Mikio Ikemoto
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is a Japanese
manga artist A is a comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. As of 2006, about 3,000 professional manga artists were working in Japan. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist be ...
. He originally worked as the chief assistant for
Masashi Kishimoto is a Japanese manga artist. His manga series, ''Naruto'', which was in serialization from 1999 to 2014, has sold over 250 million copies worldwide in 46 countries as of May 2019. The series has been adapted into two anime and multiple films, vi ...
's
manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...
series ''
Naruto ''Naruto'' is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. It tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, a young ninja who seeks recognition from his peers and dreams of becoming the Hokage, the leader of his village. T ...
'' from 1999 to 2014. After its conclusion, Ikemoto was chosen to illustrate the 2016 sequel series, '' Boruto: Naruto Next Generations'', working alongside writer
Ukyō Kodachi is a Japanese novelist, manga artist, and screenwriter. He started out writing tabletop role-playing games, before debuting as a novelist in 2008 and a screenwriter in 2013. From 2016 to 2020, he worked on the '' Boruto: Naruto Next Generations'' ...
.


Biography and works

As a child Ikemoto was a fan of ''
Bikkuriman is a line of wafer snacks produced by Lotte, made notable for the randomly assorted bonus stickers included inside each snack. First released in 1977, Bikkuriman (ビックリマン, “Surprise Man”) became wildly popular in Japan w ...
'' stickers. However, since he could not afford them, he instead drew his own stickers. Ikemoto's friends enjoyed them so much that they started buying stickers from him. By this point of his life, Ikemoto felt he had the talent for art. In March 1997, Mikio Ikemoto submitted his first one-shot
manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...
, titled ''Cosmos'', to the manga magazine ''
Weekly Shōnen Jump is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the ''Jump'' line of magazines. The manga series within the magazine consist of many action scenes and a fair amount of comedy. The chapters of the series that run ...
'', for which he won a Tenkaichi Manga Award. The one-shot was later published in the July 7 issue of the magazine, gaining a small
cult following A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...
despite its mature subject matter. ''Cosmos'' was then serialized in ''Monthly Plasma'', an
independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...
manga magazine, from June 1997 to September 1999, and a sequel one-shot was published in the April 26, 1999 issue of ''Weekly Shōnen Jump''. By this time Ikemoto had become interested in the work of fellow rookie manga artist
Masashi Kishimoto is a Japanese manga artist. His manga series, ''Naruto'', which was in serialization from 1999 to 2014, has sold over 250 million copies worldwide in 46 countries as of May 2019. The series has been adapted into two anime and multiple films, vi ...
. Upon hearing that Ikemoto had been contacted by
Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The foll ...
to work as an assistant on a comedy series and was moving to Tokyo, Kishimoto felt that his art would be wasted on that genre. With work beginning on the ''Naruto'' serialization, Kishimoto asked his editor, Kosuke Yahagi, to scout Ikemoto and recruit him as an assistant. Ikemoto was grateful for the offer, since he felt that ''Naruto''s genre was what he had originally wanted to work on, and accepted the job, beginning work with the seventh chapter. During the early days of making ''Naruto'', Ikemoto was Kishimoto's youngest assistant, and the latter jokingly said this made him and his other assistants envious. Ikemoto's responsibilities included drawing crowds and background figures, adding white to speed lines, highlights and characters' eyes, whiting out art that went out of the panels, putting stars in night skies, and adding in half-tones. He was also occasionally tasked with creating the designs for new characters. Ikemoto recalls how often Kishimoto requested his help with adding more details to the manga chapters, leading him to draw more clones created by
Naruto Uzumaki () is the titular protagonist of the manga ''Naruto'', created by Masashi Kishimoto. As the series progresses, he is a young ninja from the fictional village of Konohagakure (Hidden Leaf Village). The villagers ridicule and ostracize Naruto on ...
as well as an unspecified character who could become giant. When the manga ended in 2014, Shueisha asked Kishimoto to start a sequel. However, Kishimoto rejected the idea and proposed that Ikemoto draw it based on the experience he had. Kishimoto advised Ikemoto not to imitate his art style and instead make his own. While noting long-time fans might be disappointed with the fact that Kishimoto is not drawing ''Boruto'', Ikemoto stated he would do his best in the making of the manga. Ikemoto mentioned he remained optimistic about his art style. Kishimoto also revises the manga's scenario. Besides illustrating the manga, Ikemoto also provides illustrations for the ''Boruto''
light novels A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a ''wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English language ...
. The manga had one million copies in print as of January 2017 while
Studio Pierrot is a Japanese animation studio established in May 1979 by former employees of both Tatsunoko Production and Mushi Production. Its headquarters are located in Mitaka, Tokyo. Pierrot is renowned for several worldwide popular anime series, such as ...
also produced an
anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
series based on it.


