【プロレスＭＡＪＯＲ】 本田茂治
[PRO-WRESTLING MAJOR]　SHIGEHARU HONDA

私はあなたがそれを好き願っています。 あなたのフィードバックは非常に高く評価されています。
I hope you will like it. I would appreciate your feedback for this drawing.

漫画:　ＭＡＪＯＲ　（メジャー）
Manga/Anime:　MAJOR

==========

Extra Notes:

One of the favorite things I did for Father’s Day was to draw a picture of young Goro Honda with his dad Shigeharu Honda in the alternate pro-wrestling universe for MAJOR. I wanted to do something similar this year, but eventually I decided that I simply wanted to draw daddy Shigeharu only. As such, here it is.

Ever since I’ve drawn Shigeharu, I’ve noticed how much people seem to like my drawings of him. Heck, he could even get more hits than some of my drawings for Goro, and even my drawings of more popular characters. I really hope to explore more with Shigeharu, especially in the form of more wrestling match drawings.

This piece was surprisingly done quickly compared to my other artworks. The 3-day weekend may have been a contributor in that speed.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this piece. Admittedly, it looks less related to Father’s Day than what you might have expected. But still, Happy Father’s Day.

【プロレスＭＡＪＯＲ】 本田茂治VS茂野英毅 (サソリ固め)
PRO-WRESTLING MAJOR:　SHIGEHARU HONDA VS. HIDEKI SHIGENO (SHARPSHOOTER)

プロレス技:　サソリ固め
Pro-Wrestling Technique: Sharpshooter

漫画:　ＭＡＪＯＲ　（メジャー）
Manga/Anime:　MAJOR
==========

Extra Notes:

A few years ago, I drew the baseball manga character Shigeharu Honda into a pro-wrestler. It was something I had really wanted to do, especially since I wanted to see more of him in Major. However, I also wanted to see him in action. That’s why on this year’s Pro-Wrestling Day in Japan, I decided to finally draw him in action in the wrestling ring.

When I conceptualized this piece, I was imagining Shigeharu being in a Japanese pro-wrestling promotion in the early 1990s, particularly All Japan Pro-Wrestling. After all, the events of Major were assumed to have begun taking place around this time, so this would’ve been the equivalent context in my alternate universe.

Shigeharu’s opponent here is Hideki Shigeno. In the series, he is one of Shigeharu’s closest friends and baseball teammate. However, I didn’t really emphasize it in the title since you can’t really recognize him too well here.

As for the Sharpshooter, I decided with this move after remembering Riki Choshu. He was popular around this time, and this was his signature move (which he called the Sasori-gatame). That move would gain more prominence when Bret Hart used it in the WWF. So yeah, you can pretty much equate this wrestling move with the late 80s to the early 90s.

Hopefully, you enjoyed this piece. Happy Pro-Wrestling Day!

Shigeharu Honda (with Goro Honda)

「プロレスＭＡＪＯＲ」： ”ブルーオーシャン”　本田茂治
PRO-WRESTLING MAJOR:　”BLUE OCEAN” SHIGEHARU HONDA

漫画:　ＭＡＪＯＲ　（メジャー）
Manga/Anime:　MAJOR

==========

Extra Notes:
Shigeharu Honda is the character in MAJOR whom I wished got to be part of more episodes. Unfortunately, a major plot development prevents it from ever happening. Still, I really wished to see his character develop even further in some way. But since I’m more of a pro-wrestling fan than a baseball fan, I thought, “Why not put him in Pro-Wrestling MAJOR and let the character develop there?” And so I did.

My original intention in making this drawing was to try telling a picture story about the fictional pro-wrestling career of his son, the main character Goro Shigeno. That’s why I also added the young Goro here to highlight their close father-son relationship. However, I couldn’t really push through with the story since I still have to work on the long-delayed Goro vs. Toshi project.

When I conceptualized Shigeharu’s pro-wrestling persona, I was thinking of a 34-year-old junior heavyweight wrestler who’s had some ups and downs in his career before finally having a run with his company’s junior heavyweight championship. Then fate would have other plans for him, and his son would continue this dream of his. And yes, this is pretty much adapted from Shigeharu’s original background story in MAJOR.

I gave him the nickname “Blue Ocean” as a nod to the name of his baseball team in the anime, the Yokohama Blue Oceans. As for his in-ring attire, I opted to use blue trunks (as opposed to tights) since I wanted it to reflect the trend in the wrestling athletes of his fictional generation of pro-wrestlers (’80s to early ’90s). It was even supposed to be black trunks, like the ones that Inoki and Fujinami wore before, but then again he’s the Blue Ocean.

I hope you’ll enjoy this piece.