Line #20 Creator/MasamiKurumada


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kurumada00.png]]
2
3	Masami Kurumada (born December 6, 1953) is a {{Shounen}} manga artist and writer from Tokyo, Japan.
4
5	Born to a family of industrial workers, Kurumada aspired to become a manga artist upon becoming a fan of Hiroshi Motomiya's ''Otoko Ippiki Gaki Daisho'', and was disciplined under the line of Creator/IkkiKajiwara by assisting Kajiwara's longtime collaboration artist, Kou Inoue. Kurumada is noted to have assisted on Kajiwara's ''Samurai Giants.''
6
7	At 20 years of age, Kurumada broke into the manga industry with ''Manga/RingNiKakero'' on ''Magazine/ShonenJump.''
8
9	Known for his {{Shoujo}}[[RealMenWearPink -esque]] approach to character design, knowledge in physics, impressive usage of quotation from various classical literatures, {{philosophers}}, Literature/TheBible, and the [[EverythingsBetterWithSparkles grandiose]] usage of rich screentones while maintaining a RatedMForManly story execution made him the prominent grandfather of the BishonenJumpSyndrome, and became one of ''Jump's'' GoldenAge artists with ''Manga/SaintSeiya''.
10
11	!!!List of Kurumada's works, in debut order:
12	[[index]]
13	* ''Manga/RingNiKakero'': A boxing manga and Kurumada's favourite work, as well as the one that made him big. Heavily inspired by ''Manga/TomorrowsJoe''.
14	* ''Fuma no Kojiro'': A story involving high school Japanese delinquent ninjas.
15	* ''Otoko Zaka'': His personal favorite work, which is a pure throwback delinquent manga inspired by ''Otoko Ippiki Gaki Daisho''. CutShort by Shonen Jump in 1983, only to be {{Uncanceled}} in 2014, continuing where he left of.
16	* ''Manga/SaintSeiya'': By far his most famous work. Greek goddess Athena reincarnates in present time to fight evil alongside her personal army, the Saints.
17	* ''Silent Knight Sho''
18	* ''Anime/BtX'': His take on the SuperRobotGenre by using [[MiniMecha Compact]] AnimalMecha with a [[SpiritualSuccessor strong]] ShoutOut to ''Anime/GodMars.''
19	* ''Evil Crusher Maya''
20	* ''Manga/SaintSeiyaNextDimension'': the canonical sequel/prequel to ''Saint Seiya''.
21	[[/index]]
22
23	----
24	!!Tropes associated with Masami Kurumada
25	* {{Hotblooded}}: He's the champion of this genre. Hell, he even wrote the lyrics to a song titled ''Shounenki I~'' '''BURNING BLOOD''' for one of ''Saint Seiya's'' opening theme songs.
26	* MeaningfulName: His protagonists will all have some sort of name that fulfills their purpose within their stories.
27	** Ryuji Takane: "The Dragon Kid that will conquer the Mountain Peaks."
28	** Kojiro Fuma: "The (Little) Son of the Wind Demons"
29	** Seiya: "The Archer from the Stars"
30	** Teppei Takamiya: "The [[SuperSoldier Iron]] [[KnightInShiningArmor Soldier]] from the [[{{Heaven}} High Palace]]."
31	** Maya: Shoots "demons" with "arrows".
32	* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Kurumada highly values the concept of "men are protectors of women," and "[[FemalesAreMoreInnocent women are more redeemable than men]]."
33	** ''[[Anime/BtX B't X]]'' has a staggering 100% HighHeelFaceTurn rate for all female characters; while presenting Demon General Sapphire as a monster by [[spoiler: killing Salome with a gruesome death]], and [[EldritchAbomination B't Raphaello]] as the Machine Emperor's ultimate DoomsdayDevice by [[spoiler: having B't Raphaello consume all forms of life to let itself grow, including all of Karin's elementary school classmates]].
34	** Despite the high death count, ''Manga/SaintSeiya'' too, has all the female Saints including Marin, Shaina and June survive while all but the five main bronze boys (and the secondary bronze saints as well) die.
35	* OnlySixFaces: Many of the characters he draws tend to have the same face and body type, with only a couple of minor differences such as the haircut or having scars on their faces. As is pointed out below, the main character of most of his series tends to look identical.
36	* PunchedAcrossTheRoom: Happens so often, a lot of anime MegatonPunch uppercuts are [[PlayedForLaughs parodies]] of Kurumada's compositions. It's just that his targets usually have to [[FacePlant land]] back in the arena.
37	* RatedMForManly: Most of his stories tend to focus on the action and stoicism of the main characters, similar to what ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' has in stock. Oh yeah, there is also [[{{Gorn}}lots of blood]] and violence.
38	* RealMenWearPink: Just look at his photograph, then look at the tropes below, it's unimaginable.
39	** CastFullOfPrettyBoys: He somehow has the preference for designing [[LongHairedPrettyBoy Long-Haired Pretty Boys]].
40	*** ''Manga/RingNiKakero'' has all members of Team France walking out in full ''Manga/TheRoseOfVersailles'' style.
