Naoki Urasawa

Naoki Urasawa is a Japanese manga artist and musician. He has been drawing manga since he was four years old, and for most of his professional career has created two series simultaneously. The stories to many of these were co-written in collaboration with his former editor, Takashi Nagasaki. Urasawa has been called one of the artists that changed the history of manga and has won numerous awards, including the Shogakukan Manga Award three times, the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize twice, and the Kodansha Manga Award once. By December 2021, his various works had over 140 million copies in circulation worldwide.

Works

PLUTO

When the world's seven most advanced robots and their human allies are murdered one by one, Inspector Gesicht soon discovers that he's also in danger.

Release Date: 2023-10-26

Department: Crew

Job: Creative Consultant

Episode Count: 8

Vote Count: 176

ANIME MANGA EXPLOSION

The size of the Japanese animation market was 2,426 billion yen by 2020. More than half of that amount came from overseas sales. The manga market is also expanding, reaching 675.9 billion yen in 2021. Those unique visuals and stories from Japan have struck a chord with fans around the world and are growing into a huge industry. ANIME MANGA EXPLOSION will actively feature major works that are highly recognized by overseas fans and reveal the secrets of Japanese anime and manga creation through the series.

Release Date: 2023-04-30

Character: Self - Manga Artist

Episode Count: 1

Boy

Kazuyoshi Saitо made an offer to collaborate with Naoki Urasawa, with whom he has a close relationship, after he saw Urasawa's rough drawing of a boy who strummed a broom like a guitar. The image matched what Saitо completely had in mind for his song "Boy." Urasawa created a storyboard, and completed an animation on his own for the first time. Urasawa also illustrated the song's album cover.

Release Date: 2021-03-09

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 1

Naoki Urasawa's Manben neo

Reboot of the original Manben series from 2014-2017. Naoki Urasawa is returning to visit eight different manga authors, observe them in their daily work and discuss the creation of manga.

Release Date: 2020-10-01

Character: Self - Presenter

Episode Count: 19

Vote Count: 2

The Brand New Legend of the Stardust Brothers

A sequel to the 1980 movie The Legend of the Stardust Brothers. As well as being a rock musical comedy, it also borrows elements from other genres such as road movies, westerns, and meta fiction.

Release Date: 2018-01-20

Vote Count: 1

Song FUKUYAMA

Release Date: 2015-10-04

Episode Count: 1

Vote Count: 1

Manben: Behind the Scenes of Manga with Urasawa Naoki

Urasawa Naoki no Manben (Naoki Urasawa's Manga Exertions) is a TV Documentary airing on NHK Educational TV. It follows acclaimed mangaka Naoki Urasawa (creator of 20th Century Boys and Monster) as he sets out to break new ground for manga even further than he already has. In an attempt to educate viewers about manga and preserve the intricate craftsmanship and process of Japanese artists on video for future generations, he invites a manga artist to have their workplace filmed for a couple of days, so as to display them in the process of crafting chapters for their current serializations. After the footage has been shot, Urasawa meets with the artist and they discuss the footage, talking about the artist's workplace and workflow, the difficulties involved in the mangaka lifestyle, their reasons for drawing manga in the first place, and their perspective on the current industry and their own work.

Release Date: 2015-09-04

Department: Creator

Job: Creator

Character:

Episode Count: [ 16 ]

Vote Count: 4

Tibetan Dog

Jiantan is a young boy who has to leave Xi'an after the death of his mother to go deep into the Tibetan prairies to start living with the father he barely remembers. His dad, LaGeBa, is a busy doctor who decided to depart from the city and reside in Tibet where he is the essential physician of the poor community he lives in. To help his father, Jiantan has to learn how to herd sheep. While trying to learn his new responsibility, he is saved by a stray gold-colored Tibetan Mastiff. Both Jiantan and the big dog help each other as they try to adjust to this new environment.

Release Date: 2011-07-15

Department: Visual Effects

Job: Character Designer

Vote Count: 14

20th Century Boys 3: Redemption

The final showdown, and the final reveal. who is Friend? How can he be stopped?

Release Date: 2009-08-19

Department: Writing

Job: Comic Book

Vote Count: 62

20th Century Boys 2: The Last Hope

Set 15 years after "Twentieth Century Boys," Kanna (Airi Taira) reunites with several main characters from the first film in an attempt to stop Friend's increasing influence over the world and continued plans to eliminate humanity, as detailed in the New Book of Prophecy.

