Moto Hagio

is a manga artist born on May 12, 1949 in Omuta City, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, though she currently lives in Saitama Prefecture. She is considered a "founding mother" of modern shōjo manga, especially shōnen-ai. She is also a member of the Year 24 Group. She has been described as "the most beloved shōjo manga artist of all time.

Moto Hagio made her professional debut in 1969 at the age of 20 with her short story "Lulu to Mimi" in Nakayoshi. Later, for Shogakukan Publishing, she produced a series of short stories for various magazines. Two years after her debut, she published Juichigatsu no Gimunajiumu (The November Gymnasium), a short story which dealt openly with love between two boys at a boarding school. The story was part of a larger movement by female manga artists at the time which pioneered a genre of girls' comics about love between young men. In 1974, Hagio developed this story into the longer Tōma no Shinzō (The Heart of Thomas). She was awarded the Shogakukan Manga Award in 1976 for her science fiction classic Juichinin Iru! (They Were Eleven) and her epic tale Poe no Ichizoku (The Poe Family). Moto Hagio had a role in the 2008 film Domomata no Shi (Death of Domomata).

Works in English

Little of her work has been translated from Japanese. Following is a short list of those which have been translated:

• A, A', which is currently out of print and includes three stories entitled A, A' (A, A Prime), 4/4 (Quatre-Quarts), and X+Y parts one and two.
• They Were Eleven, which was part of the 1996 anthology Four Shōjo Stories. They Were Eleven is available on DVD as an anime, in both dubbed and subtitled formats. Like most anime based on manga, there are various minor changes and omissions.
• Hanshin, a short story, which was published in issue 269 of The Comics Journal alongside an interview with Moto Hagio conducted by Matt Thorn.

A, A' and They Were Eleven have science fiction settings, and both They Were Eleven and X+Y include transgender elements. The science fiction aspects in particular have led to Hagio's work appealing to manga readers who do not generally like shōjo manga.

Video game works

Moto Hagio did the character designs for Quintet's video game Illusion of Gaia.

Awards

• 1976: 21. Shogakukan Manga Award for Poe no Ichizoku and They Were Eleven
• 1980: 11. Seiun Award for Star Red
• 1983: 14. Seiun Award for Gin no Sankaku
• 1985: 16. Seiun Award for X+Y
• 1997: 1. Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize (Award for Excellence) for Zankoku na kami ga shihai suru
• 2006: 27. Nihon SF Taisho Award for Barbara Ikai

References

External links

• Hagio Moto Titles - list of works
• The Comics Journal: Three by Moto Hagio
• The Hagio Moto Interview by Matt Thorn
• Japan's Feminist Fabulation Reading Marginal with Unisex Reproduction as a Key Concept