Kenichi Sonoda


Kenichi Sonoda is a Japanese manga artist and animation character designer.
𝕏 ganso_sonodaya

Professional career

Born in Kumamoto, Kumamoto Prefecture, Sonoda moved to Tokyo in 1984, at the age of 21, and began work at Artmic, an anime studio. During this time, he worked on Bubblegum Crisis, producing the original Knight Saber character designs. He also worked on Gall Force, for which he did the original character designs.
He worked at Artmic until 1991, when he began work on the manga series Gunsmith Cats. Gunsmith Cats is one of Sonoda's best known works, being both a Harvey and Tezuka award nominee. Sonoda concluded Gunsmith Cats run in 1997, when he put the comic on hiatus, and began work on Cannon God Exaxxion. In 2004, after finishing Cannon God Exaxxion, he returned to work on Gunsmith Cats, with the follow-up sequel, Gunsmith Cats Burst.
He is currently the 19th head of the wagashi confectionery shop "Sonoda-ya" in Kumamoto, established in 1582. Sonoda created a new product, its first in 115 years, by adding lemon peels to his family's existing chōsen-ame candies and providing his own bishōjo illustrations for the packaging.

Personal life

Sonoda is a self-confessed gun fanatic, owning several replica guns.

Works

Manga

Riding Bean Gunsmith Cats Cannon God Exaxxion Gunsmith Cats BURST
  • ''Bullet the Wizard''

Animation

Wanna-Be's —character concept designGall Force: First Story Arc —character designGall Force: Rhea Arc —character designGall Force: Earth Chapter Arc —character designGall Force: New Era Arc —character designBubblegum Crisis —character and mecha designRoyal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise —production designRiding Bean original story, character designBubblegum Crash —character designOtaku no Video —character designGunsmith Cats —original story, character designIdol Janshi Suchie-Pai —original character designSolty Rei —conceptual design

Video games