Spoilers for Kaze to Ki no Uta
Amongst the manga authors who rose to fame in the last century, Takemiya Keiko is one that most people don’t know—or so they think. It is not for any of her faults, of course, but for her link to shoujo manga. Classic shoujo has a hard time being exported, especially in the Anglophone sphere, and in pop culture discussions it’s generally been reduced to a subpar category of comics when compared to the high-praise shounen manga are known to receive. However, her value as a multifaceted artist and storyteller should be valued as much as other prominent authors from the ‘70s and ‘80s.
Born in 1950 in the city of Tokushima and raised on the southern island of Shikoku, detached from the glossy and busy heart of the country, Takemiya had dreamt of becoming a mangaka since her high school days. She grew up reading shounen manga and idolizing names such as Tezuka Osamu and Ishinomori Shotaro.
Such a dream was (partially) fulfilled (or at least, barely begun) in 1967, after winning first place in Mushi Production’s monthly magazine COM with her work “Kokonotsu no yūjo” (“The Ninth Friendship”). She debuted a year later in the shoujo manga magazine Margaret with “Ringo no tsumi” (“The Apple’s Sin”) at the age of eighteen.