There are artists whose names don’t always appear prominently on the cover, but without whom a comic book wouldn’t be the same.
Hiroyuki Ooshima is one of them. A colorist, illustrator, and complete artist, he transforms each page into a vibrant scene, thanks to his unique sense of light and atmosphere.
Born in Tokyo’s Fukagawa district, Hiroyuki Ooshima developed a passion for drawing at a very young age.
At 17, he was already noticed by the legendary magazine Shūkan Shōnen Jump, a true springboard for many Japanese manga artists.
But it was in Reims, France, that he decided to build his career and establish his style.
Having settled in the region in the late 2000s, Ooshima has found in French-language comics an ideal playground for blending Japanese influences with a European narrative sensibility.
While Ooshima is a skilled draftsman, it’s primarily as a colorist that he’s made a name for himself.
Where others simply fill the panels, he orchestrates light, plays with shadows, and imbues each scene with its own unique emotional resonance.
His work blends Japanese precision with the visual freedom of European comics, creating pages that breathe, where each scene tells a story through its color.
Ooshima is one of those artists who thrives on collaborative creation.
His partnership with Jean-David Morvan is a cornerstone of his career.
Together, they have worked on several projects where Ooshima provides the artwork or coloring, such as the Crime School series.
He also contributes to Magnum Génération(s), an ambitious project blending comics and photojournalism, where he brings subtle, narrative colors that enhance the power of the visual testimony.
His talent is also expressed in more personal projects, where he explores graphic universes at the crossroads of manga and Franco-Belgian comics.
A bridge between two cultures
Ooshima embodies that rare connection between Japan and France, between manga and comics.
He has brought to Europe a typically Japanese precision and sensitivity, while simultaneously appropriating the conventions of European storytelling.
His work is a bridge between two schools of drawing, two ways of telling stories, and it is precisely this blend that gives it its strength.
Between Tokyo and Reims, between manga and comics, he has found his own voice, silent yet resonant on the page.
Hiroyuki Ooshima’s work proves that a comic is not just a drawn story: it is an atmosphere, a vibration, a breath.
And this is something Hiroyuki Ooshima knows how to do like few others.
