Manga artist Matsumoto Taiyo was born on October 25, 1967, in Tokyo.
His father was a writer and hypnotherapist, and his mother was a poet. He lived in a facility for orphaned children during elementary school. He eventually entered the Department of Art, Faculty of Letters, Wako University, where he joined the Manga Study Group and began drawing manga. In 1987, his work "STRAIGHT" was a runner-up for the Shiki Prize and published in a special edition of "Monthly Afternoon." Taking this opportunity, he left university and began serializing the same work in the manga magazine "Morning" in 1988.
He then moved to "Big Comic Spirits," where he published a series of works including "ZERO" and "Boys Over Flowers." Matsumoto's signature work from this period is "Tekkonkinkreet," which began serialization in 1993. The charming characters, including Kuro, Shiro, and the yakuza Suzuki, and the unique dialogue quickly captured the hearts of manga fans, and sales of the three volumes of the comic exceeded one million copies. It was adapted into a film in 2006 and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. In 1996, he began serializing "Ping Pong," a dynamic portrayal of the exploits of a high school table tennis club.
After the serialization of "Ping Pong" ended, he spent about two years in production drawing "GOGO Monster," which won a special award at the Japan Cartoonists Association Awards. In 2006, he began serializing "Takemitsu Samurai," which later won the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Manga Grand Prize. In 2010, he began serializing "Sunny," inspired by his own childhood. The story vividly depicts the lives of boys and girls at "Hoshi no Ko Gakuen," a facility for children who have left their parents behind.
In 2013, he held a joint exhibition with Miyazaki Hayao and others, "Sketch Travel: Building Libraries for African Children," at "8/ CUBE 1,2,3" on the 8th floor of Shibuya Hikarie. In 2014, he released two original collaborative T-shirts with "rockin'star★," which has produced a variety of collaborative T-shirts. In 2015, he collaborated with Hobonichi Techo to release a special cover, "Words Like a Ball."
In his private life, he is married to fellow manga artist Fuyuno Saho, and it is said that she sometimes acts as Matsumoto's assistant.
