Minami Ozaki

{{Short description|Japanese manga artist}}

{{Infobox comics creator

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| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1968|2|27|mf=y}}

| birth_place = Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

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| nationality = Japanese

| area = Manga Artist

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| notable works = Zetsuai 1989

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{{nihongo|Minami Ozaki|尾崎南|Ozaki Minami}} is a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist and illustrator of novels born on February 27, 1968, in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. She is famous for her best-selling manga series Zetsuai 1989, which is considered to have redefined the Shōnen-ai/Yaoi genres in the late 1980s/early 1990s. Her old pen name is {{nihongo|Ryo Minami|南亮|Minami Ryo}}, but in 1986 she changed her pen name to Minami Ozaki. She sometimes uses other pseudonym—{{nihongo|Minami Himemuro|姫室ミナミ}}.

In 1988 (at the age of 20), her first manga series, Chūsei no Akashi (Proof of Loyalty), was serialized in Margaret Comics.

Her success with Zetsuai 1989 has led Helen McCarthy to describe Ozaki as "one of the queens of shojo and shonen-ai manga".{{cite book|last=McCarthy|first=Helen|title=500 Manga Heroes and Villains|publisher=Barron's Educational Series|date=1 January 2006|pages=43|isbn= 978-0-7641-3201-8}} Through her Captain Tsubasa dojinshi, Ozaki "played a strong role" in "revamping the boys-love genre" in the 1980s.Sabucco, Veruska "Guided Fan Fiction: Western "Readings" of Japanese Homosexual-Themed Texts" in Berry, Chris, Fran Martin, and Audrey Yue (editors) (2003). Mobile Cultures: New Media in Queer Asia. Durham, North Carolina; London: Duke University Press. {{ISBN|0-8223-3087-3}}. page 84 Her hallmark is "prolonged erotic psychodramas" which has earned her a "cult following" through Margaret.Paul Gravett (2004) Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics (Harper Design, {{ISBN|1-85669-391-0}}) page 90 Rachel Thorn describes her as being a "mania-oriented" artist, with "extremely stylized" character designs and page layouts with a "dream-like quality".{{cite web |url=http://www.matt-thorn.com/shoujo_manga/girls_stuff/gs94-01-10.html |title=Girls' Stuff--Yet More Mini Intros |last=Thorn| first=Rachel| author-link=Rachel Thorn |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040530205028/http://www.matt-thorn.com/shoujo_manga/girls_stuff/gs94-01-10.html |archive-date=2004-05-30}} Her style had an enormous influence on later shōjo writers.{{cite book| last=Ivanov| first=Boris| title=Vvedenie v iaponskuiu animatsiiu| publisher=Фонд развития кинематографии; РОФ «Эйзенштейновский центр исследований кинокультуры» |edition=2| location=Moscow| year=2001 |pages=335| isbn=5-901631-01-3|language=ru}}