Hiroaki Samura
Encyclopedia
is a Japanese writer/illustrator and creator of Blade of the Immortal
Blade of the Immortal
is a Japanese manga series by Hiroaki Samura. The series won an Excellence Prize at the 1997 Japan Media Arts Festival and the Will Eisner Comic Industry Award in 2000 for Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material...

, as well as several other short works. He has also done various illustrations for magazines and ero guro work. He has an ero guro book out that is mostly a compilation of some of the work he has created.

His favourite bands are Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...

, Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath are an English heavy metal band, formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward . The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. A total of 22...

 and Jitterin' Jinn. He likes Black Sabbath so much he named one of his characters, Kuroi Sabato (literally a translation of Black Sabbath), in Blade after the band.

Art Style

He has a good understanding of anatomy that allows him to create uniquely expressive poses and angles. His use of accurately detailed shots of hands and feet makes them almost as reflective of character and mood as his faces. Atmospheric backgrounds and landscapes round out the look of the manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

, which incorporates many panels done in a finished, shaded pencil style rather than in inked line art. His superb drawing skills are shown to their best advantage in these penciled panels. This applies to most of the manga and artwork he has created. He doesn't seem to use pencils as much as he used to though, preferring a sketchy ink style instead.

Education

Samura (b. 1970) says that he always wanted to be a manga artist. However, unlike most manga artists
Mangaka
is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...

, he attended art school for a time and has a classical art education. He disliked oil painting
Oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...

 and prefers to work in black and white. He says that he disliked oil painting from the start because of the smell of the paint and employed someone to help himself cheat to get through the course, which he is quite open about in interviews
He never completed the course because he got picked up by Afternoon
Afternoon (magazine)
is a Japanese seinen manga magazine published by Kodansha. It is a monthly anthology, and each issue typically has around thirty ongoing stories by various authors and runs about 800 pages...

before he graduated to do Blade of the Immortal
Blade of the Immortal
is a Japanese manga series by Hiroaki Samura. The series won an Excellence Prize at the 1997 Japan Media Arts Festival and the Will Eisner Comic Industry Award in 2000 for Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material...

.

Works

Comics
Comics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...

/manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

  • Blade of the Immortal
    Blade of the Immortal
    is a Japanese manga series by Hiroaki Samura. The series won an Excellence Prize at the 1997 Japan Media Arts Festival and the Will Eisner Comic Industry Award in 2000 for Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material...

    , an ongoing series about an immortal samurai named Manji. Originally published in Afternoon
    Afternoon (magazine)
    is a Japanese seinen manga magazine published by Kodansha. It is a monthly anthology, and each issue typically has around thirty ongoing stories by various authors and runs about 800 pages...

    by Kodansha
    Kodansha
    , the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...

    .

Samura also appears as a Pinwheel Seller in episode 10 of the animated series. In addition he key animated for two episodes and provided a scroll painting on episode 13.
  • Emerald, a one-shot piece set in the American old west. Originally published in Afternoon by Kodansha
    Kodansha
    , the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...

  • Ohikkoshi
    Ohikkoshi
    is a manga anthology of Hiroaki Samura's romantic comedy works published in English by Dark Horse Manga. It collects the five-part series "Ohikkoshi" along with the one-shots "Luncheon of Tears Diary " and "Kyoto Super Barhopping Journal ".-External links:*...

    , a collection of brief romantic comedy stories. Originally published in Afternoon Season Zokan by Kodansha
    Kodansha
    , the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...

  • Sakkabasu no Yoru (Night of the Succubus), a Darkstalkers dōjinshi
    Dojinshi
    is the Japanese term for self-published works, usually magazines, manga or novels. Dōjinshi are often the work of amateurs, though some professional artists participate as a way to publish material outside the regular industry. The term dōjinshi is derived from and . Dōjinshi are part of a wider...

     featuring Morrigan Aensland
    Morrigan Aensland
    is a video game character from the Darkstalkers series of fighting games developed by Capcom. She is voiced by Yayoi Jinguji in many of her video game appearances, except in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds where she was voiced by Rie Tanaka....

    .
  • Bradherley’s Coach, a collection of dark tales all centered on the fictional noble family carriage that ferries, once a year, the girls of various orphanages to their newly adopted home.


Illustrations
  • Hitodenashi no Koi (The Love of the Brute), an illustration series of adult themed pencil drawings (extreme violence and sexual material.). The illustrations were published from 1998 to 2006. The series jumped from one publication to the next and featured in both erotic and pornographic mangabon and tankōbon
    Tankobon
    , with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...

    such as "Tokyo H" and "Manga Erotics F
    Manga Erotics F
    is a bimonthly manga magazine by Ohta Publishing. It was first published as a monthly magazine on January 1, 2001, and switched to bimonthly in May 2002, releasing on the seventh of odd months. The manga magazine was created as a merger of two former magazines by Ohta Publishing, the monthly Manga...

    ", youth and art magazines such as "QuickJapan" and "Comickers", before finally being collected in an artbook.

External links

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