KATSURA Masakazu

Japanese Name: 桂正和

Place of Birth: Fukui Prefecture, Japan

Gender: Male

Information for Authors: Masakazu Katsura was born in the prefecture of Fukui in Japan. The turning point in his life was an illness for which he was bedridden, during which time he taught himself a different way to draw.[citation needed] Katsura entered the manga industry in his second or third year of high school, when he entered a work for the Tezuka Award to win the prize money. However, he says he did not grow up reading manga, instead he read novels and watched movies. Video Girl Ai was made into an original video animation and has been released in North America. A live-action movie was also made of the story. The main action of the five-volume series DNA² was made into an anime television show that did not sell well enough to finish, so the story was concluded with a short OVA, which was also released in North America. I"s was made into at least two OVAs: one two-episode side story, and one six-episode summary of the manga. Katsura also performed as a vocalist on the songs "Tomorrow Will Be Tomorrow" and "Unseen Dream" from the two soundtracks for the Video Girl Ai OVA. In 2008, he collaborated with Akira Toriyama, his good friend and creator of Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump, for the Jump SQ one-shot Sachie-chan Good!!. The two became friends in the early 1980s, having been introduced by their mutual editor Kazuhiko Torishima, and have even parodied each other in their own manga. Toriyama credits Katsura with coming up with the idea to have two characters "fuse" together in Dragon Ball, leading to the Fusion technique. However, Katsura says this is only a rumor; while he did in fact suggest it to him, he knows that Toriyama was not listening and claims Toriyama later thought it up on his own.They worked together again in 2009, for the three-chapter one-shot Jiya in Weekly Young Jump. Also in 2008, Katsura did a design illustration of the Batman costume for Bandai's "Movie Realization" action figure line, basing it on the costume used in the film The Dark Knight.