Mitsuru Adachi (Japanese: あだち 充 or 安達 充, Hepburn: Adachi Mitsuru, born February 9, 1951) is a Japanese manga artist. After graduating from Gunma Prefectural Maebashi Commercial High School in 1969, Adachi worked as an assistant for Isami Ishii.^[1] He made his manga debut in 1970 with Kieta Bakuon, based on a manga originally created by Satoru Ozawa. Kieta was published in Deluxe Shōnen Sunday (a manga magazine published by Shogakukan).

Adachi is well known for romantic comedy and sports manga (especially baseball) such as Touch, H2, Slow Step, Miyuki and Cross Game. He has been described as a writer of "delightful dialogue", a genius at portraying everyday life,^[2] "the greatest pure storyteller",^[3] and "a master manga artist".^[4] He is one of the few manga artists to write for shōnen, shōjo and seinen manga magazines, and be popular in all three.

His works have been carried in manga magazines such as Weekly Shōnen Sunday, Ciao, Shōjo Comic, Big Comic and Petit Comic, and most of his works are published through Shogakukan and Gakken. He was one of the flagship authors in the new Monthly Shōnen Sunday magazine which began publication in June 2009. Two short story collections, Short Program and Short Program 2 (both through Viz Media), have been released in North America, and Viz Media scheduled to begin publishing Cross Game in October 2010.^[5] The first volume was released on October 12.^[6]

He modeled the spelling of あだち (rather than 安達) for his family name after the example of his older brother, manga artist Tsutomu Adachi. In addition, it has been suggested that the accurate portrayal of sibling rivalry in Touch may come from Adachi's experiences while growing up with his older brother. Adachi did the character designs for the OVA anime series Nozomi Witches, so he is sometimes incorrectly given credit for creating the original series.

Prior to 1969, Adachi began submitting works to the manga magazine COM. In 1969, he followed his older brother's lead and moved to Tokyo to begin work as an assistant to manga artist Isami Ishii. The following year, he made his professional debut with Kieta Bakuon.^[7] He continued publishing various short stories and shorter series throughout the 1970s based on works created by others, the most well known being his adaptation of Rainbowman from 1972 to 1973. In 1978, he published his first original series, Nine, in Weekly Shōnen Sunday. He published two other original series, Hiatari Ryōkō! from 1979 to 1981 in Weekly Shōjo Comic, and Miyuki from 1980 to 1984 in Shōnen Big Comic.

Adachi became a household name with the publication of his series Touch from 1981 to 1986 in Weekly Shōnen Sunday. In 1982, Hiatari Ryōkō! was adapted into a live action TV drama series. The following year, 1983, was a big year for Adachi. He received the 28th Annual Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen/shōjo manga his two series Touch and Miyuki.^[7][8] His Miyuki series was adapted into both an anime television series and a live-action film and Nine was adapted into three films, with another following in 1984.

Touch was adapted into an anime television series in 1985 and the series ran for two years on Fuji TV. Adachi's romantic shōjo manga series, Slow Step, was serialized in Ciao from 1986 to 1991 and another romantic comedy series, Rough, appeared in Weekly Shōnen Sunday from 1987 to 1989. Adachi then released Niji Iro Tōgarashi, a fantasy medieval romantic comedy manga series, from 1990 to 1992 in Weekly Shōnen Sunday.

Jinbē, a romantic comedy about the relationship between a stepfather and stepdaughter, was serialized in Big Comic Original from 1992 to 1997. Adachi's longest manga series, H2 was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Sunday from 1992 to 1999 and compiled in 34 volumes. This manga was adapted into an anime television series which aired on TV Asahi from 1995 to 1996.

From 2000 to 2001, Adachi published a fantasy romantic comedy series in Weekly Shōnen Sunday titled Itsumo Misora. His next longer series was the boxing romantic comedy, Katsu!, published from 2001 to 2005 in Weekly Shōnen Sunday. In 2005, H2 was adapted into a live action drama series aired on TBS in Japan, and Touch was adapted into a live action movie released by Toho. He also began his manga series Cross Game, serialized in Weekly Shōnen Sunday. The following year, Rough was adapted into a live action movie, also released by Toho.

Due to achieving total manga sales numbering over 200 million volumes, Weekly Shōnen Sunday devoted issue 26 in 2008 to Adachi and his works. In 2009, Adachi won the 54th Annual Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen manga for Cross Game,^[9] which was adapted into an anime television series which began airing on TV Tokyo in April 2009.

Adachi began Q and A in the inaugural issue of Monthly Shōnen Sunday in June 2009. Asaoka High School Baseball Club Diary: Over Fence began in the April 27, 2011, issue of Weekly Shōnen Sunday.^[7] In May 2012 he finished Q and A and began his new series, Mix, a semi-sequel to Touch set 30 years later, in the June 2012 issue of Monthly Shōnen Sunday.^[10] Currently, Adachi's works have sold over 200 million copies.^[7]

Tsutomu Adachi

Mitsuru's older brother was a manga artist and an assistant to Fujio Akatsuka. He died of stomach cancer in 2004.

Shinji Nagashima

Adachi became a fan of Nagashima around the age of 10, and began tracing his works. He became an assistant to Nagashima for a short time after graduating from high school. However, Nagashima suddenly moved overseas, so he then became an assistant to Isami Ishii. In the October 16, 2005, issue of Big Comic, Adachi published a short work titled The Runaway God which was meant as a memorialization of Nagashima.^[14]

Rumiko Takahashi

From the early 1980s, both Adachi and Takahashi were popular authors in Weekly Shōnen Sunday and they formed a friendly rivalry. He even commented about how he had a lot to live up to with how popular Takahashi was, especially with it being a shōnen magazine. Several times a year they would meet, to share their thoughts and ideas with each other.^[15] At the end of Weekly Shōnen Sunday issue 43 in 2006, the authors were asked, "If you could pick one penname to use which was different than your own, which one would you pick?", and Takahashi replied, "Adachi Mitsuru."

Kazuhiko Shimamoto

Shimamoto and Adachi are mutual fans of each others' works. The main character in his Blazing Transfer Student manga series, Noboru Takizawa, made a guest appearance in Touch.^[14]

Mr. Pogo

Pogo and Adachi graduated in the same class and have spoken about this in various magazine interviews. The character Kōtarō Matsudaira from Touch is modeled after Pogo.