Kyoko Mizuki

Kyoko Mizuki
Born (1949-11-28) November 28, 1949
Tokyo, Japan
Pen name Keiko Nagita (名木田 恵子 Nagita Keiko), Ayako Kazu (加津 綾子 Kazu Ayako), Akane Kouda (香田 あかね Kouda Akane), Kyoko Mizuki (水木 杏子 Mizuki Kyōko)
Occupation novelist, manga writer, poet, essayist, lyricist
Nationality Japan
Period 1968 - present
Genre romance, fantasy, Juvenile
Notable works Candy Candy (1975)
Website
www.k-nagi.com

Kyoko Mizuki (水木 杏子, Mizuki Kyōko) is one of the pen names of Keiko Nagita (名木田 恵子, Nagita Keiko, born November 28, 1949 in Tokyo). She is a Japanese writer who is best known for being the author of the manga and anime series Candy Candy.

Kyoko Mizuki won the Kodansha Manga Award for Best Shōjo Manga for Candy Candy in 1977 with Yumiko Igarashi.

Keiko Nagita won the Japan Juvenile Writers Association Prize for Rainette, Kin Iro no Ringo (Rainette - The Golden Apples) in 2007.

Her short story Akai Mi Haziketa is printed in Japanese Primary School Textbook for 6th grade (Mitsumura Tosho Publishing Co., Ltd.).

Her picture book Shampoo Ōji series (art by Makoto Kubota) was adapted into an anime television series in October 2007.

Biography

When she was 12 years old, her father died. Then she created "imaginary family Andrews" to relieve her loneliness and wrote their stories on a notebook. Mizuki said "I feel Andrews family have watched me affectionately. They are the origin of my story writing".

She spent a few years as an actress of Shiki Theatre Company in her late teens, and some of her works reflect this.

In eleventh-grade, she won a prize short story contest for young girls' magazine Jogakusei no Tomo. After selling her short story Yomigaeri, Soshite Natsu wa to the magazine when she was 19 years old, she decided to become a full-time writer.

In those days she was a frequent contributor of poems to Koukou Bungei magazine, famous poet Katsumi Sugawara appreciated her talent and she joined his poetry club. When she was 20, she published a collection of poems Kaeru privately. Five years later, her poetical works Omoide wa Utawanai was published by Sanrio Company, Ltd.[1]

She wrote short stories and love stories for young girls' magazines, and Kodansha commissioned her to write stories for their shōjo manga magazine Shōjo Friend. In the 1970s, she wrote many shōjo manga stories as Ayako Kazu, Akane Kouda, Kyoko Mizuki and Keiko Nagita.

In 1975, she wrote the story of freckled hearty girl, Candy Candy for monthly Nakayoshi. In her twenties, she wrote the first story for a manga at the request of Mr. Higashiura, then the chief editor of Bessatsu Shōjo Friend. She wrote many shōjo manga stories for mainly Friend and Nakayoshi in 1970s. Then, Mr. Higashiura who took up the post of the chief editor of Monthly Nakayoshi drew up a project that a shōjo manga like a famous stories retold for children as Heidi.

She said "I lost my mother when I was 21, then I was all alone in the world. To write the story healed my sorrow";"Before I wrote the story of Candy, one of what some decided was "Who is her mother is not the theme". Whoever are your parents, you must accept your destiny and stand on your own feet---I wanted to say so. When I started to write the story, it was two years after my mother passed away. My father passed away at my 12th year, I lived in solitude because I am the only child of them. Looking back on my years of writing Candy story, I realize that I healed my pain by writing". (quote: "Interviews with Manga Authors" by Itou Ayako. Doubun Shoin inc.).

The manga was adapted into anime television series in 1976 by Toei Animation. Since then Candy Candy has made her one of the more successful female manga writers.

The last episode of Candy Candy was written at Domaine De Beauvois, a chateau-hotel in France. Mizuki said "I wanted to say good-bye to Candice in beautiful place. If possible, I wanted to go to the United Kingdom When I was into the room, tears welled up in my eyes because a picture of fox hunting was hung on the wall. Fox hunting--it took Anthony's life. When I remember Candice, autumn days at the beautiful hotel came to my mind. The hotel was like the villa of Ardray family."[2]

Since 1980, she is mainly writing juveniles and love stories for young girls as Keiko Nagita. Her Fūko to Yūrei series is especially popular.[3] Music for Fūko to Yūrei series was composed by Toru Okada (岡田 徹, Okada Toru, born April 23, 1949 in Tokyo) who is a member of Japanese famous rock group Moonriders, the album called Siriau Maekara Zutto Suki 知りあう前からずっと好き was released in 1995.[4]

In 2001, she returned to publishing with the concluding part of Fūko to Yūrei.

She won the Japan Juvenile Writers Association Prize 2007 for Rainette, Kin Iro no Ringo, a love story of a Japanese girl and a Belarusian boy who was exposed to radiation of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

In May 2008, she wrote a story for Shōjo manga after an interval of 18 years. The manga Loreley was drawn by Kaya Tachibana.[5]

She has a husband and a daughter, they enjoy vacation at their cottage in Prince Edward Island every summer. Terry Kamikawa, a student of Anne of Green Gables and hostess of Blue Winds Tea Room in P.E.I, is her best friend.

She has a collection of heart shaped objects. Part of her collection is shown on the Aoitori Bunko official site.[6]

Selected bibliography

Manga

Novels

As Keiko Nagita

Poems

As Keiko Nagita

Essays

As Keiko Nagita

Picture books

As Keiko Nagita

Lyrics

As Keiko Nagita

References

Notes

  1. ↑ "Kyoko Mizuki official site". Retrieved 2008-05-28.
  2. ↑ Ito, Saiko (October 1999). Manga Gensakusha Interviewers. Dobunshoin. ISBN 978-4-8103-7661-6.
  3. ↑ Fūko to Yūrei has been published in Indonesia and South Korea.
  4. ↑ Toru Okada is a friend from Nagita's childhood.
  5. ↑ "Shodensha Inc. RomaPuri official site". Archived from the original on 2008-06-02. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
  6. ↑ "Kodansha Aoitori Bunko official site". Retrieved 2008-05-04.

(English/Japanese)

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