- Masakazu Katsura
-
Masakazu Katsura 
Masakazu Katsura with fanBorn December 10, 1962
FukuiOccupation Manga artist Masakazu Katsura (桂 正和 Katsura Masakazu, born December 10, 1962) is a Japanese manga artist who is best known for several works of manga, including Dream Fighter Wingman, Shadow Lady, DNA², Video Girl Ai, I"s, and Zetman. He has also worked on the character designs for Iria: Zeiram the Animation, which was based on the movie Zeiram.
Contents
History
He was born in the prefecture of Fukui in Japan. The turning point in his life was an illness for which he was bedridden, during which time he taught himself a different way to draw. This is noticeable by comparing the style of Wingman (which he started before getting ill) with that of his later works, more realistic.
Video Girl Ai was made into a six episode OVA, starting with the first volume. This has been released in North America. A live-action movie was also made of the story. The main action of the five-volume series DNA² was made into an anime television show that did not sell well enough to finish, so the story was concluded with a short OVA, which was also released in North America. I"s was made into at least two anime OVAs: one two-episode side story, and one six-episode summary of the manga.
Katsura also performed as a vocalist on the songs "Tomorrow Will Be Tomorrow" and "Unseen Dream" from the two soundtracks for the Video Girl Ai anime.
A fan of Batman
He is also a huge fan of Batman, something which has influenced his work, most clearly seen in Shadow Lady. The occasional Batman reference pops up in his works from time to time. For example, in Video Girl Ai, the two main characters, Yota and Ai, go to see a movie called Batman which shows the famous scene of the thug at the beginning of the movie ask "Who are you?" and Batman (actually holding a baseball bat) replies "I'm Bat-Man". This is in homage to the 1989 Tim Burton film. Also, in the early chapters, Yota imitates Batman whenever he grows angry that he is known as "Dateless".
In I"s, there is a brief scene with Ichitaka Seto watching a Zetman (before he wrote Zetman) Movie that has a costume similar to Batman's. He was also fighting a villain similar to Mr. Freeze. Itsuki Akiba did the statue in the movie.
In 2008, Katsura did a design illustration of the Batman costume, based on the costume used in the film The Dark Knight, for Bandai's "Movie Realization" action figure line.[1]
Works
- Wing-man (1983–1985)
- Super Mobile Troop Vander (超機動員ヴァンダー; 1985–1986)
- Present from Lemon (プレゼント・フロム LEMON; 1987)
- Zetman (4 one-shots from 1989 to 1994, serialized 2002–present)
- Den'ei Shōjo (電影少女; includes Video Girl Ai and Video Girl Len, one-shot in 1989, serialized 1990–1993)
- Shadow Lady (1992–1993, 1995–1996)
- DNA² (D・N・A² 〜何処かで失くしたあいつのアイツ〜; 1993–1994)
- M (1996)
- I"s (1997–1999)
- Love and Destroy (video game, character designs, 1999)
- Dr Chambalee (2000)
- Bitch's Life (3 pages, 2001)
- Sachi-chan Gū!! (さちえちゃんグー!!; story by Akira Toriyama, 2008)
- Jiya!! (story by Akira Toriyama, 2009–2010)
- Tiger & Bunny (TV anime, character designs, 2011)
Notes
- ^ "Tokyo Toy Show 2008 report: Bandai booth" (in Japanese). Hobby Stock. http://blog.hobbystock.jp/report/2008/06/hm0003.html. Retrieved 2008-06-19.
External links
Categories:- 1962 births
- Living people
- Manga artists
- People from Fukui Prefecture
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