Naoki Urasawa

Urasawa cited Osamu Tezuka as one of his heroes, being particularly fond of his manga Phoenix. "The Greatest Robot on Earth" and "The Artificial Sun" arcs of Tezuka's Astro Boy were his first experiences with manga at four or five years old. Around that same age is when he started to draw manga, and at eight he created his first complete story. Even at a young age, Urasawa saw the gulf between his work and that of a "real manga artist." He said that he could also identify manga that was "commercialized" and made just for the money, something he did not want to do. Thus he never thought of becoming a professional manga artist, and graduated from Meisei University with a degree in economics. ==Career==

Debut and success: 1982–2009 When Urasawa visited Shogakukan to apply for a business job, he decided to bring some manga he had drawn out of curiosity. An editor from Weekly Shōnen Sunday did not give him the time of day, but the head editor of Big Comic Original happened to walk by and felt the work was better suited for Big Comic Spirits, and took Urasawa to their editorial department. He ended up submitting manga for their 1982 New Manga Artist Award, which his unpublished work "Return" won. It was only then that he thought about becoming a professional manga artist. After working as an assistant for Toshio Nobe, Urasawa made his professional debut in 1983 with "Beta!", which was published in a special issue of Golgo 13. He then created the short serialized work Dancing Policeman the following year. Urasawa began his first major serialized work, Pineapple Army, in 1985 in the semimonthly Big Comic Original. He was the illustrator of the series, while Kazuya Kudo was its writer. It ended in 1988 and was collected into eight tankōbon volumes. While working on Pineapple Army, Urasawa began Yawara! in the weekly Big Comic Spirits in 1986 which he wrote and illustrated himself. It earned him the 1989 Shogakukan Manga Award in the General category. That same year it was adapted into a live-action film and an anime television series. It ended in 1993 and was collected into 29 volumes. When Pineapple Army ended, Urasawa began Master Keaton for Big Comic Original in November 1988. He illustrated it, while Hokusei Katsushika wrote it. It ended in August 1994 and was collected into 18 volumes. An anime television adaptation began in 1998, before finishing as an original video animation in 2000. Likewise when Yawara! ended, Urasawa began another solo series in Big Comic Spirits. Happy! ran from 1993 until 1999 and was collected into 23 volumes. It was adapted into two live-action television films in 2006. Following Master Keatons end, Urasawa began Monster in Big Comic Original in December 1994. It earned him the 1999 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize, and his second Shogakukan Manga Award in the General category in 2001. With Happy!s ending, Urasawa began 20th Century Boys in Big Comic Spirits in 1999. It earned him the 2001 Kodansha Manga Award in the General category, and his third Shogakukan Manga Award in the General category in 2002. Initially planned for only five students, he agreed to expand it to fifteen in an effort to create more "real artists." In 2011, Urasawa illustrated a picture book adaptation of Kosuke Hamada's story Red Oni Cries. at Japan Expo 2012 Urasawa began writing a sequel to Master Keaton in 2012 titled Master Keaton Remaster. When asked why he went back to a series after so many years, Urasawa stated it was because with the original series he had a hard time making the story he wanted due to contractual obligation, and because people affected by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami said they had enjoyed the series, so he wanted to do something for them. Beginning in the March 2012 issue of Big Comic Original it finished in 2014 and was collected into a single volume. As a guest at the 2012 Japan Expo in France, Urasawa talked about how he entered the manga industry, gave a live drawing demonstration, and performed two songs as a musician, and joined rock band Hemenway on stage the following day. Between 2013 and 2014, Urasawa contributed to the essay series "The Old Guys" that was published in Shueisha's Jump X magazine. His contributions and those of the other 32 writers who participated were collected into a July 2015 volume of the same name. In August 2013, Urasawa created his first "monster manga" titled "Kaiju Kingdom", a 41-page one-shot published in Big Comic. Urasawa is the host of the NHK Educational TV documentary series Urasawa Naoki no Manben, which focuses on a different manga artist each episode and explores their individual styles. He coined the word "manben" from his childhood; his parents and grandparents used to tell him, "Don't draw manga all day! You need to benkyō (study), too!". It began as a one-off special in November 2014, a first season was launched in September 2015, a second in March 2016, a third in September 2016, and a fourth in March 