Urasawa Naoki: manga and Manben

wonder | wander | women really love artists with a lot of output. Somehow the work ethic is just as compelling and admirable to us as the work itself. So when we heard of a manga artist who put on a solo show in London with 400 original works, how could we resist? Urasawa Naoki, here we come!

Urasawa Naoki (or Naoki Urasawa in English) is an incredibly prolific manga author with many bestselling titles, the most famous probably being Yawara!, 20th Century Boys and Monster. He's been creating award-winning manga for over 20 years.

Concept art from 20th Century Boys

Just last month we went to Japan House in High Street Kensington to see his work. The Japanese Embassy invited Urasawa-sensei to exhibit there as part of the ongoing summer season of manga in London.

Urasawa worked with curators to design a fully engaging exhibition, showcasing not only hundreds of original manga pages meant to be read in full, but development sketches, wall prints and personal work, all set up to pull visitors into his fictional worlds.

We weren't allowed to photograph the original comics, but there were huge colour reproductions of his art lining the hallways, and Urasawa-sensei had even scribbled original drawings on the wall, graffiti style.

The exhibit reveals his first comics and childhood drawings, as well as the meticulous work he does to research and create his stories.

Childhood sketchbooks

He's an eclectic author with a huge range of influences: not just other manga artists but European art, sports films and jazz music.

His work is read all over the world: mesmerising stories with deep emotional situations and plots ranging from the simple and heartfelt to vast near-future conspiracies. Urasawa draws it all with his deceptively carefree-looking, but purposeful and immersive style.

Our favourite project of his, though, isn't a manga. Urasawa Naoki produced a documentary series called Manben on the Japanese-language network NHK, in which he films other famous manga authors creating their comics and meets up with them afterward for commentary. Watching these talents at work is hypnotic and gets us incredibly motivated to draw!

It was a pleasure to spend so much time with this great talent and be inspired by the sheer volume and craftsmanship of his work. We look forward to Urasawa-sensei's future projects!