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Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru

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Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru
中鶴 勝祥 (なかつる かつよし)
Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru at Made In Asia 2018.
Born (1968-05-22) 22 May 1968 (age 57)
Ōita Prefecture
Occupation Character designer
Animation Supervisor
Key animator
Years active 1981-present
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Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru is an animator who served as character designer for Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT and provided key animation for every Dragon Ball anime series. He was born in Ōita Prefecture on 22 May 1968.

Biography

After graduating from high school in 1980, Nakatsuru immediately began working for Toei Animation on collaborative foreign works. In 1986, Toei Animation announced they were creating an animated adaptation of Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball manga and Nakatsuru immediately volunteered for the project, as he had been a fan of Toriyama’s work since his debut in 1979. This would be the first Japanese animation he had ever worked on, and it would be one that his name would forever be associated with.

Nakatsuru primarily worked under veteran animator Minoru Maeda, and started off working as a key animator on Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. Following Maeda's exit from the series partway through Dragon Ball Z, Nakatsuru went on to share the role of Character Designer with Tadayoshi Yamamuro from the mid-Cell arc to the series' end, but would then solely take over the role in Dragon Ball GT. When Dragon Ball Z was wrapping up and Dragon Ball GT was underway, Nakatsuru (as the illustrator) and Takao Koyama (as the writer) released a follow-up Dr. Slump manga, entitled "The Brief Return of Dr. Slump" that ran for 40 chapters from 1993 to 1996 in V-Jump. His experience with Dr. Slump would return following the end GT, as he became the character designer for its successor on Fuji TV, the 1990s Doctor Slump remake. In 1998, he again collaborated with Takao Koyama to create an ongoing version of Toriyama's three-part Cashman manga. While Toriyama supervised the manga and provided the original story concept, it was ultimately written by Koyama and illustrated by Nakatsuru (similar to what happened with the 2008 "Jump Super Anime Tour" special).

After being the character designer for the first four Digimon series (both Digimon Adventure series, Digimon Tamers, and Digimon Frontier), Nakatsuru left Toei Animation to become a freelance animator. He would later work with Toriyama once again as the character designer and main illustrator for several of Toriyama's Dragon Quest games. He contributed key animation for a few episodes of the One Piece anime series, and briefly returned to Dragon Ball to contribute key animation for Dragon Ball Super Episode 1.

Nakatsuru is probably the most widely famed of all the series' character designers, mostly for his ability to duplicate Akira Toriyama’s artistic style. While he has been very modest in interviews about his artistic abilities, even Toriyama praised Nakatsuru's skills in his introduction to the Dragon Ball GT Dragon Box:

Nakatsuru-kun is amazingly skilled, and mastered the peculiarities of my pictures in no time at all, to the point where there were even times when I couldn’t tell whether I had drawn a certain character design, or if he had.
— Akira Toriyama

Nakatsuru is also quite well known for doing the original character designs for Bardock and his crew in the first Dragon Ball Z TV special, although by far his most famous character design was that of Super Saiyan 4 Son Goku.

Like most character designers, Nakatsuru was responsible for much of the series' promotional artwork, especially later in the series. He provided the cover art for the two Dragon Ball GT "Perfect File" guides, but wouldn't draw anything else Dragon Ball-related until he returned to draw the box art for the first four Dragon Boxes (Tadayoshi Yamamuro provided the artwork for "The Movies" Dragon Box). Following that he provided the cover art for the two TV anime guide books "Tenka'ichi Densetsu" and "Son Goku Densetsu", all of the Dragon Ball Z TV animation comics, the majority of the Dragon Ball-related cover art for V-Jump, some of the Japanese video game cover art (such as the Dragon Ball Z series of PS2 games), the cover art for the "Extreme Battle Collection" guide books, and most recently the "Golden Warrior" illustration collection.

