As anime is a medium that reflects all aspects of life, it's not unusual to see artists themselves appear in various anime series. There are all kinds of artists, from painters to sculptors to even performers. Some characters might draw comics and others film their own movies. Some are the stars of their own show while others work behind the scenes. Some even leave such an impression that they are practically both. And with new kinds of media come new types of people who are responsible for creating it.
As art is subjective, just because their work isn't respected by the other characters, is obscure, or outright disliked, doesn't necessarily mean that the character is untalented.
10 Sailor Moon: Michiru Has Talents In Music & Art
Michiru Kaioh, the alter-ego of Sailor Neptune, is a talented artist in multiple areas. Not only is she a professional violinist, but she is also shown to have a talent for painting. According to supplementary material, her favorite classes are music and art, although she doesn't seem to have a least favorite subject.
In the Cloverway dub, Michiru, or "Michelle," is even said to be an art teacher, running a class that Chibiusa, or "Rini," attends. In the original Japanese, however, she was simply working in another room at the same studio.
9 Princess Tutu: Femio Is Described As Having A Quest For Art
Gold Grown Academy seems to specialize in the arts. While Ahiru's ballet class gets most of the focus, other episodes showcase other courses offered at the school, including drawing, sculpting, drama, and music.
Femio is one of the ballet students, and appears to enjoy the pageantry of the dance, interrupting a class to perform an obscure dance set to "Prelude to an Afternoon of a Faun." He takes every opportunity to put on a spectacle, throwing roses around and performing tricks with a bull. He seems to live in his own little world, believing himself to be a prince all the girls love. Admittedly, the other characters aren't too fond of him. While he's in the probationary class, but he comes off more esoteric than outright untalented.
8 Pokémon: Tracey Sketchit Lives Up To His Dub Name
Also known as Kenji, Tracey is mostly famous for being Brock's temporary replacement as one of Ash's two sidekicks. His specialty is Pokémon watching, which involves him sketching various Pokémon with near surgical precision.
While he mostly draws Pokémon, he occasionally draws human subjects, especially young women he's fond of. Towards the end of his arc, he ends up becoming an assistant to Professor Oak.
7 Cinderella Monogatari: Miss Paulette Is A Magical Painter
In this anime retelling of the classic fairy tale, the fairy godmother, Miss Paulette, is regularly shown to be a painter when not using her magic and is often seen giving painting lessons to children. In fact, one episode reveals that she first met Cinderella's mother during a painting lesson. Another episode showcases an evil painter who uses black magic to trap souls in paintings that Miss Paulette has to do battle with.
6 Kiki's Delivery Service: Ursula Is An Artist Who Lives For Nature
Ursula is an artist whom Kiki befriends. She lives in the middle of a forest by herself in a log cabin. Her specialty seems to be paintings of pied crows, although she's also seen sketching Kiki. She also seems to have a talent for sewing and cooking, as well as having a talent for handling animals. Becoming a mentor figure to Kiki, she encourages her to take time to relax and reminds her that there are times when it's important to feel instead of think.
5 Cardcaptor Sakura: Tomoyo Designs & Makes All Of Sakura's Costumes
Sakura is one of the few magical girls who doesn't need a magical transformation sequence because Tomoyo is constantly designing new costumes for her to wear. Thanks so Sakura, Tomoyo can show off her skills as a talented designer and seamstress. Because of her, Sakura almost has a costume associated with each Clow Card. She's even practical with her designs, once making sure a costume was waterproof when Sakura was facing off against a water-themed Clow Card.
In addition to this, she's shown to have a talent for cinematography, as she always makes sure to film Sakura whenever she's capturing a new Clow Card.
4 Magical Idol Pastel Yumi: Yumi Can Bring Her Drawings To Life
Yumi is a magical girl who gets rewarded by the Flower World for saving a flower with a wand that brings anything she draws with it to life.
In practice, her drawings are admittedly somewhat childish, but she does seem to have a talent for it, impressing other local children by taking drawing requests. She also seems to have a talent for costume design. Luckily, the wand tends to render things more realistic when bringing them to life.
3 Zombie Land Saga: Kotaro Tatsumi Is A Rennaisance Man Of The Arts, Possibly Even The Dark Arts
Kotaro Tatsumi is the eccentric, seemingly human, manager of the zombie idol group, Franchouchou. He regularly shows himself to have a variety of talents, being quite skillful when it comes to choreography, music composition, and even makeup artistry, the last of which comes in especially handy when he needs to cover up the fact that the idols he manages are reanimated corpses. He also has a range of talents that include kabuki acting to yodeling. That said, his one weakness seems to be graphic design.
He might even have a talent for necromancy, which can be considered a dark "art", although it's somewhat implied that he might have had a little help with that.
2 One Piece: Kanjuro Is A Talented Artist Who Pretends Otherwise
Thanks to a Devil Fruit, Kanjuro has the ability to bring anything he draws to life. Unfortunately, he is a rather mediocre artist, causing his creations to be very weak and easily destroyed by water.
Or so one would think. In reality, he's actually an extremely talented artist whose work is indistinguishable from their real-world counterparts and even makes his own brushes. He just pretends to be lackluster as part of his cover as a mole in the Kozuki family. He gets away with this because he's also a talented actor. When using his actual talent, his living pieces are so powerful they can even withstand heavy rain.
1 Monthly Girls' Nozaki-Kun: Umetaro Nozaki Is An Award-Wining Artist & Writer
Umetaro Nozaki is a high school student but is also behind the writing and artistry of a popular manga series that has even won him a few awards. Like many manga artists, he uses a pseudonym. His manga is such a priority for him he mistakes Sakura's love confession for an autograph request.
That said, it's a running joke that each of the artists in the series has one aspect they are not good at. When it comes to Nozaki, he's not that good at backgrounds, causing him to get Hori to draw them for him in exchange for writing scripts. He also doesn't seem to like drawing shoes either.