(8 May 1965 – 15 August 2018) was the

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

of a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

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 ...

from Shimizu,

Shizuoka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,637,998 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Prefecture to the northea ...

. She was best known as the creator of the long-running

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 ...

Chibi Maruko-chan is a shōjo manga series written and illustrated by Momoko Sakura. The series depicts the simple, everyday life of Momoko Sakura, a young girl everyone calls ''Maruko'', and her family in suburban Japan in the year 1974. Maruko is a tro ...

''.

Biography

Miki Miura, was born 8 May 1965. She revealed very little about her private life, including her real name. Sakura made her debut as an artist in 1984 and the ''Chibi Maruko-chan'' was published in ''

Ribon is a monthly Japanese manga magazine published by Shueisha on the third of each month. First issued in August 1955, its rivals are ''Nakayoshi'' and '' Ciao''. Its target audience is girls roughly 8–14 years old. It is one of the best-s ...

'' from 1986 to 1996. The series, which was based on her own childhood, was set in 1974 in suburban Japan. An

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

series based on the ''Chibi Maruko-chan'' aired from 1990 to 1992 while the current second series, which debuted in 1995, continues to this day. Sakura also made the more

surreal Surreal may refer to: *Anything related to or characteristic of Surrealism, a movement in philosophy and art * "Surreal" (song), a 2000 song by Ayumi Hamasaki * ''Surreal'' (album), an album by Man Raze *Surreal humour, a common aspect of humor ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

series ''

Coji-Coji is a Japanese manga series by Momoko Sakura which was serialized in the magazine ''Kimi to Boku'' from December 1994 to May 1997. The manga was adapted into an anime television series titled which aired from October 4, 1997 until September ...

'', which ran from 1997 to 1999. She also worked with

Marvelous Interactive (MMV) was a multinational corporation that produced animation, music, video games and television series. MMV is known for its involvement in the ''Story of Seasons'' series. They merged with AQ Interactive in 2011 and became Marvelous AQL; the ...

on creating the

Dreamcast The is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, N ...

title, ''Sakura Momoko Gekijō Coji-Coji'', and with

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

on creating the

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...

title, ''

Sakura Momoko no Ukiuki Carnival is a Role-playing video game, role-playing video game developed by Nintendo and indieszero and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. The game was released in Japan on July 5, 2002, and was never released outside Japan. Development As s ...

''. In 2005, she designed the characters for the

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

title ''

Every Party is a party video game developed by Game Republic and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was a Japanese launch title for the Xbox 360. Gameplay The game plays as a board game in which up to four players compete to be the first to reach a go ...

''. Music has often appeared in the work of Sakura, from the references of YMO in the early collections of ''Chibi Maruko-chan'' and the shout-outs to Shibuya-kei in the surreal world of ''Coji-Coji.''

Death

Sakura died from

breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a re ...

on August 15, 2018, at the age of 53. Before her death she wrote lyrics about musician

Kazuyoshi Saito is a Japanese singer-songwriter. Making his professional debut in 1993, Saito's popularity exploded in 2007 after 15 years in the music industry. He is also one-half of the rock duo Mannish Boys with Tatsuya Nakamura and a member of the superg ...

for him to sing. Saito used these for his 2019 song , an ending theme of the ''Chibi Maruko-chan'' anime.

Awards

In 1989, she received the

Kodansha Manga Award is an annual award for serialized manga published in the previous year, the event is sponsored by the publisher Kodansha. It is currently awarded in three categories: '' shōnen'', '' shōjo'', and general. The awards began in 1977, initially w ...

for shōjo for ''Chibi Maruko-chan''.

References

External links

* *
Profile at The Ultimate Manga Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sakura, Momoko 1965 births 2018 deaths Deaths from breast cancer Deaths from cancer in Japan Women manga artists Manga artists from Shizuoka (city) 20th-century Japanese writers 21st-century Japanese writers 20th-century Japanese women writers 21st-century Japanese women writers Female comics writers Winner of Kodansha Manga Award (Shōjo) Album-cover and concert-poster artists Japanese female comics artists Pseudonymous artists Pseudonymous women writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers 21st-century pseudonymous writers