Editing Kazuki Motoyama

{{Unreferenced|more=y|Biography and birth date}}
{{person infobox
|image=[[File:Kazuki Motoyama 2023.jpg|200px]]<br>Kazuki Motoyama in 2023
|born=April 12, 1956 (age {{age|April 12, 1956}})
|role=Author (and recurring character) of the Kodansha's ''[[Super Mario (Kodansha manga)|Super Mario]]'' manga and ''Kinoppe-chan Forever''
}}
'''Kazuki Motoyama''' (Japanese: 本山一城; real name: 本山真澄) is a manga artist who wrote and illustrated {{wp|Kodansha}}'s ''[[Super Mario (Kodansha manga)|Super Mario]]'' manga and its unofficial spinoff ''Kinoppe-chan Forever''. He also appeared in the stories as both narrator and character, before his avatar [[Mototin]] took that role. He often stars in 4koma related to his tiring work.

==Biography==
Born in {{wp|Kawasaki, Kanagawa|Kawasaki}}, in the {{wp|Kanagawa Prefecture}}, and raised in {{wp|Yamato, Kanagawa|Yamato}}, he dropped out of Musashino Art University Junior College to become the assistant of {{wp|Murakami Motoka}}.

In 1977 he debuted as a {{wp|Manga artist|mangaka}} with the short story "''Love and Mini''"<ref>[http://kanbe.starfree.jp/book.html Motoyama's incomplete bibliography] on his personal site. kanbe.starfree.jp Retrieved on October 29, 2024.</ref> under his real name "Motoyama Masumi". Then, after settling for the pen name "Motoyama Kazuki", he published in 1979, ''Kimatenai no ni Kimemaru-kun''.

His early works included romantic comedies, school and sport manga for various publishers, then in 1985 he started focusing on the historical genre, a subject he excels at.

After being hospitalized with diabetes and a major surgery due to an acute myocardial infarction in the early 2010s, he moved to {{wp|Nagano Prefecture}} to recuperate, and then back to his home prefecture.

For the Kodansha publishing company, he wrote between 1988 and 1998 the illustrated game strategies and manga of ''[[Super Mario (Kodansha manga)|Super Mario]]'', competing with [[Yukio Sawada]] and his ''[[Super Mario-kun]]'' series, until Nintendo pulled the ComicBonBon's ''Super Mario'' manga license in 1997. Later, beginning in the 2019, he self-published a manga series starring [[Kinoppe]], an original character he used in the ''Super Mario'' series: ''Kinoppe-chan Forever''.

==History==
===''Super Mario'' (Kodansha manga)===
{{stub|section=y}}
Motoyama appears as a character in his own manga, starting off as himself in a 4koma recapping how he usually works on his manga in ''[[Super Mario Land (manga)|Super Mario Land]]''. Later, Motoyama would appear in the stories with his avatar's appaerance: [[Mototin]], in which he looks like a {{wp|Chibi (style)|chibi}} version of himself with spiral glasses, and a hat with a fountain pen head on top of it.

In ''[[Super Mario Land 3]]'', he is the tennis announcer in the volume's closing chapter. He gives [[Mario]] and [[Princess Peach|Peach]] a statue of himself valued at 100,000 yen, but the two bash it on his head, calling it "ugly".

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Motoyama art SML.png|''[[Super Mario Land (manga)|Super Mario Land]]'', inside cover
Motoyama art SML2.png|''[[Super Mario Land 2 (manga)|Super Mario Land 2]]'', inside cover
Motoyama art SML3.png|''[[Super Mario Land 3 (manga)|Super Mario Land 3]]'', inside cover
Chapter 5a SML3.jpg|Kazuki as the announcer, ''Super Mario Land 3''
Chapter 5b SML3.jpg|Kazuki as the announcer, ''Super Mario Land 3''
Kazuki Motoyama SML4.png|''[[Super Mario Land 4]]'', inside cover
Kazuki Motoyama photo.png|Photo of Kazuki Motoyama
</gallery>

==Trivia==
*His grandfather was the folklorist Katsuragawa Motoyama, his maternal ancestor was the agricultural scientist Enri Hayashi, and her sister [[Risa Motoyama]] became a mangaka herself, and even helped him write some 4koma for ''[[Super Mario 4-koma Daikōshin 2]]''.
*He has been supervising {{wp|RKB Mainichi Broadcasting}}'s ''Fukuoka Chronicle'' since October 2013. It has aired 336 episodes over the course of seven years.
*He owns a sword mounting used by the {{wp|Kuroda clan}} guard, valued at 4 million yen.<ref>[https://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/kantei/kaiun_db/otakara/20100803/03.html The appraisal of the sword mounting] on tv-tokyo.co.jp. Retrieved on October 29, 2024.</ref>

==External links==
*[http://kanbe.starfree.jp/ Personal website]
*[https://x.com/kazzuki2005 Twitter/X account]

==References==
<references/>
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