Katsura Masakazu 桂正和

Another Shounen Jump rising star of the 1980s, who achieved recognition with Wingman. His art direction skill (especially his use of screentones) and cute girls have made him popular with Western manga fans. Katsura is a big Batman fan and there are many references to Batman in his manga.

He became a mangaka after getting the first place in the Osamu Tezuka drawing contest. His goal was to get the first prize: a Hifi Stereo Chain.

Katsura debuted in 1981 with "Tenkou-sei wa hensou-sei?!", a story which can be found in the first 'Collection'-volume.

He has never been an assistant to another mangaka and his first success was Wingman which has a different style of artwork compared to his later work. That's because after Wingman he got sick and was admitted to hospital. There, he decided to refine his style.

Katsura has also done character designs for IRIA ΙЯΙΑ, the anime based on Zeiram, a live-action movie conceived by Amemiya Keita 雨宮慶太.

Katsura's studio is called "K2R" which is an obvious play on his name.

See also: Masakazu Katsura shrine:
<http://www.geocities.com/zubkavich>

Wingman
愛蔵版ウイングマン
serialized on Shounen Jump, 1986
13 volumes @ Y390
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aizouban 7 volumes @ Y1000
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One day, a guy finds a girl dressed up in weird costumes.... one of her belongings was a Dream Note - whatever written in it becomes true. He drew a fictional character called Wingman.... which he transforms into when a bunch of bad guys from another world come to attack the strange girl he found. Katsura's first big hit. The artwork in here is very different from the style he has become famous for. {KMU}


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Choukidouin Vander
超機動員ヴァンダー
serialized on Shounen Jump, 1986
jump comics selection 2 volumes @ Y600
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A guy and a girl transform to become the Vander - the hyper-policeman. They go on a mission to fight the aliens who had come from outer space to conquer Earth. The transformation is rather interesting as the girl becomes the guys' armored suit.

Den'ei shoujo - Video Girl
電影少女
serialized on Shounen Jump, 1990-93
15 volumes @ Y390
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aizouban 7 volumes @ Y1050
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Youta isn't liked by girls, so one day he rents a videotape which promises a night with the cute Amano Ai. When he plays the tape, Ai walks out of the video screen and into Youta's life.

Shuueisha withdrew volumes 3 and 5 from sale, so that some of the artwork could be "corrected" (in most cases, this was merely the addition of strategically-placed underwear). There was nothing particularly explicit, but some scenes were judged to be unsuitable for Shounen Jump's typical "boys and girls" audience. For those who are searching for these two volumes, the first five editions of volume 3 and the first three editions of volume 5 contain the original, uncensored art.

Volumes 1-13 are Video Girl Ai, while volumes 14-15 are Video Girl Len, which is a different story in the same universe set some years after VGA, with a brief visual appearance from Youta.

Volume 15 contains also the first Video Girl story featuring Video Girl Haruno. This story as well as Haruno are the prototype of Video Girl Ai.
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Click to buy English translated volume 1 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 2 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 3 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 4 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 5 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 6 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 7 at Amazon.
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Jump J books Den'ei shoujo
novel
written by Tomita Sukehiro 富田祐弘
published by Shuueisha,
1 volume @ Y760
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The VGA novels were illustrated by Katsura and written by Tomita Sukehiro. They feature the four "den'ei shoujo" of VGA plus two new "den'ei shoujo", Kagetori You (pronounce like the English "you", unlike "you" from "Youta") and Kayama Yume. The story with Ai had a prepublication in Jump Novel. The other ones are new stories. As usual in Jump J Books, there are some illustrations of Katsura scattered throughout the book, together with four pages of color illustrations featuring the four main girl protagonists in the book and three pages of a "special extra comic", which features (hold yourselves) a video girls' holiday with the five video girls (Haruno, Len, You, Yume and Ai) taking a bath in the hot spring. {ITO}

D.N.A2 (Dokokade Nakushita Aitsuno Aitsu) [DNA2]
Ｄ．Ｎ．Ａ２
serialized on Shounen Jump, 1993-94
5 volumes @ Y390
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In the future, the earth suffers an enormous overpopulation problem, all due to one "megaplayboy". An agent, Aoi Karin, is sent back in time to avert this disaster by altering the DNA of the megaplayboy, who turns out to be an ordinary high school student, Momonari Junta. He has a "female allergy" which stops him getting anywhere near girls, but all that changes after Karin accidentally shoots him with the wrong DNA control medicine. An interesting premise, executed with Katsura's professionalism, but it never quite recovered from some long and dreary fighting scenes.

