View source for Hideko Mizuno

{{short description|Japanese manga artist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
{{Infobox comics creator
| name          = Hideko Mizuno<br />水野英子
| birth_date    = {{Birth date and age|1939|10|29}}
| birth_place   = [[Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi]], Japan
| nationality   = Japanese
| area          = [[Manga artist]]
| notable works = ''[[Fire! (manga)|Fire!]]''<br/>''[[Honey Honey no Suteki na Bouken]]''
| awards        = 15th [[Shogakukan Manga Award]] - ''Fire!''
| manga         = Yes
}}
{{Anime}}
{{nihongo|'''Hideko Mizuno'''|水野英子|Mizuno Hideko|born 29 October 1939 in [[Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi]], [[Japan]]}} is one of the first successful female Japanese ''[[shōjo manga|shōjo]]'' [[manga artist]]s.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.csuchico.edu/~mtoku/vc/Articles/toku/Power_Girls_Comics.html | title=The Power of Girls' Comics: The Value and Contribution to Visual Culture and Society | first1=Masami | last1=Toku | year=2004 | quote=Girl's manga were first depicted by female mangaka in the 1950s. Watanabe, Maki, and Mizuno are the most successful girl's mangaka who visualized girls' dreams and desires in their graphic novels. | access-date=27 March 2009 | archive-date=3 March 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303012103/http://www.csuchico.edu/~mtoku/vc/Articles/toku/Power_Girls_Comics.html | url-status=dead }}</ref> She was an assistant of [[Osamu Tezuka]] staying in [[Tokiwa-sō]]. She made her professional debut in 1955 with ''Akakke Kōma Pony'', a [[Western (genre)|Western]] story with a [[tomboy]] heroine. She became a prominent shōjo artist in the 1960s and 1970s, starting with ''White Troika'', which serialized in ''[[Margaret (magazine)|Margaret]]'' in 1963.

Mizuno is best known for ''[[Fire! (manga)|Fire!]]'' (1969–1971), one of the first ''shōjo'' manga with a boy protagonist, for which she won the 1970 [[Shogakukan Manga Award]]. Her ''[[Honey Honey no Suteki na Bouken]]'' (1966) was adapted as an [[anime]] television series, licensed in English as ''Honey Honey'' on [[Christian Broadcasting Network|CBN]] Cable Network.

==Early life==
Hideko Mizuno discovered manga very early: at the age of 8 she read the manga ''[[Shin Takarajima (manga)|Shin Takarajima]]'' by Osamu Tezuka as well as his book ''Manga Daigaku'' which teaches the basics of manga creation, thanks to these two books, she took Tezuka as a model and decided to become a mangaka.{{sfn|Toku|2015|pp=161–162}}{{sfn|Pinon|Lefebvre|2016}} In 1952 at the age of 12, she regularly contributed to competitions organized by the monthly magazine ''[[Manga Shōnen]]'' chaired by Tezuka. Although her manga was never accepted, her efforts did not go unnoticed: she received an honorable mention and publisher Akira Maruyama from Kōdansha took notice.  In March 1955 when she was about to leave junior high for work, not wishing to go to high school, she received a letter from Maruyama, an order for a board and two illustrations for the magazine ''Shōjo Club'', Hideko Mizuno was then 15 years old.{{sfn|Toku|2015|p=162}}{{sfn|Pinon|Lefebvre|2016}}

==Biography==
For a year and a half, Mizuno worked to make a living and drew for ''Shōjo Club'' at the same time. Her first manga published in 1955, ''Akkake kōma pony'' is like the rest of the mangaka's career: the story was about a "little girl and a pony" and while her publisher Mazuyama was expecting a sentimental manga with a sensitive and fragile heroine who was the norm in the magazine's productions, Mizuno provided a Western- inspired manga with a tomboy heroine, and although the manga did not match what was requested, it was nevertheless published.{{sfn|Toku|2015|p=163}}

