, known by the pen name

Pen name

A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...

 , is a Japanese 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...

, novelist, essayist, actress, and singer.

Biography

She was born August 7, 1959 in Nagasaki, Nagasaki Prefecture

Nagasaki Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. The capital is the city of Nagasaki.- History :Nagasaki Prefecture was created by merging of the western half of the former province of Hizen with the island provinces of Tsushima and Iki...

, Japan. Her father left the family when she and her younger sister were in primary school. Her mother was a dance teacher and bar hostess, who soon began living with another dance instructor, and later remarried. Shungiku was often forced to sleep with her stepfather, and her mother would allow it. One of Shungiku's happiest memories from her childhood was getting a ream of rough paper from her fourth grade teacher, as a gift for saying that her dream was to become a manga artist.

Shungiku dropped out of high school in her second year and worked in restaurants, bars, in a printshop, and as a domestic. Sometimes she slept under bridges. Five years later she left Nagasaki for Tokyo with her beloved manga and $7,000 in savings. She graduated from Nagasaki Prefectural Nagasaki Minami High School. She then attended Keio University

Keio University

,abbreviated as Keio or Keidai , is a Japanese university located in Minato, Tokyo. It is known as the oldest institute of higher education in Japan. Founder Fukuzawa Yukichi originally established it as a school for Western studies in 1858 in Edo . It has eleven campuses in Tokyo and Kanagawa...

, majoring in philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 in the Department of Literature, but left before completing a degree. Uchida is currently represented by the talent management firm Knockout.

Her representative works include Wakaokusama Tamajigoku and Minami-kun no Koibito (which was later adapted into three drama series

Japanese television drama

, also called , are a staple of Japanese television and are broadcast daily. All major TV networks in Japan produce a variety of drama series including murder romance, comedy, detective stories, horror, and many others...

). Uchida is also known as "Denko-chan", the mascot character for The Tokyo Electric Power Company

The Tokyo Electric Power Company

, also known as or TEPCO, is an electric utility servicing Japan's Kantō region, Yamanashi Prefecture, and the eastern portion of Shizuoka Prefecture. This area includes Tokyo...

.

Besides a career as a manga artist, she is also active with music and as a novelist. She wrote a controversial semi-autobiographical book called "Fatherfucker" which was also made into a live-action movie.

Manga

• Shiirakansu Brains (1984)
• Nami no Ma Ni Ma Ni (subtitled "An Old-fashioned Love Elegy") (1988)
• Isshinjō no Tsugō ("A Personal Affair") (1988)
• Maboroshi no Futsū Shōjo ("The Illusory Ordinary Girl") (1991)
• Kedarui Yoru ni (1992)
• Monokage ni Ashibyōshi ("Marking Time in the Shadows") (1992)
• Watashitachi wa Hanshoku Shite ("We Are Reproducing") (1994)
• Omae no Kaa-chan Bitch! (1994)

Filmography

• Akumu Tantei 2 aka Nightmare Detective 2
• Gumi. Chocolate. Pine (2007)
• Kyacchi boruya (2006)
• Kain no matsuei aka Cain's Descendant
• Ame no machi aka The Vanished (2006)
• Yokubo aka Desire (2006)
• Yumeno (2005)
• Tsuki to Cherry (2004)
• Koi no mon aka Otakus in Love(2004)
• Mask de 41 (2004)
• Showa Kayo Daizenshu aka Karaoke Terror (2003)
• Stacy
  Stacy (film)
  Stacy is a Japanese horror comedy film, released in 2001. It is based on a novel by Kenji Otsuki directed by Naoyuki Tomomatsu, in which teenage girls turn into zombies....
  
  aka Stacy: Attack of the Schoolgirl Zombies (2001)
• Bijitâ Q
  Visitor Q
  is a controversial 2001 film directed by Japanese director Takashi Miike. It was filmed as the sixth and final part of the Love Cinema series consisting of six straight-to-video releases by independent filmmakers via a brief but exclusive run at the minuscule Shimokitazawa cinema in Tokyo...
  
  aka Love Cinema Vol. 6 and Visitor Q (2001)
• Kao
  Kao
  Kao may refer to:* Kao, a Japanese term for face., a stylized signature or a mark used in place of a signature in China and Japan* Kao , a crater on the Moon.* Kaō , a Japanese era name* Kao , a film by Michiyo Okusu...
  
  (2000)

Television

• Gakko no kaidan G (1998)
• Love Letter (1998)
• Gozonji! Fundoshi zukin (1997)
• Hotaru no yado (1997)
• Skip (1996) (TV)
• Otenki-oneesan (1996)
• Midori (1996)
• Tokiwa-so no seishun (1996)
• Muma (1994)

External links

Profile at Knockout