Tōru Yamazaki

Tooru Yamazaki (山咲トオル, Yamazaki Tōru), alternatively spelled as Toru Yamazaki and Tohru Yamazaki, is a Japanese manga artist, singer, TV personality, writer and radio host. His real name is Sōhachirō Nakazawa (中沢 惣八郎). His older sister is the idol Hatsue Nakazawa, who he has helped write lyrics and composed music for.

He is openly homosexual and has a great interest in Showa era idol culture. His pseudonym comes from DJ, model and actress Senri Yamazaki, and a reference to the name of his older sister's ex-husband, Tōru.

Biography He was born in Minato, Tokyo but moved to Okinawa at the age of 7. Tooru was bullied when he was little due to being effeminate, but when he became a third-year student in the design department of Okinawa Prefectural Urasoe Technical High School he got popular and accepted. and gained quick popularity and notoriety. Most of his manga since were horror comedy oneshots with crude humor and parody elements so when his face was published in an issue, readers were shocked by how he different he was from their expectations.

He has used okama-type language since his time as a radio show host and from around 2004 he started calling himself Onee (おネエ, lit. Sis) and established this persona, but Yamazaki himself has said that he felt uncomfortable with the stereotype of "effeminate = sarcastic and sharp-tongued" he had to perform, this and the stress of the amount of work he did himself and busy schedule led to his temporary hiatus. and in March 2025 he and Miyako Cojima, another horror comedy manga artist and a friend of his, held the exhibition Futari Jigoku (ふたり地獄, lit. 2 People's Hell).

Works His manga are known for their crude sense of humor and violent content. Moretsu Henshin!! Epiru-chan was marketed as a Neo-Horror-Gag by the publisher Soft Magic.

Manga

Shikabane Shōjo (屍少女) Octopus Girl (戦慄!!タコ少女, Senritsu!! Tako Shōjo), 3 out of 4 volumes published for the North American market by Dark Horse in 2006. Rainbow Boys (2008) as Kazuo Mama