Hidekaz Himaruya
Hidekaz Himaruya (日丸屋 秀和 Himaruya Hīdekazu), born May 8th, 1985, in Koriyama, Fukushima) is the creator of the series Hetalia: Axis Powers (originally titled Axis Powers Hetalia in the webcomic run).
Himaruya started the original Hetalia webcomic while he was attending Parsons School Of Design in New York City and continues the series in the present. He was an art design major until he dropped out in 2008, following his publishing contract with Gentosha Comics. He makes posts about his day-to-day life on his blog the Bamboo Thicket, along with the latest character designs and sketches.
Besides Hetalia, his website Kitayume (which started on June 19th, 2003) showcases his other manga projects and artwork. His latest series, Chibisan Date, currently runs in the magazine Comic Birz by Gentosha Comics (which also published the printed versions of the Hetalia manga).
Himaruya lived in New York from late 2006 until some point in early 2008, when he moved back to Japan following the release of the published Hetalia manga and his contract with Comic Birz.
Contents
Works
Manga
Published Manga
- Hetalia: Axis Powers (2008–13, serialized in Comic Birz (2011–13))
- Chibisan Date (2009–13, serialized in Comic Birz (2009–10) and Comic Spica (2011–13))
- Taishō-Era Romance - Quit It, Demon!! (2013–14, serialized in Jump Square)
- Hetalia: World☆Stars (2014 – present, serialized in Shonen Jump+)
- Prime Minister Club (2021 – present, serialized in Jump Square)
Webcomics
Major Works
- Advance! Kitakou Broadcasting Club (2003–04, 2007)
- Advance! Kitakou Broadcasting Club Pure (2004–06)
- Barjona Bombers (2004–11)
- Bubutan (2005–09)
- Hetalia (2006 – present)
Minor Works
- Inaka no Nono (2003)
- MoeKan (2006)
Fancomics
- Hammerko's Room (2003, fancomic of Phwoo! Blows the Jaguar)
- Live A Live (2004–05, fancomic of the 1994 SNES game)
- Shimajirō (2005–06, fancomic of the 1993 anime series)
- Gakkou de atta Kowai Hanashi (2007, fancomic of the 1995 Super Famicom game)
Games
Published
- Gakuen Hetalia Portable (created by, 2011)
- Gakuen Hetalia DS (created by, 2012)
- Scary Story that Happened at a Countryside High School (art only, 2013)
Online
- Advance! Kitakou Broadcasting Club (2003)
- Advance! Kitakou Broadcasting Club Pure (2004)
- Barjona Bombers (2004)
- Notosama 1 (2005)
- Notosama 2 (2005)
- Notosama 3 (2005)
- Notosama 3 (2006)
- The Deserted House (2006)
- Gakuen Hetalia (2007)
- Notosama 5 (2007)
- Barjona Bombers (2007)
- April Fools Aftermath (2009)
- Notosama 6 (2009)
- Osōji Prussia' (2010)
- The Hetalian Horror Show (2015)
Scripts
- Okinawa Heart (2006)
- Christmas Game (2007)
Light Novels
- Scary Story That Happened at School (art only, 2014)
Trivia
- In the earlier days of the Kitayume site (2003-2007), he used the name Kazuyoshi Himaruya (日丸屋 和良 Himaruya Kazuyoshi), which most notably appears in the credits of the Gakuen Hetalia demo.
- Estonia's character design is based on his appearance, though not his hair and eye colors.
- On his blog and update logs from archived versions of Kitayume, Himaruya mentions that he's a fan of both South Park and Happy Tree Friends. In some instances, he has referenced the song Let's Fighting Love (from the South Park episode Good Times With Weapons) by using the phrase and replacing "Fighting" with another word of his choice, such as: "Let's Flying Pan-ing Love" and "Let's Englanding Love".
- He is also a fan of the horror visual novels Higurashi When They Cry and Umineko no Naku Koro ni by Ryukishi07, which coincidentally, both received animated adaptations by Studio DEEN.
- Himaruya's hobbies (mentioned on the bio page at Kitayume) include photography, architecture, and collecting postcards.
- The programs he uses to color and ink his artwork are: SAI Painter and Photoshop CS4 (having previously used Adobe Photoshop Elements 6). He also uses the program Inkscape for creating vector images.
- He allows the usage of images from his site and blog, including scanlations of his work as long as no profit is involved, and encourages fans to create their own original characters, fan videos (MADs), or cosplay inspired by his works, though he actively discourages fans from copying and selling CDs. Selling any of the downloadable site games for profit is also prohibited.
- He's admitted to having a rather questionable naming sense, and encouraged the fans to call the gender flipped nations by whichever names they chose to.
- After the inclusion of a character representing the Principality of Wy, Prince Paul posted a sketch of Himaruya (left) with the following message: The prince admires the work that a brilliant young artist has done to draw our attention to the lighter side of international affairs in Axis Powers Hetalia. As a result of his work in manga a generation is growing up around the world having a greater awareness of the historical relationships between countries. This lucky generation should have a readymade tolerance for cultural difference, vital for peace in the world. Equerry, Hooray for hetalia!
External Links
- Kitayume Himaruya's homepage (Japanese only)
- Bamboo Thicket Himaruya's blog (Japanese only)