In 1956 Mizuno went to Tokyo for the first time where she met Tezuka, she then decided to become a full-time mangaka.{{sfn|Toku|2015|p=163}} The following year she published her first series, ''Gin no hanabira'', which was a success.{{sfn|Toku|2015|p=160}} In 1958, invited by Tezuka, she moved to Tokyo in the [[Tokiwa-sō]] apartment where she lived and worked with the two authors [[Shōtarō Ishinomori]] and [[Fujio Akatsuka]], together they collaborated on two manga under the pseudonym U. Mia for the magazine ''Shōjo Club''.{{sfn|Toku|2015|p=160}}{{sfn|Pinon|Lefebvre|2016}} She only stayed in Tokiwa-sō for a year.

Continuing her career as a mangaka, Mizuno's work met with success and helped broaden the register of ''shōjo'' manga: until the mid-1960s, shōjo manga regularly followed the structure of ''haha-mono'', centered on the mother-daughter relationship.  During the 1960s several women mangaka, including Mizuno, introduced a new type of story: the [[romantic comedy]].{{sfn|Kálovics|2016|pp=13–14}}{{sfn|Fujimoto|1991|pp=54–55}}  Mizuno notably adapted two films in manga form, with ''Sabrina'' adapted in the manga ''Sutekina cora'' (1963) and ''The Quiet Man'' adapted as ''Akage no scarlet''(1966).{{sfn|Kálovics|2016|p=14}}

Mizuno created ''Harp of the Stars'' in 1960, a love story drawing from [[Norse mythology]].<ref name=Toku2015>{{cite book |editor1=Masami Toku |chapter=Profile and Interview with Hideko Mizuno |title= International Perspectives on Shojo and Shojo Manga: The Influence of Girl Culture |pages=160–167 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2015 |isbn=9781317610755 }}</ref>

Mizuno is best known for ''[[Fire! (manga)|Fire!]]'' (1969–1971), one of the first shōjo manga with a boy protagonist,<ref>{{cite book | first1=Frederik L. | last1=Schodt | author-link=Frederik L. Schodt | title=[[Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics]] | year=1983 | publisher=Kodansha}}</ref> for which she won the 1970 [[Shogakukan Manga Award]].<ref name="ShogakukanAward">{{cite web|url=http://comics.shogakukan.co.jp/mangasho/rist.html |script-title=ja:小学館漫画賞: 歴代受賞者 |publisher=Shogakukan |language=ja |access-date=19 August 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150805112042/http://comics.shogakukan.co.jp/mangasho/rist.html |archive-date=5 August 2015 }}</ref> Mizuno was a fan of [[progressive rock]] such as [[Pink Floyd]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=オンライン |first1=クロワッサン |title=少女漫画の歴史を生きる、伝説の漫画家・水野英子さん77歳。 {{!}} トピックス |url=https://croissant-online.jp/topics/47646/ |website=クロワッサン オンライン |access-date=19 April 2021 |language=ja |date=2 October 2016}}</ref> After the serialisation of ''Fire!'', Mizuno became a single mother.<ref>{{cite news |publisher=SANKEI DIGITAL INC |title=【自作再訪】「ファイヤー！」の主人公アロンは私の分身 水野英子さん「とことん純粋に生きるということ」 |url=https://www.sankei.com/life/news/170116/lif1701160019-n2.html |access-date=19 April 2021 |work=産経ニュース |date=16 January 2017 |language=ja |archive-date=21 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210221213342/https://www.sankei.com/life/news/170116/lif1701160019-n2.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Her ''[[Honey Honey no Suteki na Bouken]]'' (1966) was adapted as an [[anime]] television series,<ref name=Toku2015/> licensed in English as ''Honey Honey'' on [[Christian Broadcasting Network|CBN]] Cable Network.