2017. After three years, the show returned in October 2020 with Neo added to the end of its title. The show won the December 2015 Planning Award as part of Quick Japan's annual TV of the Year awards, decided by broadcast writers. The June 9, 2021, episode on Yoshikazu Yasuhiko won the Grand Prize in the entertainment category at the 2022 Japan Media Arts Festival. Beginning in July 2015, Urasawa started contributing to the "Musica Nostra" column series that was published in Shueisha's Grand Jump magazine. An art exhibition of Urasawa's work was on display in Tokyo from January 16 to March 31, 2016, before moving to Osaka from November 26 to January 25, 2017. It included illustrations, manga manuscripts, story notes, and childhood manga. Urasawa contributed a short, full color, left-to-right manga titled "Tanshin Funin/Solo Mission" to the February 2016 French comics anthology The Tipping Point to commemorate publisher Humanoids' 40th anniversary. Re-titled Turning Point, the anthology was published in Japan in September 2017. He created a short three-page manga about 1960s British rock band the Beatles time-traveling to 2016. Released in June 2016 on the website of Tokyo radio station InterFM897, it coincides with the TV program KKBOX Here comes The Beatles and celebrates the 50th anniversary of the band's visit to Japan. On April 9, 2017, Urasawa began co-hosting a radio program with actor and comedian Junji Takada. Junji and Naoki airs Sundays at 5pm on Nippon Cultural Broadcasting and features both men talking about their lives, professions, and favorite hobbies. That year Urasawa also began the limited series Mujirushi: The Sign of Dreams in a collaboration with France's Louvre Museum. It began in Big Comic Original in October 2017 and ended on February 20, 2018. In January 2018, Urasawa attended the 45th Angoulême International Comics Festival in France, where he received the Fauve Special Award and the Fauve Polar SNCF Special Award for mystery. The festival also held an art exhibit of his work, before it moved to Paris from February 13 to March 31. Urasawa was the subject of the June 23 Wowow Prime TV program Nonfiction W Urasawa Naoki ~Tensai Mangaka no Owaranai Tabi~, which followed him around Europe, including to the 2018 Angoulême International Comics Festival and meeting Klaus Voormann in Germany. Urasawa began Asadora! in Big Comic Spirits on October 6, 2018. South Korean film director Bong Joon-ho called Urasawa "the greatest storyteller of our time" and likened the experience of reading Asadora! to that of being able to go back and read 20th Century Boys for the first time again. The November 2018 issue of Monthly Big Comic Spirits, released on September 27, was given the special title "Urasawa Jack". It included Urasawa's one-shot "It's a Beautiful Day", which adapted a story told to him by musician Kenji Endo, an interview between him and Shigeru Izumiya, and a calendar featuring illustrations of "beautiful women" by the artist. On December 27, Urasawa co-hosted a special radio program about Osamu Tezuka alongside Chiaki Kuriyama for Nippon Cultural Broadcasting. In 2019, he designed the official posters of the 2019 Osaka Women's Marathon and a classic car charity event organized by Toshiaki Karasawa for reconstruction after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. On January 23, 2019, Japan House Los Angeles presented the first North American exhibit of Urasawa's work, titled "This is MANGA – the Art of NAOKI URASAWA". The exhibit ran until March 28, 2019, and featured more than 400 original drawings and storyboards. Urasawa participated in an artist discussion and book signing on opening day. The exhibit moved to Japan House London from June 5 to July 28, also attended by the artist. Urasawa was a 2019 nominee for entry into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame. 2020–present In 2020, Urasawa drew advertisements for the Samsonite Red luggage brand, and was chosen to create one of the official posters for the 2020 Summer Olympics. For the second year in a row, he drew the poster for the Osaka Women's Marathon. In June, Urasawa created the cover portrait for Universal Japan's 250th anniversary release of music by Ludwig van Beethoven. He also appears in July 2020's ZK/Zunō Keisatsu 50 Mirai e no Kodō, a documentary film about the rock band Zunō Keisatsu. Urasawa directed and illustrated the music video, and illustrated the cover art, for Kazuyoshi Saito's March 2021 digital single "Boy". In November 2021, Urasawa's first one-shot for Shueisha, "Dr. Toguro Dokuro no Saigo", was published in Grand Jump to celebrate the magazine's 10th anniversary. By December 2021, his various works had over 140 million copies in circulation worldwide. He had an acting role in the December 2022 film The Flower in the Sky, portraying poet Haruo Satō. Urasawa served as a "creative partner" on La Panthere de Cartier, a 2025 anime produced by the French brand Cartier and animated by Production I.G. ==Style==

