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 bef ...

and is associated with the Year 24 group that heavily influenced the development of

shōjo manga is an editorial category of Japanese comics targeting an audience of adolescent females and young adult women. It is, along with manga (targeting adolescent boys), manga (targeting young adult and adult men), and manga (targeting adul ...

in the 1970s.

Career

She made her debut as a professional manga artist in 1968 with the short story "Paula no Namida" in the magazine '' Weekly Margaret''. She became known for publishing short stories for this and other major magazines targeted at girls like ''Shōjo Comic'', ''

Bessatsu Shōjo Comic , known as before 2000, is a monthly Japanese manga magazine published by Shogakukan. It was conceived as a or "special issue" of its sister magazine ''Shōjo Comic''. It is released on the 13th of each month. Serializations Current * '' ...

,'' ''Seventeen'' and ''

Shōjo Friend was a shōjo manga List of manga magazines, magazine formerly published by Kodansha, beginning in 1962. Kodansha used the knowledge gained from publishing magazines aimed at young girls, including ''Nakayoshi'' and ''Shōjo Club'', as well as the ...

''. One of her short stories appeared in ''Funny'', one of the earliest magazines for josei manga (then called "women's gekiga"). Her series ''Tanjō!'', published from 1970 until 1971, gained attention for its depiction of

teenage pregnancy Teenage pregnancy, also known as adolescent pregnancy, is pregnancy in a female adolescent or young adult under the age of 20. This includes those who are legally considered adults in their country. The WHO defines adolescence as the period be ...

. From 1978 until 1987 she published her most famous series '' The Star of Cottonland'' in ''LaLa''.

Style

According to Mizuki Takahashi, Ōshima is considered the most influential artist of the Year 24 group because of her visual innovation in shōjo manga, especially in panel design around representing emotions in drawing. Ōshima often places text that represents

inner monologue Intrapersonal communication is the process by which an individual communicates within themselves, acting as both sender and receiver of messages, and encompasses the use of unspoken words to consciously engage in self-talk and inner speech. Intr ...

outside of

speech bubbles Speech balloons (also speech bubbles, dialogue balloons, or word balloons) are a graphic convention used most commonly in comic books, comics, and cartoons to allow words (and much less often, pictures) to be understood as representing a charac ...

and instead flowing freely. She also was innovative in giving panels a delicate, thin frame that is at times even broken. Takahashi writes: "The panels are not sequential, which forces readers to look at the whole page in order to understand the atmosphere of a scene rather than just read ahead in the story." Many of her stories are centered on girls' anxieties during

adolescence Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the ...

, the difficulties of dealing with becoming an adult physically and emotionally and needing to suppress one's child self.

Reception and legacy

She received the 1973

Japan Cartoonists Association Award is an annual award for manga, sponsored by the Japan Cartoonists Association The , established April 1, 2014, is a Japanese public interest incorporated association and professional association of manga artists. Its predecessor was a voluntary ...

for excellence for '' Mimoza Yakata de Tsukamaete''. She received the 1978

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 ...

for shōjo for '' The Star of Cottonland'', and the 2008 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Short Story Award for "Cher Gou-Gou...mon petit chat, mon petit ami," a short story in the ongoing series '' Gū-gū Datte Neko de aru''. In 2021, she was honoured with the title Person of Cultural Merit. She is credited with popularizing the ''kemonomimi'' ( catgirl) character type through her creation of Chibi-neko from ''The Star of Cottonland''. Several artists have been influenced by her work. Manga artist Fusako Kuramochi and writer Banana Yoshimoto cite her as an influence. Manga critic Tomoko Yamada cites "Natsu no owari no totancho" (1977) as one of her favorite manga.

Selected works

* , 1968 * , 1970–1971 * , 1972 * , 1973 * ''Joka e'' ("To Joker") (1973) - An allegorical love triangle involving a boy who is accidentally transformed into a girl * , 1974 * , 1975 * , 1975 * , 1976 * , 1977–1978 - A story about a sensitive young woman, Ira Miura, who wishes to have a gay boyfriend * , 1978–1987 - A story about a kitten, Chibi-neko, who thinks she is a little girl * , 1979 * , 1983 * , 1989 * , 1990 * , 1995 * , 1996–ongoing

References

External links

*
Profile
at The Ultimate Manga Guide

at Mangayomi {{DEFAULTSORT:Oshima, Yumiko 1947 births Anime character designers Living people Women manga artists Manga artists from Tochigi Prefecture Winner of Kodansha Manga Award (Shōjo) Winner of Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize (Short Story Award) Japanese female comics artists Female comics writers Japanese women writers Persons of Cultural Merit