piece novel, A manga adaptation titled One Piece Episode A.
Boichi has worked on many different mangas and won three awards for them like Gran Guinigi 2011 – Best Short Story for It was All for the Tuna, in Hotel (Panini Comics), Shogakukan Manga Awards 2019 – Shōnen Category for Dr. Stone (Shueisha) and Japan Media Arts Festival 2019 – Manga Grand Prize for Origin (Kodansha).
Boichi is a great mangaka artist, and you can just say it by looking at any of his recent works. Seeing how much effort Boichi and Inagaki put into Dr. Stone makes me want to never hate a series ever again.
Boichi and Inagaki spend countless hours on this series, and hating someone’s series means dissing their effort. So even though Boichi used to be an H-artist, we now know what a great person he is.
