Tani Hiroji grew up near the United States military bases around Yokohama and was exposed to American comics and pulp magazines at an early age. He was particualrly influenced by the work of Hannes Bok, cover illustrator for Weird Tales and other sci-fi pulps. From his first work in Garo in 1970, Shooting Star, Tani's linework has been characterized by an attenuated, even apparitional, quality. Fantasy themes and aristocratic European settings are typical, and mark his work as a departure from what was then the Japanese alternative manga mainstream of reworked folklore, ghost stories, war memories, psychedelic reveries, and bohemian romance.