Masami Kurumada

**Masami Kurumada** (車田 正美, *Kurumada Masami*, born December 6, 1953) is a Japanese manga artist and writer, known for specializing in fighting manga featuring bishōnen and magical boy.

He is the founder of the manga studio **Kurumada Productions** or **Kurumadapro** for short. He is famous as the creator/author of popular manga, such as *Ring ni Kakero*, *Fūma no Kojirō*, *Saint Seiya* and *B't X*. His male protagonists are a reflection of the classical and modern society's archetype of the *true men*. The male characters in his works often display very masculine qualities and traits, and pursue to achieve courage and manhood perfection through sacrifice, selflessness and true heroism. He has won the best success award with *Saint Seiya* and the best inspiration award with *Ring ni Kakero*.

## Profile

Kurumada's first work was *Otoko Raku*, which earned him an award in a manga contest for aspiring manga artist, and became assistant to professional manga artists. Some time later, he debuted as a professional manga artist in 1974 with his manga *Sukeban Arashi*, and achieved his first hit three years later when he started writing and drawing *Ring ni Kakero*, which brought him recognition as a popular manga author, and lasted five years, and he considers it his favorite creation. A practiser of the martial arts in his younger days, the influence this has exerted on his various works is worthy of mention.

Also, in the same manner as many manga artists today, Kurumada employs the revered Osamu Tezuka's Star System manga technique, which is essentially resorting to the use of a stable cast of characters in his various works (characters keep the same appearance and personality, but sometimes the author gives them new personalities and different roles than in previous works). Because of this, the main characters of his works most of the time bear a resemblance to Takane Ryūji, the protagonist of *Ring ni Kakero*. The main characters of his subsequent works have almost the same appearance and personality of Ryūji, specifically Jingi Kikukawa (*Otoko Zaka*), Kojirō (*Fūma no Kojirō*), Seiya (*Saint Seiya*), Teppei Takamiya (*B't X*), Shō (*Silent Knight Shō*), Aoi Tendō (*Aoi Tori no Shinwa*), Rindō Kenzaki (*Ring ni Kakero 2*), among others.

Besides Kurumada, other renowned manga artists that resort to the master Tezuka's technique include legendary authors Leiji Matsumoto, Monkey Punch and Shōtarō Ishinomori or Clamp. Clamp was heavily influenced by Kurumada's works, and they began their career as manga authors creating doujinshi based on Kurumada's characters. It is also known that anime adaptations aren't much to his liking, he prefers manga. He agreed that his works *Fūma no Kojirō*, *Saint Seiya*, *Ring ni Kakero* and *B't X* were adapted to anime, to follow the long-time tradition of popular manga having an animated adaptation.

His drawing style is very classic, reminiscent from the manga/anime aesthetics more predominant in the 1960s and 1970s, albeit a constant flaw in his art is an inconsistent trace and proportion unbalance. He often draws his characters as if seen from a low perspective. His coloring style is almost exclusively realistic, unlike the vast majority of manga artists, who often resort to the use of non-natural colors for the hair or eyes of their characters, although with the publication of *Saint Seiya Next Dimension* volumes totally in color, the addition of new characters with non-natural hair colors occurs often.

Certain graphics elements characteristic of his style can be found all over his works, mostly during fight sequences, having become widely known. Fans have created terms to refer to them such as Kurumada-ochi (車田落ち, *Kurumada-ochi*), meaning "Kurumada Fall", which designates the typical head-first falling characters, and Kurumada-futtobi (車田吹っ飛び, *Kurumada-futtobi*), meaning "Kurumada Launch", which refers to characters that are projected high into the air by opponents, to name a few.[*citation needed*]

Recurrent themes in his works are friendship, courage, redemption and sacrifice. Masculine virtue and qualities, honesty and honor are also traits often found in his characters. Female characters in his works mostly play a much lesser role, but several ones with key roles can also be found, such as Rei Kojinyama (*Sukeban Arashi*), Kiku Takane (*Ring ni Kakero*) and Saori Kido (*Saint Seiya*).

Kurumada has stated in interviews that he obtains some creative influence from yesterday's authors considered masters of the manga medium today, such as Hiroshi Motomiya, Sanpei Shirato and Mitsuteru Yokoyama. He specially considers that Motomiya's works had a very strong impact and influence on him.

