When and where you born: I was born in Takaishi, in Osaka, on December 13, 1962.
How did you get into comics: I started drawing comics when I was still a student, around the age of 17 or 18. Then I became involved in fanzines, or dojinshi, and served as the head of a "circle," or what we call the groups of artists who put out dojinshi. Eventually my work was collected into a dojinshi publication of its own, and this caught the eye of someone at ARTMIC, who asked me to work for them. I actually started out making models, but shortly thereafter Gall Force was animated and I worked on that. I was only around 20 or 21 at the time.
Your first pro work: I made my manga debut about a year after the Gall Force anime appeared. It was called Privates Live and it was published by MOVIC.
Work you have done in the past: Anime works I've worked on include Gall Force, Bubblegum Crisis, and Riding Bean. Manga I've worked on include Gunsmith Cats.
What are you currently doing/future work? I'm currently working mainly on Gunsmith Cats. I'm not a particularly fast artist, so if I were to start working on other projects such as animation, I'd have to stop working on Gunsmith Cats. My next work is going to be science fiction, but I haven't decided on the title yet.
What/who are your influences? I can't think of a single, particular influence, but there have been lots of them. Most are from anime. In terms of TV anime, the early Lupin III material had a big influence on me. In terms of manga artists, I'd have to say some big influences were Fujihiko Hosono and Masahiro Shibata. Osamu Tezuka was an artist whose works I simply grew up with and was exposed to everywhere.
Do you see yourself having a life beyond comics? Hmm. I don't know, but I'm sure I never could have become a salaryman. I always feel like I have to be making or creating something.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years? I'm sure I'll still be a manga artist. I do like the idea of doing something like Katsuhiro Otomo, though. He stopped drawing manga when he began making anime and films. When I draw manga I'm always thinking of anime, so I always want to create animation, but it's tough, because if I did start working on an anime project I know I'd have to stop drawing comics. It's one thing to come up with the budget for anime. It's another to come up with the idea, do the direction, and so forth. Basically it would require a break from manga of at least six months to a year. Ideally, of course, it would be great to be able to create manga and anime simultaneously, because as Osamu Tezuka was often quoted as saying, anime and manga like the two wheels of a bicycle.
Favorite work of your own: For manga, it'd be Gunsmith Cats. For anime it'd be Riding Bean. These are currently the only works based on my own stories. For other anime projects I've worked mainly doing character designs and so forth.
Comics you currently read: I look at most of the main boys' and young men's manga magazines, often by browsing when I'm in the local 7-11-style convenience stores. In terms of actual works, I read Kei Sadayasu's Ah, Mago-roku. In the weeklies I follow Joji Morikawa's First Step. I'm also a big fan of Mikiya Mochizuki's Wild Seven.
Favorite and least favorite comic character: Favorite character is Major Evervaha, from Yasuko Aoike's With Love from Eroica. Don't really have any least favorite character...
The one person you'd like to meet: Hmm. I'd like to meet the creator of the animation titled Rock and Rule.
Most embarrassing moment: It's terribly embarrassing for me to show anyone old work from my student or fanzine days, from when I was an amateur.
Favorite munchie at 2 a.m: My sleep cycle is so erratic these days that 2 a.m. doesn't mean much to me, and I'm not much of a snack person anyway. But I like to munch on non-sweet Japanese snacks when I'm drinking sake, and to eat dried fish.
Favorite toy as a kid and as an adult: As a kid I loved Tamiya's military model series of tanks and trucks, and so forth, and I used to make lots of them. I also liked model guns. Now my favorite toys are model guns and motorcycles. I ride a 300cc single cylinder Suzuki motorcycle--a model called the "Goose."
Things you collect: I collect both model guns and air guns. I'd like to limit myself to just the models, but some of the guns I like can only be found in air-gun versions. I have a huge collection of fanzines, and if stacked they'd be around 30 feet high. I also have lots of laser disks. Piled up they'd probably be over 15 feet high.
Favorite pastime or hobby: It depends. When I'm working, I like sleeping best. That's because when I'm working I often only get around four hours of sleep a night for ten days in a row... When I don't have tight deadlines I like to go shopping or drinking with friends and sing along with karaoke machines.
Favorite television show: I only watch the news recently, mostly late night shows and CBS documentaries. Most of the recent anime shows aren't very interesting but I occasionally watch Children's Toy.
Costume worn the last time you went trick or treating: That's a tough question `cuz we Japanese don't celebrate Halloween the way you do in the U.S.; for most people it's just a chance to go drinking with their pals at the end of the year. At the Gainax costume parties I used to dress up like a character from Wild Seven, with a special Harley-Davidson leather jacket, model guns, and boots.
Nicknames (and how did you get it/them?): "Sonoyan." People in the Kansai area of Japan, where I'm from, sometimes attach "yan" instead of "san" [like Mr. or Ms.] to people's names. So it's a shortening of my name with "yan" instead of "san." Also "Sonoken." This is just an abbreviation of "Sonoda Kenichi."
[NOTE: Sonoda donates money every year to a group at Comic Market that raises funds to promote reforestation in areas where trees have been cut down.]