Izumi Aso

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Izumi Aso (麻生いずみ, Asō Izumi^?) born in: Saitama Prefecture, Japan on November 14, 1960 is a writer and manga artist known for her Hikari no Densetsu series.

1 Biography
2 Manga Work
3 Book Covers of her Manga Work
4 Trivia
5 See also
6 Reference
7 Links

[edit] Biography

Izumi Aso at an early age was a very active young women who enjoyed drawing at an early age. In her late teens she decided that she was going to become a manga artist. In the early 1980s she debuted as a manga artist and writer in Margaret Magazine, this would become the magazine/publishing house that would go on to edit and publish her other works of manga series in the future. As a manga artist, Aso focused on the style of drawing that gives the impression that the drawn figures are going to pop out of the pages. This style would later become useful in her later manga works that would focus on sports such as baseball, skating, among other sports. Aso would later on after her debut as an artist would detached her interest for the depiction of the body in motion and would search for a more emotional expression in her later works of as a manga artist.

She was able to achieve this with her later manga series such as "Serina Bible" that lasted one volume and "Natsu Shinwa" which lasted two volumes, where serialized throught Margaret Comics. Afterwards in late 1985 Aso began working on the manga series "Hikari no Densetsu," which would become the "masterpiece" of her career as a manga artist and writer. Hikari no Densetsu proved to be popular and a few months after the manga series was been zerialized, an anime series was already been produced. The anime series was ended after only 19 episodes due to weak ratings on Japanese TV, but the manga series continued to be serialized, ending almost three years later in margaret mangazine, concluding in 16 small volumes. To date Hikari no Densetsu is by far her longest manga series.

After Hikari no Densetsu continued to work in other of her manga series were she would later on be seen using more tragic themes and other mature experimental themes found in her more famous work of manga, like the triangle loving themes, that were absent in the beginning of her work. Parallel to Hikari no Densetsu, Izumi began to work a comedy called "Natural", which after Hikari is the second most longest manga series with 9 volumes. As a result of the conclusion of Hikari no Densetsu, the Aso has not been able to attract the attention of the manga public. She tried with several other works of sports comedy series that were based on ice skating, horseback riding such as: "Lion Dream," "Blackbird," and "Tenshi to Miru Yume" among others, and while they are deemed as great by manga critics, but they do not collect enough support to guarantee a long serialization. This is why her later works are one or two volumes only.

In the last couple of years Izumi Aso has entirely dedicated her drawing talents to the world of the Lady's Comics. And while she has been rarely seen in manga scene lately, she still enjoys some amount of popularity among many manga readers and anime fans for her Hikari no Densetsu series; particularly in Europe were the anime series became a huge success (particularly in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain) compared to Japan. The manga series also has a strong fan base in Japan where most recently in early 2000, the manga series has been reissued in 8 large volumes in Tankōbon form featuring a combination of drawings from Aso and black and white pictures of competitive gymnasts offered by Marianeve Fiorenza. And more recently in August 2001, the anime series was released in VHS in Italy and in 2003 the manga series was translated and released in Italy through Star Comics's Starlight publishing. The anime series was also remastered and released in France on DVD, and it is possible that the manga and anime will follow in other European countries in the near future.

[edit] Manga Work

Hikari no Densetsu
Natural
Serina Bible
Natsu no Shinwa
Matenrou no Tameiki
Matenrou no Aria
Keiji Karen - 24ji no Tokai (Detective Karen - City at 24 o'clock)
Usagi no Rabu Kaado (Love Card of a Rabbit)
Usagi no Kirameki LOVE (Sparkling Love of a Rabbit)
Aitsu no Koi Menu (Her Love Menu)
Osharena Sasupensu (Fashionable Suspense)
Arimi Sos
Burakkubaado (Blackbird)
Lion Dream
Love shot! Jun
Tenshi to miru yume

[edit] Book Covers of her Manga Work

Detective Karen - City at 24 o'clock vol. #1 cover.	Natural vol. #2 cover.	Legend of Light vol. #1 cover.	Tenshi to miru yume vol. #1 cover.
Arimi SOS vol. #1 cover.	Blackbird vol. #2 cover.	MATEN ROU NO TAMEIKI vol. #1 cover.	NATSU NO SHINWA #1 cover.

[edit] Trivia

Asou made her debut in 1980 with "NY de dokkiri!" in Margaret Special Spring issue.
Her blood type: B.
Aso is a former gymnast herself, these explains how she was able to bring such depth to the drawings of gymnastics in the Legend of Light series.
The manga version of Hikari no Densetsu, which appeared weekly on Margaret Magazine, was drawn by Izumi Aso in single-handed attempts without the need of an assistants.