Art Block Post #9

Konichiwa! It's time now for yet another favorite Mangaka of mine, Marashi Kishimoto!

As you can see Kishimoto is the artist and writer behind the ever so popular Manga/Anime series, Naruto!

Marashi Kishimoto was born on November 8, 1974 in Okayama. He also has a twin brother, Seishi, who is also a Mangaka of 666 Satan/O-Parts Hunter and Blazer Drive. Marashi and his brother have been accused of plagiarism, yet both have stated that there are some similarities only due to the fact that they were influenced by many of the same things. Marashi's influences include: the anime "Doraemon", Mobile Suit Gundam, mangaka Akira Toriyama's Dr. Slump & Dragon Ball, Katsuhiro Ootomoi's Akira, the manga Sasuke by Sanpei Shirato, and the movie "The Matrix". He also cites Yoshihiro Togashi as one of his favorite manga artists.

Kishimoto's first work was a manga called Karakuri, which was submitted to Shueisha in 1995. It earned him a spot in the Weekly Shonen Jump and won him the "Hop Step Award" in 1996. However it did not last long before it was canceled due to lack of popularity. Karakuri was followed by the pilot for Naruto in 1997, but Naruto wouldn't be published for another two years.

Finally in 1999 Kishimoto got his biggest break with Naruto. The series is ongoing with 561 chapters, and 52+ volumes worldwide. Naruto has sold over 100 million copies in Japan, over 95 million copies in the US, and over 93 million worldwide (excluding Japan and the US). It has been adapted into two successful anime series, with 8 movies and a few OVAs (original video animations). Naruto has also been adapted into novel form as well, and has spawned several video game series, toys, a clothing line, and a trading card game. It was the first manga to win a Quill Award for "Best Graphic Novel" in 2006 (volume 11 won).

In 2010 Kishimoto produced a one-shot baseball manga, Bench, as a part of Jump's Top of the Super Legend. He also designed an extra costume for video game character, Lars Alexandersson, of Tekken 6.

 

 When drawing, Kisimoto follows a five step process: Concept & Rough Sketch, Drafting, Inking, Shading, and Coloring. He uses these five steps when drawing characters, actual manga panels, and color illustrations (which are usually used as title pages or covers for Jump magazine).

Art Block Post #8

Konichiwa! It's time now for another one of my favorite Mangaka, Tite Kubo!

Noriaki Kubo, know more commonly by his pen name Tite Kubo, was born on June 26, 1977. Kubo-sensei is the son of a town council member in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima, Japan. He's always wanted to be a manga artist, and really got into it when he was interested in architecture and design. At the age of 18 Kubo-sensei submitted his first concept of his first manga series, ZombiePowder. It was rejected multiple times, yet many commented on his talent. Finally, at age 22 ZombiePowder got accepted by Shonen Jump, however it was canceled due to lack of popularity in 2000 with only 4 volumes.

Then in 2001 Kubo-sensei's second series began running in Shonen Jump. This series would soon become one of the most popular series running, and it's ranked number 2 in popularity. Yes that's right it's Bleach! As of October of this year (2011) Bleach has reached over 460 chapters, has an anime adaptation, with four movies, that has been running since 2004 in Japan, several video games, and even a musical in Japan! In 2005 Bleach was named a winner of the Shogukunkan Manga Award for its category. Bleach was first conceived from Kubo-sensei's desire to draw Shinigami (known as Soul Reapers in America), Japanese grim reapers, in Kimono. Kubo-sensei wishes to make Bleach an experience that can only me found by reading, and dismisses all ideas of creating any live action film adaptations of it. He also doesn't want to turn the series into a love story since he thinks there are more exciting aspects concerning the character's personalities. Also his characters use different languages to describe their terms, or abilities, he uses German for his shinigami rival, known as Quincy, and Spanish for the enemy monsters, known as Hollows and Arrancars, he finds Spanish to be bewitching and mellow.
Kubo-Sensei's Short Stories:
Ultra Unholy Hearted Machine (1996)- appears in volume 2 of ZombiePowder
Rune Master Urara (1996)- appears in volume 3 of ZombiePowder
Bad Shield United (1997)- appears in volume 4 of ZombiePowder and makes a cameo in Bleach as a movies "Bad Shield United 2"
In 2008 Kubo-sensei came to the US for the first time as a guest at San Diego Comic Con. His main influences are Saint Seiya by Masami Kuramada because of the characters all wear armor & have interesting weapons and Ge Ge Ge no Kituro by Shigeru Mizuki for the yokai, or monsters. In making battle scenes Kubo-sensei has rock music going while he imagines the fight with an empty background and then tried to find the best angle for it. He also tied to make toe injuries look very realistic in order to make the reader feel the character's pain. If he gets bored drawing a battle scene he throws in a joke or two to make it fun for him. When creating characters, Kubo-sensei first attempts to create the design and later decides on their personality. He considers every character to be unique and wants each to develop along with the plot of the story. To him characters come first over plot. For his characters' clothing he designs clothing that he wold like to have but can't find in stores.

Tite Kubo's 10th anniversary gift to Naruto

Read Bleach
Read ZombiePowder