is a Japanese

manga artist A is a comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. As of 2006, about 3,000 professional manga artists were working in Japan. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist be ...

, cartoonist and illustrator of novels born on February 27, 1968 in

Kanagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kana ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. She is famous for her best-selling

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series ''

Zetsuai 1989 is a Japanese yaoi manga known for its melodramatic, almost operatic plot, its "semi-insane characters", and for the controversial style of its artwork. The word "Zetsu-ai" is a compound created by Minami Ozaki which has been translate ...

'', which is considered to have redefined the Shōnen-ai/ Yaoi genres in the late 1980s/early 1990s. Her old pen name is , but in 1986 she changed her pen name to Minami Ozaki. She sometimes uses other

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

—. In 1988 (at the age of 20), her first manga series, ''Chūsei no Akashi'' (Proof of Loyalty), was serialized in ''

Margaret Comics , stylized in Latin script between 1988 and 1990, is a biweekly Japanese '' shōjo'' manga magazine published by Shueisha, primarily for girls from 12 to 15 years old, although some stories are read by older teenage girls and adult women. Histor ...

''. Her success with ''Zetsuai 1989'' has led Helen McCarthy to describe Ozaki as "one of the queens of shojo and shonen-ai manga". Through her

Captain Tsubasa is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yōichi Takahashi. The series mainly revolves around the sport of association football focusing on Tsubasa Oozora and his relationship with his friends, rivalries with h ...

dojinshi, Ozaki "played a strong role" in "revamping the boys-love genre" in the 1980s. Her hallmark is "prolonged erotic psychodramas" which has earned her a "cult following" through Margaret.

Matt Thorn Rachel Thorn (formerly Matt Thorn; born May 12, 1965) is a cultural anthropologist and an associate professor in the Department of Manga Production at Kyoto Seika University's Faculty of Manga in Japan. She is best known in North America for he ...

describes her as being a "mania-oriented" artist, with "extremely stylized" character designs and page layouts with a "dream-like quality". Her style had an enormous influence on later shōjo writers.

List of works

* ''Chūsei no Akashi'', 1988 * ''3 Days'', 1989 * ''

'', 1989 * ''Bad Blood'', 1992 * ''Bronze: Zetsuai Since 1989'', since 1991 * ''Devil Children'', 2011

Dōjinshi

Since 1984 Minami Ozaki has published many yaoi

dōjinshi , also romanized as ', is the Japanese term for self-published print works, such as magazines, manga, and novels. Part of a wider category of '' doujin'' (self-published) works, ''doujinshi'' are often derivative of existing works and created ...

. The biggest circles are: * NTT * Calekka * Club Doll * Kreuz

References

External links

Official website
(Japanese) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ozaki, Minami Women manga artists Japanese female comics artists Living people 1968 births Manga artists from Kanagawa Prefecture