 This article is about a manga artist in the Kamen Rider Series.
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Kenichi Muraeda (村枝 賢一, Muraeda Kenichi) is a Japanese manga artist. He painted the manga Kamen Rider Spirits as well as did the character concept art of Kikiader REBOOT.
In August of 2019, Kenichi attended the second Japan World Heroes
convention in Pasadena, California as a guest.[1]
At the panel, he revealed that he first got into manga illustrations as a child, reading manga at his parent's barber shop and he first got into Kamen Rider by watching Amazon. When he became a mangaka, he drew Kamen Riders on his break and this was noticed by one of his editors, who sent him to Ishimori Pro in order to be hired for an official work. The concept was proposed when Shotaro Ishinomori was in charge of his studio, but ultimately put on hold due to Ishinomori's passing and Kenichi stated that he sadly never got a chance to meet him even though he did try to contact him about the project. Eventually in 2001, Ishimori contacted Kenichi to work on Kamen Rider Spirits.
To aid in the accuracy of his drawings, Mr. Muraeda keeps life size replicas of Rider helmets and a collection of period accurate motorcycles in his home for reference.
Gallery[]
Notes[]
- Kenichi's favorite American comic book artist is Alex Ross and his favorite American superhero is the Steve Ditko and Stan Lee era version of Spider-Man from the 1960s.
- The hardest Kamen Rider for Kenichi to draw consistently, according to him, is V3.
- Kenichi thought a great dream crossover would be if Batman and the Avengers faced off against the Power Rangers.
- When asked, Kenichi said that he would love to do an anime adaptation of his Spirits manga, but Toei and Ishimori Pro would need to authorize it first and so far they are not interested in doing so.
- Despite fans asking about a US release in the future, he stated that his manga needs an outside publisher to bring it to the west and so far no parties are interested in acquiring the license to translate and publish Kamen Rider Spirits.
- Kenichi's favorite Kamen Rider is Amazon, though he also loves 2 and Kuuga.
- Kamen Rider Super-1 and the Super Sentai Liveman
are the best stories in his opinion. - When asked what other heroes he would like to turn into manga adaptations, he answered that he would love to do stories for Barom One, Lion Maru and Iron King.
- Another question asked at Japan World Heroes II was if Kenichi had a planned ending for his manga coming up, he said he has no intention of stopping and plans on telling his story for as long as he is able to as he is a diehard fan of Kamen Rider. Thus, the manga is a long term passion project for him.
External Links[]
- Kenichi Muraeda at Wikipedia.
- Wikipedia Japan
- Official Blog
- Twitter Account
