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To Terra Manga Creator Keiko Takemiya Appointed to Head Kyoto Seika University
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Kyoto Seika University has elected To Terra and Andromeda Stories manga creator Keiko Takemiya as its next president. Takemiya will assume the post in April 2014, and she will serve as president for four years. Takemiya began working at the university in 2000, became the dean of the manga department in 2008, and was set to retire from the position this year.
Takemiya helped pioneer both modern shōjo manga and modern science fiction manga. Along with They Were Eleven and Heart of Thomas' Moto Hagio and Rose of Versailles' Riyoko Ikeda, she co-founded the Year 24 Group — a group of innovative female manga creators who were born in or around the Year Shōwa 24 (1949) and who shaped the now diverse field of shōjo manga.
Takemiya has won the Shogakukan Manga Award for both her Toward the Terra and Kaze to Ki no Uta manga. Vertical has published both To Terra and Andromeda Stories in English.
Kyoko Seika University established Japan's first university manga program in 2000, and then established a Faculty of Manga in 2006. The university then launched Japan's first manga graduate program in 2010.
The faculty's teaching staff has also included Kodomo no Kodomo creator Akira Saso, and manga translator and cultural anthopologist Matt Thorn. The late feminist manga creator Murasaki Yamada also once taught at the school.
Manga creators Akiko Higashimura (Princess Jellyfish/Kuragehime, Omo ni Naitemasu, Mama wa Tenparist), Jun Miura (Aiden & Titi 24-Sai/27-Sai, Shūkaku no Jūnigatsu, Shikisoku Zenereishon), and Akihiro Yamada (Beast of east, Last Continent, RahXephon character designer) are serving as guest instructors at the manga department for the current academic year.
Source: Asahi Shimbun
