Ai Yazawa

Ai Yazawa (矢沢 あい, Yazawa Ai, born March 7, 1967) is a Japanese manga artist and illustrator. Yazawa debuted as a manga artist with her short story Ano Natsu (1985). She gained mainstream popularity in the 1990s and 2000s with her series Tenshi Nanka ja Nai (1992), Neighborhood Story (1995), Paradise Kiss (1999), and Nana (2000),^[1] the latter being one of the best-selling manga series. Since June 2009, Yazawa has been focusing on illustration projects due to health concerns.

Yazawa started reading manga magazines when she was 10 years old, and when she was 12 years old, she attempted to draw manga and submitted it to Ribon Manga School, making it into the lowest class.^[2] Yazawa began training and submitting her works seriously around age 15, eventually making it into a higher class.^[2] As a student, she was a fan of Eikichi Yazawa, whose surname she adopted for her pseudonym.^[3]

At the time of her manga debut, Yazawa was 17 years old^[4] and in her final year of high school.^[2] Unsure of whether she would be able to make a living off of being a manga artist, Yazawa wound up attending Osaka Mode Gakuen [ja]^[5] to become a stylist.^[2] However, once Ribon decided to serialize her works, Yazawa dropped out of school to focus on drawing manga, a decision she describes as "disappointing" and "painful" at the time.^[2]

Yazawa became hospitalized in June 2009 for an unspecified illness, which caused her to put Nana on hiatus.^[13] She was discharged in April 2010.^[14]

Yazawa cites manga artists Fuyumi Ogura [ja] and Ryo Ikuemi as her inspirations, as well as music from the singers Miyuki Nakajima and Yumi Matsutoya.^[2] In 2008, Japanese Visual Culture: Explorations in the World of Manga and Anime compared her to manga artist Taku Tsumugi for her play with depth and layering.^[15] While Yazawa initially started drawing manga using dip pens and brushes, after the conclusion of Neighborhood Story in 1996, she began using drawing pens, oil pastels and markers.^[2] However, Yazawa also stated that she would return to use dip pens and brushes for Last Quarter as the tools helped her convey the mood of the series.^[2] For color manuscripts, Yazawa used color ink until working on Marine Blue no Kaze ni Dakarete, and after Tenshi Nanka ja Nai, Yazawa began using digital tools.^[2] Currently, she uses an iPad and MacBook to illustrate.^[2]

Yazawa's work has been highlighted for its focus on Japanese alternative fashion; from 1998 to 1999, fashion magazine Kera [ja] ran features on Mikako Komatsu, the main character of Neighborhood Story, and produced sewing patterns based on Happy Berry, a fictional fashion brand by the character.^[16] In addition, Yazawa prominently features Vivienne Westwood in Nana, and some clothing featured in the show are based on clothing from her own personal collection.^[17] In 2024, through a survey of 100 people by TV Maga (a web magazine operated by TV Log [ja]), Nana was voted no. 1 for most fashionable manga, along with Yazawa's other works Paradise Kiss and Neighborhood Story following at no. 2.^[18]