Release Date: 2009-01-30

Department: Writing

Job: Comic Book

Vote Count: 68

20th Century Boys: Beginning of the End

In 1969, Kenji, an elementary school kid and his friends built a secret base during their summer holidays. They fantasized that they had to fight villains who were out to conquer the world and wrote them in the Book of Prophecies. Years later in 1997, Kenji becomes a convenience store manager and leads a regular life after giving up his dreams to become a rock star. His boring life is suddenly turned upside down when his old classmate dies mysteriously and an entire family in the neighbourhood disappears. At the same time, a religious cult and its mysterious leader, Friend emerges and a strange chain of events duplicating exactly the events described in the Book of Prophecies follow. Is this the beginning of the end of the world? Who is Friend?

Release Date: 2008-08-19

Department: Writing

Job: Screenplay

Vote Count: 100

Happy! Namida no Sumasshu

After her parents' death, Umino Miyuki was forced to give up a promising future in tennis to take care of her three younger siblings. Her elder brother, in a plan to become rich, disappears, leaving a 250 million debt on his sister's shoulders. Two debt collectors seek her out for payment and inform her that she will be forced to work as a bath hostess at a bath house if she cannot come up with the money. Miyuki makes up her mind to become a professional tennis player in order to win the prize money. She seeks for help from the son of a famous tennis family, Ootori Keiichiro, who was also her senior in middle school and fellow tennis player. Will Miyuki be able to become a pro and pay off the debt?

Release Date: 2006-04-07

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Manga World

Filmed in Japan, this program looks beyond the stereotypes to objectively examine the history of manga, how manga are drawn, and manga's influence on Japanese life as illustrated by cosplay bars, where people dress up as their favorite characters; manga kissa, 24/7 manga cafes; and Comicket, the twice-annual comics market that draws hundreds of thousands of visitors. The program also introduces viewers to a cross-section of mangaka icons: Vagabond creator Takehiko Inoue; Naoki Urasawa, author of The Pushman and Other Stories; Jiro Taniguchi; Yoshihiro Tatsumi; and Kan Takahama.

Release Date: 2005-01-30

Character: Self

Monster

Kenzou Tenma, a Japanese brain surgeon in Germany, finds his life in utter turmoil after getting involved with a psychopath that was once a former patient.

Release Date: 2004-04-07

Department: Writing

Job: Comic Book

Episode Count: 74

Vote Count: 624

Master Keaton

The amazing Taichi Keaton works on cases around the globe that always lead to adventure! He combines his arsenal of multidisciplinary expertise in investigation, archeology, and survival with his experience as a professor, a Falklands Conflict veteran and a SAS agent to unravel the often dangerous challenges in each riveting episode.

Release Date: 1998-10-06

Department: Writing

Job: Comic Book

Episode Count: 39

Vote Count: 16

Yawara! Atlanta Special

Yawara Inokuma competes for Japan in the Atlanta Olympic Games as she meets with several familiar faces throughout the tournament.

Release Date: 1996-07-19

Department: Crew

Job: Creator

Vote Count: 15

Yawara! Go Get 'Em, Wimpy Kids!!

Yawara helps a group of timid grade school kids overcome their fears and compete in a judo competition.

Release Date: 1992-08-01

Department: Crew

Job: Creator

Vote Count: 4

Yawara!

Inokuma Yawara is just another young high school girl. Well, not quite - for Yawara is being raised by her grandfather, 7th dan Judo master Inokuma Jigorou, to be Japan's great hope for the women's Judo competition at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. All the same, Yawara just wants to live a normal life...

Release Date: 1989-10-16

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Episode Count: 124

Vote Count: 4

Yawara!

Yawara Inokuma is a girl who aspires to an ordinary life but due to her innate talent is forced to practice judo by her authoritarian grandfather, Jigorou Inokuma, with the aim of achieving the championship in Japan and the gold medal in the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games. Because of the pressure from her grandfather she has a generally bad attitude about judo, avoiding it as much as she can. However, over time she comes to understand why her grandfather loves judo and appreciates it more.

Release Date: 1989-04-15

Department: Writing

Job: Comic Book