is a

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

ous Japanese

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 ...

. Born and raised in

Okinawa most commonly refers to: * Okinawa Prefecture, Japan's southernmost prefecture * Okinawa Island, the largest island of Okinawa Prefecture * Okinawa Islands, an island group including Okinawa itself * Okinawa (city), the second largest city in th ...

, Wayama made her debut as a manga artist in 2015 while a student in the manga program at

Tokyo Polytechnic University is a private university in Honchō, Tokyo, Honchō, Nakano, Tokyo. Its nickname is ''Shadai'' (写大). It was formerly known as Tokyo College of Photography (, ''Tōkyō Shashin Daigaku''). The university was founded as Konishi Professional Sc ...

. After unsuccessful attempts to launch a serial manga series she began to produce (self-published manga) to critical acclaim. Her '' Captivated, by You'' became a critical and commercial success after being acquired and published by the publishing house

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 ...

, winning the

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 ...

in the Short Work category and the New Face Award at the

Japan Media Arts Festival Awards The Japan Media Arts Festival was an annual festival held since 1997 by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs. The festival begins with an open competition and culminates with the awarding of several prizes and an exhibition. Based on judging by ...

. Her other series include ''

Let's Go Karaoke! is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yama Wayama. The series follows a yakuza lieutenant who seeks instruction in karaoke from the head of a high school choir. It was originally published as a (self-published manga) in 2 ...

'' and ''

Onna no Sono no Hoshi is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yama Wayama. It has been serialized in Shodensha's manga magazine ''Feel Young'' since January 2020, with its chapters collected into four volumes as of October 2024. The story follow ...

''.

Biography

Early life and career

Wayama was born in 1995 in

, where she was also raised. She attended Itoman Minami Elementary School for primary school, and

Okinawa Shogaku High School is a middle school and high school in the Kokuba district of Naha, Okinawa is the Cities of Japan, capital city of Okinawa Prefecture, the southernmost prefecture of Japan. As of 1 June 2019, the city has an estimated population of 317,405 a ...

for junior high and high school. In middle school she began drawing color pencil illustrations inspired by manga (girls manga) that she would upload to the blogging site Ameba, and as a senior in high school began drawing

boys' love , also known by its abbreviation , is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that depicts Homoeroticism, homoerotic relationships between male characters. It is typically created by women for a female audience, distinguishing it fro ...

manga (male-male romance manga, abbreviated as "BL") as a hobby. She has used the

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

"Wayama" since middle school: initially "Wayama" mononymously for her Ameba illustrations, then for her early manga. She eventually settled on "Yama Wayama" as her pen name, basing it off her high-school nickname "Yama-san", as she felt it was easier to remember than "Tomoyoshi". She decided to pursue manga as a career in her senior year of high school, and entered the manga program at

. Seeking to write manga about "everyday things", Wayama initially began drawing manga (men's manga), as she believed that manga (women's manga) would not be conducive to her style. In her sophomore year she submitted her manga for the , and won the Newcomer's Award. This win led to the publication of

one-shot One shot may refer to: Film and television * One-shot film, a feature film shot in one long take with no edits, or manufactured to look like so * ''One Shot'' (2005 film), a Sri Lankan action film directed by Ranjan Ramanayake * ''One Shot'', a ...

(single chapter) manga in the Winter 2016 issue of the magazine '' Weekly D Morning'', her first paid job as a manga artist. According to Wayama, attempts to publish further works with ''Morning'' "didn't work out", stating that "part of me was only creating manga to get the approval of editors, so I'd totally lost sight of what I wanted to draw".

and breakthrough

After her experience at ''Morning'', Wayama sought to create manga that she "actually liked and felt like drawing, without listening to what other people had to say." She took a job in food service and published the one-shot ''Ushiro no Nikaidou'' on the online community

Pixiv Pixiv is a Japanese Virtual community, online community for artists. It was first launched as a beta test on 10 September 2007, by Takahiro Kamitani and Takanori Katagiri. Pixiv Inc. is headquartered in Sendagaya, Shibuya, Tokyo, Shibuya, Toky ...

to critical acclaim. ''Ushiro no Nikaidou'' would become a chapter in her (self-published manga) '' Captivated, by You'', which she released at the convention in February 2019. An editor at the manga magazine ''

Comic Beam is a Japanese seinen manga magazine published by Enterbrain on a monthly basis since November 1995. In 2006, it had a circulation of 25,000. ''Comic Beam'' is considered an "alternative" manga magazine in the Japanese publishing industry, whe ...

'' acquired the for publication as a book, which was published in August that same year. The manga was a significant critical and commercial success, selling out three printings in one month and winning the

in the Short Work category and the New Face Award at the

. Her subsequent manga ''

'' was similarly published as a before being acquired by

Kadokawa Kadokawa may refer to: *Kadokawa Corporation, the holding company of the Kadokawa Group **Kadokawa Content Gate and Kadokawa Mobile, both former names for BookWalker **Kadokawa Future Publishing, a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation and the publis ...

for publication. Wayama's first serial manga, ''

'', began serialization in the manga magazine ''

Feel Young is a monthly josei manga magazine published by Shodensha in Japan. Manga artists whose stories have run in the magazine include Moyoco Anno, Mitsue Aoki, Mitsukazu Mihara, Kiriko Nananan, Mari Okazaki, Erica Sakurazawa, Ebine Yamaji, and oth ...

'' in January 2020.

Style and influences

Wayama primarily creates

slice of life Slice of life is a depiction of mundane experiences in art and entertainment. In theater, slice of life refers to Naturalism (theatre), naturalism, while in literary parlance it is a narrative technique in which a seemingly arbitrary sequence ...

stories, stating that she "tr esto keep an overall mellow energy" in her work. She cites manga artists

Usamaru Furuya is a Japanese mangaka, manga artist. Biography During elementary school, Furuya enrolled in the Osamu Tezuka Manga Correspondence Course and by the time he reached high school he had discovered a darker, more underground style. He graduated fr ...

