With the Kickstarter campaign live for the Monstrous: The Kaiju Issue from Monstrous Books, we are delighted to be joined by manga artist and author of Dinosaur Sanctuary, Itaru Kinoshita. Itaru Kinoshita is a manga creator known for Dinosaur Sanctuary, published and serialised as “Dinosan” by Shinchosha in Japan and the series Gigante o Utte.
Hi Kinoshita-san, it’s so great to have you here with us.
Could you please introduce yourself to our readers?
I’m a Japanese manga artist and the author of Dinosaur Sanctuary. I’ve been loving dinosaurs, kaiju and creatures since I was a kid. My favorite Kaiju movies are Godzilla, Gamera and Pacific Rim.
As an artist, has your approach to creating art changed?
Not at all. It was same process with manga, because manga is about creatingthe characters I believe. Of course we have to think about story, setting, or concept too, but the most important thing is characters. So designing kaiju means thinking about the background of it. That’s the same process with creating manga.
How much of an influence do you think Kaiju have had on you as an artist?
A lot. I have loved Kaiju since I was a kid. I was especially influenced by the Godzilla series a lot. I grew up with Heisei series, but my favorites are the 1st Gojira in 1954, Ebirah, horror of the deep, Sin- Godzilla, and Godzilla -1.
Also I was influenced byGodzilla 1998 too. I know that some people dislike it, because there are people who think it’s not Godzilla. However, I do love Patrick Tatopoulos’s beautiful Godzilla design, especially the jaw shape and the direction of dorsal fins. It’s very unique and it was so innovative. Also this movie taught me that Kaiju could move more like living creatures, not like Tokusatsu suits. Of course I do have respect for Japanese traditional Tokusatsu suits, but moving like animals was also innovative to me.
I tried to make kaiju manga 10 years ago, but my skill was not enough at that time, but Im still dreaming of serializing kaiju manga someday.
Can you tell us who Zarigazami is?
Zarigazami is a shellfish kaiju mixed with crayfish, swimming crab and mantis shrimp. It attacks with two claws and a tail. But the most unique point is that he can use electricity. Zarigazami uses its tail to charge the electricity from thunderclouds like a lightning rod and releases it when he catches an enemy with his claws. He is a shellfish, so he has defensive power too. However, he has a weakness. Zarigazami has an energy core to keep electricity in the back which is protected with a hard shell and a tail, and it is his weakness.
Can you tell us about the origins of Zarigazami?
Like I said before, one of my favorite Godzilla movies is Ebirah, horror of the deep sea.
That’s why I wanted to design something like Ebirah. Also I was inspired by several of the Kaiju in Pacific Rim. Actually I have created shellfish kaiju once in 2014, but it was not sophisticated design because of my lack of skill. So I wanted to update it with my skills today.
What can you tell us about Monstrous: The Kaiju Issue?
It’s a very unique and super cool project. In Japan, there are many kaiju fans, but no one tries to create such a cool magazine. So Im very excited and very honored to be able to join this project.
Any message for the ComicBuzz readers?
Kaiju does not exist(maybe). However, we can imagine the great kaiju battle in our head, and It always makes our life fun. I hope you like my kaiju “Zarigazami”, and II’ll be so glad if you support this super cool project!
We would like to say a big thank you to Kinoshita-san for chatting with us and wish him and the whole of the Monstrous: The Kaiju Issue team the best of luck with the project.
Feel free to check out the project on Kickstarter: Monstrous: The Kaiju Issue.
