Apr 21
Meet the Artist
Meet March — Illustrator, Designer, Manga Artist & Art Director behind Shizuk.
#Born and raised in Japan, currently living in Tokyo.
#Winner of the Japan Package Design Award 2017.
#Author of multiple mangas, including Our Scramblues (Bokura no Scramblues/僕らのスクランブルーズ), serialized in Canna — soon to be released in the US and Europe.
March started her career as a designer in a high-flying design firm in Japan, but soon found herself yearning to unleash her passion — creating characters and mangas. She quit her job and released Bokura no Scramblues, lauching her career as a manga artist. Bokura no Scramblues rose in popularity, eventually leading to serialization and now translation to English and Korean for distribution in the US, Canada, UK, and South Korea.
She has worked on projects big and small since then, with her latest manga Water Lilies Inside the Box (Hakononaka, Suiren/箱の中、睡蓮) being published in Monthly Big Comic Spirits (publisher Shogakukan), which published big titles like Joker Game(Dの魔王) and Yasuke.
March is also a talented art director. She created the art used as animations in promotional video for the opening song of the latest animated Detective Conan movie, The Scarlet Bullet.
Her character design was also used to animate the K-Pop band LOONA’s first single for their Japan debut in October 2021, Star Seed~Kakusei (StarSeed～カクセイ～), ranked №1 on the iTunes album chart in the US and other countries.
March has also created album covers for music artists, most recently for Tokimeki.
She is currently working on creating animation for the music video and here’s a sneak peek:
Though young, March has already attracted a lot of attention in Japan for her multiple talents as a manga artist, illustrator, designer, and animated music video producer.
She strongly believes that Web3 will create a more equitable and enjoyable art experience for the creator and consumer. She became interested in NFTs after experiencing the strength of the community, and is excited to build one centered around Shizuk. March said “community is something that’s intangible in a way, but it is the bedrock of creativity”.
Through Shizuk, March wants each member of the community to find themselves in the 8888 characters and their custom builds. “There is a Shizuk for everyone, no matter who you love or what you look like. I hope my art can help our community members express themselves” said March.
