竹宮惠子
Two years after her debut, she published "Juichigatsu no Gimunajiumu" ("The November Gymnasium"), a short story that dealt openly with love between two boys at a boarding school. The story was part of a larger movement by female manga artists at the time that pioneered "shōnen-ai", a genre of girls' comics about love between young men. In 1974, Hagio developed this story into the longer "Thomas no Shinzō" ("The Heart of Thomas"). She was awarded the Shogakukan Manga Award in 1976 for her science fiction classic "Juichinin Iru!" ("They Were Eleven") and her epic tale "Poe no Ichizoku" ("The Poe Clan"). The realism in her works, as well as those by Keiko Takemiya and Yumiko Oshima were noted as one of the causes for the rise in shojo comics int he late 1970's.