is 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 ...

freelance

manga artist A manga artist, also known as a mangaka (), is a Cartoonist, comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist before entering the indus ...

and

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...

. She is best known for her '' Witch Hat Atelier'' series. She has created variant covers and other illustrations for

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

, and stories in the ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

'' franchise. She did the character designs for ''The Elder'', part of the ''Star Wars: Visions'' short film series released in 2021, and she wrote the 2022 manga adaptation for it. She has won and been nominated for multiple awards, including the

Eisner Award The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are awards for creative achievement in American comic books. They are regarded as the most prestigious and significant awards in the comic industry and often referred ...

, the

Harvey Award The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be a successor to the Kirby Awards, which were ...

, the

Kodansha Manga Award is one of Japan's major manga awards. The event is sponsored by publisher Kodansha. It has been awarded annually for serialized manga in its third iteration since 1977. Categories The award was originally called the until 1968. In 1970, it was ...

, the

Manga Taishō The is a Japanese List of comics awards, comics award recognizing achievement in manga. It is awarded annually to a manga series published in the previous calendar year of eight or fewer Tankōbon, collected volumes in length. The Manga Taish� ...

, the Daruma d'or manga at the Japan Expo Awards, the Mangawa Award, and the Prix Babelio.

Biography

Shirahama was born on May 7. She graduated from the design program at the

Tokyo University of the Arts or is a school of art and music in Japan. Located in Ueno Park, it also has facilities in Toride, Ibaraki, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Kitasenju and Adachi, Tokyo. The university has trained artists in the fields of painting, sculpture, crafts, inter ...

. She works using analog tools such as pencils, pen and ink, and colored pencils rather than digital tools. Influences on her work include ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an Epic (genre), epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually d ...

'' and ''

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven Fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...

'' novels, which she read in junior high school, as well as the

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

and

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

styles. Her art style has multiple influences, including

Alphonse Mucha Alfons Maria Mucha (; 24 July 1860 – 14 July 1939), known internationally as Alphonse Mucha, was a Czech painter, illustrator, and graphic artist. Living in Paris during the Art Nouveau period, he was widely known for his distinctly stylized ...

, Mœbius,

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist. He co-founded Studio Ghibli and serves as honorary chairman. Throughout his career, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Anime, Japanese ani ...

, and

Moto Hagio is a Japanese manga artist. Regarded for her contributions to ''shōjo'' manga (manga aimed at young and adolescent women), Hagio is considered the most significant artist in the demographic and among the most influential manga artists of al ...

. Her debut story was , published by

Enterbrain , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing founded on January 30, 1987, as . Magazines published by Enterbrain are generally focused on video games and computer entertainment as well as video game and strate ...

in ''Fellows!'' in 2011. She made her multi-part story publishing debut with ''Eniale & Dewiela'' in ''Fellows!'' in 2012. The series ran for two years, ending in July 2015, and was collected in three volumes released in June 2013, June 2014, and July 2015. The series was translated into French and released by Pika Édition in 2019. She began doing variant covers and other illustration and concept work for

, and ''

'' comics in 2015 after her art was noticed at

New York Comic Con The New York Comic Con is an annual New York City fan convention dedicated to comics, Western comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, cosplay, toys, Film, movies, and television. It was first held in 2006. With an attendance of 200,00 ...

, working on titles such as '' Star Wars: Doctor Aphra'', ''

Deadpool Deadpool is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld, the character first appeared in ''New Mutants'' #98 (December 1990). In his comic book appearances, Deadpool is ...

'', and '' Batgirl and the Birds of Prey''. '' Witch Hat Atelier'' began serialization in Kodansha's '' Monthly Morning Two'' manga magazine in July 2016. When the first collected volume was released in January 2017, the manga was so popular it became hard to find copies in stores. In June 2022, her ''Star Wars'' manga short work, ''The Elder'', was published in '' Big Gangan''. She also did the character designs for the animated version of the story.

Bibliography

* in ''Fellows!'' (2011, one-shot,

) * in ''Fellows!'' (2013–2015, 3 volumes, Kadokawa) * '' Witch Hat Atelier'' (2016–present, 13 volumes (),

Kodansha is a Japanese privately held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha publishes manga magazines which include ''Nakayoshi'', ''Morning (magazine), Morning'', ''Afternoon (magazine), Afternoon'', ''Evening (magazine), Eveni ...

) ** '' Witch Hat Atelier Kitchen'' with art by Hiromi Satō (spin-off series, 2019–present, 12 volumes (),

) *''I Am Gandhi'' with text by

Brad Meltzer Brad Meltzer (born April 1, 1970) is an Americans, American novelist, non-fiction writer, TV show creator, and comic book author. His novels touch on the political thriller, legal thriller and conspiracy fiction genres, while he has also written ...

