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Ai Yazawa

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Cover to the first tankoubon of Nana (2000).

Ai Yazawa (矢沢あい, Yazawa Ai^?, born 1967-03-07 in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese manga author. Her pen name comes from Japanese singer Eikichi Yazawa, of whom she is a fan. Yazawa started her manga publishing life in 1985; throughout 15 years of publishing, she wrote over 10 series in Ribon. While most of her manga continues to be published in Japan by Shueisha, publishers of Ribon and Cookie (in which Nana is serialized), series like Paradise Kiss now appear in other magazines such as Zipper, published by Shodensha. Yazawa's most famous manga include Tenshi Nanka Ja Nai (I'm Not an Angel), Gokinjo Monogatari (Neighborhood Story), Paradise Kiss, and Nana. All five volumes of Paradise Kiss have been released in English by Tokyopop. Nana was formerly running in Shojo Beat and is now being released by Viz, bi-monthly. In Japan it continues to run in Cookie and is currently up to 70 chapters, plus three side story chapters about different characters' early lives. In 2003, she was awarded the Shogakukan Manga Award for Nana.^[1] Nana was made into a successful movie with a sequel in Japan. Yazawa's works are most popular among women and young girls. The storylines generally are centered on young women and their relationships, something with which her young fanbase identifies with. The characters are always very stylish, and she is known especially for her hip sense of fashion. Yazawa herself attended a fashion school after high school but did not complete her studies there. Another key point is her strikingly unique, often rebellious characters, who tend to be juxtaposed against the more traditional ones. She has also published three artbooks.