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Mangaka who write using a pseudonym




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marie-antoinette



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 4136
Location: Ottawa, Canada
PostPosted: Wed May 01, 2013 7:54 am Reply with quote
This is a question that has been on my mind for years, ever since I discovered that "Yuu Watase" is a pseudonym. That got me wondering how many mangaka out there do the same and if it's something that is really common or not (and why).

Obviously there are som obvious ones like CLAMP, Sacchi, and kakifly. But are the others who write under actual Japanese names actually using their own?
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st_owly



Joined: 20 May 2008
Posts: 5234
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
PostPosted: Wed May 01, 2013 8:03 am Reply with quote
As far as I can tell, a significant amount of mangaka use pen names, as least from what I can tell from reading the sidebars in shojo manga. Bisco Hatori is a pen name, I remember reading that from a sidebar in Ouran. I think Natsuki Takaya and Arina Tanemura as pen names as well. I could go on, but I can't remember any more off the top of my head.

(It wouldn't surprise me if most BL/yuri/hentai artists use pen names)
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marie-antoinette



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 4136
Location: Ottawa, Canada
PostPosted: Wed May 01, 2013 8:31 am Reply with quote
Yeah, that wouldn't surprise me at all either, since I'm going to assume the reason for using the pen name is probably privacy related (especially remembering CLAMP at their most private, though things seem to have eased up recently, at least as far as photography goes).
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RAmmsoldat



Joined: 19 Oct 2005
Posts: 1261
Location: North wales coast
PostPosted: Wed May 01, 2013 8:45 am Reply with quote
Could be mainly a way to retain their everyday life. Im used to it now as when i started out with manga i was a big fan of masamune shirow
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Tenbyakugon



Joined: 11 Jan 2012
Posts: 802
Location: Ohio, United States
PostPosted: Wed May 01, 2013 10:39 am Reply with quote
Tsugumi Ohba of Death Note fame uses this name as a pseudonym. Hell, the public doesn't even know her (MY suspicion) gender. Why keep so secretive when you have series as widely popular as Death Note or Bakuman.?
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st_owly



Joined: 20 May 2008
Posts: 5234
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
PostPosted: Wed May 01, 2013 11:00 am Reply with quote
This person has a whole load of different pen names:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadashi_Agi
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4179
PostPosted: Wed May 01, 2013 11:15 am Reply with quote
Tenbyakugon wrote:
Why keep so secretive when you have series as widely popular as Death Note or Bakuman.?


Your question is your answer.

Anyways, this reminds of Jin Kobayahsi's interview in School Rumble season 1 {a pseudonym}, it was video but he was mostly shot from the back and his face was whited out when it wasn't. Now that's protecting your privacy!

Not to mention, it kind of made the whole video interview kind of pointless.

I guess most mangakas are passive aggressive celebrities, they want name recognition, just not their name.
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Beltane70



Joined: 07 May 2007
Posts: 4021
PostPosted: Wed May 01, 2013 11:30 am Reply with quote
Masamune Shirow is the first mangaka that comes to my mind when pen names are mentioned. I believe that even now, his real name is unkown.

Another fairly well-known mangaka pen name is Kia Asamiya, who also uses his real name, Michitaka Kikuchi.
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Tenbyakugon



Joined: 11 Jan 2012
Posts: 802
Location: Ohio, United States
PostPosted: Wed May 01, 2013 11:44 am Reply with quote
Animegomaniac wrote:
Tenbyakugon wrote:
Why keep so secretive when you have series as widely popular as Death Note or Bakuman.?


Your question is your answer.


I suppose, but then what for Masashi Kishimoto or Eiichiro Oda, fellow Jump authors that have outsold Death Note and bested it in popularity?

And while I'm mentioning those two, Bleach's author's actual name is Noriaki Kubo.
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casualfan



Joined: 24 Jul 2012
Posts: 333
PostPosted: Thu May 02, 2013 10:35 am Reply with quote
It's definitely a smart move for them to do so. They could have the luxury of getting rich and famous while remaining free from paparazzi and unwanted glares in public places.
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RAmmsoldat



Joined: 19 Oct 2005
Posts: 1261
Location: North wales coast
PostPosted: Thu May 02, 2013 10:48 am Reply with quote
Yeah japan loves celebs. I remember watching Adam and Joe go Tokyo and to demonstrate how much people there love celebrities they went out in public and pretended to be important celebs doing an interview and got mobbed and when asked a lot of the folks in the crowd readily admitted they had no idea who they were but they looked to be important lol.
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Polycell



Joined: 16 Jan 2012
Posts: 4623
PostPosted: Thu May 02, 2013 3:00 pm Reply with quote
st_owly wrote:
(It wouldn't surprise me if most BL/yuri/hentai artists use pen names)
For what it's worth, JManga's interview with Morinaga Milk made her picking a pen name as not much of a much, if not a matter of course(obviously I can't quote it exactly).
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rheiders



Joined: 05 Jul 2011
Posts: 1137
Location: Colorful Colorado :)
PostPosted: Sun May 05, 2013 2:39 am Reply with quote
I thought it was interesting that Hiromu Arakawa was a pen name (her real name is Hiromi), since it seems like it was just to have a more gender-neutral name, similar to J.K. Rowling.
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