Eiji Nizuma (Born November 3, 1992 in Aomori-ken, Japan), is a high school genius mangaka who has been drawing ever since he was young. Moritaka Mashiro and Akito Takagi consider him their rival. He was supposed to serialize a manga called Yellow Hit but he wanted to draw a different manga, Crow, which appeared in Akamaru Jump instead. His assisants were initially Nakai and Fukuda (Mashiro also worked for him temporarily before Detective Trap's serialization). His editor is Yujiro. He once demanded that he'd be allowed to end one series he hated if he ever made it to number one at Jump, later revealed to be used to end his own manga when he wanted to.
Appearance
Eiji Niizuma's first appearance
Eiji has brown/red hair that is short with the exception of his bangs (his hair has gotten longer over time). He has brown eyes which are sometimes considered purple. In all of his appearances, he wears the same purple clothing which consists of a long sleeve black t-shirt and simple blue jeans. He is rarely seen wearing shoes but can sometimes be seen wearing sandals. On occasion, Eiji wears a plaid, haori-type jacket.
Personality
Niizuma is slightly naive, but can also be serious and calculating when he wants to. Eiji tends to act conceited because he is hailed as a genius; however, after working on Crow for quite a long time, he grew more humble, even claiming to not be "good enough of a Mangaka to be judging other people's work" when asked by his editor to judge for the Golden Future Cup. (He judges anyway, but is not very helpful, only expressing his interest in Ashirogi and Ryu Shizuka). He tends to make noises and sound effects when drawing or writing his manga. Eiji is constantly chastised by his editor, and at first seems to be rather oblivious towards his rivals' feelings towards him, even expressing great excitement when he meets Ashirogi Muto and saying he is their fan. He is a great lover of manga and his opinion are valued by everyone at Jump, including his rivals. He refers to himself as an "Eternal Boy" and thats why he writes Shonen manga. He has only ever had a crush on one girl, back in elementary school, which paired with his naivet'e most likely explains his lack of success in the Super Leaders' Love Fest.
Summary
Prior to his appearance, Niizuma states in an interview that he placed so high because everybody else was "wasting their time playing video games". This infuriates Mashiro because he used to play video games all the time before deciding to pair up with Takagi to write manga. When Mashiro tells Takagi this, they both decide to aim to surpass Niizuma as mangaka.
Ashirogi Muto's Mainstream Meeting
During the meeting, where Takagi and Mashiro tell Hattori they want to do a mainstream manga, Niizuma comes in. Yujiro is mad about Niizuma doing Crow instead of Yellow Hit. While Yujiro is talking to the cheif editor, Niizuma talks to Takagi and Mashiro. He tells them he thought Money and Intelligence was the best and that he wants to be friends with both of them. Takagi and Mashiro are shocked by this, at first thinking he's mocking them, but they soon realize he is serious. Niizuma later shows them how he draws, and Hattori hopes they won't want to do mainstream after seeing him. After Niizuma finishes, Yujiro rushes him out so he can draw chapters two and three.
While Mashiro works as assistant to learn from Eiji, Eiji reveals that he had thought up Crow when he was a child. He also explains that since his family was very poor, he wasn't able to afford video games like his classmates and instead simply drew manga for entertainment, which was what he wanted to do anyway. This explains Eiji's jab at video gamers at the start of the series.
Golden Future Cup
Eiji does not actually participate in the Golden Future Cup, but he does participate in the meeting Fukuda holds with Takagi, Mashiro, Aoki Ko, and Nakai. The meeting is held because of Koogy's annoucement about his manga. Niizuma reads their manuscripts and says who will get first, second, and third: two will tie for first and one will be third, referring to Kiyoshi Knight and Detective Trap for first and Hideout Door for third, which was reflected in the actual results
Niizuma's new assistants.
New Years Party
Eiji hung around Hiramaru Kazuya before the party started but couldn't continue because Yoshida takes Hiramaru away to talk about chapter three of Otter #11. He then hangs out with Mashiro and Takagi. Later, he meets up with Hiramaru after Takagi wins a TV. After the New Years Party , he is seen when Nakai arrives late because he was talking with Aoki. Nakai leaves the day's work there and leaves. Fukuda then wonders what he is thinking, to which Eiji responds "probably about Manga". When the news of Kiyoshi Knight's and Hideout Door's serializations arrived, Eiji rejoiced with Nakai and Fukuda but remarked that he is sad that they won't be working together anymore. He later says that Jump is more fun now with Nakai and Fukuda writing for Jump as well.
