, also known as Rycanthropy, is a Japanese

gay manga is a colloquialism for a genre of Japanese art and media known within Japan as or . The genre focuses on male same-sex love, as created primarily by gay men for a gay male audience. ''Bara'' can vary in visual style and plot, but typically ...

artist and ''

dōjin soft is software created by Japanese hobbyists or hobbyist groups (referred to as "circles"), more for fun than for profit. The term includes digital , which are essentially the Japanese equivalent of independent video games or fangames (the term " ...

'' producer.

Biography

Mizuki was born in the

Kansai The or the , lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshu, Honshū. The region includes the Prefectures of Japan, prefectures of Nara Prefecture, Nara, Wakayama Prefecture, Wakayama, Kyoto Prefecture, Kyoto, Osaka Prefectur ...

region of Japan. He studied music and competed in

hurdling Hurdling is the act of jumping over an obstacle at a high speed or in a sprint. In the early 19th century, hurdlers ran at and jumped over each hurdle (sometimes known as 'burgles'), landing on both feet and checking their forward motion. Today, ...

while in school, giving up the latter after suffering an injury, and later worked as a

web developer A web developer is a programmer who develops World Wide Web applications using a client–server model. The applications typically use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in the client, and any general-purpose programming language in the server. is used f ...

. Mizuki pursued illustration as a hobby since his early childhood, creating his first comic in the sixth grade. After discovering the works of artist

Gengoroh Tagame is a pseudonymous Japanese manga artist. Regarded as the most influential creator in the gay manga genre, he has produced over 20 books in four languages over the course of his nearly four decade-long career. Tagame began contributing manga ...

at the age of twenty-three, Mizuki began drawing

. His works have appeared in the gay men's magazines '' G-men'', '' Badi'', and '' Barazoku'', as well as the yaoi manga anthology ''Nikutaiha'', which attracted a crossover audience of both gay male and heterosexual female readers. Mizuki is noted as a prolific creator of

slash Slash may refer to: * Slash (punctuation), the "/" character Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Slash (Marvel Comics) * Slash (''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'') Music * Harry Slash & The Slashtones, an American rock band * Nash ...

''dōjinshi'' based on existing media properties, and has produced works based on '' Kill la Kill'', ''

Tiger and Bunny ''Tiger & Bunny'' (stylized as ''TIGER & BUNNY'') is a 2011 Japanese anime superhero television series produced by Sunrise and directed by Keiichi Sato. The screenplay was written by Masafumi Nishida with original character design by M ...

'', ''

Fate/Grand Order is a free-to-play Japanese mobile game, developed by Lasengle (formerly Delightworks) using Unity, and published by Aniplex, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan. The game is based on Type-Moon's ''Fate/stay night'' franchise, and ...

,'' '' Final Fantasy XV'', '' Voltron: Legendary Defender'', and numerous others. In addition to these derivative works, Mizuki has produced a range of original titles, including four ''

'' (self-made video games): ''G-Case'', ''Jalpon'', ''ハニかむBINGO'', and ''Howling Wolf''. Mizuki's works are noted for their " BL-style" storytelling, with a focus on dialogue and character development over straight erotica, with yakuza featured as a common recurring element. Among his influences, Mizkui cites music as having a significant impact on his work, specifically citing the composers

Yoko Kanno is a Japanese composer, arranger and music producer best known for her work on the soundtracks of anime series, television series, live-action films, video games, and advertisements. She was born in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. She has wri ...

and

Yasutaka Nakata is a Japanese DJ and music producer. He formed the band Capsule in 1997 with vocalist Toshiko Koshijima and himself as composer and record producer when both were 17. The band debuted in 2001 with the song "Sakura". He is known for being the ...

. Works by Mizuki were included in the 2014 manga anthology '' Massive: Gay Erotic Manga and the Men Who Make It'', the first English-language anthology of gay manga, published by

Fantagraphics Books Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and the erotic Eros Comix imprint. History Founding Fantagraphics was found ...

References

External links

Gai Mizuki official blog

Gai Mizuki
at Pixiv * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mizuki, Gai Living people Manga artists Hentai creators LGBT comics creators Japanese gay writers Japanese erotica writers Japanese gay artists Year of birth missing (living people)

Biography

References

Further reading

External links