is a Japanese

manga artist A manga artist, also known as a mangaka (), is a Cartoonist, comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist before entering the indus ...

known for his ''seinen'' manga series '' The Climber'' and the ''

Innocent Innocence is a lack of guilt, with respect to any kind of crime, or wrongdoing. In a legal context, innocence is prior to the sense of legal guilt and is a primal emotion connected with the sense of self. It is often confused as being the op ...

'' duology. Both ''The Climber'' and ''Innocent'' were awarded an Excellence Award at the

Japan Media Arts Festival The Japan Media Arts Festival was an annual festival held since 1997 by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs. The festival begins with an open competition and culminates with the awarding of several prizes and an exhibition. Based on judging by ...

. His newest series '' #DRCL midnight children'' began serialization in ''

Grand Jump is a Japanese biweekly seinen manga magazine published by Shueisha under their '' Jump'' line of magazines. Launched in November 2011 as a merging of '' Business Jump'' and '' Super Jump'', it carried over nine series from the former and three ...

'' in 2021.

Life and career

Shin-ichi Sakamoto was born in

Osaka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Osaka Prefecture has a population of 8,778,035 () and has a geographic area of . Osaka Prefecture borders Hyōgo Prefecture to the northwest, Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Nara ...

in 1972 as the middle child of three brothers. He loved drawing and even won some contests as a child. However, he did not read

manga 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 history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

until he found a copy of ''

Weekly Shōnen Jump is a weekly Shōnen manga, ''shōnen'' manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the ''Jump (magazine line), Jump'' line of magazines. The manga series within the magazine consist of many Action (fiction), action scenes and a fair ...

'' in a parking lot and saw ''

Fist of the North Star is a Japanese manga series written by Buronson and illustrated by Tetsuo Hara. It was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' for 245 issues published from 1983 to 1988 and initially collected in 27 volumes ...

'' and then ''

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. ...

''. Falling in love with manga, he decided to become a manga artist in high school. He made his debut in 1990 at the age of 18 with the

one-shot One shot may refer to: Film and television * One-shot film, a feature film shot in one long take with no edits, or manufactured to look like so * ''One Shot'' (2005 film), a Sri Lankan action film directed by Ranjan Ramanayake * ''One Shot'', a ...

"Keith!!", which won a contest. He began his first serialization in 1995, but Sakamoto himself said he spent the next 10 years without doing "anything of importance". This changed in 2007, when he created '' The Climber'' based on the novel of the same name. Sakamoto said that previously, he only focused on imagery and stories he thought would sell well. But with ''The Climber'', he put his self, lifestyle, and thought process into his work.

Style

Sakamoto is a self-taught artist.

Tetsuo Hara is a Japanese manga artist. He is best known for co-creating the post-apocalyptic martial arts series ''Fist of the North Star'' (1983–1988) with writer Buronson, which is one of the best-selling manga in history with over 100 million copies ...

, the illustrator of ''Fist of the North Star'', had a huge influence on him. Sakamoto's early art style focused on muscles and was paired with stories focused on men fighting. He solidified his current style with ''The Climber'', which he called a big turning point for himself. The artist said that as a novel, the original work uses metaphors to create imagery, and he decided to show these in his manga adaptation. Examples of his symbolic imagery style include letters of the text in ''The Climber'' being mirrored to convey a character's panic from losing oxygen, and public outcry from a public execution in ''Innocent Rouge'' being depicted as a tsunami. Sakamoto said he does not plan these in advance and, because his career struggled for so long, he will go with them as long as he finds it interesting because he is ready for his career to end at any moment. He went digital around 2012, citing the possibility of the paper he used being discontinued or his favorite pen stopping working like it used to as the reasons. Sakamoto is known for his detailed and realistic images. When

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 hi ...

suggested that his work is known for the characters' lips, the artist explained that he draws them as if they are interior organs. After drawing the ''

names A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A person ...

'' on paper, Sakamoto's manga is created completely digitally. The artist takes photographs of his assistants modeling clothing and costumes, some of which he sews himself, in poses that he wants the characters in. He draws using an

LCD A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers to display information. Liquid crystals do not em ...

tablet and has multiple layers to an image that he can add or remove at will; a background created by an assistant, a pre-made outline of the character, a photo of his assistant posing that is cropped and resized to fit the character outline, and a draft he draws on top. Drawing with his right hand, Sakamoto uses a remote in his left to move, rotate or flip images. After finishing the draft, he "inks" the final version using the G Pen setting because it is the thinnest. Sakamoto can not only immediately undo a line he does not like, but can select a specific part of the image, such as an eye, and reposition it. He cited this as one of the reasons he can not go back to traditional ink on paper. The clothes and hair of characters are kept on their own layers. Sakamoto meticulously traces the details of clothing from the photos he takes, and has a digital library of over 2,000 hairstyles he created that he picks pieces from.

Works

Manga

* (1995) * (1995) * (April 19, 2004 – November 18, 2005) * (2005 – 2006) * (2007 – 2012) * (January 31, 2013 – April 16, 2015) * (May 20, 2015 – January 8, 2020) * ''# DRCL midnight children'' (January 20, 2021 – present)

Other

* (2020, Artbook) * (2020,

doujinshi , also romanized as ', is the Japanese term for self-published print works, such as magazines, manga, and novels. Part of a wider category of ''doujin'' (self-published) works, ''doujinshi'' are often derivative of existing works and created b ...

'') * (2021, Cover art)

Awards

*2010 (14th)

, Excellence Prize for Manga (for ''The Climber'') *2011 Prix Mangawa Awards, Best Seinen Manga (for ''The Climber'') *2013 (17th) Japan Media Arts Festival, Jury Selection for Manga (for ''Innocent'') *2014 (18th)

Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Named after Osamu Tezuka, the is a yearly manga prize awarded to manga artists or their works that follow the Osamu Tezuka manga approach founded and sponsored by Asahi Shimbun. The prize has been awarded since 1997, in Tokyo, Japan. Current ...

, Reader Award Nomination (for ''Innocent'') *2015 (8th)

Manga Taishō The is a Japanese List of comics awards, comics award recognizing achievement in manga. It is awarded annually to a manga series published in the previous calendar year of eight or fewer Tankōbon, collected volumes in length. The Manga Taish� ...

, Nomination (for ''Innocent'') *2021 (24th) Japan Media Arts Festival, Excellence Award for Manga (for ''Innocent Rouge'')

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sakamoto, Shin-ichi 1972 births Living people Manga artists from Osaka Prefecture