(2018,

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House Limited is a British-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, with the merger of Penguin Books and Random House. Penguin Books was or ...

, ) * (November 2019, Kodansha, ) * in (July 2021, Kodansha, ) * '' Star Wars: Visions: The Elder'' (May 25, 2022, in the June 2022 issue of '' Big Gangan'',

Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, video game publisher and entertainment conglomerate. It releases role-playing video game, role-playing game franchises, such as ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', and '' ...

)

Cover art

* (April 2011,

Ohzora Publishing , also known as Ohzora Shuppan is a ''josei'' manga publisher in Japan, founded in 1990. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, it publishes Japanese manga, manga magazines and comic anthologies. The company is headed by . Kitawaki also ran affiliated ...

, ) * (July 2011, Enterbrain, ) * '' Batgirl and the Birds of Prey'', variant covers for issues #1-19, 21-22 (2016–2018,

) * '' Star Wars: Doctor Aphra'', cover art for issues #5-6, 9-13, and collected volume #2 (2017–2018,

) * '' Star Wars: The Last Jedi'', cover art for issue #2 (May 2018, Marvel Comics) * ''

Nightwing Nightwing is a superhero alias used by multiple characters in American comic books published by DC Comics. The most prominent bearer is Dick Grayson, the original Robin, who adopts the Nightwing identity to assert his independence from Batman. ...

'' (2016 series), variant cover for issue #52 (November 2018, DC Comics) * '' Shazam!'' (2018 series), variant cover for issue #6 (June 2019, DC Comics) * ''

Wonder Woman Wonder Woman is a superheroine who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in ''All Star Comics'' Introducing Wonder Woman, #8, published October 21, 1941, with her first feature in ''Sensation Comic ...

'' (2016 series), variant cover for issue #63 (January 2019, DC Comics)

Reception

Jérôme Briot of ''

Zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility where animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoology, ...

'' magazine praised the "swirling graphics and rare elegance" in ''Eniale & Dewiela'', citing Shirahama's artistic inspiration from Alphone Mucha-esque

style. The French website, ''Manga-News'', said the storyline of ''Eniale & Dewiela'' sometimes moved too quickly, jumping straight into the story without any setup. Because the individual stories in the series are fairly short, big ideas are often left unexplored. Despite these notes, Shirahama often surprised them with "a lot of imagination and crazy little ideas...surprises... ndeven a little emotion". The site praised her mixing and tweaking of various religious themes throughout the series, the chemistry between the two polar-opposite main characters, the quality of the artwork, and design and composition of the pages. James Davis Nicoll at ''

Tor.com ''Reactor'', formerly ''Tor.com'', is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine published by Tor Books, a division of Macmillan Publishers. The magazine publishes articles, reviews, original short fiction, re-reads and commentary on specul ...

'' described Shirahama's artwork in the '' Witch Hat Atelier'' manga as "sumptuous" and "evocative", and gave her "high marks for plausible magic". Rebecca Silverman at ''

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and ot ...

'' praised Shirahama's subtle characterization, stating that "all of the characters have layers to their personalities". She goes on to praise the "strong writing

hat A hat is a Headgear, head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorpor ...

is ably enhanced by truly beautiful artwork", stating that "you don't want to miss" it. Her work on '' Witch Hat Atelier'' was described as "breathtaking" by Kelly Chu, who compared it favorably with the

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio based in Koganei, Tokyo."Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment". ''Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment''. Retrieved 2020-12-14. It has a strong presence in the animation industry and has exp ...

film ''

Spirited Away is a 2001 Japanese Anime film, animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It was produced by Toshio Suzuki, animated by Studio Ghibli, and distributed by Toho. The

Young Adult Library Services Association The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), established in 1957, is a division of the American Library Association. YALSA is a national association of librarians, library workers and advocates whose mission is to expand the capacity of l ...

(YALSA) of the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world. History 19th century ...

ranked ''Witch Hat Atelier'' as one of the "Top 10 Graphic Novels for Teens" in 2020 and 2021. Her art was described by the French website, ''Manga-News'', as "striking" and having an "extensive visual look", with "sharp shading imitating and engraving style". As of October 2022, the manga series had over 4.5 million copies in circulation worldwide.

Selected awards and honors

Shirahama has been nominated for and won multiple awards.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shirahama, Kamome Eisner Award winners Japanese fantasy artists Harvey Award winners Japanese women illustrators Japanese science fiction artists Winner of Kodansha Manga Award (General) Women manga artists Writers who illustrated their own writing Year of birth missing (living people) Living people