‘One-Punch Man’ Illustrator Shares His Biggest Influences

When it comes to One-Punch Man, fans are always ready to gush over its artwork. With its anime still on hiatus, the manga has been a source of comfort to fans, and its artist is opening up about the series which inspire his critically acclaimed art.

So, if you see a bit of Street Fighter in the manga, you aren’t just imagining it.

Recently, Shueisha published a new booklet to honor a recent Shonen Jump festival in Japan. The new volume has interviews with several top-tier manga creators, and the artist behind One-Punch Man talked with the site about his influences.

“Since I like to go against the grain, I had this goal to bring something new to Shonen Jump at one point,” Yusuke Murata revealed.

“When I first started on Eyeshield, I’d draw backgrounds freehand due to influence from Iou Kuroda-sensei, incorporate realistic looking muscles with only a few lines like in the fighting game Street Fighter II, and things like that.”

Continuing, the artist said he was influenced by Lupin the Third when it came to certain action sequences.

“I thought (the writer of Lupin the Third) Monkey Punch-sensei’s pictures of character legs while they’re running was a nice, fancy way of expression,” the artist said. “Some kinds of pictures I can draw, while others I just can’t.”

So, are you a fan of Murata already? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!

For those unfamiliar with One Punch Man, the series follows Saitama, a regular working Joe who one day puts a stop to a violent villain attack. After this fight Saitama is inspired to become a hero. Training his body hard everyday, he’s eventually granted with extreme strength. Looking for a worthy opponent, Saitama joins the Hero Association in the hopes of fighting them. But every fight he gets into ends after a single punch! Forced to wander through life increasingly bored of his supreme power, Saitama has become hilariously disconnected with the world of action around him.

One Punch Man started life as a webcomic by series creator ONE in 2009. After going viral, surpassing seven million hits in June 2012, illustrator Yusuke Murata approached ONE about redrawing the series for a release in Shuiesha’s Weekly Young Jump spin-off webcomics. Thirteen volumes of the series have been released as of this date.