Minori Kurosaki
Description
Minori Kurosaki is a Japanese manga artist who has been active in the shōjo manga genre since the mid-2000s. Kurosaki made their debut in 2006 with the work Jippu Jippu Byuun! and is primarily known for creating romantic comedies and dramas serialized in Shueisha's Ribon magazine.
One of Kurosaki's notable completed series is Buddy Go!, which was serialized from September 2014 to August 2018 and spans twelve volumes. The story follows Ai Shizukuishi, a girl who dresses as a boy to post dance videos online and ends up forming a singing duo with a boy named Hayate while hiding her true identity.
Kurosaki's most commercially successful work to date is Ui x Kon, also known as Hatsu x Kon. The manga was serialized in Ribon from May 2019 to February 2025, concluding after five and a half years with seventeen volumes. The series is set in a high school where students are paired by an AI matchmaking system based on DNA and psychological data, requiring them to live together in dorms as they compete to be named the Golden Couple. As of August 2024, the series had over 2.5 million copies in circulation. In 2023, Ui x Kon won the 68th Shogakukan Manga Award in the Children's Category and had previously been nominated for the 46th Kodansha Manga Award for Best Shōjo Manga in 2022. The series also inspired a novelization adaptation written by Rei Igarashi and published under Shueisha's Mirai Bunko imprint.
Beyond these longer works, Kurosaki has created several shorter titles and one-shots, including Sugars*, a single-volume story about a middle school girl pursuing her dream of forming a rock band, and Sandwich Prince. Kurosaki's earlier body of work includes a trio of shōjo titles released around the time of their debut in 2007.
In an interview regarding Ui x Kon, Kurosaki explained the thematic choice of focusing on marriage rather than simple romance, noting that teenage readers often imagine their future lives and that matchmaking concepts resonate with contemporary audiences. Kurosaki also shared that they personally met their husband through a marriage party, which informed their perspective on the subject matter. Reflecting on the conclusion of Ui x Kon, Kurosaki expressed that given the unconventional setting, they were determined not to let the series be canceled and struggled with how to end the story up until the final chapter.
One of Kurosaki's notable completed series is Buddy Go!, which was serialized from September 2014 to August 2018 and spans twelve volumes. The story follows Ai Shizukuishi, a girl who dresses as a boy to post dance videos online and ends up forming a singing duo with a boy named Hayate while hiding her true identity.
Kurosaki's most commercially successful work to date is Ui x Kon, also known as Hatsu x Kon. The manga was serialized in Ribon from May 2019 to February 2025, concluding after five and a half years with seventeen volumes. The series is set in a high school where students are paired by an AI matchmaking system based on DNA and psychological data, requiring them to live together in dorms as they compete to be named the Golden Couple. As of August 2024, the series had over 2.5 million copies in circulation. In 2023, Ui x Kon won the 68th Shogakukan Manga Award in the Children's Category and had previously been nominated for the 46th Kodansha Manga Award for Best Shōjo Manga in 2022. The series also inspired a novelization adaptation written by Rei Igarashi and published under Shueisha's Mirai Bunko imprint.
Beyond these longer works, Kurosaki has created several shorter titles and one-shots, including Sugars*, a single-volume story about a middle school girl pursuing her dream of forming a rock band, and Sandwich Prince. Kurosaki's earlier body of work includes a trio of shōjo titles released around the time of their debut in 2007.
In an interview regarding Ui x Kon, Kurosaki explained the thematic choice of focusing on marriage rather than simple romance, noting that teenage readers often imagine their future lives and that matchmaking concepts resonate with contemporary audiences. Kurosaki also shared that they personally met their husband through a marriage party, which informed their perspective on the subject matter. Reflecting on the conclusion of Ui x Kon, Kurosaki expressed that given the unconventional setting, they were determined not to let the series be canceled and struggled with how to end the story up until the final chapter.
Works
- Topics: Anime overview