Kawasaki Takao began his professional career as an illustrator. The first solo exhibition of his work was held in 1997, while working as an assistant to manga author Suzy Amakane. In 2001, he went solo as a freelance illustrator. His first volume of manga (Hetare Chicken) was published in 2004 and simultaneously his first work in AX. His work might be described as "soft-boiled": it takes the themes and characters of hard-time detective work and gangsterism and fills them with the sap of comic melodrama.