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Browse piano sheets by Naoki Urasawa on Zen Virtual Piano. Applying for a business job at Shogakukan, Urasawa carried along some manga he had drawn, simply out of curiosity. He then submitted manga to the publisher's 1982 New Manga Artist Award, and his unpublished work Return won it. Only then did he think about becoming a professional manga artist, since he had never planned on it and had graduated from Meisei University with a degree in economics. A job interview that turned into an award because of a few pages brought along out of curiosity suggests how much his path depended on a small choice, and on a hobby he had kept up since childhood. He began drawing manga around age eight, when he created his first complete story. Guitar came in junior high school, where folk-rock singer-songwriters Takuro Yoshida and Bob Dylan were his inspiration. A year after winning the award he met Takashi Nagasaki, who became his longtime editor and collaborator. Drawing from about age eight and guitar from junior high school suggest that music was part of his creative life long before it became a published sideline. Pluto, which many praise as a masterpiece, is based on Osamu Tezuka's 1964 Astro Boy arc and created by Urasawa and Nagasaki. He plans nothing in advance; the story, he says, tells him where it wants to go, and once it stops surprising him he cannot go on with it. For an anime adaptation he is credited as composer of a mother's humming song and of the piano piece played by Duncan; he says he had a vague image of the tunes from the serialization, and when the producer asked him to explain them he made a demo recording and sent it. A creator who lets the story surprise him and makes a demo when a tune is needed hints at a worker who relies on instinct in both drawing and music. Kenji no Uta, written, composed and sung by Urasawa as Bob Lennon, with his own guitar and blues harp, was a CD extra bundled with the first printing of 20th Century Boys volume 11 in 2003. His limited single Tsuki ga Tottemo... came out on 4 June 2008, followed on 29 November 2008 by his debut album Hanseiki no Otoko, which means Half Century Man. A label describes the music as genre-bending, ranging from folk and pop-rock to blues, influenced by Bob Dylan and the Beatles; his second album, Mannon, which he wrote and produced himself, followed in 2016. Two AngoulĆŖme prizes went to Urasawa in January 2018, when the festival held its 45th edition in France: the Fauve Special Award and, for mystery, the Fauve Polar SNCF Special Award. He also hosts the NHK Educational TV documentary series Urasawa Naoki no Manben, in which each episode looks at a different manga artist. A stage-name song tucked into a manga volume, followed by albums under his own name, suggests a musician who came to treat songwriting as a serious second craft.
Browse piano sheets by Naoki Urasawa on Zen Virtual Piano.
Applying for a business job at Shogakukan, Urasawa carried along some manga he had drawn, simply out of curiosity. He then submitted manga to the publisher's 1982 New Manga Artist Award, and his unpublished work Return won it. Only then did he think about becoming a professional manga artist, since he had never planned on it and had graduated from Meisei University with a degree in economics. A job interview that turned into an award because of a few pages brought along out of curiosity suggests how much his path depended on a small choice, and on a hobby he had kept up since childhood.
He began drawing manga around age eight, when he created his first complete story. Guitar came in junior high school, where folk-rock singer-songwriters Takuro Yoshida and Bob Dylan were his inspiration. A year after winning the award he met Takashi Nagasaki, who became his longtime editor and collaborator. Drawing from about age eight and guitar from junior high school suggest that music was part of his creative life long before it became a published sideline.
Pluto, which many praise as a masterpiece, is based on Osamu Tezuka's 1964 Astro Boy arc and created by Urasawa and Nagasaki. He plans nothing in advance; the story, he says, tells him where it wants to go, and once it stops surprising him he cannot go on with it. For an anime adaptation he is credited as composer of a mother's humming song and of the piano piece played by Duncan; he says he had a vague image of the tunes from the serialization, and when the producer asked him to explain them he made a demo recording and sent it. A creator who lets the story surprise him and makes a demo when a tune is needed hints at a worker who relies on instinct in both drawing and music.
Kenji no Uta, written, composed and sung by Urasawa as Bob Lennon, with his own guitar and blues harp, was a CD extra bundled with the first printing of 20th Century Boys volume 11 in 2003. His limited single Tsuki ga Tottemo... came out on 4 June 2008, followed on 29 November 2008 by his debut album Hanseiki no Otoko, which means Half Century Man. A label describes the music as genre-bending, ranging from folk and pop-rock to blues, influenced by Bob Dylan and the Beatles; his second album, Mannon, which he wrote and produced himself, followed in 2016. Two AngoulĆŖme prizes went to Urasawa in January 2018, when the festival held its 45th edition in France: the Fauve Special Award and, for mystery, the Fauve Polar SNCF Special Award. He also hosts the NHK Educational TV documentary series Urasawa Naoki no Manben, in which each episode looks at a different manga artist. A stage-name song tucked into a manga volume, followed by albums under his own name, suggests a musician who came to treat songwriting as a serious second craft.
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Common questions
Naoki Urasawa is a Japanese manga artist, creator of Pluto with Takashi Nagasaki, who also plays guitar and records music.
It is his debut album, whose title means Half Century Man, released on 29 November 2008.
It is the stage name under which Urasawa wrote, sang and played on the song Kenji no Uta in 2003.
He is credited as composer of a mother's humming song and of the piano piece Duncan plays.