Asa Higuchi

Asa Higuchi ( Japanese ひ ぐ ち ア サ Higuchi Asa ; * 1970 in Urawa (today: Urawa-ku , Saitama )) is a Japanese manga artist .

After graduating from high school, Higuchi studied psychology at the philosophical faculty of Hōsei University .

In 1998 she took part in the Shiki competition of the manga magazine Afternoon and won her short story Yuku Tokoro , which then appeared in the August issue of Afternoon , making it her first publication as a professional illustrator. From February to May 2000 Asa published her first longer work, Kazoku no Sorekara , in the afternoon . The approximately 230-page family drama was published in June 2001 by the Kōdansha publishing house as an anthology.

Her manga series Yasashii Watashi, which consists of around 480 pages, was also published in Afternoon magazine, which is aimed at an adult, male readership . His manga, published from January 2001 to February 2002, also appeared in two anthologies.

The artist's breakthrough came with the baseball manga Ōkiku Furikabutte . First published in November 2003, it tells the story of a youngster who became a pitcher ace through family relationships in middle school and is now supposed to show his skills in high school. The manga continues to appear in Afternoon magazine and so far (as of May 2012) comprises 18 anthologies. Ōkiku Furikabutte is commercially successful in Japan and received the one million yen Newcomer Prize at the 2006 Osamu Tezuka Culture Prize. In 2007 she won the Kodansha Manga Prize , for which she was nominated the previous year.

Works

• Yuku Tokoro ( ゆ く と こ ろ ), 1998
• Kazoku no Sorekara ( 家族 の そ れ か ら ), 2000
• Yasashii Watashi ( ヤ サ シ イ ワ タ シ ), 2001–2002
• Ōkiku Furikabutte (お お き く 振 り か ぶ っ て ), since 2003

Web links

• List of all book publications by Kōdansha (Japanese)