Hiro Fujiwara
Encyclopedia
is a Japanese manga artist
Mangaka
is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...

.

The manga artist was once active under her previous pen name, at the end of the 90's but has abandoned the name after she won the Best Rookie award in the LMS for Kaeri Michi, Yuki no Netsu.

Her first series, which is also her latest ongoing work, is currently serializing in Hakusensha
Hakusensha
is a Japanese publishing company. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo.The company mainly publishes manga magazines of various genres and is involved in certain series' productions in their games, original video animation, musical and their animated TV series....

's monthly shōjo manga magazine, LaLa
Lala
Lala VC was an Indian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth soldiers.-Details:...

. This series is licensed by Tokyopop
Tokyopop
Tokyopop, styled TOKYOPOP, and formerly known as Mixx, is a distributor, licensor, and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa, and Western manga-style works. The existing German publishing division produces German translations of licensed Japanese properties and original English-language manga, as well...

 for North America, and an anime adaptation was broadcast during Spring 2010.

Personal

Hiro Fujiwara was born on December 23 in Hyōgo Prefecture. She also has 2 older brothers and a dog but is currently living alone. She said that one of her older brothers was an Otaku
Otaku
is a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga or video games.- Etymology :Otaku is derived from a Japanese term for another's house or family , which is also used as an honorific second-person pronoun...

 and anonymously posted the story of his younger sister, Hiro, on the web radio of her work Kaichō wa Maid-sama! in connection with its story of the Younger Sister Day. She never revealed her specific age but mentioned that she is in her 20's.

She normally speaks standard Japanese but when she relaxes or let her guard down, she will speak in a Kansai accent in which she can hardly have control of. She also states that currently, she listens to songs by Akeboshi
Akeboshi
, more commonly known as Akeboshi, is a Japanese pop and folk singer. He is mainly known for the song "Wind", which was used in the hit anime series Naruto. His surname means "bright star," while his given name means "fine man."...

 and Rie fu
Rie fu
, born on January 11, 1985, in Tokyo, is a Japanese singer-songwriter. She resides in Tokyo but frequently travels to the United Kingdom to record and promote her work.-Personal life:...

 although her all time favourite singer is Hikaru Utada. She uses background music
Background music
Although background music was by the end of the 20th century generally identified with Muzak or elevator music, there are several stages in the development of this concept.-Antecedents:...

 while doing work.

She also says that being a manga artist was a dream profession when she was young. During high school, she concentrated in playing double bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

. While doing literature in a university, she had a gap-year of 4 years to choose what she wanted to be. She started to become a manga artist after she graduated. She mentions that during her university days, she became an assistant for a manga artist and that the experience had helped her with her work now.

She seems to be friends with Yuki Fujitsuka who authored Toremoto Beat. Fujitsuka's name came up in Kaichō wa Maid-sama!s 5th volume during the closing credits and Fujiwara also listed her as 'Yuki-sama' in her official website. The author and Yuki Fujitsuka both won the same category in the 31st Hakusensha Athena Newcomers' Awards in year 2006.

She also mentioned that all the characters in Kaichō wa Maid-sama! are easy to draw with the exception of Usui.

According to her old website, she does original CG
Computer graphics
Computer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware....

 and manga of all genres. She has also written poems.

Career

Hiro Fujiwara made her debut by winning the Best Rookie award in the 144th LaLa Mangaka Scout Course for her work . However, this was won under her name, Hiro Izumi and it went on to be published in the April 2005 issue of LaLa DX
LaLa DX
LaLa DX is a Japanese shōjo manga magazine published by Hakusensha. It was first published on July 9, 1983 as a supplement magazine to LaLa in which it later became the sister magazine to LaLa, another of Hakusensha's shōjo manga magazines...

.

She has submitted a few works to Hakusensha's other contest besides the manga artist's other attempts at the LMS and LMG. Those works are, , , Fly and another untitled work that was going to be sent in to year 2002's LaLa Mangaka Scout Course. Diary. was sent into the 40th Big Challenge Awards but was not short-listed. She was placed 19th for Kakera, Hitotsu that was sent-in to the Hana to Yume Mangaka Course. The third work, Fly was submitted to the 27th Hakusensha Athena Newcomers' Awards and was mentioned in the 2nd issue of Hana to Yume as well as the February issue of LaLa.

Nevertheless, her second work was published six months after she won the Best Rookie award in the LaLa Mangaka Scout Course. However, it was her first work to be published under the current pen name, Hiro Fujiwara. won the 36th LaLa Manga Grand Prix's Fresh Debut Award and was published in the November issue of LaLa DX in year 2004. In the same month, she also had another work titled serialized in LaLa Special.

In year 2005, she started the year by serializing in the March issue of LaLa DX. Three months later, she went on to publish another one-shot, and made her debut in LaLa DXs sister magazine, LaLa
Lala
Lala VC was an Indian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth soldiers.-Details:...

. In the November issue of LaLa DX, she published her last work of the year, which was also later compiled together into Kaichō wa Maid-sama!s volume one.

For year 2006, she made her last one-shot titled which was published in the February issue of LaLa. However, this one-shot's popularity had made the one-shot spanned into a manga series which is currently serializing in LaLa. It already has 13 volumes published in Japan.

Besides authoring the manga, Fujiwara has also illustrated the furoku or freebies given out by the magazine as well as writing the scripts for the drama CDs.

The author had once gone to Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

 to attend a signing event. According to an entry at her blog, she said that this was her first overseas signing event.

One-shots

  • Hanjuku Wolf
  • Kimi no Hidamari
  • Shōnen Scramble
  • Tōmei na Sekai
  • Kaichō wa Maid-sama!


Source:

Sent-in works

  • Kaeri Michi, Yuki no Netsu
  • Akai Yume


Source:

Awards

  • Best Rookie - 144th LaLa Manga Scout Course (LMS) for her work, Kaeri Michi, Yuki no Netsu
  • Fresh Debut - 36th LaLa Manga Grand Prix (LMG) for her work, Akai Yume
  • Outstanding Debut - 31st Hakusensha Athena Newcomers’ Awards for her first series, Kaichō wa Maid-sama!

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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