Naoki Shibata

Like most aspiring manga artists, 23-year-old Naoki had been drawing since childhood. But it wasn't until his second year in  mechanics university that he started to seriously commit to drawing. It all began when he showed his drawings to his older brother Shibayu, a well known Youtuber in Japan. Shibayu made a deal with his younger brother – if he committed seriously to becoming a professional artist, he would buy Naoki an Ipad so that could hone his craft.

Since then, Naoki has dedicated himself to his artwork and regularly shares his manga with his 90,000 Twitter followers.

Noaki tends to draw short story comedy pieces that include simple, light storylines with cute characters. He takes inspiration from old school manga from the 1980’s. Although most of his artwork is centered around comedy, Naoki would like to explore drawing stories centered around more serious and intense themes. 

His frequent posting on social media drew the attention of a manga editor, who contacted him in 2018 and offered him advice on publishing his artwork. The two worked together for two years which eventually helped Naoki land a rookie award in June of 2021 at Korokoro Comics, a magazine geared toward children around the age of 10. Naoki is currently looking for part time jobs to earn a living while he continues to pursue his passion for manga. When he’s not busy drawing manga, he goes for walks and exercises to keep his mind focused and calm. He hopes to one day start a weekly series at a magazine. One of his biggest dreams is to sell 1 million copies of his manga and to turn his artwork into an anime series or movie.