Onna No Mangaka (女 の 漫画家)

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As I have already said in my post for Hello Japan! Mini Challenge last year, I have been a Manga reader for the past 19 years (or 20 years) now. But I am more into Shounen Manga (少年漫画) or Manga for boys rather than Shoujo Manga (少女漫画) or manga for girls. The reason is quite simple, because Shounen Manga offers more interesting adventure story than those romance story in Shoujo Manga.

However, I am not totally pushing away ALL shoujo manga, I still read some of them, mostly manga from the mangaka (漫画家) or manga author I am going to talk about. These mangaka mixed romance with some adventure and complicated story. They didn’t write something merely about how a woman met the man of his dream like most shoujo manga.

1.      Kyoko Hikawa (冰川京子)

I copied this from goodreads.com

Does mostly light-hearted comedy stories, but very entertaining. She does surprisingly great action scenes (haven’t seen many shoujo artists try at a Western before!!).

Her stories ranges from cute to action, but all done unparalled attention – the drawings are refined and the storylines bring the readers into what the characters feel. Her page layouts and camera angles varies a lot, and thus keeps the interest of the reader.

Everything said in that quote is 100% correct! (That’s why I quoted it here 😉 )

Click This picture to have an idea of how interesting Fujiomi and Chizumi story is

I really like the way she told her story even for something as simple as a relationship between a very careless girl with a very cold boy in her series of Chizumi and Fujiomi. She also wrote cute story of a girl who is so generous up to the point that often bring her to her own loss and she is often scolded by her boy friend.

After making simple stories like that, she tried to make a much more complicated stories (although not as complicated as Riyoko Ikeda’s stories) and more adventurous. Kanata Kara (in Indonesia becomes Dream world) tells a story of a girl who suddenly find herself in another world doing dangerous journey with a half demon man. She also wrote a nice cowboy story in Miriam. Miriam is a boyish girl who is so hard to control.

I have reviewed one manga by Hikawa and will try to reread and review more manga by her…but all in its good time.

2.      Riyoko Ikeda (池田 理代子)

Riyoko Ikeda can be said as the smartest female mangaka I have ever read. She did a lot of research before publishing her Mangas. The two manga I read by

Click this picture to read my review on this historical manga

her are focusing on French revolution (Eroica and Rose of Versailes – ベルサイユ の ばら) and Russian revolution (Orpheus Window – オルフェウス の 窓)

For me, her artwork is the best amongst my other favorite Onna no Mangaka. Just look at the dress in Rose of Versailles, she drew it with great details. The building in Orpheus Window is also full of details.

I want to read more manga by her, but her other manga hasn’t been published here yet.

3.      Michiyo Akaishi (赤石 路代)

Michiyo Akaishi has more tender stories than Hikawa, but she often touch unusual story. I consider her art as something soft. The boys in her story were drawn as beautiful as the girls. She is lack of diversity in drawing her characters, but her story is always rich.

My favorite manga by Akaishi is 天よりも星より(as High as Sky and Stars), it tells a love triangle between a boy who can control fire, a boy who can control wind and a girl who can control water. These three main characters were reincarnation of famous people in the past. The one who can control fire was Nobunaga Oda and one who can control wind was Minamoto Yoshitsune. You can read my review by clicking on the picture below.

4.      Chie Watari(渡 千枝)

Chie Watari CANNOT be considered as ShoujoMangaka, but since the topic is about female mangaka I ought to write about her. Chie Watari is someone I would consider as the Stephen King of Manga World. She wrote incredible horror and Mystery Manga.

Some Sample of  Her manga: Shiryo no Hanayome (Chiko) ; Yugandakishi; Onryo no Densetsu (The Legend of The Scroll Paintings ); Onigami no Sumuei (Secret Forest); Halloween Densetsu.

5.      Yoko Matsumoto (松本洋子)

Yoko Matsumoto is also a mystery writer. I like a lot of her manga too, but haven’t reread any of her manga in years. I will have to do some reread in the future 😉

Too bad,I couldn’t find the pictures of Kyoko Hikawa,Chie Watari and Yoko Matsumoto.

All these 5 women have different art work that we can easily distinguish just by looking at their manga.