Yūsei Matsui is a Japanese manga artist for Weekly Shonen Jump. He is best known for being the author of Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro ("Demon Detective Neuro Nougami"), which remains a cult classic to this day, and Assassination Classroom, which maintains a lot of popularity in Japan and became a hit in the West. Between these two serializations, Matsui created two one-shot stories: Rikon Choutei ("Divorce Concilation") and Tokyo Depato Sensou Taikenki ("Tokyo Department War Memoir").
It was revealed that the JoJo franchise was one of Matsui's biggest influences during an interview with the series' creator, Hirohiko Araki. Before becoming a mangaka, he worked as an assistant for Yoshio Sawai, the creator of Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo. Now you know where the inspiration for the gigantic, surreal monsters and the sense of humor found in his works came from.
Works by Yuusei Matsui:
- Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro: 2005-2009
- Rikon Choutei: A one-shot created in 2009 about a man dragging a gigantic sword across a barren, post-apocalyptic earth.
- Tokyo Depato Sensou Taikenki: A one-shot created in 2011 starring a bounty hunter who hunts deadly, high quality department store goods for profit. The story wasn't approved by WSJ for serialization, so many of the planned character designs were used in Assassination Classroom instead.
- Assassination Classroom: 2012-2016
- Matsui Yuusei Eats Araki Hirohiko's Cooking: A special project done in 2013 where Matsui drew an eight page report on Hirohiko Araki's cooking. Can be read in its entirety here.
- F-Ken: A one-shot created in 2019 about a kendo club harnessing the power of the fetish. Can be read for free here.
- The Elusive Samurai: 2021-present
Tropes associated with Yuusei Matsui and his works:
- Author Avatar: A simple, round thing with two arms and a face—inside of an eyeball. Serves as a character in his cooking project, his avatar around Jump's magazine, and makes a cameo in one chapter of The Elusive Samurai.
- Art Evolution: Matsui's artwork started out a bit rough, and he even admitted that he wasn't too good at drawing humans. But over the course of Neuro's run, his artwork noticeably improved. As seen in his one-shots and later serializations, his art as a whole gradually evolved from a sketchy, realistic style to the simpler, bolded designs seen in Assassination Classroom to the refined, detailed artwork in The Elusive Samurai.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: His main characters usually have an odd morality code. His most popular series feature an apathetic demon who's never killed a human himself because he needs to eat mysteries fueled by humanity's evil to stay alive, and a goofy octopus hellbent on both destroying the Earth and becoming the best teacher ever.
- Our Monsters Are Weird: Surreal monster designs are a staple of his works, whether they be exaggerated humans or actual monsters.
- Surreal Humor: Just look at the premises for everything he's written. And the characters. And his sense of humor.