41	*** Dear Lord... just in ''Manga/SaintSeiya'' alone, we have [[http://unoentremilcristalfm.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/shun.jpg Shun]], [[http://www.culturamix.com/wp-content/gallery/hyoga-de-cisne/hyoga-de-cisne-8.jpg Hyoga]], [[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-I5r_J5vjLeg/TVnmekbORzI/AAAAAAAAASE/ySwGE7bnGNg/s1600/shiryu.jpg Shiryu]], [[http://static3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120705025705/ssu/images/9/90/CLMisty.PNG Misty]], [[http://static3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131017200103/saintseya/pt/images/e/e0/Mu_no_aries_by_maniaxoi-d3i4807.jpg Mu]], [[http://static4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130220225659/saintseya/pt/images/1/1e/Shaka.jpg Shaka]], and [[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oCaXE4Y9RNM/TQYhxY9QTAI/AAAAAAAAAAk/6K4IO4iFa44/s1600/afrodite.jpg Aphrodite]]. And that is only made of characters that were introduced during the Arc of the 12 Houses, and that is not even all of them.
42	** The example of [[Anime/BtX Demon General Sapphire]] showed Kurumada had no problem in portraying Main/VisualKei and [[UsefulNotes/LGBTCommunity LGBTQ]] characters.
43	** EverythingsBetterWithSparkles: From [[BishieSparkle Bishie Sparkles]], to [[EverythingsSparklyWithJewelry Sparkly Jewelries]], it's jaw-dropping to see a LargeHam like Kurumada to be a mega pro at screentoning sparkle porn even grander than most female manga artists to date.
44	* RecycledPremise: Besides the ReusedCharacterDesign, most of Masami Kurumada works tend to follow a very similar premise of superpowered young men fighting against evil, as it can be seen in ''Manga/SaintSeiya'', ''Fuma no Kojiro'' and ''Anime/BtX'', to the point he has been often accused of SelfPlagiarism. One of his works, ''Silent Knight Sho'', basically recycled the premise of ''Manga/SaintSeiya'', featuring young men using armors to fight against evil.
45	* ReusedCharacterDesign: If it is a Masami Kurumada work, you can bet that it will have several characters who are identical to characters from the same work, characters from previous works, and characters from future works. Just to cite '''one''' example, the main characters of all his most famous series, Kojiro from ''Fuma No Kojiro'', Seiya from ''Saint Seiya'', Sho from ''Silent Knight Sho'', Teppei from ''B't X'', and Ryuji from ''Ring Ni Kakero'', all look basically identical: they all have the same hairstyle, body type and attitude, to the point it makes you wonder if Kurumada seriously can't draw any other kind of protagonist.
46	** He justifies this as using a variation of Creator/OsamuTezuka's Star System, wherein each of his works have what could be considered "revisions" of characters and themes (you could have a field day spotting the similarities between ''Saint Seiya'' and ''B't X''), hence why they all look alike.
47	** It comes to a head when reading ''Ai no Jidai'', showing that TropesAreTools, and while there is definitely creative license at work here in his own pseudo-autobiography, he reused designs from all over the place for the stand-ins for his friends.
48	* {{Shonen}}: All his most famous works target this demographic.
49	* SignatureStyle: {{Pegasi}}, Arrows, and all types of CoolHorse motifs. It's even the icon for [[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bvRSQbCodQY/U4Zsb4sADxI/AAAAAAAAD9Y/iJOnmYsmkIQ/s1600/Kurumada+40th.png Kurumada's 40th Anniversary logo]].
50	** This is just Kurumada's way of [[{{Narcissist}} outwardly showing his love]] for his WesternZodiac, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittarius_%28astrology%29 Sagittarius]]. To the point where, unless Kurumada somehow announces a PlayingAgainstType call, longtime fans would [[ReusedCharacterDesign downright assume]] all of his [[TheHero leading men]] would [[YouCantFightFate don the fate]] of being Sagittarius just by viewing [[http://saintseiya.wikia.com/wiki/Seiya Seiya's character profile alone]].
51	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: The large majority of his work stands firmly on the idealistic side, with the forces of good triumphing over evil, despite all the constant violence, tragedy and CrapsackWorld elements embedded in his stories.
52	* WhatCouldHaveBeen: He was going to do a manga adaptation of ''Videogame/SamuraiShodown'' in the 90s. Sadly, the plans for said manga were cancelled. [[https://twitter.com/exbiollo/status/1233558995660615682 Here are some of the designs he made.]]
53	* WorldOfHam: From the constant uses of CallingYourAttacks to the character's passionate declarations of their [[TheDeterminator resolve to fight]], to all the [[HotBlooded Hot-Bloodedness]] exhumed by the battles, Kurumada certainly has a passion for this trope.
54	* YoungerThanTheyLook: Kurumada somehow likes to render the appearances of his teenage characters to look as if they're 20-30 years old. The person who suffered the most extreme age dissonance is Kazuki Shinatora of ''Ring ni Kagero''--A 15 year-old middle schooler who looks as if he's over 30.

Context Creator / MasamiKurumada