Monkey Punch

Monkey Punch
Profile
Aliases:	Kazuhiko Katō (birth name) Eiji Muta (second pen name)
Occupation:	Manga artist
Gender:	Male
Age:	81
Ethnicity:	Japanese
Status:	Deceased

Monkey Punch (モンキー・パンチ Monkī Panchi) is the pen name of Japanese manga artist Kazuhiko Katō (加藤一彦 Katō Kazuhiko, born May 26, 1937 - died 11 April 2019), best known for his series Lupin III. In April 2005, he became the professor of Manga Animation at Otemae University, in their Faculty of Media and Arts, and was a visiting professor at Tokyo University of Technology in May 2010. He was born in Hamanaka, Hokkaidō and resided in Sakura, Chiba. He received a special Tokyo Anime Award in 2015.

His other pen names outside of Monkey Punch were Kazuhiko Katō (加東 一彦 and かとう・一彦, his real name using different characters) and Eiji Muta (ムタ 永二).

History

Katō was born in the seaside village of Hamanaka in Hokkaidō (later became a town) and he had said that his father, grand-father and great grand-father were fishermen. Since he hated fish and wanting to escape the family lifestyle, he had moved to Tokyo to taught himself to be a manga artist. He was inspired by Osamu Tezuka and was the reason why he wanted to become one.

Where he lived there was no TV and there were no bookstores, his only source of information were newspapers and the radio. There were books advertised in newspapers and he had to get someone with a profession to get them delivered to him. When he was in junior high, he had read Ranpo Edogawa's "The Fiend with Twenty Faces" and Maurice Leblanc's "Arsène Lupin" series. He also enjoyed reading and imagining adventure and detective novels such as Sherlock Holmes and Nishiyuki.

Monkey Punch passed away on 11 April 2019 due to pneumonia at age 81.

Selective Works

Here is a selection of works involving Lupin III.

Writer & illustrator

• Lupin III (Manga) (1967-69)
• "Lupin III Gaiden" (ルパン三世外伝, "Lupin III Gaiden"^?) (1970)
• Lupin III New Adventures (1971-72)
• "Lupin is back" (帰ってきたルパン, "Lupin is back"^?) (1973; Color Girl crossover)
• "Lupin III Superstar" (ルパン三世スーパースター, "Lupin III Superstar"^?) (1974)
• Lupin Jr (ルパン小僧, Rupan kozō^?) (1976)
• New Lupin III (1977-81)
• "Zeni-San Nonsense" (1977)
• "Don Pach" (1979; advertisement)
• "Dream-eating Adventurer Lupin III" (夢を喰う冒険児ルパン三世, "Dream-eating Adventurer Lupin III"^?) (1979; illustrated short story)
• "Police Box in Front of Kameari Park, Katsushika Ward" (こちら葛飾区亀有公園前派出所, "Police Box in Front of Kameari Park, Katsushika Ward"^?) (2006; with Osamu Akimoto; Kochikame 30th anniversary crossover)
• "Hokkaido! That's why I was able to produce 'Lupin III'" (北海道！だから制作出来た『ルパン三世』, "Hokkaido! That's why I was able to produce 'Lupin III'"^?) (2012; illustrated essay)

Illustrator

• "My Bullet is Nice" (オレの銃弾は…素敵…だぜ, "My Bullet is Nice"^?) (1978)
• "Conquest of San Diego" (サンディエゴ征服, "Conquest of San Diego"^?) (1979)
• Lupin III (1980; novel)
• Sexy Lupin III (1984)
• "Women's Only Prison" (女だけの刑ム所, "Women's Only Prison"^?) (1985)
• Lupin III English Textbook (ルパン三世の英会話作戦, Lupin III English Textbook^?) (1985-86; textbook series)
• "Lupin III: Alis Plaudo" (1994)

Director

• Lupin III: Dead or Alive (1996)
• "Is Lupin Still Burning?" (2018)

Lyric Writer

• "Lupin Ondo" (1978)

Other

• Lupin VS the Clone (1978; poster art)
• Bye-Bye Liberty - Close Call! (1989, promo poster art)
• Lupin III D2 Manga (1998; casting)

Notes

• He did not like the nickname "Monkey Punch" as it was given by his editor and was meant to be for three months while working on Lupin III. Since Lupin III had become successful, he was unable to drop it. His affectionate nickname among people was Monkey Punch-sensei (モンキーパンチ先生).
• Unlike many manga to anime adaptations where the creator has input to various degrees of control, Monkey Punch left the anime to "the professionals" as he gave the animators, directors and writers the freedom to do what they wanted. His only word was "made it good". When he was shown the characters and the story for Lupin III: The First, Monkey Punch told Takashi Yamazaki "Thank you for this" or "I'm looking forward to it".
• His influences when it came to Lupin III were MAD Magazine (Mort Drucker and Sergio Aragones) in terms of artwork, Alfred Hitchcock in terms of storytelling and the mystery novels that he read. There were elements of Treasure Island and The Count of Monte Crisco. He compared Lupin to D'Artagnan and Fujiko to M'lady from The Three Musketeers. Lupin being chased by Zenigata was influenced by Tom & Jerry, Monkey Punch was very curious so he went to America to meet William Hanna and Joseph Barbara. Other influences were Popeye, Blondie and Alberto Vargas. He was also a big fan of Mission Impossible.
• In a newspaper interview, Monkey Punch admitted that he wasn't very good at drawing women. When he was drawing for "Introduction to Playboy", he drew the same women inspired by Playboy.
• Lupin the 3rd Part 1 was his favorite of the Lupin TV series due to being faithful in terms of the tone to the manga and really liked the early episodes directed by Maasaki Osumi.
• When his passing broke out, various people had said their condoleances and companies had done tributes. Nippon Television decided to air his favorite film The Mystery of Mamo on the Friday Road SHOW!, Mediaset had dedicated the Part 2 Episode 48 and Part 2 Episode 49 in his honour, Yamato Video had teamed up with Sky to launch "Sky Atlantic Lupin III" and "Fujiko Mine's Lie" was dedicated to him.
• Monkey Punch had a son called Shuhei Katō who runs Monkey Punch Works (M. P. Works) and is also involved as a planner of the anime since 2012. It is speculated that he was introduced in Lupin III: Official Magazine as the mysterious Monkey Punch X.
• He adapted The Three Musketeers for television as an animated series in 1987.