Hiromu Arakawa facts for kids

Hiromu Arakawa (荒川 弘, Arakawa Hiromu, born May 8, 1973) is a super talented Japanese artist who creates manga! Manga are Japanese comic books and graphic novels. She is most famous for her amazing series Fullmetal Alchemist, which was popular all over the world. This series was even turned into two different anime TV shows. She also created Silver Spoon and a manga version of The Heroic Legend of Arslan novels.

Growing Up

Hiromu Arakawa was born on May 8, 1973, in Hokkaido, Japan. She grew up on a dairy farm with her three older sisters and a younger brother. Even when she was little, Hiromu Arakawa dreamed of becoming a manga artist. She would often draw in her school textbooks! After high school, she took oil painting classes once a month for seven years. She also helped out on her family's farm during this time. She even made her own small manga comics with friends. In 1999, she moved to Tokyo to start her career.

Becoming a Manga Artist

Arakawa started her journey in the manga world by working for a company called Square Enix. She also helped another manga artist named Hiroyuki Etō. Her first big step as an artist was when her story Stray Dog was published in a magazine called Monthly Shōnen Gangan in 1999. Stray Dog even won an award!

Fullmetal Alchemist

In July 2001, Hiromu Arakawa started her most famous series, Fullmetal Alchemist. This manga series had 108 chapters and finished in July 2010. It was collected into 27 books. Many people say that Arakawa's drawing style and the story in Fullmetal Alchemist make it a very deep and exciting series. It won a big award called the Shogakukan Manga Award in 2004.

Fullmetal Alchemist was so popular that it was made into two different anime TV shows. For the first anime, Arakawa helped a little at the beginning. However, she didn't write the script, so that anime had a different ending from her manga.

When the second anime, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, was finishing, Arakawa shared her plans for the manga's ending with the director. This way, both the manga and the anime ended around the same time. People often notice that the manga and anime feel a bit different. Some say the manga is more "emotional," while the anime is more playful. Arakawa's simple, strong drawing style in the manga is different from the more colorful anime.

Other Popular Works

Arakawa has created many other manga series too! These include Raiden-18 and Sōten no Kōmori. She also helped create Hero Tales and designed the characters for its anime show. She even drew the cover for the Japanese version of a novel called The Demon's Lexicon.

In April 2011, Arakawa started a new series called Silver Spoon. Instead of another fantasy story like Fullmetal Alchemist, she wanted to try a more realistic story. Silver Spoon quickly became one of the best-selling manga. An anime series for Silver Spoon started in July 2013. Also in July 2013, she began her manga version of The Heroic Legend of Arslan novels.

More recently, Arakawa started a manga series called Daemons of the Shadow Realm in December 2021. In 2022, it was announced that her manga Hyakushō Kizoku, which is about her own life on a farm, would also become an anime!

Personal Life

Hiromu Arakawa is married and has three children. She had her first daughter in 2007 and her third child in January 2014.

She is a big fan of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies. She even said that Darth Vader from Star Wars is "the greatest villain of all time"!

Artistic Inspirations

Hiromu Arakawa has shared that Suihō Tagawa, who created the manga Norakuro, is a big influence on her art style. She also learned a lot about drawing and how to put pictures together when she was an assistant to Hiroyuki Etō. Other artists she looks up to include Rumiko Takahashi and Shigeru Mizuki. She also likes the manga Kinnikuman and the work of artist Mike Mignola. Many people also think her Fullmetal Alchemist series has a cool steampunk style, which mixes old-fashioned machines with fantasy.

List of Works

• Stray Dog (1999)
• Shanghai Yōmakikai (上海妖魔鬼怪, lit. Ghost Demons of Shanghai) (2000)
• Fullmetal Alchemist (鋼の錬金術師, Hagane no Renkinjutsushi, lit. Alchemist of Steel) (2001–2010)
• Raiden-18 (2005–2021)
• Sōten no Kōmori (蒼天の蝙蝠, lit. A Bat in Blue Sky) (2006)
• Hero Tales (獣神演武, Jūshin Enbu) (2006–2010)
• Hyakushō Kizoku (百姓貴族, lit. The Noble Farmer) (2006–present)
• Silver Spoon (銀の匙, Gin no Saji) (2011–2019)
• The Heroic Legend of Arslan (アルスラーン戦記, Arusurān Senki, lit. Arslan War Records) (2013–present)
• Moonrise (2025) (character design)
• Daemons of the Shadow Realm (黄泉のツガイ, Yomi no Tsugai, lit. The Hinge of the Underworld) (2021–present)

Awards and Recognition

• 1999: 9th 21st Century Enix Award for Stray Dog
• 2003: 49th Shogakukan Manga Award, Shōnen category for Fullmetal Alchemist
• 2011: 15th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize, "New Artist Prize" category
• 2011: 42nd Seiun Award, "Best Science Fiction Comic" category for Fullmetal Alchemist
• 2012: 5th Manga Taishō Award for Silver Spoon
• 2012: 58th Shogakukan Manga Award, Shōnen category for Silver Spoon

See also

In Spanish: Hiromu Arakawa para niños