is a Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 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...

, born on July 24, 1948 in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi

Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi

is a city located in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. It is at the southwestern tip of Honshū, facing the Tsushima Strait and also Kitakyushu across the Kanmon Straits....

. Most of her works are shōjo manga, predominantly focused on romance, adventure, and light comedy, and many of them contain elements of shōnen-ai. She is included in Year 24 group

Year 24 group

refers to one of two female manga artist groups which are considered to have revolutionized shōjo manga . Their works often examine "radical and philosophical issues", including sexuality and gender issues, and many of their works are now considered "classics" of shōjo manga...

.

She made her professional debut in the Ribon

Ribon

is a monthly Japanese shōjo manga magazine published by Shueisha. First issued in August 1955, its rivals are Nakayoshi and Ciao. Its target audience is young girls roughly 9–13 years old. In 2009, the magazine's circulation was 274,167, down from the previous year's circulation numbers of 330,000...

magazine 1963 Winter Special Edition with the short story Sayonara Nanette. Her short works appeared in Shoujo Friend and other 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...

 publications through the mid-1970s. She began writing serial works primarily for Akita Shoten

Akita Shoten

is a Japanese publishing company established on August 10, 1948 in Chiyoda, Tokyo. Its main editorial target has always been teenagers , and it currently publishes mostly manga...

, starting with Miriam Blue's Lake in the January 1975 issue of Princess

Princess (magazine)

is a shōjo manga magazine published monthly on the 6th in Japan by Akita Shoten. It is aimed at teenage girls, and its main competitors are Lala, Bessatsu Margaret, and Betsucomi. Its sister publication is , which branched out from the Princess magazine in 1979...

. Her work has also appeared 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 Monthly Seventeen Magazine in the late 1970s (most notably El Alcon and Seven Seas, Seven Skies) and Hakusensha

Hakusensha

is a Japanese publishing company. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo.The company mainly publishes manga magazines of various genres and is involved in certain series' productions in their games, original video animation, musical and their animated TV series....

's Lala magazine in the 1980s (Z).

She is best known for From Eroica with Love

From Eroica with Love

is a long-running shōjo manga by Yasuko Aoike which originally began publication in 1976 by Akita Shoten. The series ran irregularly in the Japanese anthology magazine Viva Princess from December 1976 to April 1979, then moved to the sister publication Princess beginning in September 1979...

, which has been serialized by Akita Shoten since 1976 and has produced several spinoff series. It is licensed in English by CMX

CMX (comics)

CMX was a division of Wildstorm Productions, an imprint of DC Comics which in turn is owned by Time Warner. It was DC's line of manga translations....

, which began publishing them in 2004.

Selected works

Yasuko Aoike has worked on various stand-alone manga and short stories that are included in other volumes:

• Greenhill Story (story by Keiko Nagita)
• Miriam Blue's Lake (story by Keiko Nagita)
• The Tale of a Priest and a Doctor
• Richard, the Lion-Hearted
• The Carthaginian Fantasy
• The Melancholy of Her Majesty
• Plus Ultra (collection of pictures)
• Aoike Yasuko Official Character Guide Book

External links

• Official website
• From Eroica With Love - fan page