Kosuke Fujishima (born July 7, 1964) is a Japanese mangaka best known as the author of two bestselling manga stories, You're Under Arrest! and Ah! My Goddess, and a relatively obscure series, éX-Driver. He began his career as an assistant mangaka to Tatsuya Egawa, (of Golden Boy and Tokyo Daigaku Monogatari fame) and as an editor of Puff, a manga magazine.
He is also responsible for the character designs of Piano, Sakura Wars and the Tales Series.
Fujishima-sensei is an automobile and motorcycle enthusiast, which is reflected on almost all of his works. All of the three stories he authored heavily featured real models of cars and motorcycles (to Technology Porn levels), especially in éX-Driver, where cars are actually relevant to the plot. He was also able to show off his expertise in machines as the mechanical designer of the PS2 game Gungrave.
His few but prolific and acclaimed works include:
- You're Under Arrest! (1986-1992)
- Ah! My Goddess (1988-2014, easily his longest-running work)
- éX-Driver (2000)
- Piano (2002)
- Paradise Residence (2009-2016)
- Toppu GP (2016-present)
Tropes Commonly Associated within Fujishima's works:
- Art Evolution: most apparent with Ah! My Goddess, which saw the evolution of Belldandy from "supernatural-looking" to the serene face we recognize today. Also works for Urd, Skuld and Keiichi.
- The anime follows this evolution consistently. Just compare the 1993 OVA to the 2005 TV series.
- You can see this in other works, too - compare his character designs for Tales of Phantasia to something like Tales of Vesperia.
- Motorcycle on the Coast Road: Given that at least one character in every series he wrote owns a moped or a bike, this is bout to pop up once in a while.
- Only Six Faces: Although none of the characters for each series look alike, Fujishima tends to borrow character designs from his previous works, creating a Reused Character Design of sorts.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Miyuki and Natsumi in You're Under Arrest, Lisa and Lorna in e'X-D.
- Technology Porn: Let's have a drinking game. For every time an accurate car or motorcycle model from the real world shows up, take a drink. Your liver will turn to foie gras in no time.