Dragon Ball Roles/Positions

Notable Anime Roles/Positions

  • In–Between Animation (動画)
    • Arcadia of My Youth (1982)
    • FUTURE WAR 198X年 (1982)
    • Final Yamato (1983)
    • Stop! Hibari-kun: 8 (1983)
    • Kenya Boy (1984)
  • 2nd Key Animation (第二原画)
    • Black Clover: 46 (2018)
  • Key Animation (原画)
    • The Adventures of the American Rabbit (1986)
    • Shōri Tōshu (1987)
    • Great Conquest: The Romance of Three Kingdoms (1992)
    • Cashman: Saving Soldier (1997)
    • Spriggan (1998)
    • Doctor Slump: Opening, Ending (1997 - 99)
    • Digimon Adventure 02 (2000)
    • Digimon Tamers: 8, 35, 37 (2001)
    • Konjiki no Gash Bell!!: Opening 1 (2003)
    • Superflat Monogram (2003) (No specific date listed anywhere. Only the year.)
    • Re: Cutie Honey: 1 (2004)
    • Konjiki no Gash Bell!!: Unlisted Demon 101 (2004)
    • One Piece: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island (2005)
    • Beet the Vandel Buster: (Opening 2) (2005)
    • Konjiki no Gash Bell!!: Attack of the Mechavulcan (2005)
    • Naruto the Movie: Legend of the Stone of Gelel (2005)
    • Beet the Vandel Buster Excellion: Opening, 24 (2005 - 06)
    • The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)
    • Naruto the Movie: Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom (2006)
    • Gaiking: Legend of Daikū-maryū: 13, 21, 28, 36 (2006)
    • Nippon Ijin Taisho (2007)
    • Hakaba Kitaro: 5 (2008)
    • Summer Wars (2009)
    • Halo Legends (Odd One Out) (2010)
    • Legend of the Millennium Dragon (2011)
    • From the New World: 25 (2012)
    • Toriko: 51 (2012)
    • Kingdom (TV 1): 3, 21, 37 (2012 – 13)
    • One Piece: 525, 537, 542, 556, 595 (2011 – 13)
    • Kingdom (TV 2): 1 (2013)
    • One Piece Episode of Merry: The Tale of One More Friend (2013)
    • The Last: Naruto The Movie (2014)
    • Naruto Shippuuden: 411 (2015)
    • One Punch Man: 1 (2015)
    • Twin Star Exorcists: Opening 1 (2016)
    • Pop in Q (2016)
    • Digimon Universe: Appli Monsters: Opening 2 (2017)
    • Mirai (2018)
    • Black Clover: (Opening 4), 1, 51(Petit Clover Animation) (2017 – 18)
    • Hello World (2019)
  • Effects Animator (エフェクトアニメーター)
    • Expelled from Paradise (2014)
  • Assistant Animation Supervisor (作画監督補佐)
    • Black Clover: 37 (2018)
  • Animation Supervisor (作画監督)
    • World Famous Fairy Tale Series: 20 (1983)
    • Kennosuke-sama (1990)
    • Mori Mori Dragon Quest Dan tail shock slime Commercial (2003)
    • Superflat Monogram (2003) (No specific date listed anywhere. Only the year.)
    • Ozora Maryu Gaiking NEO (2004)
    • Suraimu Morimori Doragon Kuesuto 2: Daisensha to Shippo Dan Commercial (2005)
    • Halo Legends (Odd One Out) (2010)
    • Black Clover: 38, 46 (2018)
  • Action Animation Supervisor(アクション作画監督)
    • Black Clover: 35, 46, 53, 59 (2018)
  • Character Draft (キャラクター原案)
    • Dr. Slump & Arale-chan Hoyoyo!! Tasuketa Same ni Tsurerarete (1994)
  • Monster Design (モンスターデザイン)
    • Dragon Quest VI (1995) (SNES Game)
    • Dragon Quest VII (2000) (PS Game)
  • Character Designer (キャラクターデザイン)
    • Kennosuke-sama (1990)
    • Dragon Quest V (1992)
    • Dr. Slump and Arale-chan: N-cha! Penguin Villiage is Swelling Then Fair (1993)
    • Digimon Adventure: Born of Koromon (1999)
    • Dr. Slump (PlayStation) (1999)
    • Doctor Slump (1997 - 99)
    • Digimon Adventure: Children's War Game (2000)
    • Digimon Adventure (1999 – 2000)
    • Digimon Adventure 02 (2000)
    • Digimon: The Movie (2000)
    • Digimon: Diaboromon Strikes Back (2001)
    • Digimon Adventure 02 (2000 – 01)
    • Digimon Tamers: The Adventurers' Battle (2001)
    • Digimon Tamers Movie 6: The Runaway Digimon Express (2002)
    • Digimon Tamers (2001 - 02)
    • Digimon Frontier - Revival of the Ancient Digimon (2002)
    • Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart (2003)
    • Digimon Frontier (2002 - 03)
    • Superflat Monogram (2003) (No specific date listed anywhere. Only the year.)
    • Ozora Maryu Gaiking NEO (2004)
    • Beet the Vandel Buster (2004 - 05)
    • Beet the Vandel Buster Excellion (2005 -06)
    • Halo Legends (Odd One Out) (2010)
    • Digimon ReArise Smartphone Game (2018)
    • Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna (2020)
    • Digimon Adventure (2020 – Ongoing)

Notes

Interviews

A list of known interviews or Q&As with the person. Must be from a reputable source and properly cited.

External Links

References

  1. ↑ @AnimeAjay (4 July 2020). Twitter. Retrieved: 22 August 2020.


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