Neko Nekobe
Description
Neko Nekobe is a Japanese manga artist, recognized as the original creator behind the anime and manga series Kingyo Chūihō!, known in English as Goldfish Warning!. She was born on October 19, 1967, in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Nekobe is a female artist who has worked primarily within the少女漫画 (shōjo) genre, which is manga aimed at a young female audience.
Nekobe began her professional career in 1986. Her debut work, a short manga titled FIRST DATE, was published in the August issue of Nakayoshi DELUXE, a special edition of the long-running monthly manga magazine Nakayoshi, published by Kodansha. Early in her career, she sometimes used a pen name that included a heart symbol. As a young artist, she was a frequent contributor to Nakayoshi, having won both silver and gold awards from the magazine for her submissions while still in junior high school. Her artistic identity is closely tied to this publication, as she has returned to it after a period of working for other magazines, such as Amie.
Neko Nekobe is best known for her manga Kingyo Chūihō!, which she wrote and illustrated. The series was serialized in Nakayoshi from February 1989 to June 1993 and was compiled into eight tankōbon volumes. The story is a school comedy that follows a former heiress, Chitose Fujinomiya, who loses her fortune and is transferred to a chaotic rural school. The narrative is driven by her interactions with eccentric students and her pet pink goldfish, Gyopi.
The manga's popularity led to a multimedia expansion. It was adapted into a 54-episode anime television series produced by Toei Animation, which aired on TV Asahi from January 12, 1991, to February 29, 1992. Each episode typically contained two short, often self-contained stories. A theatrical anime film was also released on April 25, 1992. This film, like the television series, was directed by Junichi Sato. In 2005, a complete DVD box set of the anime was released. That same year, Nekobe returned to the series to create a special short manga, Kingyo Chūihō! Special Chapter, published in Nakayoshi to coincide with the DVD release. A Blu-ray box set was issued in 2019.
The success of Kingyo Chūihō! also spawned three video games in Japan: two for the Game Boy and one for the Super Famicom. Furthermore, the anime series has a notable place in industry history because many of its key staff members, including director Junichi Sato and composer Takanori Arisawa, moved directly from its production to work on the first season of the iconic series Sailor Moon, which inherited its broadcast timeslot. This connection has led to several references to Kingyo Chūihō! being included in early episodes of Sailor Moon.
While Kingyo Chūihō! remains her most famous work and her only one to be adapted into an anime, Neko Nekobe has created several other manga series. Her other notable works include Penguin Detective Club, published in Nakayoshi, and its related short stories; Hamburger Kids?; Donut Pudding; and Guinea Pig Together. She also created a short series titled After Maria as a sequel to a manga by Naoko Takeuchi, the creator of Sailor Moon. Her body of work, primarily published in the early to mid-1990s, places her among a cohort of popular Nakayoshi artists from that era, including Takeuchi and Akizuki Nemumi.
Nekobe began her professional career in 1986. Her debut work, a short manga titled FIRST DATE, was published in the August issue of Nakayoshi DELUXE, a special edition of the long-running monthly manga magazine Nakayoshi, published by Kodansha. Early in her career, she sometimes used a pen name that included a heart symbol. As a young artist, she was a frequent contributor to Nakayoshi, having won both silver and gold awards from the magazine for her submissions while still in junior high school. Her artistic identity is closely tied to this publication, as she has returned to it after a period of working for other magazines, such as Amie.
Neko Nekobe is best known for her manga Kingyo Chūihō!, which she wrote and illustrated. The series was serialized in Nakayoshi from February 1989 to June 1993 and was compiled into eight tankōbon volumes. The story is a school comedy that follows a former heiress, Chitose Fujinomiya, who loses her fortune and is transferred to a chaotic rural school. The narrative is driven by her interactions with eccentric students and her pet pink goldfish, Gyopi.
The manga's popularity led to a multimedia expansion. It was adapted into a 54-episode anime television series produced by Toei Animation, which aired on TV Asahi from January 12, 1991, to February 29, 1992. Each episode typically contained two short, often self-contained stories. A theatrical anime film was also released on April 25, 1992. This film, like the television series, was directed by Junichi Sato. In 2005, a complete DVD box set of the anime was released. That same year, Nekobe returned to the series to create a special short manga, Kingyo Chūihō! Special Chapter, published in Nakayoshi to coincide with the DVD release. A Blu-ray box set was issued in 2019.
The success of Kingyo Chūihō! also spawned three video games in Japan: two for the Game Boy and one for the Super Famicom. Furthermore, the anime series has a notable place in industry history because many of its key staff members, including director Junichi Sato and composer Takanori Arisawa, moved directly from its production to work on the first season of the iconic series Sailor Moon, which inherited its broadcast timeslot. This connection has led to several references to Kingyo Chūihō! being included in early episodes of Sailor Moon.
While Kingyo Chūihō! remains her most famous work and her only one to be adapted into an anime, Neko Nekobe has created several other manga series. Her other notable works include Penguin Detective Club, published in Nakayoshi, and its related short stories; Hamburger Kids?; Donut Pudding; and Guinea Pig Together. She also created a short series titled After Maria as a sequel to a manga by Naoko Takeuchi, the creator of Sailor Moon. Her body of work, primarily published in the early to mid-1990s, places her among a cohort of popular Nakayoshi artists from that era, including Takeuchi and Akizuki Nemumi.
Works
- Topics: Anime overview