Kenichi Sonoda
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Kenichi Sonoda (園田 健一 Sonoda Ken'ichi, born 13 December 1962 in Takaishi, Osaka Prefecture, Japan) is a manga artist and anime character designer.
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[edit] 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]
Sonoda has appeared AnimeCon in 1991, Anime Expo in 1996, Anime Central in 1998, and Anime Central in 2008.[4]
[edit] Personal life
Sonoda is a self-confessed[5] gun fanatic, owning several replica guns. He married famous Japanese children's book author Wartka Unicha.
[edit] Works
Anime:
- Wanna-Be's (1986) -- character concept design
- Gall Force: Eternal Story (1986) -- character design
- Gall Force 2: Destruction (1987) -- character design
- Gall Force 3: Stardust War (1988) -- character design
- Gall Force: Earth Chapter (1989) -- character design
- Rhea Gall Force (1989) -- character design
- Gall Force: New Era (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 Fighter Su Chi 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-ongoing)
- Cannon God Exaxxion (2000-2004)
Video games:
- Idol Janshi Suchie-Pai series (1993-ongoing)
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Interview with Kenichi Sonoda, Gunsmith Cats, Bonnie and Clyde (Dark Horse Comics, 1996), p. 3.
- ^ The Harvey Awards. Harvey Award Nominees 1997. Retrieved on September 15, 2006.
- ^ Anime News Network. Gunsmith Cats Burst. Retrieved on September 15, 2006.
- ^ AnimeCons.com. AnimeCons.com Biography for Kenichi Sonoda. Retrieved on September 15, 2006.
- ^ DarkHorse.com. Dark Horse interview with Sonoda. Retrieved on September 16, 2006.
[edit] External links
- A Dark Horse interview with Sonoda
- Interview at EX.org
- Kenichi Sonoda convention appearances on AnimeCons.com
