Mangaka

Mangaka (漫画家) is a manga artist in Japanese. Outside Japan, the term is used both for the artist and writer of the manga, which is often the same person, while in Japan it only refers to the artist and not the writer.

Origin
The word "mangaka" derives from "manga", which means a comic book in Japanese. The added suffix "-ka" means expertise or experience in a given field, in this case experience in drawing manga.

Mangaka usually start as assistants of existing mangaka, but some have made it directly into the industry by getting awards and recognition. For example, the Sailor Moon author Naoko Takeuchi won a contest by Kodansha and got famous without building her position from an assistant's role.

Many mangaka do not limit their work to drawing and writing manga and work in the anime industry as well and/or write light novels. Makoto Shinkai is a manga artist, writer, director, producer, animator, editor, cinematographer, voice actor and former graphic designer.

Contemporary Usage
The term appears in some works that feature characters who work as mangakas, for example Rohan Kishibe from JoJo.

In real life, it is widely used to describe the author of a manga at conventions, wikis, in the otaku fandom and while describing someone's job.

Examples

 * Hirohiko Araki, author of JoJo
 * Kohei Horikoshi, author of My Hero Academia
 * Koyoharu Gotōge, author of Kimetsu no Yaiba
 * Makoto Shinkai, author of multiple works, such as 5 Centimeters per Second and Your Name.
 * Naoko Takeuchi, author of Sailor Moon

Related Items

 * Manga