Masakazu Katsura 桂 正和 |
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Masakazu Katsura at Lucca Comics & Games 2014
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Born |
Fukui, Japan |
December 10, 1962
Nationality | Japanese |
Area(s) | Manga artist, artist, character designer |
Notable works
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Video Girl Ai, I"s, Zetman |
Awards | Tezuka Award (1980, 1981) |
Masakazu Katsura (桂 正和 Katsura Masakazu?, born December 10, 1962) is a Japanese manga artist, known for several works of manga, including Wing-man, Shadow Lady, DNA², Video Girl Ai, I"s, and Zetman. He has also worked as character designer for Iria: Zeiram the Animation, Tiger & Bunny and Garo -Guren no Tsuki-.
Masakazu Katsura 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. Katsura entered the manga industry in his second or third year of high school, when he entered a work for the Tezuka Award to win the prize money. However, he says he did not grow up reading manga, instead he read novels and watched movies.
Video Girl Ai was made into an original video animation and 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 OVAs: one two-episode side story, and one six-episode summary of the manga.