Nakajo is best known for her shojo manga, which were published in Hakusensha’s magazine Hana to Yume, but she also created doujinshi (fan comics), including yaoi doujinshi of Naruto and Evangelion, under the name Peco Fujiya and parody doujinshi under the pen name Ryou Fumizuki.
Her signature work was Hana-Kimi: For You in Full Blossom (Japanese title: Hanazakari no Kimitachi e), a 23-volume shojo series about a Japanese-American girl who moves to Japan and disguises herself as a boy so she can attend the same all-boys school as the athlete she idolizes. The series ran in Hana to Yume from 1996 to 2004 and was picked up by VIZ Media in 2004 (see “VIZ Announces Two New Shoujo Manga for Spring of ’04”); for the first three months of publication, it was a Waldenbooks exclusive. Tokyopop licensed Fruits Basket (another Hana to Yume series) the same year, fueling a boom in shojo manga in the U.S. (see “Shoujo Manga Series Score in Q1”). In 2007, VIZ SVP Liza Coppola cited the book as one indicator of a strong shojo market in the U.S. (see “Interview with Liza Coppola”). After the series completed its run, VIZ reissued it in 3-in-1 omnibus format (see “Review: ‘Hana-Kimi’ (3-in-1 edition) Vol. 1"). While the series was never made into anime, it was adapted into live-action television dramas in Japan, Korea, and China, testifying to its wide popularity.
Najako was born on September 12, 1973, in Osaka Prefecture. In 1993 she won Hakusensha’s Athena Newcomer’s Award for Manatsu no Hanzaisha (The Midsummer Criminal), which was subsequently published in Hana to Yume Planet Zōkan. Her first professional work was Hāto no Kajitsu (Heart no Kajitsu), published in Hana to Yume in 1994.
