Tsukasa Kotobuki
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

is a Japanese character designer for various games and anime series such as ''
Saber Marionette J is a Japanese anime television series produced by Studio Junio. aired on TV Tokyo from October 1, 1996 to March 25, 1997. It is the first installment of the ''Saber Marionette'' franchise. The show was localized in North America by Ocean Pr ...
'', ''
VS Knight Ramune & 40 Fire is a Japanese manga, and anime television series and is the sequel to '' NG Knight Lamune & 40''. The character designer for the series was Tsukasa Kotobuki, noted for ''Saber Marionette''. The show lasted for 26 episodes, and its story foll ...
'', ''
Cyber Team in Akihabara is a 1998 Japanese anime television series created by Tsukasa Kotobuki and Satoru Akahori. It aired from April 4, 1998 to September 26, 1998 on Tokyo Broadcasting System, TBS and ran for 26 episodes. It was released in the United States by A ...
'' and ''
Battle Arena Toshinden is a weapons-based fighting game developed by Tamsoft and published by Takara and Sony Computer Entertainment in 1995 for the PlayStation, followed by 1996 ports for the Sega Saturn, Game Boy and MS-DOS. It was one of the first fighting games to ...
''. He also did the art for '' Sword of the Dark Ones''. His real name is unknown; his title name is rather a
pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...
, majorly derived from animator Tsukasa Dokite. In 2003, he attended
Otakon Otakon ( ) is an annual three-day anime convention held during July/August. It stands for Otaku Convention. From 1999 to 2016, it took place at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland's Inner Harbor district; in 2017, it moved to ...
as a guest.


Biography

Around the age of nine and attending fourth grade, Tsukasa was introduced to anime with the initial series of ''Mobile Suit Gundam'', and was further inspired to go into anime upon the release of ''Mobile Suit Z Gundam'' in his second year of middle school. After going to his first
Comiket , more commonly known as or , is a semiannual ''doujinshi'' convention in Tokyo, Japan. A grassroots market focused on the sale of '' doujin'' (self-published) works, Comiket is a not-for-profit fan convention administered by the volunteer-ru ...
, by the time of 1985, Tsukasa began his career as a manga artist through dojinshi circles, particularly through junior high and high school fanzine anthologies under the initial pseudonym . His current pseudonym is derived from the pronunciations of the individual
kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...
that make up the compound for the Japanese word for "sushi." His talents and connections with editors during his high school career allowed him to land work with illustrations for commercial design and general staff work for anime studios and manga circles; by the age of twenty, he became an apprentice of
Kenichi Sonoda is a Japanese manga artist and animation character designer. Professional career Born in Kumamoto, Kumamoto Prefecture, Sonoda moved to Tokyo in 1984, at the age of 21, and began work at Artmic, an anime studio. During this time, he worked on '' ...
. After his apprenticeship in 1994, his friend
Masami Obari is a common Japanese given name and can be given to either sex. Possible writings *惟美, meaning "Considerate beauty" *真己, meaning "True self" or "Truth, Snake" *昌美, meaning "Prosperous beauty" *雅美, meaning "Gracious beauty" * ...
, whose then current projects were that of the ''Fatal Fury'' OVA movies, let him work on staff as the off action wardrobe and character designer for Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture.


Inspiration and Style

His art style is largely influenced particularly from series ''Mobile Suit Gundam'' and ''Megazone 23'', and fellow superiors in the industry, such as Tsukasa Dokite,
Masamune Shirow , better known by his pen name , is a Japanese manga artist. Shirow is best known for the manga ''Ghost in the Shell'', which has since been turned into three theatrical anime films, two anime television series, an anime television movie, an an ...
,
Masakazu Katsura 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'', ''Ti ...
,
Kenichi Sonoda is a Japanese manga artist and animation character designer. Professional career Born in Kumamoto, Kumamoto Prefecture, Sonoda moved to Tokyo in 1984, at the age of 21, and began work at Artmic, an anime studio. During this time, he worked on '' ...
, and Masami Obari. Tsukasa's 1990s anime style works are defined as wild, making the use of vivid colors and soft but stark contrasting shades, and somewhat exaggerated features of human anatomy along with realistic features, including that of puffed up cheeks, which he helped launch into popularity as they were in style at the time for defining cute characters and aesthetics. Into the current day, his style is defined by more subdued but more flowing coloring and an emphasis on darker and thicker lining work.


Personal life

Outside of work in the anime industry, Tsukasa is a lifelong fan of ''Gundam'' and video games, particularly of ''King of Fighters'' and ''Pokémon''. He occasionally does doujinshi in his spare time, sometimes of adult oriented parodies, under different pseudonyms, such as Noriharu or Gym Leader.


Works


Manga

*''Go! Go! Bokurano V Gundam!!'' *''Mechanical Man Blues'' (overseas exclusive manga series, 1994, unfinished) *''Cyber Team in Akihabara pattern Pi!'' *''Ragnarok/Sword of the Dark Ones'' *''Mobile Suit Gundam Z: The Day After Tomorrow: Kai's Reports'' **''Mobile Suit Gundam Z: Kai's Memories''


Anime

*''Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture'' *''Battle Arena Toshinden'' *''VS Knight Ramune & 40 Fire *''Saber Marionette J'' *''Godannar'' *''Dante's Inferno'' *''Super Robot Wars OG: The Inspector'' *''Mobile Suit Gundam: THE ORIGIN''


Official endorsed fan compilations


Video games

*''Battle Arena Toshinden''- Official Illustrator **''Battle Arena Toshinden Remix (Toshinden S)'' **''Battle Arena Toshinden 2'' **''Battle Arena Toshinden URA'' **''Battle Arena Toshinden 3'' **''Nitoushinden'' **''Puzzle Arena Toshinden'' **''Toshinden Card Quest'' **''Toshinden Next'' (cancelled installment) **''Battle Arena Toshinden 4'' *''Saber Marionette J· Battle Sabers'' *''Galaxy Fräulein Yuna 3: Lightning Angel'' *''
Thousand Arms is a cross-genre video game developed by TOSE and published by Atlus for the PlayStation (console), PlayStation in 1998. The game mixes elements of Japanese role-playing video games and dating sim video games. Synopsis Plot The game takes place ...
'' *''Cyber Team in Akihabara Pata Pies!'' *''No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise''


Music

*''
Gundam Song Covers ''Gundam Song Covers'' is a cover album by Hiroko Moriguchi, released on August 7, 2019 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Gundam franchise. The album features Moriguchi's versions of the 10 most popular Gundam songs, as voted on NHK's . ...
'' (2019) *''
Gundam Song Covers 2 ''Gundam Song Covers 2'' is a cover album by Hiroko Moriguchi, released in 2020 to coincide with the 35th anniversary of Moriguchi's music career. The sequel to 2019's ''Gundam Song Covers'', the album features Moriguchi's versions of 10 popular G ...
'' (2020)


References


External links

*
Tsukasa Kotobuki anime
at Media Arts Database

with a Tsukasa Kotobuki {{DEFAULTSORT:Kotobuki, Tsukasa Anime character designers Living people Manga artists from Tokyo 1970 births