Hiramaru's Visit
Hiramaru Kazuya visits Eiji's apartment to try and hide so he wouldn't have to work. Eiji's assistants wonder what the author of Otters 11 are doing there. Hiramaru
Eiji dressed as Crow.
tells Eiji about how he hates being a mangaka and how his office job was better. One of Eiji's assistants called Yoshida because they couldn't get any work done, and Yoshida takes Hiramaru away to draw his Manga series. Eiji then hears that Detective Trap and Crow tied for 3rd place. He remarks that he is happy but doesn't want to lose.
Creators' Strike
When Mashiro is hospitalized, Eiji visits him and notices that Mashiro is working on his colour pages for Trap. The both look at each other determinedly, and then Eiji decides to leave, being no longer worried about Ashirogi Muto. His editor Yujiro thinks that Miho Azuki is Tagaki's girlfriend because she was helping with the manga, but Eiji calls him stupid and says that she looks exactly like Ami-chan from Trap. When Fukuda tells Eiji about Trap having to go on hiatus for a year and suggests a boycott with a few Mangakas, Eiji is immediately on board with the idea. They gather Nakai, Aoki and Hiramaru and go down to Jump. Eiji threatens thats if their decision is not overturned that he will draw for another magazine until Ashirogi Muto can work again; he threatens to return his contract money and pay for the others to move to another magazine, too. When Mashiro tells them they should stop the boycott, he says he will do it, but it would be better to see Mashiro drawing again. He is happy when the hiatus is over. Later, Fukuda calls Eiji and tells him that Nakai and Ashirogi are in trouble, and wonders if there is anything he can do for them. However, Eiji tells him that unlike the unfair hospital hiatus there is nothing they can do for them, and that they will have to make it on their own.
Judging Treasure
Yujiro approached him about judging Treasure, but he initially declined saying "he wasn't good enough to judge others work" However, he then accepted when he heard Muto Ashirogi
Eiji drawing Crow
submitted something. After reading the stories, he only said Future Watch (Muto Ashirogi's story) and True Human (Ryu Shizuka's story) were interesting.
Anime
Crow managed to get a weekly anime offer. Eventually, Eiji agrees to draw the story for +Natural, and easily gets the story serialized, constantly placing the story in single-digit positions.
Super Leaders' Love Fest
Eiji becomes excited at the prospect of drawing a romance for the Super Leaders' Fest and attends the mangaka party with that in mind. When the other Super Leaders all decide on romances as well, Sasaki agrees to make it a Super Leaders' Love Fest. After Eiji draws Love Power A to Z, Yujiro notes that due to the battle scenes, it could become a huge success, but the lack of romantic association with the reader could make it a huge failure. As a result, it places 9th overall and places 5th out of the seven authors, the worst of his works. Eiji is visibly upset by the result, and it is noted that he has only liked one girl in second grade, which likely contributed to his lack of success with romance manga. Eiji is later commemorated for his continuing series Crow and +Natural.
Classroom of Truth
Eiji admits that Classroom of Truth's art and the one shot were both good and compares Nanamine to Ashirogi Muto. He notes that while it would be interesting to see Nanamine surpass Ashirogi, he "can't see Nanamine's face at all". This comment, which is similarly noted by Yoshida, is most directly attributed to Nanamine's concentration on his setting as opposed to the characters that make up the setting.
Manga
Niizuma's first design for Crow
Crow
Eiji's first serialized manga was Crow. He was supposed to work on a manga called Yellow Hit, but demanded that he be allowed to draw Crow instead. He later ends Crow, acting on his original request to end a manga he hated.
+Natural
Eiji is currently working on +Natural with writer Aiko Iwase in addition to Crow. When +Natural was first being considered for serialization, there was some debate as to whether Eiji should be allowed to have two stories running in Jump or not.
Large Bander
Eiji won second place in the Tezuka Award with this one-shot, getting him noticed in the manga world.
Yellow Hit
Originally another one-shot, Niizuma was meant to draw Yellow Hit for serialization, but submitted Crow instead.
Quotes
- (To Sasaki) "If I become the most popular author in Jump, please give me the right to end one manga I hate."
- (To Team Fukuda) "I hate the fact that I can't end my manga when I want to."[1]
Notes & Trivia
- He ranked 1st in Weekly Shonen Jump popularity character polls making him the most popular character in the series.
- Eiji's penchant and talent for mainstream, and the eventual serialization of his former assistants, Fukuda Shinta and Nakai Takuro, draw a comparison between him and Masashi Kishimoto, mangaka of Naruto. Also to note is that his preparation for the ending of Crow concurs with Kishimoto's supposedly final Fourth Shinobi War Arc in Naruto.
- Eiji's odd behaviour and talent are possibly taken from L a character Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba previous work Death Note, who is equally skilled and of odd behaviour.
- Eiji makes an appearance in Chapter 72 of Sket Dance where a character named Shinzou dresses up as him.
References
- ↑ Bakuman Chapter 9, Page 18