Zatch Bell! - Production

Production

After Raiku's series in the Shōnen Sunday Super ended, Raiku looked at his old drafts he created in the past for an idea for his next series. One of his ideals was a mercenary who uses a giant sword to defeat enemies. After playing with that idea for three months, Raiku decided to abandon it and go with another idea. His next idea was a story where a middle school student finds in an old toy and with the help the of a noble knight, combats evil and after taking this up with his agent, he was advised to use a cuter character to fight and thus, Zatch was created. After Raiku worked on the idea for a few months, it was published. Raiku said that he intended to create a "passionate story about a heartwarming friendship" and that he used the concept as a "base" while adding the mamodo, book, and spell concepts. He was inspired by a western magic story that he read to create Zatch's red spell book. The reason Zatch uses lightning spells because his name had the word "Raiku" means "lightning" in Japanese. He mentions he created Folgore with the words "Invincible Italian Man" as a base.

While writing volume five and six which takes place in England, Raiku went to England on a research trip.

Zatch Bell! ended in December 2007. Shogakukan sent Raiku back his original manga artwork. However, five full color pieces were missing. On May 21, 2008, Raiku announced that he would no longer do business with Shogakukan. During the same year Raiku sued Shogakukan over the lost Zatch Bell!-related artwork. Later that year Raiku settled for 2.55 million yen.