Yana Toboso

The Japanese manga artist Yana Toboso is the mastermind behind one of my favorite mangas; ‘Kuroshitsuji’ (literally translates as Black Butler) she both writes and illustrates the still ongoing manga (it is currently on chapter 59) with each new chapter published in Square Enix's ‘Monthly GFantasy’ magazine which she has illustrated covers for in the past. This however is not her first manga, as she has written and illustrated a six-chapter (this is rather short) story entitled ‘Rust Blaster’, which was released in the same year as ‘Kuroshitsuji’. She has also worked on yaoi manga such as ‘Glamorous Lip’ under the penname of Yanao Rock.

‘Kuroshitsuji’ was popular enough to be adapted into a 2 series anime and she was allowed to oversee most of the development as well as draw characters, draw covers for the DVDs, and discuss plot points as the anime loosely followed the manga and had it’s own original plot points. This is rare as most manga writers are hardly involved at all. Her work has been described as both “meticulously drawn” and “incredibly detailed” with care taken in all aspects of the illustration be it the backgrounds or the characters themselves. The way she can capture a character’s emotions in just a few panels is awe inspiring and the plots for her mangas are just as impressive as her illustrations. You can visit Yana’s own blog at http://d-6th.com/blog/index.php (unfortunately it’s all in Japanese and Google translate doesn’t really help but you can get a somewhat garbled hint at what she is talking about.)