Katsura Hoshino

Kasura Hoshino at Animagic, Germany (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Katsura_Hoshino_Animagic_Germany.JPG)

Katsura Hoshino was born on April 21, 1980. She was born in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. She first was just someone whose story I liked because around two years ago I came across an anime that had a great story line. The name was D. Gray-man. Now I have read more of her work, and liked all the stories (at least the ones that have been published). I also admire her artwork, the way she draws her characters are amazing. If you saw one of these people on normal basis you would think that they look strange, but when you see them with her style, you just can’t help but like how they look.

Her most notable work is D.Gray-man while her first Publication was Zone. Her story D.Gray-man is based on her one-shot, Zone. Her first series was Continue, which appeared in Weekly Shonen Jump. At first no one really knew what her gender was since everyone referred to her as “male”. When she made her first appearance was at AnimagiC convention in Bonn, Germany as a guest of honor, her fans finally knew that she was female instead of male.

Katsura Hoshino standing with a Lavi cosplayer (http://robinamae.multiply.com/journal/item/23)

I praise her art style highly as she is able to draw any character that can appeal to both genders. Most of her characters are taken from earlier stories that have remained unpublished. Such as Lavi, he is a redheaded energetic male that was first from a manga named Book-man, which also remains unpublished. Yu Kanda is also from another unpublished manga. She also bases most of her characters on famous unnamed scientists such as Aleister Crowley and Yūsuke Santamaria.

One day, if I ever make it as a mangaka, I would love to be able to draw as well as she does, also to have such a successful story. Those are my reasons why Katsura Hoshino is, and will be for a long time, my hero.