Masashi Tanaka
Description
Masashi Tanaka was born on June 10, 1962, in Gōtsu, Shimane Prefecture, Japan. He is a Japanese manga artist and writer best known as the creator of the internationally acclaimed silent manga series Gon. Tanaka graduated from the Osaka University of Arts, and his professional career in manga began in 1983 when he published his initial work in Kodansha's Morning magazine while still a student.
Before achieving fame with Gon, Tanaka created several serialized works throughout the 1980s. These early series include Flash: The Wild West Bandit from 1986 to 1990, Miss Marvel's Lovely Trade in 1987, Adventures of the Victoria in 1988, U.P.O.: Unidentified Prince Object in 1990, and A Samurai's Great Adventure in 1991. He also submitted several short stories to the Kodansha Tetsuya Chiba Awards, winning the Grand Prize for In Dreams in 1989.
Tanaka is most celebrated for his seminal work, Gon, which was serialized in Kodansha's Weekly Morning magazine from 1991 or 1992 to 2002, and later collected into seven volumes. The series follows the wordless adventures of a small, irascible dinosaur who survived the extinction of his species. The work is notable for its complete absence of dialogue, text, or onomatopoeia. Tanaka has explained this artistic choice by stating that manga should be without grammar and that he found it strange to give animals human language. He described his goal with Gon as drawing something more interesting than anything one could say in words, aiming to continue developing the art of expression in manga.
The Gon manga has been adapted into various media. A notable adaptation is a computer-animated television series co-produced by Kodansha and the Korean publisher Daewon Media. The first season aired in Japan on TV Tokyo from April 2, 2012, to March 25, 2013, followed by a second season from April 4, 2015, to September 26 of the same year. In this adaptation, the animal characters speak, while the title character Gon remains mute, with the narrative adjusted to target a younger audience. The series spanned a total of 76 to 120 episodes across its run. Outside of television, the character Gon also appeared as a guest character in the PlayStation version of the fighting game Tekken 3.
Tanaka's artistic identity is defined by a commitment to visual storytelling that transcends language, realistic and highly detailed depictions of nature and wildlife, and a focus on the behaviors and interactions of animals without human intervention. The recurring themes in his work center on the survival, humor, and ferocity found in the natural world. His significance in the industry is underscored by the international recognition of Gon, which received an Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival and won an Eisner Award. The series has been published in numerous languages and is widely regarded as a pioneering work in the silent comics format.
Before achieving fame with Gon, Tanaka created several serialized works throughout the 1980s. These early series include Flash: The Wild West Bandit from 1986 to 1990, Miss Marvel's Lovely Trade in 1987, Adventures of the Victoria in 1988, U.P.O.: Unidentified Prince Object in 1990, and A Samurai's Great Adventure in 1991. He also submitted several short stories to the Kodansha Tetsuya Chiba Awards, winning the Grand Prize for In Dreams in 1989.
Tanaka is most celebrated for his seminal work, Gon, which was serialized in Kodansha's Weekly Morning magazine from 1991 or 1992 to 2002, and later collected into seven volumes. The series follows the wordless adventures of a small, irascible dinosaur who survived the extinction of his species. The work is notable for its complete absence of dialogue, text, or onomatopoeia. Tanaka has explained this artistic choice by stating that manga should be without grammar and that he found it strange to give animals human language. He described his goal with Gon as drawing something more interesting than anything one could say in words, aiming to continue developing the art of expression in manga.
The Gon manga has been adapted into various media. A notable adaptation is a computer-animated television series co-produced by Kodansha and the Korean publisher Daewon Media. The first season aired in Japan on TV Tokyo from April 2, 2012, to March 25, 2013, followed by a second season from April 4, 2015, to September 26 of the same year. In this adaptation, the animal characters speak, while the title character Gon remains mute, with the narrative adjusted to target a younger audience. The series spanned a total of 76 to 120 episodes across its run. Outside of television, the character Gon also appeared as a guest character in the PlayStation version of the fighting game Tekken 3.
Tanaka's artistic identity is defined by a commitment to visual storytelling that transcends language, realistic and highly detailed depictions of nature and wildlife, and a focus on the behaviors and interactions of animals without human intervention. The recurring themes in his work center on the survival, humor, and ferocity found in the natural world. His significance in the industry is underscored by the international recognition of Gon, which received an Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival and won an Eisner Award. The series has been published in numerous languages and is widely regarded as a pioneering work in the silent comics format.
Works
- Topics: Anime overview