Katsuya Terada


Katsuya Terada, is a Japanese illustrator and cartoonist from the town of Tamano, Okayama. His alias is the portmanteau Rakugakingu.

Biography

Katsuya Terada is probably best known in the United States as the character designer for the Japanese animated film . He has also done work related to American comics, such as Iron Man and Hellboy. He also made additional contributions to early issues of Nintendo Power, including a special edition Strategy Guide for Dragon Warrior and artwork for The Legend of Zelda. In Japan, he was responsible for the original character designs for the Tantei Jingūji Saburō mystery adventure video game series, and has worked prolifically on the series, most consistently as the cover illustration artist.
He was in charge of the book cover and illustrations for the Kimaira series written by Baku Yumemakura, and was in charge of cover design and illustrations for Garōden, Shin Majugari, and Yamigarishi as well.
Terada has defined himself as a "rakugaki" artist, more of a philosophy than a style of drawing, in which one draws a little everywhere, all the time, without thinking too much, on notebooks etc. He is a very prolific artist; one of his collections of sketches numbers more than 1000 pages, appropriately called RakugaKing.
He has done very little group-drawn work, his principal activities being illustration and character design.
His use of CG tools is integrated very well in his illustrations, giving his work a vivid and rich appearance. He has admitted various influences on his work, particularly European ones, like Jean Giraud and the magazine Métal hurlant which he has said gave him a taste for strong women who are slightly stripped.
Terada has done illustrations for a book by film historians Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski that is included in a Godzilla Criterion box set along with other illustrators such as Takashi Okazaki.

Works

Illustration collections

Works Published in English

Films

Video games (character and world design)

Television