See also: D.N.A2 homepage
<http://www.interlog.com/~immortal/dna/>

Special features:
The last volume contains a collection of sketches for the anime, it contains also a complete report of an interview session regarding the anime.

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Present from Lemon
プレゼント・フロムＬＥＭＯＮ
serialized on Shounen Jump, 1988
2 volumes @ Y370
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Special features:
Accompanying the manga releases, there have also been a number of singles released.
The two volumes are called side A / side B

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Masakazu Collection
桂正和コレクション
serialized on Shounen Jump, 1989
2 volumes @ Y880
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Collections of short stories. The first volume contains seven stories of which the last six ones had already been bundled in 1984. The first volume also contains Katsura's debut story.

Shadow Lady
ＳＨＡＤＯＷＬＡＤＹ
serialized on Shounen Jump, 1992-96
3 volumes @ Y400
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Shadowlady was originally a short story Katsura made, this short story was published in the tankoubon ZETMAN. After that it was decided to make it a longer series. The characters do not have exactly the same design. Katsura maybe renowned for his depiction of cute girls in daring poses, but in this series he really begins to exaggerate. On almost every page a panty or buttshot of the main character can be seen. Shadow Lady makes it very clear that Katsura is a big Batman fan.

Oh yeah, there is a story too in the manga. Komori Aimi, 17 years old got eye shadow which allows her to transform in Shadow Lady. She has different colored eye shadows, so different attires too with different powers. The whole police force tries to catch her, including the guy she is rooting for. She has a little helper "Demota" who was also introduced in the short story.

Special feature:
In the third volume of Shadow Lady the original story has been reproduced (the one you find in Zetman).

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Tanpenshuu ZETMAN
桂正和短編集
short story collection
published by Shuueisha, 1995
1 volume @ Y390
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Collection of short stories.
1. ZETMAN [1989]
In this story, Katsura shows again that he is a Batman fan. 2. Shin-no-shin [1993]
3. Woman in the Man - Otoko no naka no onna [1994]
Nice story about a tomboyish girl and a somewhat girlish boy practicing a fighting sport. He is challenged by a fearsome rival. During a training on a centrifuge, things get out of hand, and the two come to the shocking conclusion that they have switched bodies.
4. Shadow Lady [1995]

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I''s (aizu)
Ｉ”ｓ＜アイズ＞
serialized on Shounen Jump, 1997-
15 volumes @ Y390
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Katsura returns with Aizu to a storyline that resembles more the Video Girl series than any other series he has produced in the meantime. The protagonists are: Seto Ichitaka, Yoshizuki Ioru, on whom Ichitaka has a crush. The story becomes more interesting when Akiba Itsuki enters the picture at the end of the first tankoubon. Itsuki is a youth friend of Ichitaka and although she doesn't let it shine through, she loves him dearly. The character of Itsuki resembles Ai from Video Girl a lot. The title must be pronounced as 'eyes' and can be understood as an abbreviation of the first names of the three main characters. Later on in the series there is a fourth 'I' who joins the three others, Izumi.
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4C
artbook
published by Shuueisha,
1 volume @ Y3333
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Actually 4C is a set of 3 books. The first book is called L-side where L stands for Lovers. The second book is called R-side where R stands for heRoes. The third book is completely devoted to Shadow Lady. 4C covers the artwork of Katsura from his very early work up to I''s. Although not cheap, you get an awful lot of value for your money. The three hardbooks are really chock-full of beautiful color artwork (of which a fair part has been published as cover artwork). Even if Katsura is not your favorite mangaka, you shouldn't miss out on this one: it is easily one of the best manga artbooks that have been published in recent years. {PVH}

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ZETMAN
2 volumes @ Y590
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Going further into the same storyline as that of the first story in the short story collection volume with the same name.