Mitsurou Kubo (久保 ミツロウ, Kubo Mitsurō) is the pen name of Mitsuko Kubo (久保 美津子, Kubo Mitsuko), a Japanese manga artist, writer, and radio personality. She is the co-creator of the 2016 anime series Yuri on Ice.
While in high school, Kubo exhibited her manga at a small local doujinshi convention. In her final year of high school she submitted an original manga work to a contest held by Nakayoshi, and won the Silver Award. After graduating high school, Kubo worked part time while attending classes for aspiring manga artists organized by Nakayoshi, where an editor told Kubo that manga artist Masashi Tanaka had praised her submissions.[1] Shortly thereafter, Tanaka invited Kubo to move to Tokyo so they could collaborate on a manga series together; the resultant series, written by Tanaka and illustrated by Kubo, was ultimately rejected after being submitted to the magazines Shōjo Friend and Mimi.[1]
While working as an artist's assistant to Mayumi Yoshida [ja], Kubo was approached by editors at Mimi to write a three-part limited series for the magazine.[1] In 1996, Kubo made her debut as a manga artist in Mimi with her series Shiawase 5 Han.[1]Mimi folded in 1997 and Kubo transferred to its sister publication Kiss, but she struggled to write the romance stories that were typical of the magazine. A former editor at Mimi who moved to Weekly Shōnen Jump invited Kubo to create a manga series for the magazine. 3.3.7 Byooshi!! [ja] was published in the magazine, and became Kubo's first shōnen manga (boys' manga) and her first manga published under the pen name "Mitsurou Kubo".[1]
From 2008 to 2010, Kubo wrote the manga series Moteki, which was nominated for the Manga Taishō,[2] followed by the manga series Again!! from 2011 to 2014.[3] Following the conclusion of Again!!, Kubo met director Sayo Yamamoto, with whom she went on to co-create the 2016 anime series Yuri on Ice, contributing the original concept, original character designs, and initial script for the series.[4][5]
