Research Task: Manga Masters
- Abbie Vidler
- Mar 30
- 7 min read
For this research task, I will be researching the following artists and make notes on their creations:
Hirohiko Araki
Keiji Nakazawa
Katsuhiro Otomo
Rumiko Takahashi
Naomi Takeuchi
Akira Toriyama
Hirohiko Araki
First up researching is Hirohiko Araki, known for the creation ‘Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures’. Araki is well-known for his contributions to the Manga community with his iconic story, as well as his book called ‘Manga in Theory and Practice’ telling readers key techniques of manga and how to tell a compelling story.
Araki style would consist of dark shadows and dynamic posing; the dynamic posing would present itself in an appealing way that would make the manga itself feel fluid, rather than stiff poses and frames. Looking at Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures, you can clearly see how much it stands out from its genre with the character designs too, a lot of the characters are inspired by musicians, such as David Bowie and Prince; bold in colour and intricately dressed, the clothing would appeal flamboyant and fun making them stand out and become one of the staples of the manga. 1
Araki is considered “a leading figure of shōen manga” and the job of a manga artist was something that he took very seriously and felt that pressure from the fan base a lot, he went through trial and error to achieve his dreams and found himself competing the other artists and time itself to live up to the title of manga artist. 2
My reflections on Hirohiko Araki is that he knew what it would take to create great manga and you can see that passion clearly in his manga and his art reference book, after researching Araki I have decided I would read in entirety the book I have of his to prepare myself for the assignment.
Keiji Nakazawa
As I look through articles of Keiji Nakazawa, I found myself enthralled with one particular interview and telling of his life and creations. Nakazawa started off in life with tragedy, at the age of 6 an atomic bomb would be dropped on the town he lived in Hiroshima, tragically he would lose his siblings and his father, surviving with his pregnant mother- who would give birth due to stress of the atom bomb. As Nakazawa grew up he would find solace in drawing and would create cartoons to submit to manga magazines, all that would land him a job as an apprentice manga artist.
Nakazawa’s experiences and ambitions would drive him to be a great artist, using what he had gone through to show people the devastation that war would leave behind. What would trigger that ambition to create from what he experienced was his mother passing away, citizens of Japan would find the subject of the Atom bomb a taboo and felt angry; that kicked off the manga series ‘Barefoot Gen’. 3
Observing his work, I find his style very charming and reminiscent of that of a cartoon manga, the inking of stylised to give the characters very rounded faces. I like his pacing a lot, it’s slow and builds tension to the event, all while allowing us to connect with the people of the story.
I really felt for Keiji Nakazawa as I read through the long interview and his telling of his life, he really struggled with life and held a lot of anger for what happened but turned to informing people instead the hopes that the same incident wouldn’t happen again. I would love to read his collection of manga and experience the creative genius of Keiji Nakazawa.
Katsukiro Otomo
Katsukiro Otomo is very well-known for his manga, Akira, a pivotal manga in Japan. Otomo’s love for manga comes from childhood where he would read as much as he could; just like the previous artists, manga played a lot in their role as a child.
Otomo knew what he wanted to do, he wanted to make manga, from there he creatively decided that he wanted to go into the sci-fi genre with a touch of horror. Akira was the product of that, and it became something so much more than a manga, it became a staple of Japan with its iconic imagery; which leaves quite the impression since Akira was only meant to be a short narrative.
His style is distinct and perfectly detailed with extremely pleasing tech mech designs, and the iconic red motorbike as an iconography for Japan. 4 Observing his work, his style is very intricate and detailed, its really technical and I really admire his tech mech and sci-fi work, I would absolutely love to be able to create with this much detail.
Rumiko Takashi
Like most children, Takashi took an interest in manga at a young age, drawing in her notebooks. Unlike most artists in this research task, Takashi only produced manga as a hobby and it really wasn't until she attend a manga school that she wanted to look further into manga as a career.
Takashi was known for making female characters that were just as strong and intelligent as male characteres in manga. After deciding to take manga seriously she caught the attention of publishers of a "weekly boys magazine" which would project her to win awards and the manga that would do that was 'Ususei Yasura'. As she would get older her target audience would adapt, and a lot of her manga would tackle topics such as gender issues, religion and more.
Her manga in particular 'Maison Ikkoku' was for an older audience which tackled real topics and is said to have been more realism than was usual for a manga, and was a manga that touched people dearly as they read they grew with the main character into an adult. 5
Her style represented Japan's traditional manga with big anime eyes and pleasing aesthetics; observing her work, her work is light and is really enjoyable to look at.
Naoko Takeuchi
Naoko Takeuchi, well known for the iconic series Sailor Moon, Takeuchi drew manga as a means of escaping the stressful life of school and daily life, and because of her skill someone recommended that she should use manga as a career. It was her love of reading manga that contributed to that spark, reading record amounts.
