In the world of conventional shoujo, these artists choose to remain true to themselves.
Contemporary shoujo manga doesn’t have the best reputation when it comes to art style. Many ongoing works are so visually indistinguishable from each other that you can barely tell whose penmanship they belong to. However, the industry did produce many greats with a unique, original style, and today we’ll focus on some of them.
1. Akimi Yoshida (Banana Fish, Umimachi Diary)
If you looked at the pages of Akimi Yoshida’s Banana Fish, you’d never guess that this is a shoujo manga. Gone are big, sparkling eyes and long-limbed, slender bodies. Yoshida’s style is all about realism. In Banana Fish, the focus is on action, so she chose to break away from the conventional shoujo style and go for a masculine, stripped-down look for her characters, who were all modeled after real people. The influence of her artwork is evident in the works of many manga artists of the late 90s and early 00s.
2. Mika Yamamori (Daytime Shooting Star, Tsubaki-chou Lonely Planet)
In addition to writing wonderful love stories, Mika Yamamori is known for creating gorgeous art to complement them. Her art style is usually clean and simple, but never without a personality. Yamamori’s backgrounds and settings are often depicted with a sense of whimsy and lightheartedness. The covers of her manga volumes are usually done in a soft watercolor style, with intricately drawn close-ups of the characters in bright, vivid colors. She truly is a master at making mundane things look charming and magical.
3. Moyoco Anno (Sugar Sugar Rune)
While Moyoco Anno’s art style varies depending on the story and themes she is exploring, there is a common thread among them: she never saves time on the minor things. Character hairstyles, clothing designs, and environments are all well crafted with painstaking attention to details in order to immerse the reader in the whimsical world of her manga stories.
4. George Asakura (Dance Dance Danseur, Piece of Cake)
George Asakura’s illustrations are often described as realistic, with a focus on capturing emotions and expressions of her characters through confident brushstrokes. She doesn’t do “delicate” and “tender”, and her characters never look cartoonish. Asakura’s Dance Dance Danseur in particular is her crowning achievement: not everyone can depict dancing – the most dynamic, energetic, and transgressive form of art – with such fluidity on paper.
Ai Yazawa’s style is edgy, daring, and unlike anything you’ll see on the pages of other shoujo manga author’s works. Her main influences are obvious at first glance: Yazawa studied fashion at university, and it shows in her designs. She creates colorful but realistic characters, both in terms of their emotional depth and also aesthetics. Some are inspired by Lolita fashion, others by London's punk culture of the 80s, and others by the visual kei scene.
Yazawa’s art style deserves a category of its own: it’s hard to emulate but impossible not to fall in love with.
In the world of conventional shoujo, these artists choose to remain true to themselves.
Contemporary shoujo manga doesn’t have the best reputation when it comes to art style. Many ongoing works are so visually indistinguishable from each other that you can barely tell whose penmanship they belong to. However, the industry did produce many greats with a unique, original style, and today we’ll focus on some of them.
1. Akimi Yoshida (Banana Fish, Umimachi Diary)
If you looked at the pages of Akimi Yoshida’s Banana Fish, you’d never guess that this is a shoujo manga. Gone are big, sparkling eyes and long-limbed, slender bodies. Yoshida’s style is all about realism. In Banana Fish, the focus is on action, so she chose to break away from the conventional shoujo style and go for a masculine, stripped-down look for her characters, who were all modeled after real people. The influence of her artwork is evident in the works of many manga artists of the late 90s and early 00s.
2. Mika Yamamori (Daytime Shooting Star, Tsubaki-chou Lonely Planet)
In addition to writing wonderful love stories, Mika Yamamori is known for creating gorgeous art to complement them. Her art style is usually clean and simple, but never without a personality. Yamamori’s backgrounds and settings are often depicted with a sense of whimsy and lightheartedness. The covers of her manga volumes are usually done in a soft watercolor style, with intricately drawn close-ups of the characters in bright, vivid colors. She truly is a master at making mundane things look charming and magical.
3. Moyoco Anno (Sugar Sugar Rune)
While Moyoco Anno’s art style varies depending on the story and themes she is exploring, there is a common thread among them: she never saves time on the minor things. Character hairstyles, clothing designs, and environments are all well crafted with painstaking attention to details in order to immerse the reader in the whimsical world of her manga stories.
4. George Asakura (Dance Dance Danseur, Piece of Cake)
George Asakura’s illustrations are often described as realistic, with a focus on capturing emotions and expressions of her characters through confident brushstrokes. She doesn’t do “delicate” and “tender”, and her characters never look cartoonish. Asakura’s Dance Dance Danseur in particular is her crowning achievement: not everyone can depict dancing – the most dynamic, energetic, and transgressive form of art – with such fluidity on paper.
Ai Yazawa’s style is edgy, daring, and unlike anything you’ll see on the pages of other shoujo manga author’s works. Her main influences are obvious at first glance: Yazawa studied fashion at university, and it shows in her designs. She creates colorful but realistic characters, both in terms of their emotional depth and also aesthetics. Some are inspired by Lolita fashion, others by London's punk culture of the 80s, and others by the visual kei scene.
Yazawa’s art style deserves a category of its own: it’s hard to emulate but impossible not to fall in love with.