Kurumada also draws inspiration from universal knowledge and folklore, such as Greek mythology, Japanese and Chinese mythology, Buddhist and Hinduist doctrine, Trascendental philosophies, and classic works of literature, such as Dante Alighieri's *The Divine Comedy*, and *Outlaws of the Marsh*, to name a few.

His interest in boxing, wrestling and martial arts is well known, and he maintains close relations with renowned personalities of those circles. As he states in his website, he likes to drink with friends and to practice photography while jogging.

Among his works that have been cancelled due to failing to attract fans: *Otoko Zaka, Silent Knight Shō* and *Aoi Tori no Shinwa*. His works that suffered popularity decrease: *B't X* (which he successfully concluded without facing cancellation), and *Saint Seiya*. In *Saint Seiya'*s case, Kurumada was forced by Shueisha, his publisher, to finish the manga after the Hades Arc, in 1991. He put his manga in hiatus after he finished the mentioned arc, and resumed it in 2006 with *Saint Seiya Next Dimension*. The anime adaptation of *Saint Seiya* experienced a popularity decrease during the anime-only *Asgard* arc, while the popularity of the original manga was still strong; the anime back in 1989, was in pre-production of the episodes that would adapt the Hades arc of the manga. Because of low popularity of the anime adaptation, the project was suspended and remained so until 2003, when it was resumed and the Hades arc of the manga finally was adapted to animation. The episodes that adapted the two final volumes of the manga were aired in between May and August 2008, finally leaving Kurumada's manga completely adapted to anime.

In 2004, Kurumada celebrated 30 years as a professional manga artist, and that same year two of his older and best known works experienced a resurfacing. The original *Ring ni Kakero* was adapted to anime, 27 years after its manga debut, and as mentioned before, the *Saint Seiya* anime adaptation was resumed in 2003 and an attempt to start the Zeus Chapter was made with the release of the *Saint Seiya* *Tenkai-Hen Josō ~Overture~* movie in 2004, which was planned to continue the story with the subsequent release of OVAs, but due to discrepancies between Kurumada and Toei Animation, the project failed and was abandoned.[*citation needed*] Kurumada still plans to publish the "Zeus Chapter", written and drawn by him, in manga form in the near future, by 2012, a considerable amount of elements from it have already been revealed by Kurumada in *Saint Seiya Next Dimension* and he is set to continue doing so in the next instalments of that work in the japanese summer in 2013.

Kurumada's works have had influence on manga authors and related media. Worthy of mention is Yudetamago's *Kinnikuman*[*citation needed*], Hiroshi Kawamoto's Tenkū Senki Shurato[*citation needed*], Clamp's *Magic Knight Rayearth*[*citation needed*], Kōichi Tokita's *Mobile Fighter G Gundam*[*citation needed*], Hajime Yatate and Ryuichi Hoshino's *Yoroiden Samurai Troopers*[*citation needed*], Yoshihiro Togashi's *YuYu Hakusho*[*citation needed*], videogames such as the *World Heroes* series and The King of Fighters series, among others[*citation needed*]. References to his works by other authors can be found in the mentioned videogames and in popular manga, such as Kōsuke Fujishima's Aa! Megami-sama, Kenjirō Hata's Hayate no Gotoku, Chika Umino's Honey & Clover, Tite Kubo's BLEACH[*citation needed*], and their respective anime adaptations, among others.

French director Louis Leterrier has cited Kurumada and his manga *Saint Seiya* having a great impact on him since his youth. In 2010, Masami Kurumada was contacted by Warner Brothers to collaborate in a project for Leterrier's mythologically themed motion picture *Clash of the Titans*, remake of the original 1981 film. Kurumada authored promotional illustrations depicting pivotal scenes from the film. Countless are the products of merchandising relative the works of Kurumada, sold all over the worlds with great success. His fans are usually referred to as "Masamists".

