Since his childhood, Terada grew up immersed in Japanese
manga culture. When Terada was fifteen years old, he discovered the work of French artist
Jean Giraud, also known as Moebius, and the Japanese manga artist and creator of
Akira,
Katsuhiro Otomo. The artist describes himself as an "incessant scribbler," riding the Tokyo subway filling up notebooks that he buys "by the box." He describes drawing as almost a physical need for him, comparing his daily routine to the preparations of a marathon runner: "The more time I spend on drawing, the closer I get to that line that I am imagining. Every day of practice prepares you better for that one moment." After high school, Terada enrolled in Asagaya College of Art and Design in
Tokyo while his family lived in
Chiba, and took his first assignments designing advertisements. With this early advertising success, Terada rented his first apartment. At age 21 he received a commission for work from animator Toshio Nishiuchi to produce character designs, background illustrations, instruction manual art, as well as a logo for Nintendo's home entertainment system, the
NES/
Famicom. Terada has also undertaken work related to American comics, such as
Iron Man and
Hellboy (one of his illustrations was used for an official statuette of Hellboy). He made additional contributions to early issues of
Nintendo Power, including a special edition strategy guide for
Dragon Warrior and artwork for
The Legend of Zelda. In Japan, he was responsible for the original character designs for the
Tantei Jingūji Saburō mystery adventure video game series, and has worked prolifically on this series, most consistently as the cover illustration artist. Terada was in charge of the book cover and illustrations for the
Kimaira series written by
Baku Yumemakura, and was in charge of cover design and illustrations for
Garōden,
Shin Majugari, and
Yamigarishi, as well. Terada has defined himself as a "rakugaki" artist, which he invokes more in terms of a philosophy than a specific style of drawing: he draws a little bit everywhere, all the time, on notebooks and other surfaces without thinking too much. He is a very prolific artist with one of his sketch collections numbering more than 1000 pages, and appropriately titled
RakugaKing. He has done very little group-drawn work, his principal activities being illustration and character design. The exception to this is Terada's manga
The Monkey King, originally published by
Shueisha as
Saiyukiden Daienō in Japanese in 1995, then translated into English in 2005 by Dark Horse publishing. The 2005 release was Terada's first-ever English manga.
The Monkey King is based on epic hero narrative of the pilgrimage to India by Hsüan Tsang (ca. 596–664), a Tang period Buddhist monk, which over time has been combined with pre-existent Chinese folktales. In the sixteenth century, the narrative was synthesized into a one hundred-chapter master narrative titled
Xi You Ji or
The Journey to the West by
Wu Ch'êng-ên (ca.1500-1582). Terada's full-color graphic novel reimagines the narrative of the Monkey's
Journey to the West, with monstrous and demonic characters. Busin 0 (for video game character and world design); and Yatterman and Kamen Rider (for TV/film character design). His use of CG tools is integrated very well in his illustrations, giving his work a vivid and rich appearance. He has admitted various influences on his work, particularly European ones, like
Jean Giraud (aka Moebius) and the magazine
Métal hurlant which he has said gave him a taste for strong, scantily-clad women. Along with other illustrators such as
Takashi Okazaki, Terada has done illustrations for a book by film historians Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski that is included in a
Godzilla Criterion box set. Terada was also invited to create variant cover for Geof Darrow's American comic series
Shaolin Cowboy: Cruel to Be Kin issue 5, published by
Dark Horse. == Art style ==