Katsura Hoshino

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Katsura Hoshino

Born	Hoshino Katsura 星野桂 April 21, 1980 (1980-04-21) (age 28) Shiga Prefecture, Japan
Residence	Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Occupation	Manga artist
Known for	D.Gray-man

Katsura Hoshino (星野桂, Hoshino Katsura^?, born April 21, 1980) is a female manga writer and illustrator who hails from Shiga prefecture. Her works include her debut manga Continue, her current work D.Gray-man (ディーグレイマン, Dī Gureiman^?) and its pilot Zone, Book-man, and others. Her blood type is O. ^[1]^[2]^[3]

No photo of Hoshino has been published at this time, however based on her drawing style and past comments, particularly those for Miranda Lotto, Japanese fans usually assume Hoshino to be female. Further complicating this mystery, Viz Media refers to Katsura as a male.^[3] Hoshino also claimed to have been teased about wearing a toupée in her childhood. Although this information leans toward the assumption that Hoshino is male, it is not definitive proof. In addition, she often uses "boku", the male way of referring to oneself used also by tomboys, and "jibun", a more polite and humble way to refer to oneself used by both genders. This adds to the mystery of her true gender.

Hoshino is known to have an older twin sister, who often visits her, and a younger brother. To please her sister, and because she liked to draw, she used to draw manga every day.

Hoshino is the author of the manga pilot Zone, which was published in Shueisha's magazine Akamaru Jump.^[4] This later paved the way for the manga series D.Gray-man, which began in 2004 and is currently serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump. An anime, as well as two novels,^[5]^[6] have been adapted from this series. The manga is also being sold in ten countries, including the United States ^[7] with an English dub of the anime expected in early 2009 from FUNimation. ^[8]^[9] Her debut manga Continue appeared in the Weekly Shounen Jump in 2003.^[3] In addition, she wrote an unpublished manga called Book-man. Many of her characters come earlier works such as these.

In Japan, D.Gray-man was put on a hiatus due to Hoshino falling seriously ill and once again because of an unspecified injury. However the series continued shortly after. ^[10]^[11]

Hoshino also has a cat named Koro, often translated as Coro, who has a birth defect and has difficulty walking. Even so, she says that Koro does its best to move around, often rolling around on the floor. According to Hoshino, this cheers her up. In her opinion, Koro resembles Timcanpy. ^[12]