Masato Naka

Masato Naka (中 祥人, Naka Masato) is a Japanese manga artist. He was one of Hirohiko Araki's assistants from Stardust Crusaders to Diamond is Unbreakable. He joined Lucky Land Communications during the serialization of Stardust Crusaders alongside Hirohisa Onikubo and Kei Sanbe.

History

Masato Naka was born in Komatsu in 1970. He graduated from the Komatsu Technical High School in 1988. In 1990, with the aspiration of becoming a manga artist, Naka worked under Hirohiko Araki. He was also an assistant for Kenichi Kutsugi during the serialization of Guard Dog as well as for Noriyoshi Inoue during the serialization of Yellow Dragon Ears

Naka debuted in 1993 with the publication of the one-shot Still a Devil in Weekly Young Jump. His first serialized work was City of Violence, published in 1996. He has worked on an official manga biography of Walt Disney. In addition, he has expanded the field of activity to advertising media, and has written advertisements and original mangas for companies such as the brand "From AQUA", of JR East Water Business . In addition to manga artist activities, he illustrate community newspapers and participations in group exhibitions where digital creators gather. For the 2008 Summer Olympics, Naka was in charge of designing the official support T-shirt for female wrestling gold medalist Saori Yoshida. He was involved in the organization of the boxing tournament "The Oyaji Fight" in the Hirohiku region.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

In 1990, Naka moved to Tokyo at the age of twenty and studied under Hirohiko Araki to learn the basics of manga theory and techniques. Naka studied under Araki for three years and four months, meanwhile working as an assistant during the serialization of Stardust Crusaders and Diamond is Unbreakable.

On December 20, 2007, Naka made a post explaining that he wanted to give an autograph from Araki to a designer he knew whose friend was suffering from a heart condition. According to the designer, their favorite JoJo character was Prosciutto. When Naka asked Araki, he was shocked and said, "Are you sure they want a villain? That's unusual. Not many people ask for Prosciutto." Naka told him that DIO was also fine, but Araki insisted that he would draw Prosciutto and that it would be better if he drew his Stand, The Grateful Dead, too.

Works

• Still a Devil (『それでも悪魔』) (1993)
• Strawbwrry Lips (『Strawbwrry Lips』) (1994)
• City of Violence - Young Jump (『暴力の都』ヤングジャンプ) (1996)
• City of Violence (『暴力の都』) (1997)
• Bluff (『ブラフ』) (1998)
• CUISINER (『キュイジニエ』) (2000)
• City of Violence: Special Edition (『暴力の都・特別編』) (2002)
• Pigeon Rally (『ピジョンラリー』) (2002)
• Dark Floyd (『ダーク・フロイド』) (2003)
• Dark Floyd 2 (『ダーク・フロイド２』) (2003)
• BOUNTY HUNTER (『バウンティハンター』) (2004)
• "I want to live more..." (『「もっと、生きたい…」』) (2005)
• Chiyujo -The Story of Chukyo Women's University Wrestling Team- (『ちゅうじょー中京女子大レスリング部物語ー』) (2008)
• Golden Boy (『ゴールデンボーイ』) (2009)
• Regno della pasta (『パスタの王国』) (2009)
• Boiled Kofu Bird Story (『甲府とりもつ煮物語』) (2010)
• Unsolved Cases -Glico Morinaga Case- (『未解決事件〜グリコ・森永事件〜』) (2012)
• Unsolved Cases -Aum Shinrikyo- (『未解決事件〜オウム真理教〜』) (2012)
• Tobe! Bonenkai -Kyo wa Bureiko- (『飛べ！忘年会〜今日は無礼講〜』) (2012)

Gallery

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  Prosciutto by Araki to Naka's friend
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  Naka with Swany CEO Yoshihiro Hashizume
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  Naka with his designed Bearbricks
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  Naka's manuscripts
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  Naka's workspace