| Tite Kubo 久保 帯人 | |
|---|---|
| Born | Noriaki Kubo (久保 宣章,Kubo Noriaki) (1977-06-26)June 26, 1977 (age 48) Fuchū, Japan |
| Area(s) | Manga artist, character designer |
Notable works | Bleach Zombiepowder. Burn the Witch |
| Spouse | unknown (m. 2012)[1] |
Noriaki Kubo (Japanese:久保 宣章,Hepburn:Kubo Noriaki; born June 26, 1977),[2] known professionally asTite Kubo (久保 帯人,Kubo Taito), is a Japanesemanga artist and character designer. Hismanga seriesBleach (2001–2016) had over 130 million copies in circulation as of 2022.[3]
Kubo was born on June 26, 1977, inHiroshima Prefecture,[4] where his father worked as a town council member. In elementary school, he had already decided to become amanga artist,[5] due to reading the mangaSaint Seiya. His first one-shot was "Ultra Unholy Hearted Machine", written for theWeekly Shōnen Jump in 1996.[2] He wrote his first mangaZombiepowder, which was also published inWeekly Shōnen Jump in 1999. It ran a short 27 chapters before being canceled in 2000. According to the author's commentary, Kubo was in a state of severe emotional trauma when he wrote it.[6] Kubo later stated that he was not used to the magazine weekly serialization and used to pay more attention to his editor's comments rather than his own ideas.[7]
His next series,Bleach, aboutIchigo Kurosaki, a high school student who becomes ashinigami and fights creatures known as Hollows, began running in the same magazine in 2001. Kubo initially expected the series' serialization to continue no longer than five years.[2] The original story concept was submitted toWeekly Shōnen Jump shortly after the cancellation ofZombiepowder, but was rejected.Akira Toriyama, creator ofDragon Ball, saw the story and wrote a letter of encouragement to Kubo.[2]Bleach ran for 15 years of serialization and reached over698 chapters from 2001 to 2016. Additionally, ananime adaptation of the series was broadcast inTV Tokyo for 8 years from 2004 to 2012, spanning over366 episodes. The manga was named a winner of theShogakukan Manga Award for its category in 2004.[8] Kubo and Makoto Matsubara have co-authored two novelizations of theBleach series, which were published by Shueisha under theirJump Books label.[9][10] The firstBleach movie was released in Japan on December 16, 2006, followed by asecond movie on December 22, 2007, athird on December 13, 2008, and afourth on December 4, 2010. Kubo also appeared in the episode 112 of the Japanese radio program ofBleach B-Station. In that program, Kubo was interviewed byMasakazu Morita, voice actor ofIchigo Kurosaki, the main character ofBleach, and answered several questions from fans.[11] On July 26, 2008, Kubo went to the United States for the first time and made an appearance atSan Diego Comic-Con.[12]
Kubo provided character designs forMadhouse's anime adaptations ofAngo Sakaguchi'sSakura no Mori no Mankai no Shita andRyūnosuke Akutagawa'sThe Spider's Thread andHell Screen, which are parts of theAoi Bungaku series.[13] In 2018, Kubo returned toWeekly Shōnen Jump and published a one-shot,Burn the Witch, in commemoration of the magazine's 50th anniversary.[14] Later on, in 2020, the one-shot was serialized in the magazine with a seasonal release schedule.[15] The 4-chapter first season was published in August to September 2020.[16] A second season of the series has been announced.[17][18]
Both of Kubo's serialized works are shōnen manga with a heavy focus on action. His fight scenes are noted for swift cuts and dramatic angle changes between panels, as well as minimal inclusion of background art orsplash pages. As a character designer, Kubo held to a distinctively angular and lanky style throughZombiepowder and the early portions ofBleach, which filled out somewhat asBleach continued. His designs often incorporate elements ofbody horror.[19][20][21]
Kubo's earliest influence is fromShigeru Mizuki's mangaGegege no Kitaro. He remembers trying to sketch its characters and found his own designs to be simpler than that of Mizuki's.[7]Bleach was first conceived from a desire on Kubo's part to drawshinigami inkimono, which formed the basis for the design of the Shinigami in the series, and conception of the characterRukia Kuchiki.[22] Kubo has cited influences for elements ofBleach ranging from other manga series to music, foreign language, architecture, and film. He attributes his interest in drawing the supernatural and monsters to Shigeru Mizuki'sGeGeGe no Kitaro andBleach's focus on interesting weaponry and battle scenes toMasami Kurumada'sSaint Seiya, both manga Kubo enjoyed as a boy.[22] Kubo stated thatAkira Toriyama'sDragon Ball taught him that allvillains must be "strong, scary and cool" without exception, and added that to this day no fight scene has shocked him more thanTrunks' first appearance.[23] The action style and storytelling found inBleach are inspired by cinema, though Kubo has not revealed any specific movie as being an influence for fight scenes.[24] Kubo has also stated that he wishes to makeBleach an experience that can only be found by reading manga, and dismissed ideas of creating any live-action film adaptations of the series.[25]
In the making of battle scenes, Kubo's comments that he imagines the fights with the empty backgrounds and then he tries to find the best angle to make it.[26] Then, he tries to make the injuries look very realistic in order to make the readers feel the character's pain.[27] Kubo mentions he sometimes is bored while illustrating them, so he tries to add a few jokes to make it more humorous.[26] When creating characters, Kubo first attempts to create the design and later decide how the character's personality will be according to what he drew. Since creating them like this, Kubo considers every character to be unique and wants each of them to be developed along the series.[28] When asked about romantic relationships between certain characters, Kubo answers saying that he does not want to turn the series into a love story since he thinks there are more exciting aspects concerning their personalities.[29] While the Soul Reapers' attacks and arsenal have Japanese names, other characters from the series also use different languages to describe their terms: German words used for powers from the Quincy and English for the members of X-Cution. In the case of the Hollows and Arrancars, Kubo choose to use Spanish terms about their abilities as he is interested in the Spanish language for sounding "bewitching" and "mellow" from his perspective.[30]
Initially appearing inWeekly Shōnen Jump and published by Shueisha in Tokyo, Japan, the manga have been licensed in North America byViz Media.
Prior to being serially published, Tite Kubo wrote and illustrated severalone-shot manga. Three of these were later published in English, included inViz Media's collected volumes ofZombiepowder. These short manga display the rapid development of Kubo's artstyle in the mid-90s. Afterwards, Kubo published another one-shot afterBleach ended, with an artstyle that has been widely recognized as his own.
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