Sunday, April 4, 2010

Artstream: Masakazu Katsura



Around my second year of college I was introduced to the work of this Japanese comic creator. Since then, Masakazu Katsura has been a huge influence on me as an artist. What I liked the most was how subtly the over detailed work goes together. His backgrounds are like photos but he seamlessly blends them with these manga characters. His action is great, too, and his romance illustrations are unparalleled. What I think other people will easily notice though, is the strength of his storytelling. This guy does AMAZING panel work. I uploaded a scanned/translated page from on of his more popular mangas, I"s. Also, and as a side note, Katsura worked closely with Akira Toriyama in their Shonen Jump days, and just like how I sometimes draw Triumph for Henry, I guess he did the same sometimes :)

Keith is probably the only one who can really appreciate that Goku.

On a related note, I've recently started watching the I"s Pure anime. Katsura had his hand in the production, just like with Video Girl Ai, but I"s is really an epic so crunching it down to 6 episodes, kinda hurts. I'd like to hear someone's opinion on the anime who hasn't read the comic.