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Yawara, Monster's Naoki Urasawa to Teach Manga Classes

Naoki Urasawa, the manga creator behind Yawara!, Master Keaton, Monster, and 20th Century Boys, will be taking a guest teaching post for manga classes at the Nagoya Zokei University of Art & Design in central Japan's Aichi Prefecture in April. (April is the beginning of the school year in Japan.) Urasawa and manga editor/producer Takashi Nagasaki (Pluto, Monster) plan to teach two to three "Modern Expresssion Course: Manga Classes" a year, and each class will meet every month. Each class was initially planned for only five students, but Urasawa reportedly wanted to turn more new artists into "real" artists, and thus agreed to expand the class size to about 15 students.

Viz Media has been releasing Urasawa's Monster manga in North America, and has licensed 20th Century Boys. Geneon Entertainment released the Master Keaton anime adaptation in North America, while AnimEigo licensed the Yawara! anime.

Director Mamoru Oshii (Patlabor, Ghost in the Shell, Avalon) will take a guest teaching post at Tokyo Keizai University this April. Gainax studio co-founder Toshio Okada famously lectured on "Otaku studies" at Tokyo University during the 1990s. Manga creator Keiko Takemiya (To Terra, Andromeda Stories), anime creator Yoshiyuki Tomino (Mobile Suit Gundam, Aura Battler Dunbine), and director Rintarō (Metropolis, X) are three of the professionals who teach or have lectured at Kyoto Seika University's pioneering Faculty of Manga. The Tokyo National University of Fine Arts plans to also have guest lecturers from the anime and manga fields when it opens the first anime major in a Japanese public university this April.

Source: Yomiuri Shimbun