Kazuki Motoyama

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Kazuki Motoyama
Kazuki Motoyama in 2023
Kazuki Motoyama in 2023
Born April 12, 1956[1]
Died 2025 (aged 69)[2]
Super Mario–related role Author (and recurring character) of the Kodansha Super Mario manga and Kinoppe-chan Forever

Kazuki Motoyama (Japanese: 本山一城; real name: 本山真澄) was a manga artist who wrote and illustrated Kodansha's 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[3] took the latter role. He often starred in 4koma related to his tiring work.

Biography[edit]

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

In 1977, he debuted as a mangaka with the short story "Love and Mini"[4] under his real name "Motoyama Masumi". Then, after settling for the pen name "Motoyama Kazuki", he published Kimatenai no ni Kimemaru-kun in 1979.

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 excelled at.

After being hospitalized with diabetes and a major surgery due to an acute myocardial infarction in the early 2010s, he moved to 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, competing with Yukio Sawada and his Super Mario-kun series, until Nintendo pulled 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.

On October 2, 2025, his sister Lisa Motoyama announced his death on Instagram.[2]

History[edit]

Super Mario (Kodansha manga)[edit]

Mototin
Mototin
Full name Kazuki Motoyama
Species Human
First appearance Super Mario Kodansha manga (Manga Super Mario Bros. 3 Kanzen Kōryakuhon) (1989)
Latest appearance Super Mario Kodansha manga (Super Mario 64: Yoshi Story 2) (1998, Mario-related media)

Motoyama appears as a character in his own manga, often self-depicted in the wings of the cover often accompanied by his editor.

In Manga Super Mario Bros. 3 Kanzen Kōryakuhon, while exploring various Warp Pipes in Dark Land, Mario comes across other manga characters and even the BomBom Comic office, in which he finds the overworked and stressed Motoyama in a dark, unlit room.

From Super Mario Land, Motoyama included himself in the manga as the protagonist of a 4koma strip recapping how he usually works.

In Super Mario Land 3, he is the tennis announcer in the volume's closing chapter. When Mario and Peach win the match, he gives them a statue of himself valued at 100,000 yen as the game prize, but the two bash it on his head, calling it "ugly".

In Dr. Mario, the name "Motoyama" is in last place in the leaderboard of the sports day's events.

Starting from Super Mario Bros. 4: Super Mario World 1, Motoyama would appear in the stories, not as a caricature of himself like previously, but with a new avatar: Mototin, whose name was created by readers as a nickname for him. Mototin is a chibi version Motoyama, with spiral glasses, and a hat with a fountain pen head on top of it. In Super Mario Bros. 4: Super Mario World 5, it is explained that Mototin has a habit of sticking a pen in his head for each Mario volume he makes, until an angel gave him the cap with the pen on it. In Super Mario World! Yoshi no Tamago he even claims he puts the pen in his cap in a hole in his brain created by the dead brain cells he lost while working late, but his sister dismisses it as a lie.

In the Super Mario World series, Motoyama introduces a 4-koma series titled "Mototin's Picture Diary", which depicts how Mototin deals with his mangaka life or remembers episodes of his childhood tied with the manga's events.

In the main stories, Mototin continues to appear as a minor character, a cameo, or an extra in the background.

In Super Mario Bros. 4: Super Mario World 4, he appears as one of the guests at Bowser's wedding.

In Super Mario World! Mario Open Golf, Mototin can be seen drawing in the France Course, which is full of famous sculptures and described by Daisy as a "very artistic course".

In Super Mario Bros. 4: Super Mario World 5, Mototin appears three times. In the 4-koma at the beginning, one of the first colorized pages, in the last strip, Mario yells at Mototin to not exaggerate the background's color scheme just because he can now play with colors. In chapter 2, Bowser dresses up as a shop owner using a mask of Mototin. Later, in chapter 4, during a scavenger hunt in Yoshi's Island, Yoshi has the task to bring a "fat man" from the labyrinth, but he only finds a starving Mototin.

In Super Mario Bros. 4: Super Mario World 6, Tony is revealed to own a Mototin-shaped pen. A broken statue in the Satsueijo reveals that Mototin is the place's founder.

In Super Mario Bros. 4: Super Mario World 7, Mototin is one of the kindergarteners at BomBom Yōchien. He is also a buoy-camera floating near the Great Bōeigun Kichi.

In Super Mario USA, Mototin is one of the party guests at the Casino USA.

In Super Mario Kart 2, BomBom Yōchien reappears and Mototin reappears as one of its students.

In Super Mario Land 2 - 6-tsu no Kinka 1, Mototin is one of the Mario Land inhabitants that is affected by Wario's domain and turned into people. He is also depicted in a book in the Macro Zone library titled "The Complete Mototin Collection".

In Super Mario Kart 3, Mototin and Henshū are two of the participants in the Super Mario Cart Rally and later revealed to be the disguises of Cannon Ball Z and Cannon Boy z, who in turn are the disguised Mushroom King and Toad.

In Super Mario: Yoshi no Road Hunting 1, Mototin runs a takoyaki stand at Crescent Coast. Yoshi bumps into it and accidentally eats a takoyaki, finally realizing how tasty octopuses are, and dives back to defeat the Tako which he had despised until then.

In Super Mario Land 2 - 6-tsu no Kinka 3, Mototin is released from Wario's spell when he is defeated. He is also depicted in a statue that Wario destroys in one of his first acts as Mario in order to frame him.

In Mario & Wario, Luigi is kidnapped by Wario after a bucket is put on his head. When Mario and his friends look for him, they find a bucketed victim being cooked by Aku no Keshin, but they are revealed to be Mototin.

In Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land 1, Mototin is a postman who delivers the invitation to the unveil of the golden statue to the Mario Bros., but is flattened by their front door as they step out of the house.

Gallery[edit]

Photos[edit]

Artwork[edit]

Scans[edit]

Names in other languages[edit]

Mototin[edit]

Language Name Meaning Notes
Japanese モトちん[5]
Moto-chin
Contraction of the author's last name and the honorific「ちん」(-chin)
MOTOちん[6]
Moto-chin

Notes[edit]

  • His grandfather was the folklorist Katsuragawa Motoyama, his maternal ancestor was the agricultural scientist Enri Hayashi, and his sister Lisa Motoyama became a mangaka herself, appearing in some skits and even contributing to some 4koma in Super Mario 4-koma Daikōshin 2.
  • Prior to his death, Motoyama supervised RKB Mainichi Broadcasting's Fukuoka Chronicle since October 2013. It has aired 336 episodes over the course of seven years.
  • He owned a sword mounting used by the Kuroda clan guard, valued at 4 million yen.[7]

References[edit]

External links[edit]