Tite Kubo

久保帯人

Kubo was born on June 26, 1977, in Hiroshima Prefecture. His real name is Noriaki Kubo (久保宣章).
- In elementary school, he had already decided to become a manga artist, due to reading the manga Saint Seiya.
- His first one-shot was "Ultra Unholy Hearted Machine", written for the Weekly Shōnen Jump in 1996.
- He wrote his first manga, Zombiepowder, which was also published in Weekly Shōnen Jump in 1999. It ran a short 27 chapters before being canceled in 2000. According to the author's commentary, Kubo was in a state of severe emotional trauma when he wrote it. Kubo later stated that he was not used to the magazine weekly serialization and used to pay more attention to his editor's comments rather than his own ideas.
- His next series, Bleach, about Ichigo Kurosaki, a high school student who becomes a shinigami and fights creatures known as Hollows, began running in the same magazine in 2001. Kubo initially expected the series' serialization to continue no longer than five years. The original story concept was submitted to Weekly Shōnen Jump shortly after the cancellation of Zombiepowder, but was rejected. Akira Toriyama, creator of Dragon Ball, saw the story and wrote a letter of encouragement to Kubo. Bleach ran for 15 years of serialization and reached over 698 chapters from 2001 to 2016.