Ai Yazawa

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Ai Yazawa (矢沢あい Yazawa Ai) (born March 7, 1967 in Hyogo Prefecture) is a popular girls' manga author in Japan. Her pen name comes from Japanese singer Eikichi Yazawa, of whom she is a fan.

Yazawa started her mangaka publishing life in 1985; throughout 15 years of publishing, she wrote over 10 series in Ribon. While her finished manga continued to be published in Japan by Shueisha, publishers of Ribon and Cookie (in which Nana is serialized), series like Paradise Kiss now appear in other magazines such as Zipper, published by Shodensha.

Yazawa's most famous manga are Tenshi Nanka Ja Nai (I'm Not an Angel), Gokinjo Monogatari (Neighborhood Story), Paradise Kiss, and Nana. All five volumes of Paradise Kiss have been released in English by Tokyopop. Nana is now running in Shojo Beat and being released by Viz. In Japan it continues to run in Cookie and is currently up to 65 chapters.

Yazawa's works are most popular among women and young girls. The storylines generally are centered on young women and their relationships, something with which that fanbase identifies with. The characters are always very stylish, and she is known especially for her hip sense of fashion. Another key point is her strikingly unique, often rebellious characters, who tend to be juxtaposed against the more traditional ones.

She has also published three artbooks.

[edit] Works (in chronological order)

15-nenme (1986)
Love Letter (1987)
Kaze ni Nare! (1988)
Escape (1988)
Ballad Made Soba ni Ite (1989, 2 volumes)
Marine Blue no Kaze ni Dakarete (1990-1991, 4 volumes)
Tenshi Nanka Ja Nai (1992-1995, 8 volumes)
Usubeni no Arashi (1992)
Gokinjo Monogatari (1995-1998, 7 volumes)
Kagen no Tsuki (1998-1999, 3 volumes)
Paradise Kiss (2000-2003, 5 volumes, published by Shodensha)
Nana (2000-present, still in progress, 17 volumes in Japan so far)
Princess Ai (2004-2006, 3 volumes) (Note: Ai Yazawa contributed character designs for the book, but is not the creator or artist.)