A Mangaka is a Japanese comic artist or writer who perfects their craft, usually by publishing comic chapters weekly. They often have to create story elements and designs on the fly. Mangakas are highly respected locally and internationally for their art and creativity.
As creative as they are, it was inevitable for Manga artists to lend their talents to other media, like video games. One of the first Manga artists to start this trend was the legendary Akira Toriyama, who provided the art for the Dragon Quest series in 1986. We will dive into some legendary Manga artists who aided game developers in crafting extraordinary games.
Notable Video Games
Energy Breaker, Gungrave, Samurai Shodown V
Yasuhiro Nightow began his career by self-publishing romantic comics called Doujinshi. Starting as a hobby, Nightow eventually quit his regular job and fully transitioned into a mangaka with his one-shot, Samurai Spirits, which was based on SNK’s Samurai Shodown. This intertwined his fate with working on further video game projects. He then created other works which made him famous, like Trigun.
As previously stated, he contributed to video games by writing and illustrating an adaptation of Samurai Shodown. He also illustrated and wrote the story for Gungrave, a third-person action shooter with much of the same style as Trigun. He was also brought in to illustrate Samurai Shodown V, a weapon-based 2D fighter.
Tales Of (Series), Sakura Wars, Gungrave
Fresh out of high school, Kosuke Fujishima was an editor for Puff magazine. Eventually, he worked his way out as an assistant to a famous mangaka, Tatsuya Egawa, known for Golden Boy. Fujishima learned from Egawa, who gave him the confidence to start his first original work in 1986, You’re Under Arrest. In 1988, he began his most notable work in Oh My Goddess!
In 1994, Fujishima debuted as a character designer for Namco’s Tales of Phantasia. Fujishima provided most of the designs and illustrations for the Tales of series, which has over 15 main entries. He is also known for working on the cult-classic Sakura Wars.
Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage
Kentaro Miura was a mangaka prodigy. He started at 10 with his first title, Miuranger, published in his school’s newspaper. He continued to hone his craft, eventually becoming an assistant to George Morikawa, famous for Hajime no Ippo, in 1982. After a few one-shots, Miura began to serialize his magnum opus, Berserk, in 1989. Even after Miura died in 2021, Berserk is still in publication and considered one of the best-selling manga ever.
Miurai was known for his dark and detailed work in Berserk, which has inspired many game series, such as Devil May Cry, Dark Souls, and Final Fantasy 7. Besides inspiration, Miura illustrated and wrote a Berserk tie-in video game, adding a side story between volumes 22 and 23 of the manga.
Illusion of Gaia
At the age of 20, Moto Hagio debuted working on Shojo manga. Shojo manga focuses on romance and is generally aimed at young women. One of her first works, The Poe Clan, focused on vampiric romances spanning centuries in 18th-century Europe. Another is They Were Eleven, in which eleven space cadets must figure out who the impostor is. Hagio was so great at Shojo stories that she is considered the god of Shojo.
Hagio worked on Square Soft’s Illusion of Gaia, which centered around a chosen hero who needed to travel around the world to save it from destruction. Illusion of Gaia benefitted from Hagio’s art style, as she is known to draw beautiful and articulate illustrations that complement the setting around the world of Gaia.
Astral Chain, Love & Destroy
Masakazu Katsura began as a mangaka during the latter half of his high school career. Wing-Man was his first baby and was heavily influenced by Super Sentai (Power Rangers), a show where color-clad heroes fight monsters. His other series, Zetman, was also influenced by Sentai, except it follows a young man mutated into a monster by an evil organization.
Katsura is inspired by the works of Shotaro Ishinomori, who was known for creating Super Sentai and Kamen Rider. Both are live-action superhero-based series that fight against a new monster weekly. This influence is still seen in Kastura’s designs for Astral Chain, where futuristic police control familiars, called Legions, who fight against an intergalactic threat. Many of the Legion’s designs resemble Sentai villains.
Castlevania: Judgment
Takeshi Obata is one of those rare cases where he doesn’t do any of the writing but rather the illustrations. Many of his works collaborate with a writer, such as Yumi Hottta in Hikaru no Go and Tsugumi Ohba, known for Death Note and Bakuman.
Obata worked on the art for the manga adaptation of the video game Blue Dragon, which was character-designed by Akira Toriyama. Eventually, he became a character designer for Konami’s Castlevania: Judgment, an arena fighter who crossed over many characters from the Castlevania series.
Dragon Quest X, Sakura Wars (2019)
After a successful one-shot, Tite Kubo serialized Zombiepowder for Weekly Shonen Jump in 1999. It only lasted 27 chapters, discouraging Kubo, but then Akira Toriyama motivated Kubo to continue and improve. He created Bleach, and it ended up being a success. It was considered one of the Big Three, next to One-Piece and Naruto.
Kubo’s style consists of intricate, gore-filled scenes as characters fight with weapons. Another element is his casual art, which occurs when characters wear trendy clothing in a calm setting. Sakura Wars' character designs fit this style, as the characters are bright and stylish, while their mechs are complex and dangerous.
Lost Odyssey
Takehiko Inoue gained fame through Slam Dunk, a story about a high school basketball team. The character designs were realistic, with flairs of exaggerated expressions. Much of the clothing reflected real basketball attire, featuring Air Jordan 6 sneakers. His next and most famous manga was Vagabond, which followed the story of Samurai Miyamoto Musashi. Vagabond’s art pushed Inoue to capture realism through his setting and character designs.
Lost Odyssey is a JRPG that follows a group of immortals on their journey to save the world from the magical Industrial Revolution. In scope and design, it feels similar to the Final Fantasy series. Inoue was in charge of character designs, and beautifully animated cutscenes showcase characters' expressions and body language in this drama.
Dragon Quest (Series), Chrono Trigger, Blue Dragon
Akira Toriyama started his manga career in his mid-twenties, as a few of his early works were considered flops. While he always had a passion for creating manga, he was set on quitting. With advice from his editor to make a female lead, he eventually succeeded with the gag-manga, Dr. Slump, which focused on a robot girl and her strength.
His style was usually humorous and soft until he got the latter portion of his other hit manga, Dragon Ball. After Dragon Ball’s second time skip, characters grew older and stronger, making each fight action-packed and rough around the edges.
With immense popularity, Toriyama was tasked with designing characters from Enix’s Dragon Quest. The fantasy setting fits Toriyama’s early art style, as monsters feel kid-friendly. Square Soft’s Chrono Trigger was another fantasy series focused on time travel. Chrono Trigger fits Toriyama’s more serious art style, as characters feel dangerous and badass, highlighting the impending doom of the game’s themes.
Final Fantasy (Series), Front Mission, Child of Light
Yoshitaka Amano is legendary when it comes to art. He has drawn manga, like Vampire Hunter D, which follows the story of a heroic vampire in a post-apocalyptic future. While generally seen as a monster, D is the hero who finds acceptance and companionship with a group of humans fighting the supernatural. It’s a beautiful story that Amano’s illustrations perfectly capture through its gothic and elegant designs.
Amano is not limited to providing art for novels and manga. He’s an independent artist whose art is often posted in galleries and art books. While he doesn’t have a concrete style, he does provide complex and fluid designs that draw the viewer to the face of the illustration.
He contributed heavily to the video game industry through his work on the Final Fantasy series. From the start menu, players are greeted by a melodic and graceful intro theme that carries over from game to game. His art brings an aesthetic to the series that feels regal and special to players and hasn’t been replicated elsewhere.