## Works

### Manga

His manga works listed chronologically and their duration:

* *Sukeban Arashi* (*Delinquent Storm*, 1974 - 1975, 2 Tankōbon)
* *Mikereko Rock* (1975, One-shot)
* *Ring ni Kakero* (*Put it all in the Ring*, 1977 - 1983, 25 Tankōbon)
* *Mabudachi Jingi* (*True friend Jingi*, 1979, short story, 3 Tankōbon)
* *Shiro Obi Taishō* (*White-Belt Champion*, 1979, short story, 1 Tankōbon)
* *Saigo! Jitsuroku! Shinwakai* (*Authentic gathering of gods*, 1979 - 1981, 1 Tankōbon)
* *Fūma no Kojirō* (*Kojirō of the Wind Spirits Clan*, 1982 - 1983, 10 Tankōbon)
* *Saigo! Jitsuroku Shinwakai* (*Final Authentic Gathering of gods*, 1983, 1 Tankōbon)
* *Raimei no Zaji* (*Lightning Zaji*, 1983, short story, 2 Tankōbon)
* *Otoko Zaka* (*Man's Hill*, 1984, 3 Tankōbon, ongoing 2014)
* *Saint Seiya* (1986 -1991, 28 Tankōbon)
* *Aoi tori no Shinwa: 〜Blue Myth〜* (*The myth of the Blue Bird*, 1991 - 1992, 1 Tankōbon)
* *Silent Knight Shō* (1992 - Cancelled, 2 Tankōbon)
* *B't X* (1994 - 2000, 16 Tankōbon)
* *Akaneiro no kaze* (*Crimson Wind*, 1995, 3 Tankōbon)
* *Evil Crusher Maya* (1998, 1 Tankōbon)
* *Ring ni Kakero 2* (*Put it all in the Ring 2*, 2000 - 2009, 26 Tankōbon)
* *Saint Seiya: Next Dimension* (2006–present, 12 Tankōbon)
* *Otoko Zaka(*Man's Hill*, resumed by Kurumada in 2014, 10 Tankōbon)*
* *Ai no Jidai (Ichigoe Ichie)* (2015, 1 Tankōbon)

### Books

* *Cosmo Special* (1988)
* *Burning Blood* (1996, artbook)
* *Honō no Tamashī* (炎の魂 Fire Soul, 2000, data collection)
* *Saint Seiya Encyclopedia* (2001, Artbook and character data collection)
* *Saint Seiya Sora Kurumada Masami Illustrations* (2004, Artbook and issues data collection)
* *Saint Seiya : Gigantomachia* (2002, a non-canonical sidestory novel written by Tatsuya Hamazaki)
* *Raimei-ni Kike* (*Listen in the Lightning*, 2006)
* *Masami Kurumada best bout! 2 vol.* (2014)
* *Saint Seiya 30 Shunen Kinen Gashu, Seiiki - Sanctuary Artbook* (2016)".

### Anime adaptations of his works

* *Saint Seiya* (1986 - 1989, 114 episodes)
* *Fūma no Kojirō* (1989 - 1990, 12 OVA episodes)
* *B't X* (1996, 25 episodes)
* *B't Neo* (1997, complementary to B't X, 14 OVA episodes)
* *Ring ni Kakero 1* (2004 - 2011, 36 episodes)
* *Saint Seiya - The Hades Arc* (2002 - 2008, complementary to *Saint Seiya*, 31 OVA episodes)
* *Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas* (2009 - 2011, animated adaptation of the spin-off non-canonical, alternative work of the same name, 26 OVA episodes)
* *Saint Seiya Omega* (2012 - 2014, an anime original story series, 97 episodes)
* *Saint Seiya: Soul of Gold* (2015, anime original story series, 13 episodes ONA).
* *Knights of the Zodiac* (2019, reimagin/remake, 12 episodes)

### Anime movie adaptations of his works

* *Saint Seiya: Evil Goddess Eris* (1987)
* *Saint Seiya: The Heated Battle of the Gods* (1988)
* *Saint Seiya: Legend of the Crimson Youth* (1989)
* *Saint Seiya: Warriors of the Final Holy Battle* (1989)
* *Fūma no Kōjirō: Fūma Hanran-Hen* (1992)
* *Saint Seiya: Heaven Chapter − Overture* (2004)
* *Saint Seiya: Legend of Sanctuary* (CGI motion picture, 2014).

### Live-action adaptations of his works

* *Fūma no Kojirō* (TV tokusatsu drama of 13 episodes for the Fūma VS Yasha arc)
* *Saint Seiya* Musical: A short-lived adaptation of the Sanctuary arc and the Poseidon arc from Kurumada's manga for the musical theatre, 1991.
* *Saint Seiya - Super Musical*: A live-action adaptation of the first *Saint Seiya* film for the musical theatre, 2011.
* An upcoming *Saint Seiya* live action film
* An upcoming *Saint Seiya* live action TV series by Tencent