Naoko Moto

(born July 16 ) is a Japanese manga artist. Moto made her debut in the comic magazine Princess GOLD in 1985.

Life and works Born in Osaka Prefecture, Moto started doujin activities in around 1982. She made her debut with Sorairo tea time (宇宙色ティータイム) in the July 1985 issue of commercial manga magazine Princess GOLD, published by Akita Shoten. After her debut, she illustrated books by Erika Tachihara (ja) and other writers.

She started to contribute and publish her manga stories in Princess manga magazine. Several more of her stories appeared in magazines and were published in format, and she started to build up her base plot and themes. Her first long and serialized manga story is Harukanari, Itoshi Roman, which ran from September 1992 to July 2000 and was later published as 14 volumes. It is a mysterious romance with supernatural elements set in Japan, though characters are of English descent.

Naoko Moto's second long and serialized story is Lady Victorian, which ran from December 1998 to March 2007 and was published in 20 volumes. Lady Victorian is set in the Victorian age, England, where the heroine, a young girl named Bluebell, has the dream of working and getting success as a good governess in London. Alongside this, the story follows the orphan boy Argent Gray's life as a puppet of fortune. Though Argent is a man, he plays the role of Lady Ethel, the daughter of the marquis. He finds his origin and the name and life of his true parents.

Running from January 2008 to January 2012 was her long and serialized story The Corset with Wings, a 10 volume manga. It was highly regarded and was nominated for the 16th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize and to Kono Manga ga Sugoi! 2012. Set in the Victorian and Edwardian ages in England, it is the story of Chris, who is sent to the girls-only boarding school Desdemona after her father died. From a world oppressed by rules, Chris grows and opens up her own future.

Moto also adapted Harlequin romance stories in manga format and published them in Harlequin magazines. Some works were published in , and others were later published as digital comics. Naoko Moto has constantly contributed manga works to magazines for around 40 years, and they have almost all been published as .

Naoko Moto describes herself as a manga artist who mainly draws manga stories about England set in around the 19th century.

Selected manga list Harukanari, Itoshi Roman , 14 volumes, Princess comics (1992–0925 to 2000–0713), Akita Shoten Hoshi no Nohara wo Yukō , Princess comics (1995–0810), Akita Shoten Lady Victorian , 20 volumes, Princess comics (1998–1218 to 2007–0316), Akita Shoten The Corset with Wings , 10 volumes, Princess comics (2008–0116 to 2012–0116), Akita Shoten Drina-hime Dōwa - Queen Victoria Bōkendan , Princess comics (2010–0816), Akita Shoten Girflet-ryō no Hitsuji-tachi , 6 volumes, Princess comics (2012–1116 to 2016–0316), Akita Shoten An to Kyōju no Rekishi-dokei , 3 volumes, Princess comics (2016–0115 to 2018–0416), Akita Shoten Uri-watasareta Shukujo , 1 volume, Harlequin Comics Kirara (2018–0310). written by Annie Barrows, HarperCollins Japan Tenshi ga Nozokimi , 5 volumes, Princess comics (2017–0915 to 2020–0616), Akita Shoten Koi no Seizu to Neko-biyori , 3 volumes, Princess comics (2023–0713 to 2024–0816), Akita Shoten

Illustration Hana Mmonogatari by Erika Tachihara (ja), Shogakukan Ame wo Yobu Shōjo by Arimi Yazaki (ja), Kodansha Kagami no naka no Lemon by Saori Kumi (ja), Shueisha

Reception It is not easy to find that books or specialists who directly mention her and criticize her works. Ariko Kawabata (ja) and Riko Murakami (ja) mention Moto as representative manga artist who published Victorian manga stories from 1998 (the start point of Lady Victorian), along with the famous Emma by Kaoru Mori. They talk that Moto has published Lady Victorian, Corset with Wings, and Girflet-ryō no Hitsiji-tachi. at chapter 3 "Beginning and Development of Victorian manga" in the discussion (paper) "Shōjo manga and Neo-Victorianism". Kawabata and Mori talk about the artists of the Year 24 Group, Yasuko Sakata, Kaoru Mori, Akiko Hatsu, and especially Yana Toboso (author of Black Butler), who have had the relations of development of Victorian manga in Japan.

Mangapedia (ja) introduces 5 Maid manga. While Waiyee Loh discussed in her doctorate thesis: Empire of Culture: Contemporary British and Japanese Imaginings of Victorian Britain in April, 2016. Loh mentions Moto's Lady Victorian, analyzing its depictions of the various scenes in the manga.