, Eiji Nonaka,

Junji Ito is a Japanese horror manga artist. Some of his most notable works include ''Tomie'', a series chronicling an immortal girl who drives her stricken admirers to madness; ''Uzumaki'', a three-volume series about a town cursed by spirals; and ''Gy ...

, and

Makoto Kobayashi is a Japanese physicist known for his work on CP-violation who was awarded one-fourth of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quar ...

as her four primary influences. She lists Furuya as her most significant influence, stating that after she read his series '' Lychee Light Club'' while in high school, she drew her first amateur manga by imitating his art style; Furuya also influenced her orientation towards junior- and high school-aged boys as primary subjects of her manga. Nonaka influenced her style of "funny manga paired with serious illustrations", while Kobayashi influenced the manner in which she draws girls. While Ito's

psychological horror Psychological horror is a genre, subgenre of horror fiction, horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and Mental state, psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre freque ...

is not overtly reflected in Wayama's manga, she has stated that she is interested in one day drawing horror manga. Her earlier influences include ''Boku to Issho'' by Minoru Furuya, the first manga she ever read and her favorite overall, as well as works introduced to her as a child by her older siblings: ''

Urusei Yatsura is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It was serialized in Shogakukan's ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' from September 1978 to February 1987. Its 366 individual chapters were collected in 34 ''tankōbon'' volum ...

'' by

Rumiko Takahashi is a Japanese manga artist. With a career of several commercially successful works, beginning with ''Urusei Yatsura'' in 1978, she is one of Japan's best-known and wealthiest manga artists. Her works are known worldwide, where they have been tra ...

and the works of

Aya Nakahara is a Japanese manga artist. She won the 49th Shogakukan Manga Award for shōjo manga for ''Lovely Complex'' ''Love Com'', a romance manga about a tall high school girl who falls in love with a short guy. Works * ''Haru to Kuuki Nichiyobi' ...

in ''

Margaret Margaret is a feminine given name, which means "pearl". It is of Latin origin, via Ancient Greek and ultimately from Iranian languages, Old Iranian. It has been an English language, English name since the 11th century, and remained popular thro ...

'' by her older sister, and ''

Doraemon is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Fujiko F. Fujio. First serialized in 1969, the manga's chapters were collected in 45 volumes published by Shogakukan from 1974 to 1996. The story revolves around an earless robotic ...

'' by

Fujiko F. Fujio was a manga writing duo formed by Japanese manga artists and . They debuted in 1951 as a duo under their real names. The Fujiko Fujio name was used for their respective works from 1953 until 1987, when Fujimoto was too ill to work consiste ...

and ''

Yu-Gi-Oh! is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kazuki Takahashi. It was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' between September 1996 and March 2004, with its chapters collected in 38 volumes. The ...

'' by

Kazuki Takahashi , known professionally as , was a Japanese manga artist. He is best known as the author of ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'', published in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1996 to 2004. The manga spawned a trading card game of the same name, which holds the Guinness ...

by her older brother.

Japanese film The , also known domestically as , has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world; as of 2022, it was the fourth largest by number of feature films produced, producing 634 fi ...

s are also an influence on Wayama, particularly the "character development and warm humor" in the works of

Shinobu Yaguchi is a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He specializes in feel-good "zero to hero" films, where a group of people take up an unlikely activity, face a number of obstacles, but finally succeed. His film '' Waterboys'' was particularly succ ...

. Intimate male-male relationships are a recurring motif in Wayama's works, with journalist Atsushi Takayama describing her manga as depicting "brilliant relationships between men that go beyond friendship, but not quite to the point of romance". Wayama has acknowledged the influence of the boys' love (BL) genre on her work, stating that "I draw some things with BL in mind, and some things without it. I have a clear picture of that in my head, but I want each reader to interpret and enjoy my work how they want to."

Works

* (published on Moae, 2015) * (published in '' Weekly D Morning'', 2016) * '' Captivated, by You'' (self-published, 2019; published by

, 2019) * ''

'' (self-published, 2019; published by

, 2020) * (serialized in ''

'', 2020–present)

Awards and nominations

, - ! 2015 , ''Yūtōsei no Mondai'' , Newcomer Award , , , , , - ! rowspan="4" , 2020 , '' Captivated, by You'' , Women's Manga , ''

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 professionals in the manga and publishing industry. The first two years saw two s ...

'' , , , , - , ''Captivated, by You'' , New Face Award ,

, , , , - , ''Captivated, by You'' , ,

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� ...

, , , , - , ''Captivated, by You'' , Short Work ,

, , , , - ! rowspan="4" , 2021 , ''

'' , , Manga Taishō , , , , - , ''

'' , , Manga Taishō , , , , - , ''Onna no Sono no Hoshi'' , Women's Manga , ''Kono Manga ga Sugoi!'' , , , , - , ''Let's Go Karaoke!'' , Women's Manga , ''Kono Manga ga Sugoi!'' , , , , - ! rowspan="2" , 2022 , ''Onna no Sono no Hoshi'' , , Manga Taishō , , , , - , ''Onna no Sono no Hoshi'' , Social Impact Award , Japan Media Arts Festival Awards , , , , - ! 2023 , ''Onna no Sono no Hoshi'' , , Manga Taishō , , , , - ! 2024 , '' Fami-res Iko.'' , , Manga Taishō , , , , -

References

External links

Yama Wayama
on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wayama, Yama 1995 births Living people Manga artists from Okinawa Prefecture Women manga artists Japanese female comics artists Japanese female comics writers Winners of the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize (Short Story Award)