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Have you ever found yourself looking up other manga by your favorite artist only to be surprised to find out it’s a female when you had always assumed it was a guy? Stereotypes pop up everywhere, and anime and manga are no exception. Whether it’s because of the genre of the manga, the name of the artist, or the vagueness of their self-portrayals (like how Umino Chica depicts herself as a bear), it’s not always easy to tell if the artists of your favorite works are men or women!
This happened in reverse in Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun. The titular Umetaro Nozaki is secretly Yumeno Sakiko, the shojo manga artist of Let’s Fall in Love. The “ko” at the end of “Sakiko” is common in women’s names, making it a surprise to Chiyo Sakura that the artist is actually a high school boy.
J. K. Rowling also famously used her pen name in response to her publisher’ fear that boys might not be interested in reading her works if they knew they were written by a woman.
Themed around this, Goo Ranking has looked into and released a list of the "Top Manga Artists You Didn’t Know Were Female", and here are the top three!
3. Oshima Tsukasa - Shoot!
In addition to her pen name, Oshima Tsukasa furthered the illusion by using a male caricature for herself and by writing ぼく (*boku*) when referring to herself, a masculine pronoun.
2. Arakawa Hiromu - Fullmetal Alchemist
In second place is Arakawa Hiromu, famed as the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist! She portrays herself as a bespectacled cow and used the pen name Hiromu in place of her real name, the more feminine Hiromi.
1. Sato Fumiya - Kinda’ichi Case Files
Coming in at first place is the Kodansha Manga Award winner and artist of Kinda’ichi Case Files and Detective School Q, Sato Fumiya. Because of her masculine pen name, very few people ever suspected Sato of being a woman!
Did any of these surprise you? Are there any manga artists you think should have been in the top three?
This is a Tokyo Otaku Mode original article by Jen Smith
*Source: adapted from goo Ranking with permission*
*Image Source: Tokyo Otaku Mode Premium Shop*
