Mitsurou Kubo
Biography. Kubo was born on September 19, 1975 in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture. As a child she developed an interest in anime and manga after reading her brother's copies of the enthusiast magazine "Newtype". She reported reading 40 manga magazines per month as a child, including "Weekly Shōnen Jump", "Ribon", "Nakayoshi", and "Hana to Yume". By first grade Kubo had decided to pursue manga as a career, and by fourth grade was drawing amateur manga. She cites the manga series "Asari-chan" by Mayumi Muroyama and "High School! Kimengumi" by Motoei Shinzawa among her early influences. While in  high school, Kubo exhibited her manga at a small local "doujinshi" convention. In her final year of high school she submitted an original manga work to a contest held by "Nakayoshi", and won the Silver Award. After graduating high school, Kubo worked part time while attending classes for aspiring manga artists organized by "Nakayoshi", where an editor told Kubo that manga artist Masashi Tanaka had praised her submissions. Shortly thereafter, Tanaka invited Kubo to move to Tokyo so they could collaborate on a manga series together; the resultant series, written by Tanaka and illustrated by Kubo, was ultimately rejected after  being submitted to the magazines "Shōjo Friend" and "". While working as an artist's assistant to , Kubo was approached by editors at "Mimi" to write a three-part limited series for the magazine. In 1996, Kubo made her debut as a manga artist in "Mimi" with her series "Shiawase 5 Han". "Mimi" folded in 1997 and Kubo transferred to its sister publication "Kiss", but she struggled to write the romance stories that were typical of the magazine. A former editor at "Mimi" who moved to "Weekly Shōnen Jump" invited Kubo to create a manga series for the magazine. "" was published  in the magazine, and became Kubo's first "shōnen" manga (boys' manga) and her first manga published under the pen name "Mitsurou Kubo". From 2008 to 2010, Kubo wrote the manga series "Moteki", which was nominated for the Manga Taishō, followed by the manga series "Again!!" from 2011 to 2014. Following the conclusion of "Again!!", Kubo met director Sayo Yamamoto, with whom she went on to co-create the 2017 anime series "Yuri on Ice", contributing the original concept, original character designs, and initial script for the series. Following the conclusion of "Again!!", Kubo met director Sayo Yamamoto, with whom  she went on to co-create the 2017 anime series "Yuri on Ice", contributing the original concept, original character designs, and initial script for the series. Since 2012, Kubo and Mineko Nomachi have co-hosted "", a block of the radio program "All Night Nippon".