Ryosuke Takeuchi is a Japanese manga writer who works in collaboration with manga artists to produce action and thriller series, most notably All You Need Is Kill — the manga adaptation of Hiroshi Sakurazaka's light novel — illustrated by Takeshi Obata, and Moriarty the Patriot (Yuukoku no Moriarty), illustrated by Miyoshi Hikaru. His work is characterized by the ability to take strong source material or strong genre premises and develop them into manga form with craft and dramatic effectiveness.
All You Need Is Kill, serialized in Weekly Young Jump from 2014, adapts Sakurazaka's science fiction novel about a soldier caught in a time loop — dying repeatedly in battle against alien invaders and restarting the same day, each iteration allowing him to accumulate tactical knowledge and skill until he becomes the most effective warrior on the battlefield. Takeuchi and Obata's manga version updates and streamlines the source material, and the pairing of Takeuchi's narrative construction with Obata's visual dynamism — a partnership informed by Obata's experience with Death Note and Bakuman — produces action sequences of high quality. The manga's development of both the tactical elements and the emotional toll of the loop was well-received.
Moriarty the Patriot, which began in Jump Square in 2016, reimagines Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mythology from the perspective of James Moriarty — repositioned as a noble-born revolutionary who uses his criminal genius to expose and destroy the corrupt class system of Victorian England before his eventual encounter with Holmes. The series is a thoughtful reconstruction of the Holmes mythology from an oppositional position, giving Moriarty genuine moral coherence and making his conflict with Holmes (who represents order, however unjust) into a tragedy of ideological opposition rather than simple heroism versus villainy.
The Moriarty series has developed a substantial international following, particularly among fans of the Sherlock Holmes tradition who appreciate the seriousness with which it engages the original mythology and the quality of the Victorian world-building and character work Takeuchi and Miyoshi have produced.