Some of Mizuno's works star adult women as protagonists, distinguished from children by the work's inclusion of heterosexual love. Mizuno was inspired by Hollywood romantic films like those featuring [[Audrey Hepburn]].<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Lent|editor1-first=John A.|title=Illustrating Asia : comics, humor magazines, and picture books|date=2001|publisher=University of Hawai'i Press|location=Honolulu|isbn=0824824717|page=178}}</ref>

==Works==
* ''Hoshi No Tategoto,'' 1960
* ''Shiroi Troika,'' 1964
* ''Honey Honey no Suteki na Bouken,'' 1966
* ''Konnichiwa sensei = Harō doku'', 1968
* ''Gin no hanabira'', 1969
* ''Faiyā : Fire'', 1969
* ''Yoru no Hana,'' 1976
* ''Budda to onna no monogatari'', 1986
* ''Erizabēto'', 1996

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
*{{cite book |editor-last=Brient |editor-first=Hervé |title=Homosexualité et manga: le yaoi |publisher=Editions H|series=Manga: 10000 images |year=2008 |language=fr |isbn=978-2-9531781-0-4}}
:*{{cite journal |last1=Brient |first1=Hervé |title=Une petite histoire du ''yaoi'' |journal=Homosexualité et manga: Le yaoi |date=2008b |pages= 5–11 |language=fr }}
* {{cite journal |author-last1=Fujimoto |author-first1=Yukari |title=A Life-Size Mirror: Women's Self-Representation in Girls' Comics |journal=Review of Japanese Culture and Society |volume=4 |year=1991}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Kálovics |first1=Dalma |url=http://www.kyoto-seika.ac.jp/researchlab/wp/wp-content/uploads/sa_dalma_kalovics1.pdf |title=The missing link of ''shōjo'' manga history: the changes in 60s ''shōjo'' manga as seen through the magazine ''Shūkan Margaret'' |journal=Kyōto Seika Daigaku Kiyō |issue=49 |publisher=[[Kyoto Seika University]] |date=2016 |archive-date=November 4, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191104101525/http://www.kyoto-seika.ac.jp/researchlab/wp/wp-content/uploads/sa_dalma_kalovics1.pdf |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |author-last1=Pinon |author-first1=Matthieu |author-last2=Lefebvre |author-first2=Laurent|chapter=Hideko Mizuno |title=Histoire(s) du manga moderne: 1952-2014 |trans-title= History(Histories) of modern manga: 1952-2014 |language=fr |page=37 |editor=Ynnis |year=2016 |publisher=Ynnis éditions |isbn=979-10-93376-40-0 }}
* {{cite book |chapter=Profile and Interview with Hideko Mizuno |editor-last=Toku |editor-first=Masami |title=International Perspectives on Shojo and Shojo Manga: The Influence of Girl Culture |publisher=[[Routledge]] |date=2015 |pages=160–167 |isbn=978-1-31761-075-5 |id=Toku 2015}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book |last1=Shamoon |first1=Deborah |editor1-last=Darling-Wolf |editor1-first=Fabienne |title=Routledge Handbook of Japanese Media |date=2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781315689036 |language=en |chapter=Fire!: Mizuno Hideko and the development of 1960s shōjo manga|doi=10.4324/9781315689036|hdl=11343/222387 }}

== External links ==
* [http://users.skynet.be/mangaguide/au1189.html Profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071127093559/http://users.skynet.be/mangaguide/au1189.html |date=27 November 2007 }} at The Ultimate Manga Guide
* [http://mizuno.x0.com/ Official website]

{{Shogakukan Manga Award - General}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mizuno, Hideko}}
[[Category:1939 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Women manga artists]]
[[Category:Manga artists from Yamaguchi Prefecture]]
[[Category:Japanese female comics artists]]
[[Category:Japanese female comics writers]]
[[Category:People from Shimonoseki]]
[[Category:20th-century Japanese women writers]]
[[Category:Japanese writers]]