Mariko Iwadate

is a Japanese manga artist.

Career She made her debut as a manga artist in 1973 with the short story "Rakudai Shimasu" in the shōjo manga magazine Margaret. She then primarily wrote for the magazines Margaret and Young You.

Style She is considered one of the main artists of a movement in 1970s shōjo manga called otomechikku, alongside Ako Mutsu, Yumiko Tabuchi and Hideko Tachikake. Narratives in this movement focused more on everyday life situations, romances and psychological growth of Japanese high schools girls as opposed to the narratives of the Year 24 Group, which experimented with fantasy, science fiction and boys love often in international settings. Rachel Thorn describes that otomechikku manga "were heavily infused with a dreamy, 1970s-style femininity characterized by frilly cotton dresses, straw sun bonnets, herbal tea, and Victorian houses." Masanao Amano describes these early works as "stereotypical shoujo manga stories that were of very good quality".

Reception Her work had an influence on writer Banana Yoshimoto. Amano describes Iwadate's work as "the combination of literature with shoujo manga".

She won the 1992 Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo for Uchi no Mama ga iu Koto ni wa, and her manga Ichigatsu ni wa Christmas ("Christmas in January") was adapted as an anime OVA in 1991.

Works