Fujiwara Hiro
Fujiwara Hiro was born on December 23 in Hyougo Prefecture, Japan. She is a mangaka best known for her series Kaichou wa Maid-sama! which is serialised in Hakusensha's monthly shoujo manga magazine, LaLa and was adapted into an anime tv series in 2010. Her blood type is B. She also has two older brothers and a dog but is currently living alone. She never revealed her specific age but mentioned that she is in her 20's. She normally speaks standard Japanese but when she relaxes or let her guard down, she will speak in a Kansai accent in which she can hardly have control of. She also states that currently, she listens to songs by Akeboshi and Rie fu although her all time favourite singer is Hikaru Utada. She uses background music while doing work. She also says that being a mangaka was a dream profession when she was young. During high school, she concentrated in playing double bass. While doing literature in a university, she had a gap-year of 4 years to choose what she wanted to be. She started to become a mangaka after she graduated. She mentions that during her university days, she became an assistant for a mangaka and that the experience had helped her with her work now. She seems to be friends with Fujitsuka Yuki who authored Toremoto Beat. Fujitsuka's name came up in Kaichou wa Maid-sama!'s 5th volume during the closing credits and Fujiwara also listed her as 'Yuki-sama' in her official website. The author and Fujitsuka Yuki both won the same category in the 31st Hakusensha Athena Newcomers' Awards in year 2006. According to her old website, she does original CG and manga of all genres. She has also written poems. Fujiwara Hiro made her debut by winning the Best Rookie award in the 144th LaLa Mangaka Scout Course for her work Kaeri Michi, Yuki no Atsu (帰り道, 雪の熱). However, this was won under her name, Izumi Hiro (和泉 ヒロ) and it went on to be published in the April 2005 issue of LaLa DX. She has submitted a few works to Hakusensha's other contest besides the mangaka's other attempts at the LMS and LMG. Those works are, Diary. (だいあり.), Kakera, Hitotsu (欠片, ひとつ), Fly and another untitled work that was going to be sent in to year 2002's LaLa Mangaka Scout Course. Diary. was sent into the 40th Big Challenge Awards but was not short-listed. She was placed 19th for Kakera, Hitotsu that was sent-in to the Hana to Yume Mangaka Course. The third work, Fly was submitted to the 27th Hakusensha Athena Newcomers' Awards and was mentioned in the 2nd issue of Hana to Yume as well as the February issue of LaLa. Nevertheless, her second work was published six months after she won the Best Rookie award in the LaLa Mangaka Scout Course. However, it was her first work to be published under the current pen name, Fujiwara Hiro. Akai Yume (紅い夢) won the 36th LaLa Manga Grand Prix's Fresh Debut Award and was published in the November issue of LaLa DX in year 2004. In the same month, she also had another work titled Hanjuku Wolf (半熟ウルフ) serialised in LaLa Special.
