Naoki Saito

is a Japanese illustrator, manga artist, and YouTuber. He is a regular contributing artist for the Duel Masters Trading Card Game, the Pokémon Trading Card Game, and Hatsune Miku merchandise. He is also the main illustrator and character designer for the game Dragalia Lost. As a manga artist, he wrote and illustrated Baki Domoe from 2010 to 2014. In addition, Saito runs a YouTube channel offering advice on how to improve artwork and published several books based on its content.

Career Saito debuted professionally at the age of 19, drawing artwork for the Duel Masters Trading Card Game. He is a regular contributing illustrator for the Pokémon Trading Card Game and the main illustrator for Dragalia Lost. From 2010 to 2014, he wrote and illustrated Baki Domoe, a comedy spin-off of Baki the Grappler. Baki Domoe was first launched on the Weekly Shōnen Champions website, but after it shut down, it was published irregularly in the magazine before being moved to Bessatsu Shōnen Champion. which was also re-released in 2019. He provided the illustrations for collaboration merchandise between Monster Hunter Frontier and Hatsune Miku, celebrating the 10th anniversary of both franchises. Saito provided the character design for the manga series Suginami Tōbatsu Kōmuin, which began serialization in Shōnen Jump+ in 2018.

In 2019, Saito became one of the contributing character designers for the mobile app game 47 Heroines. He released a collaboration illustration between Hatsune and Digimon Adventure to celebrate the latter franchise's 20th anniversary. Later that year, Saito created a YouTube channel, where he provided advice and instructional videos on drawing. As of March 2023, he had at least 1.3 million subscribers on his YouTube channel.

In 2021, Saito designed a figure featuring N and Zorua from Pokémon Black and White, as well as Leon and Charizard from Pokémon Sword and Shield. In the same year, Saito released his first advice book, Umaku Kaku no Kinshi: Tsurakunai Irasuto Jōtatsu-hō, on March 22, with contents based on his YouTube channel. This was followed by his second book, Saitō Naoki no Mottainai! Irasuto Tensaku Kōza. In the same year, Saito also announced he would be selling NFT art, with one of his works selling for 13.69 ETH (equivalent to ).

In March 2023, Saito's YouTube channel was permanently banned, causing him to migrate to his second YouTube channel, Naoki Saito 2. The reason for the ban is unknown, but Saito has stated the possibility that a fan submission uploaded to his associated Google Drive account may have been considered sexually inappropriate by Google, which in turn banned his entire Google account.

Works

Manga

YearTitleMagazineNotes 2010 Weekly Shōnen ChampionBessatsu Shōnen Champion Spin-off of Baki the Grappler 2018 Shōnen Jump+ Character design

Other publications

Year Title Publisher ISBN 2021 Pie International Kadokawa Shoten