, born June 1, 1979 in Osaka Prefecture

Osaka Prefecture

is a prefecture located in the Kansai region on Honshū, the main island of Japan. The capital is the city of Osaka. It is the center of Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto area.- History :...

, known as "Namie-han" to her fans, is a Japanese gag manga artist

Mangaka

is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...

. Her works have been featured in Shueisha

Shueisha

is a major publisher in Japan. The company was founded in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The following year, Shueisha became a separate, independent company. Magazines published by Shueisha include Weekly Shōnen Jump, Weekly Young Jump,...

's magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump

Weekly Shonen Jump

is a weekly shōnen manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the Jump line of magazines. The first issue was released with a cover date of July 2, 1968, and it is still circulating. One of the longest-running manga magazines in Japan, it has a circulation of 2.8 million copies...

and, more recently, its sister publications Business Jump

Business Jump

, is a Japanese seinen manga anthology published by Shueisha under the Jump line of magazines. It publishes various Seinen manga series in Japan. The manga of Business Jump are published under the "Young Jump Comics" line.- History :...

, Ultra Jump

Ultra Jump

is a Japanese monthly seinen manga magazine published by Shueisha under the Jump line of magazines. Originally, the magazine was a special issue of Weekly Young Jump which first issued in 1995. On October 19 of 1999, the special issue became the new monthly publication Ultra Jump...

and Young Jump.

Odama says she "became a manga artist because [she] can't do anything else". She debuted in the autumn of 1995 after winning an honorable mention for the Shikishō Prize given out by Kodansha

Kodansha

, the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...

's manga magazine Afternoon

Afternoon (magazine)

is a Japanese seinen manga magazine published by Kodansha. It is a monthly anthology, and each issue typically has around thirty ongoing stories by various authors and runs about 800 pages...

. She also was the runner-up for the Akatsuka Award

Akatsuka Award

The is the name of a semi-annual award presented to humorous manga cartoonists by the Japanese publisher Shueisha. The award has been given since 1974 and it aims to reward new manga artist in the comedy manga category. Its counterpart award, Tezuka Award, awards new manga artists in the Story...

 in 2000 for her manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 Junjō Pine.

Series

• 2000-2001 
• 2002 
• 2003 
• 2004 
• 2006 
• 2007-
• 2009-

Sources