Madoka Mako

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Madoka Mako (まどか　まこ, Madoka Mako^?) is the pen name of Misuzu Kato (born 1950), a Japanese manga artist who specialises in the realistic gekiga style. Known for her evangelical themes and work, the Christian Comics International organisation credits her as a "Christian comics pioneer."^[1] Madoka Mako runs an illustration studio, Madoka Creation, located in the greater Tokyo area. Influenced by the works of Osamu Tezuka, Madoka Mako pursued to create comics in vein of films such as The Ten Commandments and Ben Hur. Madoka Mako started working as an assistant of an established secular gekiga artist and illustrated kami-sibai pictures for Sunday school materials.^[1]

Madoka Mako is probably best known for her gekiga Christian tracts, consisting of sixteen to thirty two pages, which she drew from 1970s to 1990s for International Chapel Ministries Press in Ikoma. A number of her work was aimed at young girls to provide help for issues such as prostitution and occult. In the beginning of the 1990s, Madoka produced a series of 3 personal testimony comics for by Sinsei Undou/New Life League, entitled Heaven's Newscaster (Tengoku no Nyuusukyasuta - Testimony of Yamakawa Chiaki), A Wonderful Life (Subarashiki Jinsei - Testimony of Yoneko Tahara) and Touched by the Light (Hikari Nifurerarete - Testimony of Morofuji Kenji). One of her works also include Glory to Jesus, a manga about the Japanese Christian psychedelic/funk rock group EIKO-GO/Electric Church.^[1]

According to CCI's source, Nanami Minami, at one time Madoka Mako was known as the most prominent Christian manga artist in Japan. However, currently publishers and readers consider her style as having gone out of fashion, claims Minami. In 2000, Madoka Mako produced a manga titled The History of Japanese Christianity, a controversial work amog Japanese Christians.^[1]