Masakazu Katsura

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Masakazu Katsura
Masakazu Katsura and a fan of his
Born	December 10, 1962 (1962-12-10) (age 45) Fukui
Occupation	mangaka

Masakazu Katsura (桂正和, Katsura Masakazu^?), born December 10, 1962, is a Japanese mangaka who is best known for several works of manga, including Dream Fighter Wingman, Shadow Lady, DNA², Video Girl Ai, and the most prominent of his work, I"s (Aizu).

He has also worked on the character designs for Iria: Zeiram the Animation, which was based on the movie Zeiram.

He was born in the prefecture of Fukui in Japan. The turning point in his life was an illness for which he was bedridden, during which time he taught himself a different way to draw.

He is also a huge fan of Batman, something which has influenced his work, most clearly seen in Shadow Lady. In fact the manga which he created, Zetman could be seen as a take-off of Batman. Also, in Video Girl Ai, the two main characters, Yota and Ai, go to see a movie called Batman which shows the famous scene of the thug at the beginning of the movie ask "Who are you?" and Batman (actually holding a baseball bat) replies "I'm Bat-Man". This is in homage to the 1989 Tim Burton film.

Video Girl Ai was made into a six episode OVA, starting with the first volume. This has been released in North America. A live-action movie was also made of the story. The main action of the five-volume series DNA² was made into an anime television show that did not sell well enough to finish, so the story was concluded with a short OVA, which was also released in North America. I"s was made into at least two anime OVAs: one two-episode side story, and one six-episode summary of the manga.