Japanese manga artist
Fumiko Takano
|
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Born
| (
1957-11-12
)
November 12, 1957
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Nationality
| Japanese
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Occupation
| Manga artist
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Fumiko Takano
(
高野文子
,
Takano Fumiko
, born 12 November, 1957)
is a Japanese
manga artist
. She is considered to be one of the manga artists of the "
New Wave
" of the late 1970s and early 1980s, when she started as a
doujinshi
(amateur) artist and then drew short stories with an unconventional style for magazines like
June
and
Petit Flower
. She was also a pioneer for female manga artists to publish outside of female-oriented publishing venues. Two of Takano's short story collections,
Zettai Anzen Kamisori
(1982) and
Kiiroi Hon
(2002), won awards. While she has a strong fan base in Japan, her work is less known internationally.
Life
[
edit
]
Takano was born in the countryside of
Niigata Prefecture
in 1957.
[1]
When she was nine years old, she had to spend three months in a hospital due to a problem with her kidney.
[2]
She didn't read many manga during her childhood, as none except few by
Osamu Tezuka
were available, and instead she read children's literature that she borrowed from the library. During high school, she became fascinated with the works of
sh?jo manga
artist
Moto Hagio
[2]
and she started drawing her own manga based on a guidebook by
Shotaro Ishinomori
. She submitted a short story of her own to an amateur contest of
Bessatsu Sh?jo Comic
magazine, which Moto Hagio published her works in at the time, and received a prize. When she submitted another work to the magazine, it was rejected.
[3]
After graduating from high school, she moved to
Tokyo
and studied at a nursing school. She worked as a nurse for two years afterwards. During this time, she discovered
COM
magazine and the works of
Shinji Nagashima
and
Fumiko Okada
[
ja
]
. She started drawing
doujinshi
amateur manga, she participated in the
Comiket
[4]
and published her first short story
Hana
("Flower") in 1977 in the zine
Rakugakikan
. One of the members of the zine became one of the founders of the new manga magazine
June
, which became crucial for the development of
Boys' Love
manga.
[2]
She published her first work as a professional manga artist in 1979 in June with the short story "Zettai Anzen Kamisori".
[5]
She continued publishing in
June
as well as anthologies around the
Meiky?
manga critic circle like
Manga Kis?tengai
. However, soon she also drew manga for commercial
sh?jo manga
magazines like
Petit Flower
and
Seventeen
.
[6]
Her first short story collection
Zettai Anzen Kamisori
, named after her professional debut, was published by
Hakusensha
in 1982 in an unusual A5 format and with a cover design by
Garo
editor Minami Shinbo. The short story collection was a critical success. In the beginning of the 1980s, she was working as a secretary at the small publisher Kitansha. Her husband Kyoichiro Akiyama also worked for this publisher and edited, among others, some of
Katsuhiro Otomo
's short story collections. Kitansha published Takano's second short story collection
Otomodachi
in 1983.
[2]
In the late 1980s, she focused completely on her manga career.
[7]
She drew two series,
Lucky J?-chan no Atarashii Shigoto
(1986?1987) and
Ruki-san
(1988?1992). She also continued publishing short stories in the magazine
Petit Flower
until the early 1990s.
[2]
Her output slowed then in the mid 1990s, as she felt tired of producing: "I couldn’t work at the rate I used to, and I started to notice the younger generation catching up to me, and I started thinking, like, what am I supposed to do once I’m tired of this?"
[7]
From 1996 until 2001, she published four short stories in the
alternative manga
magazines
Comic Are!
and
Comic Cue
[
ja
]
as well as the
seinen manga
magazine
Afternoon
. These were published under
Afternoon
's imprint at
Kodansha
as the short story collection
Kiiroi Hon
in 2002.
[1]
She didn't publish any book after the release of
Kiiroi Hon
until
Dimitri Tomkins
was released first as a web comic and then as a book in 2014.
[8]
Style
[
edit
]
Most of her manga are short stories rather than series. In hear early work, she experimented with several different genres, among them samurai stories, social satires and love stories.
[1]
Takano only draws manga when she feels like it. In an interview, she said she regularly has to step away from fiction, both in terms of reading and creating it.
[7]
She published only relatively few works since then and is considered to be an exceptionally slow artist in the manga industry,
[2]
as only seven books of hers have been published as of July 2023.
Reception
[
edit
]
Takano's work is classified as part of a "
New Wave
" in the manga industry in the late 1970s and early 1980s, as some of it was published outside of gendered magazine structures, like in the anthologies of the Meiky? critic circle, and her style could not be easily classified.
