Hisaichi Ishii

Ishii Hisaichi is a Japanese manga artist born on 1951-09-02 in Tamano, Okayama Prefecture, Japan. He is most well known outside of Japan for his manga series Nono-chan, which was made into the Studio Ghibli anime film Houhokekyo Tonari no Yamada-kun (My Neighbors the Yamadas). Topics covered by Ishii's manga include baseball (in his debut work), politics, economics, current events and topics, philosophy, and so on. He is known for his extreme caricatures of well known celebrities and well known people, including Kouichi Tabuchi (a pro baseball pitcher in Japan), Kim Jong Il, and Tsuneo Watanabe (executive director of the Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings group, owner of the Yomiuri Shimbun). Ishii graduated with a degree in sociology at Kansai University. (Source: AniDB)