Kenichi Sonoda (園田 健一 Sonoda Ken'ichi, born 13 December 1962 in Kumamoto, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan) is a manga artist and anime character designer.
Professional career[]
Sonoda moved to Tokyo in 1984, at the age of 21, and began work at Artmic,[1] an anime studio. During this time, he worked on Bubblegum Crisis, producing the original Knight Saber character designs. He also worked on Gall Force, for which he did the original character designs.
He worked at Artmic until 1991, when he began work on the manga series Gunsmith Cats. Gunsmith Cats is one of Sonoda's best known works, being both a Harvey,[2] and Tezuka award nominee. Sonoda concluded Gunsmith Cats' run in 1997, when he put the manga on hiatus, and began work on Cannon God Exaxxion. In 2004, after finishing Cannon God Exaxxion, he returned to work on Gunsmith Cats, with the follow-up manga, Gunsmith Cats Burst.[3]
Personal life[]
Sonoda is a self-confessed[4] gun fanatic, owning several replica guns. He married famous Japanese children's book author Wartka Unicha.
Works[]
Anime:
- Wanna-Be's (1986) -- character concept design
- Gall Force: First Story Arc (1986) -- character design
- Gall Force: Rhea Arc (1989) -- character design
- Gall Force: Earth Chapter Arc (1989) -- character design
- Gall Force: New Era Arc (1991) -- character design
- Bubblegum Crisis (1987) -- character and mecha design
- Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise (1987) -- production design
- Riding Bean (1989) original story, character design
- Bubblegum Crash (1991) -- character design
- Otaku no Video (1991) -- character design
- Gunsmith Cats (1995) -- original story, character design
- Idol Janshi Suchie-Pai (1996) -- original character design
- Solty Rei (2005) -- conceptual design
Manga:
- Privates Live
- Riding Bean (1989; unfinished)
- Gunsmith Cats (1991-1997)
- Gunsmith Cats BURST (2004-2008)
- Cannon God Exaxxion (2000-2004)
- Bullet the Wizard (2010-ongoing)
Video games:
- Idol Janshi Suchie-Pai series (1993-ongoing)
References[]
- ↑ Interview with Kenichi Sonoda, Gunsmith Cats, Bonnie and Clyde (Dark Horse Comics, 1996), p. 3.
- ↑ The Harvey Awards. "Harvey Award Nominees 1997". Retrieved September 15, 2006.
- ↑ Anime News Network. "Gunsmith Cats Burst". Retrieved September 15, 2006.
- ↑ DarkHorse.com. "Dark Horse interview with Sonoda". Retrieved September 16, 2006.
External links[]
- A Dark Horse interview with Sonoda
- Interview at EX.org
- Kenichi Sonoda convention appearances on AnimeCons.com
- Kenichi Sonoda at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
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