[9]
Takano was one of the only women at the time who published manga outside of sh?jo manga and
josei manga
. Scholar Jacqueline Berndt calls her a pioneer for women like
Kyoko Okazaki
,
Erica Sakurazawa
and
Shungicu Uchida
, who started publishing manga in erotic and alternative manga magazines in the 1980s.
[2]
Her work has a fan community in Japan and has been acclaimed by manga critics.
[10]
[1]
Masanao Amano has called her work "experimental" and "with an interesting quality all her own, something that cannot be seen elsewhere".
[1]
Manga artists
Taiy? Matsumoto
and
Daisuke Igarashi
have praised her work.
[7]
[11]
She received the
Japan Cartoonists Association Award
in 1982 for
Zettai Anzen Kamisori
and the
Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize
in 2003 for
Kiiroi Hon
.
[5]
In 2015, she was the second manga artist after
Osamu Tezuka
to win the
Iwaya Sazanami Literary Award
.
[12]
Her manga
Dimitri Tomkins
was nominated for the
Manga Taish?
in 2015.
[13]
While she is relatively little known in the English-speaking world,
[10]
some of her manga have been translated into French
[5]
and German.
[2]
Works
[
edit
]
Title
|
Year
|
Notes
|
Refs
|
"Zettai Anzen Kamisori" (絶?安全剃刀)
|
1979
|
Short story published in
June
|
[2]
|
Zettai Anzen Kamisori
(絶?安全剃刀)
|
1982
|
Short story collection published by
Hakusensha
|
[2]
|
Otomodachi
(おともだち)
|
1983
|
Short story collection published by Kitansha
|
[2]
|
Lucky J?-chan no Atarashii Shigoto
(ラッキ??ちゃんのあたらしい仕事)
|
1986?1987
|
Serialized in
Petit Flower
Published in 1 vol. by
Shogakukan
|
[2]
|
Ruki-san
(るきさん)
|
1988?1992
|
Serialized in
Hanako
Published in 1 vol. by
Magazine House
|
[2]
|
B? ga Ippon
(棒がいっぽん)
|
1995
|
Short story collection published by Magazine House
|
[2]
|
Kiiroi Hon
(?色い本)
|
2002
|
Short story collection published by Kodansha
|
[2]
|
Dimitri Tomkins
(ドミトリ?ともきんす)
|
2014
|
Serialized online in
Mato Grosso
Short story collection published by Ch??k?ron Shinsha
|
[8]
|
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Amano, Masanao (2004).
Manga Design
. Julius Wiedemann. Cologne: Taschen. pp. 296, 298.
ISBN
3-8228-2591-3
.
OCLC
56715574
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
Berndt, Jacqueline.
"Takano Fumiko"
.
Strapazin
. Retrieved
2023-07-24
.
- ^
Oshiguchi, Takashi (2003). "Takano Fumiko Interview [高野文子 INTERVIEW]".
Manga Tamashii [漫?魂]
: 86?96.
- ^
Suzuki, Shige; Stewart, Ronald (2023).
Manga. A Critical Guide
. Bloomsbury Comics Studies. London, New York, Oxford, New Delhi, Sydney: Bloomsbury Academic. p. 76.
ISBN
978-1-350-07238-1
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Archives des Fumiko TAKANO"
.
Lezard Noir
(in French)
. Retrieved
2023-07-24
.
- ^
Mizumoto, Inutar?.
"ニュ?ウェ?ブという時代"
.
Sora Tobu Kikai
. Archived from
the original
on January 23, 2003
. Retrieved
July 25,
2023
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Interview between Taiyo Matsumoto and Fumiko Takano
- ^
a
b
"『ドミトリ?ともきんす』科?者の本棚"
.
マトグロッソ|イ?スト?プレス
. 2014-08-07
. Retrieved
2023-07-25
.
- ^
Mizumoto, Inutar?.
"「ニュ?ウェイブ」という時代"
.
Sora Tobu Kikai
. Archived from
the original
on January 23, 2003
. Retrieved
July 25,
2023
.
- ^
a
b
McCulloch, Joe (2017-04-18).
"THIS WEEK IN COMICS! (4/19/17 - Glyph Reader International)"
.
The Comics Journal
. Retrieved
2023-07-24
.
- ^
"Conversation between Taiyo Matsumoto and Daisuke Igarashi".
Brutus
. 2012.
(
English translation
)
- ^
"公益財?法人 日本?少年文化センタ?"
.
www.seibun.or.jp
. Retrieved
2023-07-25
.
- ^
"Akiko Higashimura's Kakukaku Shikajika Wins 8th Manga Taisho Award"
.
Anime News Network
. 2023-07-24
. Retrieved
2023-07-25
.
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