When Sailor Moon was created it would be the desire to have someone strong romantically in her life that lit the flame for the character of Sailor Moon, strong women that was capable of anything they wanted to achieve. 6 Despite other creators input, Takeuchi was adamant to have beautiful characters than having the stereotypical 'ugly' character that was smart, she wanted to represent all women, having beautiful women that were smart and strong.
Her style would showcase the delicate gracefulness of girly manga, the manga itself has a target audience of women and girls; and the style resembles that of "American superheroes" by having "self-contained episodes", making it easier to pick up any manga available and still enjoying it without the feeling of missing out on something. 7
Taking time to look through her manga, I really love the girly style with big eyes and flowy hair and pretty character designs. The use of texture is beautiful with the sparkly effect with the screen-tone effects for glitter, powers-- everything!
Akira Toriyama
Akira Toriyama known for the incredible Dragon Ball Z series, an influential manga artist. It all started with a passion for drawing, drawing whatever interested him-- which led to him to design school to become an illustrator, but it wouldn't be until he did a 'Weekly Shonen Jump' drawing competition that he would take to manga (he didn't win, but that didn't deter him).
It was the push he needed to eventually take him to create Dragon Ball Z, his passion and creation of Dragon Ball Z would develop into an incredible franchise. His style would flow well and it would be the iconic catchphrases of the characters fighting maneuvers that would create the charm to his manga (much to his distaste). The combination of pacing, pleasing characters and other charming elements would make Dragon Ball Z what we know it today. 8
From what I know about Dragon Ball Z is that it is well-loved in the manga and anime community and it would become the iconography of manga/anime- being showcased on shirts with collaboration with UNIQLO, to drink cups of GFUEL.
Looking at his work, I like the characterization of the characters and the charm of humor; and the individualistic style of having catchphrases for fighting sequences. It's a really unique manga and very identifiable.
Reflection
This research task was eye-opening, seeing where all the iconic manga has come from and the influences was really cool to see. The only problem I had with this research task was technical difficulties, I had written this research task and published it-- came back to it for references of the next research task, only to see that half of the blog was completely missing. Because of that I feel like I lost a lot of what I was originally thinking as I was writing, and I lost a lot of references since when I wrote the links I had written down weren't what I was originally using.
I was really interested in particular with Keiji Nakazawa's story of how he became a manga artist despite everything that was thrown in his way in life, I hold a lot of admiration for him; the manga that I looked into of his was paced really well and was really emotional.
I love women representation of both Rumiko Takashi and Naoko Takeuchi, Takashi for her realism touch in narrative combined with beautiful artworks. Takeuchi's women empowerment with strong superheroes with beautiful aesthetics.
1 K. Tanza, Book Nerdection ‘The artistic evolution of JoJo’s author Hirohiko Araki’, Mar 12, 2023. https://booknerdection.com/the-artistic-evolution-of-jojos-author-hirohiko-araki/ Accessed Mar 25, 2025.
2 Rikki, buymeacoffee ‘Interview with Hirohiko Araki 1of2’, Dec 17, 2020. https://buymeacoffee.com/rikki/interview-hirohiko-araki Accessed Mar 25, 2025.
3 TCJ, The Comics Journal ‘Keiji Nakazawa’ Jan 5, 2013. https://www.tcj.com/keiji-nakazawa-interview/ Accessed Mar 25, 2025.
4 O. Barder, Forbes ‘Katsuhiro Otomo On Creating 'Akira' And Designing The Coolest Bike In All Of Manga And Anime', May 26, 2017. https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2017/05/26/katsuhiro-otomo-on-creating-akira-and-designing-the-coolest-bike-in-all-of-manga-and-anime/ Accessed Mar 30, 2025.
5 H & D Acres, Rumic World 'Rumiko Takashi: The Princess of Manga', U/A. https://www.furinkan.com/takahashi/bio.html Accessed Mar 30, 2025.
6 Tuxedo Unmasked, Tuxedo Unmasked 'Who Was Naoko Takeuchi Before Sailor Moon’s Debut?', Feb 2nd, 2022.https://www.tuxedounmasked.com/who-was-naoko-takeuchi-before-sailor-moons-debut/ Accessed Mar 30, 2025.
7 Memento, Sailor Moon Forum '1996 Naoko Takeuchi Interview in Animerica Magazine'-'Girl Talk With Sailor Moon', Sep 25, 2018 https://www.sailormoonforum.com/index.php?threads/1996-naoko-takeuchi-interview-in-animerica-magazine.31405/ Accessed Mar 30, 2025.
8 U/A, Sound of Life 'Akira Toriyama: The Life and Work of an Iconic Japanese Artist', Oct 13, 2024. https://www.soundoflife.com/blogs/design/akira-toriyama Accessed Mar 30, 2025.
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