The Old School Otaku Lounge

I miss Sonoda.

I wish he still worked in stuff. Wish he made more manga and his doujinshi group was more active.



Sonoda's work defined me as a man: I wouldn't have a nylons fetish if it wasn't for him, nor would I have a thing for cyborg chicks. I wouldn't have payed attention to Bubblegum Crisis or Gall Force if it wasn't for him, nor would I have become a gun freak without Gunsmith Cats.



If I ever become rich, I'll kidnap him and give him all my money to do all the manga he can.

He was at Emerald City Comic con not too long ago and I was so bummed--ECCC never got cool manga/anime guests when I used to live in the area, go figure he comes after I've moved away! He was even drawing stuff for fans, which seemed really cool. He's one of my favorite artists/mangaka, too, I love his style. I can even forgive him for all his fanboy-ing over guns and cars in Gunsmith Cats just because I really love his work, lol.

I guess this is (was?) his latest work:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclo ... p?id=14123

Shows how disconnected I got on that one, I was going to mention how he was working on Cannon God Exaxxion, and then looked at Wikipedia and saw that after he stopped doing that (2004) he sequel'ed Gunsmith Cats and then did the above series.

Yeah, Bullet the Wizard.

Someone told me that one of the guys at Vertical wanted it to be licensed here, but that the boss thought it "sucked" for some reason.

He is certainly my most favorite artist, even over Mikimoto. I completely love his works. His character design in the Suchie Pai games motivate me to learn how to play mahjong, but it's hard to learn by just reading rules on the internet.

I did a scanlation for his BGC "Gambare Nene-chan" manga. You can find it on my website here:
http://stevethefish.net/life/life080.htm

greg wrote:He is certainly my most favorite artist, even over Mikimoto.

I don't think I could take such a brave stance - I'd have to say a toss up between them. While I wouldn't consider Sonoda the favorite, he will always have a special place in my heart as being one of the first artists whose style I could immediately recognize. Things like Bubblegum Crisis, Riding Bean and Gunsmith Cats made up so much of my early anime viewing, Sonoda's style almost has a "THIS IS ANIME" nostalgia quality for me.

I agree with Gerald Rathkolb of Anime World Order on this one:

"Kenichi Sonoda is the greatest character designer of the 80s. Haruhiko Mikimoto is the greatest character designer OF ALL TIME."

danth wrote:I agree with Gerald Rathkolb of Anime World Order on this one:

"Kenichi Sonoda is the greatest character designer of the 80s. Haruhiko Mikimoto is the greatest character designer OF ALL TIME."

Yeah, I'd go with this, too. They're both fantastic and I love them almost equally, I'd say.

Well, for me, both Sonoda and Mikimoto are renowned for their drawing of eyes. IMHO, Sonoda has remained consistently awesome. Mikimoto's artwork took a dive, in my opinion, when he did Macross 7. I just did not care for that generic-looking artwork at all. His newer stuff like the Gundam: Ecole Du Ciel manga harkens back to his more classic style, but his work for Macross 7 never really seemed to me like "this is certainly Mikimoto's art style." Sonoda's character designs, OTOH, has always remained instantly recognizable.

greg wrote:]Mikimoto's artwork took a dive, in my opinion, when he did Macross 7. I just did not care for that generic-looking artwork at all.

Maybe you already know this, but his Macross 7 designs were "reworked" by another character designer for the animation. In other words he did the original designs, but someone else (Kenichirou Katsura) made them simpler and more generic.

Most of my favorite character designers and artists seemed to "take a dive" in the mid to late 90's. This includes Mikimoto, Sonoda, Masamune Shiro, and Kosuke Fujishima.