Born in 1967, Toru Fujisawa is a veteran Japanese comic artist and multimillion unit seller. Best known globally for his international sensation Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO), Fujisawa was awarded the 22nd Kodansha Comic Award in 1998 for his work on the hit series. The GTO property would go on to inspire two animated TV series and an internationally distributed live action TV series by the same name. Since GTO, Fujisawa has gone on to thirteen more comic series, with four of those properties (TOKKO, Rose Hip Rose, Rose Hip Zero and Shonan Junai-gumi) landing on American shores. At 44 the Hokkaido native continues to be one of the most beloved manga artists of this generation.