Fusanosuke Natsume said that prior to entering university, Urasawa's style showed influence from Shinji Nagashima and Osamu Tezuka's 1970s work, but went on to claim that in 1979 it became aligned with that of Katsuhiro Otomo. Due to his skill at structuring panel layouts, Kazuhiko Torishima cited Urasawa as the true successor to Tezuka. When talking in 1997 about the future of manga, Urasawa opined that "Tezuka created the form that exists today, then caricatures appeared next, and comics changed again when Katsuhiro Otomo came on the scene. I don't think there's any room left for further changes." Although Urasawa's works like Yawara! had light entertainment with cute young girls, Natsume says Urasawa developed his own personal style with Monster, which he described as realistic, or directorially based, with cinematic panel layouts similar to Otomo and gekiga artists. Natsume also noted that many of his characters resemble famous movie stars. and acknowledged his work as adult-oriented, stating that even as a child he never liked manga aimed at children. However, he noted that he and Otomo both prefer to have their work called manga and not gekiga. He also said that he does not worry about what the readers want, and simply draws stories that he finds interesting. With one of them being a weekly serialization and the other having a semimonthly schedule, Urasawa had six deadlines a month and said the only time off he had was when sleeping or eating. Urasawa frequently collaborates with manga editor and author Takashi Nagasaki, to the point where Nagasaki has been called his "producer." The two met when Nagasaki was made Urasawa's editor upon his debut. Although the two continue to collaborate even after Nagasaki became freelance, they rarely socialize outside of work. Urasawa said that following the anime adaptation of Yawara!, he has requested that he be able to check the scripts for any adaptation of his works. However, his earlier works began receiving digital releases in 2022, limited to Japan. ==Music==

Urasawa is also a musician. He stated "A lot of artists really struggled to decide whether to become manga artists or rock musicians, so the two are intertwined, they're synonymous!" Urasawa wrote and performed the song , which was released on a CD included in the 2002 first pressing of volume 11 of 20th Century Boys. He released the limited single on June 4, 2008, Both were produced by Koji Wakui, while the album features Hiroyuki Namba and other musicians. Urasawa and Mitsuru Kuramoto wrote and performed under the name to be the theme of the 2011 NTT Docomo TV show Tsubuyaki Sanshirō ~Ippon Nau!~. In 2012 he performed a Japanese cover of Bob Dylan's "Girl from the North Country" and "Guta Lala Suda Lala" from his series 20th Century Boys at the Japan Expo, and the following day he joined rock band Hemenway on stage. In 2020, Urasawa was one of many people who submitted lyrics that were adopted by Sunplaza Nakano-kun into a new version of Bakufu Slump's 1984 song . Urasawa's third album, Love Songs, was released on February 26, 2025. It includes a new version of , the theme song to his TV show Urasawa Naoki no Manben Neo, that features Tetsuya Komuro, "It's Because I Love You" from his manga series Asadora!, "Mr. Postman" featuring Lenny Castro, and "Rainbow Child" featuring Miu Sakamoto. ==Works==

Serials • - written by Kazuya Kudo • • - written with Hokusei Katsushika and Takashi Nagasaki • Happy! (1993–1999) • • / (1999–2006, 2007) • - written with Takashi Nagasaki, based on a work by Osamu Tezuka • - written with Takashi Nagasaki • - written with Takashi Nagasaki • • Other manga • "Swimmers" (1979) - Unpublished until the May 13, 2003, issue of Evening. • "Return" (1981) • "Beta!!" (1983) - published in a special issue of Golgo 13 • • - written with Takashi Nagasaki • • • - original draft by musician Kenji Endo • • Television, film, and radio • 20th Century Boys: Beginning of the End (2008) - co-writer of the film's screenplay • 20th Century Boys 2: The Last Hope (2009) - supervisor of the film's screenplay • 20th Century Boys 3: Redemption (2009) - co-writer of the film's screenplay • The Tibetan Dog (2011) - initial character designs • - host of the TV show • - co-host of the radio show • - as himself • - co-host of the radio special • - as himself • Urasawa Naoki no Manben Neo (2020–present) - host of the TV show • "Boy" (2021) - directed and illustrated the Kazuyoshi Saito music video • - as Haruo Satō • - as himself, drew film poster Other work • Another Monster (2002) - novel written with Takashi Nagasaki • Pleasure! (2003) - album cover for Domino88 • - album cover for Koji Wakui • - book written with Koji Wakui, includes the manga • - art book • - album cover for Shigeru Izumiya • - DVD cover for Waraimeshi • - DVD cover for Waraimeshi • - one of the song selectors for Kyoko Koizumi • - kanzenban edition book cover for Kiyoshiro Imawano • "Be Hero" (2014) - single cover for Fudanjuku • - guidebook • - book cover for Akiko Yano • "Boy" (2021) - single cover for Kazuyoshi Saito • - album cover for Kenji Endo ==Awards and nominations==