Style

Aside from ''Naruto'', Ikemoto said his art was influenced by ''
Kinnikuman is a Japanese manga series created by the duo Yoshinori Nakai and Takashi Shimada, known as Yudetamago. It follows Suguru Kinniku, a superhero who must win a wrestling tournament to retain the title of prince of Planet Kinniku. ...
'' and particularly ''
Dragon Ball is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. The Dragon Ball (manga), initial manga, written and illustrated by Toriyama, was serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1984 to 1995, with the 519 individual chapters colle ...
''. He noted that the lack of tone in
Akira Toriyama is a Japanese manga artist and character designer. He first achieved mainstream recognition for his highly successful manga series ''Dr. Slump'', before going on to create ''Dragon Ball'' (his best-known work) and acting as a character design ...
's art makes drawing easier and said he still uses ''Dragon Ball'' as a reference for his own action scenes. Ikemoto admitted he is pretty bad at drawing comedy, but also noted that the way the story of ''Boruto'' has evolved does not lend itself well to comedy. While feeling honored to create the art for ''Boruto'', Ikemoto stated he feels grateful that the series is released monthly rather than weekly due to the stress the latter could bring since the required amount of pages is nearly 20 per chapter. However, Ikemoto still finds the monthly serialization challenging. Regular chapters of ''Boruto'' tend to surpass 40 pages, with one week required to create the thumbnails and 20 days to produce the pages while the rest of the time is used for coloring or giving the chapters other touches. His drawing methods involve criterium (Mechanical Pencil) on IC's paper for the sketches. He uses ink for finished drawings. Despite the differences between their art styles, Ikemoto uses Copic's markers for the colored pages, similarly to how Kishimoto did with ''Naruto''. The ''Boruto'' anime's director Hiroyuki Yamashita said he enjoys Ikemoto's style, praising his oblong landscape layout for frames. He found Ikemoto's style more realistic than Kishimoto's due to the former's attention to the character designs' details. He also pointed out that Ikemoto's way of illustrating
Momoshiki Otsutsuki is a fictional character, first introduced in Pierrot's 2015 anime film, '' Boruto: Naruto the Movie'' which acts as a sequel to Masashi Kishimoto's manga ''Naruto''. A descendant of Otsutsuki and the series' villain Kaguya, Momoshiki appears i ...
's new appearance after consuming Kinshiki Otsutsuki surprised him due to how different it was compared to the original design from the ''Boruto'' movie. Amy McNulty of ''
Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and oth ...
'' shared similar comments, particularly regarding the way Ikemoto's art resembles Kishimoto's as well as how well-illustrated his fight scenes are. Manga author
Yoshihiro Togashi is a Japanese manga artist. He began drawing manga at an early age, before being recognized for his talent by publishing company Shueisha while attending college. Togashi has authored several manga series in different genres during the past thr ...
stated he enjoyed Ikemoto's artwork, praising his style.


References


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ikemoto, Mikio Japanese illustrators Manga artists 1977 births Living people