Fe
Description
Fe is a Japanese manga artist who created the series Love of Kill. She made her professional debut with this work, which began as a self-published online comic before becoming a serialized manga and later receiving an anime adaptation.
Fe first posted her story on the social media platform Pixiv in October 2012 under the title I Just Want to Read a Manga About an Assassin Couple. The online series gained popularity, amassing millions of views, and was discovered by an editor who approached her about a professional publication. The serialized version, retitled Love of Kill, began publication in Media Factory's Monthly Comic Gene magazine starting with the November 2015 issue. The series concluded in January 2023, spanning thirteen main volumes, with a fourteenth epilogue volume released afterward that depicts the characters' lives after the main story's conclusion.
Her professional name, Fe, is derived from the chemical symbol for iron. When asked about its meaning, she has stated that she wants to become an author as strong, solid, and flexible as the metal.
Fe has cited several influences on her work. She names Yoshihiro Togashi, creator of YuYu Hakusho and Hunter x Hunter, as the artist who kept her engaged with manga during different periods of her life. For the specific concept of an assassin couple, she has credited Keitaro Takahashi's manga Destro 246 as a direct inspiration, noting that its story of a young female hitman made her want to create something equally dark and cruel. She also enjoys the drama series Aibo and has watched The Walking Dead.
A distinctive aspect of Love of Kill's creation involves its female lead, Chateau Dankworth. While Fe created the male protagonist Ryang-Ha herself, she asked an illustrator friend to design Chateau as part of an online game where artists shared characters in a shared universe. When the professional serialization was confirmed, Fe received permission from the original designer to use the character.
Regarding her artistic identity, Fe has described a process that prioritizes illustration and setting over extensive pre-planning. She often starts with a scene she wants to draw and builds the story around it, noting that her characters sometimes act independently of her initial intentions, with Chateau in particular being stubborn and resistant to moving the relationship forward as originally planned. She aims for a drama-esque tone and consciously avoids using internal monologues, a self-imposed challenge that distinguishes her storytelling approach from typical shojo manga. For urban backgrounds in Love of Kill, which is set in Western locales, she used Google Maps for reference despite never having traveled outside Japan at that time.
The anime adaptation of Love of Kill was produced by studio Platinum Vision and aired from January to March 2022. Fe was involved in the production, requesting that the adaptation cover up to the point where Chateau's past is revealed and supervising the story and character development. The anime's soundtrack was a particular point of pride for her. The series achieved commercial success, with manga sales surpassing one million copies in Japan following the anime's broadcast.
Before becoming a professional manga artist, Fe worked a regular job while drawing for her own enjoyment. Her editor advised her to keep her employment until the first volume's sales were confirmed, as there would be no continuation if it performed poorly. The first volume found enough readers to allow her to continue the series for eight years. She has expressed that becoming a manga artist was a childhood dream, though she became discouraged in middle school when she saw others who drew better than her.
Fe first posted her story on the social media platform Pixiv in October 2012 under the title I Just Want to Read a Manga About an Assassin Couple. The online series gained popularity, amassing millions of views, and was discovered by an editor who approached her about a professional publication. The serialized version, retitled Love of Kill, began publication in Media Factory's Monthly Comic Gene magazine starting with the November 2015 issue. The series concluded in January 2023, spanning thirteen main volumes, with a fourteenth epilogue volume released afterward that depicts the characters' lives after the main story's conclusion.
Her professional name, Fe, is derived from the chemical symbol for iron. When asked about its meaning, she has stated that she wants to become an author as strong, solid, and flexible as the metal.
Fe has cited several influences on her work. She names Yoshihiro Togashi, creator of YuYu Hakusho and Hunter x Hunter, as the artist who kept her engaged with manga during different periods of her life. For the specific concept of an assassin couple, she has credited Keitaro Takahashi's manga Destro 246 as a direct inspiration, noting that its story of a young female hitman made her want to create something equally dark and cruel. She also enjoys the drama series Aibo and has watched The Walking Dead.
A distinctive aspect of Love of Kill's creation involves its female lead, Chateau Dankworth. While Fe created the male protagonist Ryang-Ha herself, she asked an illustrator friend to design Chateau as part of an online game where artists shared characters in a shared universe. When the professional serialization was confirmed, Fe received permission from the original designer to use the character.
Regarding her artistic identity, Fe has described a process that prioritizes illustration and setting over extensive pre-planning. She often starts with a scene she wants to draw and builds the story around it, noting that her characters sometimes act independently of her initial intentions, with Chateau in particular being stubborn and resistant to moving the relationship forward as originally planned. She aims for a drama-esque tone and consciously avoids using internal monologues, a self-imposed challenge that distinguishes her storytelling approach from typical shojo manga. For urban backgrounds in Love of Kill, which is set in Western locales, she used Google Maps for reference despite never having traveled outside Japan at that time.
The anime adaptation of Love of Kill was produced by studio Platinum Vision and aired from January to March 2022. Fe was involved in the production, requesting that the adaptation cover up to the point where Chateau's past is revealed and supervising the story and character development. The anime's soundtrack was a particular point of pride for her. The series achieved commercial success, with manga sales surpassing one million copies in Japan following the anime's broadcast.
Before becoming a professional manga artist, Fe worked a regular job while drawing for her own enjoyment. Her editor advised her to keep her employment until the first volume's sales were confirmed, as there would be no continuation if it performed poorly. The first volume found enough readers to allow her to continue the series for eight years. She has expressed that becoming a manga artist was a childhood dream, though she became discouraged in middle school when she saw others who drew better than her.
Works
- Topics: Anime overview