
Kimiko Uehara

 is a prominent Japanese shōjo and josei manga artist. She is best known for shōjo series such as "Maiko no Uta" ("Maiko's Poem"), "Lovely Mari-chan", "Marybell", "Honoo no Romance", "Lolly no Seishun", and "Yumedokei" ("Sweet Memory"). She received the 1990 Shogakukan Manga Award for children's manga for "Lovely Mari-chan". Uehara is cited by Naoko Takeuchi, author of "Sailor Moon", as an influence, especially her dialog in "Lolly no Seishun" and "Honoo no Romance".
Her current manga is "Inochi no Utsuwa", published by Akita Shoten since 1991 in the josei magazine "For Mrs.".
Overview.
Her first work "Flower of Black Cosmos" debuted in 1966 under the pen name of Kimiko Kaneda. In 1968, She began working for a commercial magazine as “Kumiko Uehara” when “Shoken Monogatari” was published in the November issue of “Ribon” (Shueisha). She published 2 works in “Ribon” related magazines. Uehara, who wanted to draw a Drama, submitted to "Shōjo Comic" (Shogakukan) and was accepted. In 1969 her first serial series "Aiba Enzeru" was published. After that, popular works continued in the 1970s, starting with “Rune no Seishun” serialized in “Weekly Girls Comic" followed by "Lolly no Seishun" and "Honou no Romansu". In the 1980s her popular Mari-chan series was published expanding the field of activity to magazines primarily targeting elementary school students.
A wide range of subjects, including horseback riding, figure skating, and ballet, are featured in her work. They have been characterized as Drama, Romance, School life, Sports and Comedy. Her work has been published by major Japanese publishers such as Shogakukan, Shueisha, Kodansha, Akita Shoten, Hakusensha. They have variously published girls' comics (Shōjo), children's comics, and ladies comics (Josei).
Currently, “For Mrs.” (Akita Shoten) is serializing “"Inochi no Utsuwa"” which has become a long-term series work. In 1998 the manga became a TV drama. The book has 77 volumes as of February 2019.