Introduction

Not all celebrities are known for their faces. Some of them become famous thanks to their work behind the scenes. Such is the case with Japanese manga artist Yusuke Murata. How did he learn to make such artistic designs?

Early life and education

Yusuke Murata was born on July 4, 1978 in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. Little is known about his earliest years as he never revealed much information about his family or education other than that he was close to his father and has a brother named Kensuke Murata. It is not even known what high school he attended, but he is largely self-taught and has no formal artistic training.

Career

In 1990, when he was only 12 years old, he entered a competition to design a villain for a science fiction video game titled “Mega Man”. He won the competition twice and so his sketches were used in the final design for the games. He is credited as the creator of Dust Man, a villain who appears in “Mega Man 4”, and also created Crystal Man which is used in “Mega Man 5”.

Murata’s manga debut took place in 1995, when he created a one-shot called “Partner” that was published in a Shueisha’s “Weekly Shōnen Jump”; he won the Hop Step Award for this work and had already become a prominent name in the manga artist community.

Three years later, in June 1998, Murata won the Akatsuka Award for “Samui Hanashi”, another manga he published in “Weekly Shōnen Jump”. He was featured again in the same magazine in 2002, for his manga titled “nKaito Cōlt”.

In the same year, Murata was asked by the writer of “Eyeshield 21”, Riichiro Inagaki, to illustrate the manga. Inagaki was supposed to be both a writer and an illustrator for this work, but he felt it would be too ambitious and he wasn’t good enough as an artist, so he himself wanted Murata to join the crew. “Eyeshield Part 2” and “Eyeshield Part 2” were published in March of the same year, again in “Weekly Shōnen Jump”.

“Eyeshield 21” becomes a regular publication on 23^ed July 2002 and lasted until 15^e June 2009, totaling 333 chapters and 37 parts. “Eyeshield 21” also got its anime adaptation which was directed by the famous Masayoshi Nishida, responsible for “Shakugan no Shana” among others, and co-produced by NAS, TV Tokyo and Gallop. Anime aired for three years, from April 2005 to March 2008.

From 2008, “Weekly Shōnen Jump” published his manga “Hetappi Manga Kenkyūjo R” for two years, a remake of “Hetappi Manga Kenkyūjo” originally created by Akira Toriyama, Murata’s colleague.

The story follows Saitou, editor of a magazine named “Jump” who is based on Inagaki and Murata’s real-life editor who they worked with on “Eyeshield 21”. Shueshia released a collected volume of the manga series on 3^ed June 2011. The following year, Murata posted a short story on Twitter set in the same universe, receiving much praise for his artistic approach.

In 2008, Murata drew and wrote “Madofuki Park”, a one-shot that was published in the April edition of “Jump Square”. Another one-shot he published in April of the following year was “Blust!”, about a boy who was given supernatural powers after being experimented on. Murata continued his work for “Weekly Shōnen Jump” when he created another one-shot at 21^st June 2010, under the title “Minds”, and he also illustrated posters for the 40^e birthday.

In the same year, he was appointed as an artist for Yasuo Ōtagaki’s manga “Donten Prism Solar Car”, which was published in “Jump Square” between September 2010 and June 2011.

In 2012, two more of Murata’s one-shots were published along with “One”, a Japanese web comic. The first – “Dotō no Yūshatachi” – was published in “Weekly Young Jump” on 1^st April, and the other wan on 17^e April in “Miracle Jump”, and was named “Dangan Tenshi Fan Club”. In June 2012, Murata started collaborating with “One” to create a remake of the famous web comic “One-Punch Man” published in “Weekly Young Jump”. The comic was released in 13 volumes over five years and also got its own anime adaptation which aired in 2015.

In November 2013, the artistic crew of anime adaptation of “Majin Bone” hired Murata as the character designer, which aired in 2014, and Murata’s work was again highly praised. In 2015, Murata drew the illustration for One’s story about a soldier named “Gokiboru Buster”, which was published for the 10^e anniversary edition of Square Enix’ magazine “Young Gangan”. In June of the same year, he started publishing “Mangaka Yashoku Benkyusho” in the digital edition of “Morning”, Kondansha magazine. Each chapter shows Murata preparing some kind of dish, and up to 2^nd As of November 2016, 33 chapters have been released.

Artistic style

One of the greatest of Murata’s influences is Kinu Nishimura, a character designer for Capricorn games. Another big influence is “Dragon Ball”, a series created by Akira Toriyama. In fact, Murata said that the battle between Goku, Piccolo and Freeza is one of his favorite manga moments of all time.

Murata is often praised for his detailed work, humor, and balance between realistic design and exaggerated features that create comedic effect. In fact, most of his mangas are said to be better than anime adaptations, due to his unique art style.

Private life

Murata keeps his private life away from the headlines. In fact, nothing is known about his dating life, sexual orientation or family.

However, in 2019 he posted on Twitter about his father’s passing in a heartbroken tweet. He is quite active on Twitter on which he has more than 670k followers as of 2020.

Net value

Murata has made quite a fortune from his drawing and character design career. In fact he is considered one of the most famous manga creators. As of March 2020, his net worth is estimated to be around $15 million. No information has been released about any cars or real estate he might own.

Physical Characteristics

Murata doesn’t like his pictures being taken, and there are very few of them. He has dark eyes and black hair and a slim build, but his vital body measurements are not disclosed.