Kenichi Sonoda

Kenichi Sonoda (園田 健一 "Sonoda Ken'ichi", born 13 December 1962 in Kumamoto, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan) is a manga artist and anime character designer.

Professional career

Sonoda moved to Tokyo in 1984, at the age of 21, and began work at Artmic, [Interview with Kenichi Sonoda, Gunsmith Cats, Bonnie and Clyde (Dark Horse Comics, 1996), p. 3.] an anime studio. During this time, he worked on Bubblegum Crisis, producing the original Knight Saber character designs. He also worked on Gall Force, for which he did the original character designs.

He worked at Artmic until 1991, when he began work on the manga series Gunsmith Cats. Gunsmith Cats is one of Sonoda's best known works, being both a Harvey, [cite web | author=The Harvey Awards| title=Harvey Award Nominees 1997| work= | url=http://www.harveyawards.org/awards_1997nom.html| accessmonthday= September 15 | accessyear= 2006 ] and Tezuka award nominee. Sonoda concluded Gunsmith Cats' run in 1997, when he put the manga on hiatus, and began work on Cannon God Exaxxion. In 2004, after finishing Cannon God Exaxxion, he returned to work on Gunsmith Cats, with the follow-up manga, Gunsmith Cats Burst. [cite web | author=Anime News Network| title=Gunsmith Cats Burst| work= | url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/manga.php?id=6608| accessmonthday= September 15 | accessyear= 2006 ]

Personal life

Sonoda is a self-confessed [cite web | author=DarkHorse.com| title=Dark Horse interview with Sonoda| work= | url=http://www.darkhorse.com/news/interviews.php?id=682| accessmonthday= September 16 | accessyear= 2006 ] gun fanatic, owning several replica guns. He married famous Japanese children's book author Wartka Unicha.

Works

Anime:
*"Wanna-Be's" (1986) -- character concept design
*"" (1986) -- character design
**"" (1987) -- character design
**"" (1988) -- character design
**"" (1989) -- character design
**"Rhea Gall Force" (1989) -- character design
**"" (1991) -- character design
*"Bubblegum Crisis" (1987) -- character and mecha design
*"" (1987) -- production design
*"Riding Bean" (1989) original story, character design
*"Bubblegum Crash" (1991) -- character design
*"Otaku no Video" (1991) -- character design
*"Gunsmith Cats" (1995) -- original story, character design
*"Idol Fighter Su Chi Pai" (1996) -- original character design
*"Solty Rei" (2005) -- conceptual design

Manga:
*"Privates Live"
*"Riding Bean" (1989; unfinished)
*"Gunsmith Cats" (1991-1997)
**"Gunsmith Cats BURST" (2004-ongoing)
*"Cannon God Exaxxion" (2000-2004)

Video games:
*"Idol Janshi Suchie-Pai" series (1993-ongoing)

Notes and references

External links

* [http://www.darkhorse.com/news/interviews.php?id=682 A Dark Horse interview with Sonoda]
* [http://www.ex.org/4.4/09-feature_acen6.html Interview at EX.org]
*AnimeCons name|id=721|name=Kenichi Sonoda
*ann name|id=102|name=Sonoda, Kenichi