Momoko Sakura

(8 May 1965 – 15 August 2018) was the pen name of a Japanese manga artist from Shimizu, Shizuoka Prefecture. She was best known as the creator of the long-running manga Chibi Maruko-chan.

Sakura, who was born Miki Miura, revealed very little about her privacy, including her real name.

Sakura made her debut as an artist in 1984 and the Chibi Maruko-chan was published in Ribon from 1986 to 1996. The series, which was based on her own childhood, was set in 1974 in suburban Japan. An anime series based on the Chibi Maruko-chan aired from 1990 to 1992 while the current second series, which debuted in 1995, continues to this day.

Sakura also made the more surreal fantasy series Coji-Coji, which ran from 1997 to 1999. She also worked with Marvelous Interactive on creating the Dreamcast title, Sakura Momoko Gekijō Coji-Coji, and with Nintendo on creating the Game Boy Advance title, Sakura Momoko no Ukiuki Carnival. In 2005, she designed the characters for the Xbox 360 title Every Party.

In 1989, she received the Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo for Chibi Maruko-chan.

Sakura died from breast cancer on August 15, 2018, at the age of 53.

References

External links
 
 
 Profile at The Ultimate Manga Page

Category:1965 births
Category:2018 deaths
Category:Deaths from breast cancer
Category:Deaths from cancer in Japan
Category:Women manga artists
Category:Manga artists from Shizuoka (city)
Category:Japanese women writers
Category:Female comics writers
Category:Winner of Kodansha Manga Award (Shōjo)
Category:Album-cover and concert-poster artists
Category:Japanese female comics artists