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 ...

. She is best known as the creator of the

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 ''

Beastars ''Beastars'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Paru Itagaki. It was serialized in Akita Shoten's ''Weekly Shōnen Champion'' from September 2016 to October 2020, with its chapters collected in 22 ''t ...

'', for which she has won the 2018

Manga Taishō The is a Japanese comics award recognizing achievement in manga. It is awarded annually to a manga series published in the previous calendar year of eight or fewer collected volumes in length. The Manga Taishō was founded with the aim of re ...

, a

Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Named after Osamu Tezuka, the is a yearly manga prize awarded to manga artists or their works that follow the Osamu Tezuka manga approach founded and sponsored by Asahi Shimbun. The prize has been awarded since 1997, in Tokyo, Japan. Current ...

, a

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 ...

, and a Japan Media Arts Festival Award. She is the daughter of manga artist

Keisuke Itagaki is a Japanese manga artist. He is best known for his martial arts series ''Grappler Baki'' (1991–1999) and its four sequels, which have sold over 75 million volumes. In 1996, he began working on '' Garōden'', an original work by Baku Yumemaku ...

Biography

Itagaki began painting in kindergarten, and started drawing manga in the second grade. As a teenager she developed the character Legoshi, an

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...

who would later appear in her manga series ''

''. She cites

Disney movies This is a list of films produced by and released under the Walt Disney Pictures banner (known as that since 1983, with ''Never Cry Wolf'' as its first release) and films released before that under the former name of the parent company, Walt ...

and the artists Nicolas de Crécy and

Egon Schiele Egon Leo Adolf Ludwig Schiele (; 12 June 1890 – 31 October 1918) was an Austrian Expressionist painter. His work is noted for its intensity and its raw sexuality, and for the many self-portraits the artist produced, including nude self-portr ...

as among her early influences. She later attended

Musashino Art University or is a private university in Kodaira, Western Tokyo, founded in 1962 with roots going back to 1929. It is known as one of the leading art universities in Japan. History In October 1929, was founded. In December 1948, it became , and in ...

, where she studied

filmmaking Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, casti ...

. She continued to pursue manga as a hobby while in university, creating ''

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 ...

'' that she would sell at ''dōjinshi'' conventions. After being unable to find a job in the film industry, Itagaki submitted her ''dōjinshi'' to editors at the publishing company

Akita Shoten is a Japanese publishing company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded by Teio Akita on 10 August 1948. As of 2020, the company's president is Shigeru Higuchi. Magazines Male-oriented manga magazines ''Shōnen'' magazines * – Bimo ...

, which began publishing her short story collection ''Beast Complex'' in ''

Weekly Shōnen Champion is a Japanese ''shōnen'' manga magazine published by Akita Shoten. History ''Shōnen Champion'' was first published on July 15, 1969. It has had numerous popular series by manga artists such as Osamu Tezuka, Go Nagai, Shinji Mizushima, Masami ...

'' in 2016. That same year, ''Weekly Shōnen Champion'' began serializing Itagaki's critically and commercially acclaimed series ''

''. In September 2019, Itagaki's autobiographical manga series ''Paruno Graffiti'' began serialization in ''

Kiss A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...

''. In 2021, Itagaki launched a new manga series, titled ''Sanda'', in the 34th issue of ''

'' on July 21.

Personal life

Itagaki is highly private about her personal life and wears a chicken mask to obscure her face at all public appearances. Japanese tabloids reported in 2018 that Itagaki is the daughter of

, the creator of the manga series '' Baki the Grappler''; the claim was repeated in April 2019 by ''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

''. Itagaki confirmed these reports in a joint interview with her father in the September 2019 issue of ''Weekly Shonen Champion'', stating that she did not wish to disclose her parentage until she was established in the manga industry in order to avoid accusations of nepotism.

Works

Serializations

* (serialized in ''

'', 2016–2019; 2021) * ''

'' (serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Champion'', 2016–2020) * (serialized in ''

'', 2019–2020) * (serialized in ''

Weekly Manga Goraku is a Japanese weekly manga magazine published since 1968 by Nihon Bungeisha which targets a demographic of adult men. The magazine is published every Friday. Serialized works Listed alphabetically by title. *''69 Denashi'' (Yasuhito Yamamoto) *' ...

'', 2020–2021) * '' Sanda'' (serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Champion'', 2021–present)

One-shots

* (published in ''Weekly Manga Goraku'', 2018) * (published in ''

Monthly Comic Zenon is a Japanese manga anthology. It is marketed to ''seinen'' public (young adult men), edited and published monthly by Coamix. From 2010 to 2020, it was formerly published by North Stars Pictures and Tokuma Shoten. It was produced as a replaceme ...

'', 2019)

Awards and nominations

, - ! rowspan="1" , 2017 , rowspan="6" , ''

'' , Male Readers ,

Kono Manga ga Sugoi! is an annual reference mook series published by Takarajimasha since 2005 featuring yearly rankings and reviews of manga. The rankings are compiled by surveying people in the manga and publishing industry. The series is part of Takarajimasha's ...

, , , , - ! rowspan="4" , 2018 , New Face Award , Japan Media Arts Festival Awards, Manga Division , rowspan=4; , , , - , Grand Prize ,

, , , - , New Artist Prize ,

, , , - , Best Shōnen Manga ,

, , , - ! 2020 , Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia ,

Eisner Award The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books, sometimes referred to as the comics industry's equivalent of the Academy Awards. They are named in ...

, , ,

References

External links

Paru Itagaki
on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

Paru Itagaki
on

Tumblr Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Itagaki, Paru 1993 births Living people Women manga artists Manga artists from Tokyo Winner of Kodansha Manga Award (Shōnen) Manga Taishō Winner of Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize (New Artist Prize) Japanese female comics artists People from Tokyo Female comics writers