Nobuhiro Watsuki

He once worked as an assistant for his favorite author OBATA Takeshi, and is influenced by Marvel comics such as the X-Men, Spider-Man, Spawn.

When Watsuki was a young boy, his brother, who was three years older, drew manga. Watsuki’s older brother was his role model so he started drawing Manga as well. Watsuki was also inspired by a variety of early Manga artists such as TEZUKA Osamu and Fujiko F. Fujio. Later on, his brother stopped drawing manga but, "Because Mr. Watsuki was dumb, he kept drawing it (manga) for a while.”

When Watsuki was in middle school, he practiced kendo. He still drew Manga but also enjoyed sports. Watsuki admits that he was “So weak in fact, that I was an embarrassment to my 183 centimeters of height." Watsuki never won a kendo match. He was once chosen to be a starter after a teammate was suspended for causing an uproar. Watsuki grew frustrated with kendo, and eventually quit. When he was challenged to come up with a new character for Rurouni Kenshin, he used his outlook on kendo for a base of Myoujin Yahiko.

Nobuhiro Watsuki has had many works in the past. In high school he took a prize in the Tezuka Award for his one shot Teacher Pon. Not much is known about 

Teacher Pon because it has not been translated to English. Later on, Watsuki was an assistant in the work of Mashin Bōken Tan Lamp-Lamp (Arabian Genie Adventure Lamp-Lamp). The model for Sagara Sanosuke was based on a version of Lamp. In 1994 a new sleeve was created and published in Weekly Shonen Jump. It seems that this was the first sleeve about Rurouni Kenshin. His most recent work, Buso Renkin (Arms Alchemy) was published on June 2003, also in Jump.

When not working on manga, Watsuki enjoys playing video games, reading other manga, and watching television. His favorite American comic book is X-Men because he likes the action. His favorite Anime (other than his own) is Neon Genesis Evangelion. He likes video games like Samurai Spirits and things of that sort. He also enjoys action movies like Die Hard and The Matrix.

He has mentored many manga-ka, including ODA Eiichiro, YAMADA Kazushige, TAKEI Hiroyuki, SHINGA Gin, KAWAGUCHI Yukinori, SUZUKI Shinya and ITOU Mikio.

He is married to novelist KUROSAKI Kaoru.

Watsuki describes himself as "pro-doujinshi" and asks fans to send fan comics.

Enjoys: playing video games, reading other manga, watching television

Favorite American comic book: X-Men

Favorite Anime: Neon Genesis Evangelion