Akiko Higashimura

Akiko Higashimura (Japanese: 東村 アキコ, Hepburn: Higashimura Akiko, born October 15, 1975) is a Japanese manga artist from Kushima in Miyazaki Prefecture.[1][2] She debuted in the now-defunct manga magazine Bouquet Deluxe in 1999 with Fruits Kōmori (フルーツコウモリ) and later gained notoriety for her manga Kisekae Yuka-chan, which debuted in Cookie magazine in 2001.[3] Higashimura was nominated for the Manga Taishō in 2008 for Himawari: Kenichi Legend,[4] in 2009 for Mama wa Tenparist,[5] in 2010 for Princess Jellyfish,[6] in 2011 for Omo ni Naitemasu,[7] and in 2016 and 2017 for Tokyo Tarareba Girls.[8][9] In 2010, she won the 34th Kodansha Manga Award for Best Shōjo Manga for Princess Jellyfish.[10] In 2015, she won both the 8th Manga Taishō[11] and the Grand Prize at the 19th Japan Media Arts Festival for Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist's Journey.[12] In 2019, she won the Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia for Tokyo Tarareba Girls.[13] Higashimura's younger brother, Takuma Morishige, is the author of the manga My Neighbor Seki.[14]