Osamu Akimoto said
Black Tiger came from having always wanted to draw a
Western, recalling that everyone loved
Spaghetti Westerns when he was a kid. Although he previously created one with the 2015 one-shot
Allie, Shoot Your Gun, he said that there are many
historical dramas nowadays, but no Westerns. He also described
Black Tiger as an homage to manga artist Mikiya Mochizuki, who died in 2016, and his series
Wild 7, where a bad guy defeats a bad guy. Although it is Akimoto's first series following the completion of
KochiKame: Tokyo Beat Cops (1976–2016),
Black Tiger has a different style because it is serialized in a
seinen manga magazine and he said it feels like a new start as a result. He said his roots are in
gekiga and described the characters of
Black Tiger as being
gekiga, which means they do not speak much. The artist noted how even when he drew gun-shooting scenes in
Mr. Clice, he did not show blood, but now he wants to draw more freely. Despite stating that drawing women has always been a weakness of his, Akimoto said strong-minded girls are easy and interesting to draw, so he wanted to use one as the main character. ==Publication==