Mariko Iwadate

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Mariko Iwadate (岩館真理子, Iwadate Mariko, born 8 February 1957 in Sapporo, Hokkaidō, Japan)[1] is a Japanese manga artist.

Career[edit]

She made her debut as a manga artist in 1973 with the short story "Rakudai Shimasu" in the shōjo manga magazine Margaret. She then primarily wrote for the magazines Margaret and Young You.[1][2]

Style[edit]

She is considered one of the main artists of a movement in 1970s shōjo manga called otomechikku, alongside Ako Mutsu, Yumiko Tabuchi and Hideko Tachikake. Narratives in this movement focused more on everyday life situations, romances and psychological growth of Japanese high schools girls as opposed to the narratives of the Year 24 Group, which experimented with fantasy, science fiction and boys love often in international settings. Rachel Thorn describes that otomechikku manga "were heavily infused with a dreamy, 1970s-style femininity characterized by frilly cotton dresses, straw sun bonnets, herbal tea, and Victorian houses."[3] Masanao Amano describes these early works as "stereotypical shoujo manga stories that were of very good quality".[2]

By the 1980s, her works started exploring deeper themes. The short story "Angel", published in 1982, is marked as a stylistic turning point. In the story, the main character has an arranged marriage and ends up falling in love with her husband. Many of her manga focus on family relationships.[2]

Natsume Fusanosuke explains that Iwadate uses white space boldly to suggest emotion and experiments with panel layouts to suggest an uncertainty in the frame.[4]

Reception[edit]

Her work had an influence on writer Banana Yoshimoto. Amano describes Iwadate's work as "the combination of literature with shoujo manga".[2][5]

She won the 1992 Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo for Uchi no Mama ga iu Koto ni wa,[6] and her manga Ichigatsu ni wa Christmas ("Christmas in January") was adapted as an anime OVA in 1991.

Works[edit]

Title Year Notes Refs
Futari no Dōwa (ふたりの童話) 1976 Serialized in Margaret
Published by Shueisha in 3 vol.
Garasu no hanataba ni shite (ガラスの花束にして) 1981–1982 Serialized in Margaret
Published by Shueisha in 2 vol.
Ichigatsu ni wa Christmas (1月にはChristmas) 1983 Serialized in Margaret
Published by Shueisha in 1 vol.
Reizōko ni Pineapple Pie (冷蔵庫にパイナップル・パイ) 1987–1995 Serialized in Young You
Published by Shueisha in 3 vol.
Kodomo ha nan demo shitte iru (子供はなんでも知っている) 1988–1996 Serialized in Bouquet
Published by Shueisha in 4 vol.
Uchi no Mama ga iu koto ni wa (うちのママが言うことには) 1988–1994 Serialized in Young You
Published by Shueisha in 5 vol.
Alice ni Onegai (アリスにお願い) 1990–1991 Serialized in Young You
Published by Shueisha in 1 vol.
Kirara no Ki (キララのキ) 1996–1998 Serialized in Young You
Published by Shueisha in 4 vol.
Amaririsu (アマリリス) 1999–2005 Serialized in Young You
Published by Shueisha in 5 vol.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Iwadate, Mariko. 1980. Haru ga Kossori. Shueisha Inc.
  2. ^ a b c d Amano, Masanao (2004). Wiedemann, Julius (ed.). Manga Design. Köln: Taschen. pp. 100, 102. ISBN 978-3-8228-2591-4.
  3. ^ Thorn, Rachel (2001). "Shōjo Manga—Something for the Girls". The Japan Quarterly. 48 (3).
  4. ^ Fusanosuke, Natsume (2010). Berndt, Jaqueline (ed.). Pictotext and panels: commonalities and differences in manga, comics and BD (PDF). Global Manga Studies, Vol. 1. Kyoto Seika University. p. 51. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  5. ^ Treat, John Whittier (1993). "Yoshimoto Banana Writes Home: Shojo Culture and the Nostalgic Subject". Journal of Japanese Studies. 19 (2): 357. doi:10.2307/132644. ISSN 0095-6848. JSTOR 132644.
  6. ^ Joel Hahn. "Kodansha Manga Awards". Comic Book Awards Almanac. Archived from the original on 16 August 2007. Retrieved 21 August 2007.

External links[edit]