Kiriko Nananan

Nananan died on December 25, 2024; her death was not announced until a year later.

Nananan was born on December 14, 1972, in the town of Yoshida in Nishikanbara District, Niigata (now Tsubame, Niigata).[1] She had wanted to become a manga artist since she was five years old. She would copy manga for children, girls and adults, and adapt them into her own style.[2] After pitching her manga to several publishers, Nananan's debut work Hole was published in the monthly magazine Garo in 1993. She drew Hole while studying at the[3] Nippon Design Welfare College. Three of her works have been made into live-action films: Blue (2002), Strawberry Shortcakes (2006), and Pumpkin and Mayonnaise (2017). She portrayed Toko in the live-action film adaptation of Strawberry Shortcakes under the stage name[4] Toko Iwase. Along with Ryo Fukawa, she also hosted the NHK Radio 1 program[5] Doyō no Yoru wa Kētai Tanka. At the 2008 Angoulême International Comics Festival, Nananan won the[6] Prix de l'école supérieure de l'image. She died on December 25, 2024, at the age of 52. Tokyo News Service announced her death the following year, at the request of Nananan and her family.[7]

Nananan said she was obsessed with seeing everything in-between the lines. She used the spaces in the panels and the backgrounds as characters to suggest feelings such as hope or emptiness. It is for this reason that, unlike most manga artists, she did not have assistants do the details for her, since the little details played an important role in her stories. She drew each panel so that it can be isolated, like a picture on a poster or a T-shirt, rather than drawing her manga as a series of boxes. She has stated that drawing one panel can sometimes take up to four hours, repeating the same picture dozens of times. Nananan said her stories and characters were only partially fictional, and believed they are all true-to-life. She based her characters' thinking on how she thinks, then linked everything together with fictional events. She felt she could not have writing assistants either since she was the only one who could tell her stories. Nananan cited the manga Pink by Kyoko Okazaki as an inspiration over her work.[8] Nananan was affiliated with "La nouvelle manga", a movement combining the aesthetics of Franco-Belgian comics and manga.[9]

• Water – short stories / Magazine House, 1996[10] / • Blue – Magazine House, 1997[11] / • Itaitashii Love – short stories / Magazine House, 1997[12] / • Haruchin – one-page gag serial / Magazine House, 1998 / • Kabocha to Mayonnaise (also known as Pumpkin and Mayonnaise and Everyday) – short stories / Takarajimasha, 1999[13] / • Strawberry Shortcakes (also known as Sweet Cream & Red Strawberries) – Shodensha, 2002[14] / • Tanpenshū – short stories / Asuka Shinsha, 2003[15] / • 15 – co-author / Seigensha, 2004[16] / • Candy no Iro wa Aka – Shodensha 2007, serialized in Feel Young[17] / • Tokyo no Otokonoko – with Nyū Ōkubo and Marie Abiko / Ohta Publishing, 2008 / • Chiisana Suzie – picture book / Shodensha, 2009[19] / • Tachihara Michizō Shishū: Boku wa Hitori de Yoru ga Hirogaru – illustrator / Parco Publishing, 2010[20] / • Nananan Kiriko Mishūroku Sakuhinshū – Tokyo News Service, 2020 /[18]

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