Setona Mizushiro

Who is Setona Mizushiro?

Setona Mizushiro is a Japanese comic artist. In 1985 she participated in the publication of a dōjinshi. She remained active in that world until her debut in 1993 with the short story Fuyu ga Owarou Toshiteita that ran in Shogakukan's magazine, Puchi Comic.

While she is highly regarded in Japan and among the Chinese diaspora, she is relatively less well known in the United States and Europe because not many of her stories are licensed there, and only recently have the distributors started bringing her works to those countries. In 2008, her gender bender psychological thriller After School Nightmare won her some of the acclaim she has back home after the Young Adult Library Services Association named it one of best graphic novels for teenagers. The same work was also nominated for the 2007 Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material.

Though her current drawing style is high in aesthetic value, her earlier works had less finesse. Regardless, her popularity grew largely due to her storytelling. Her works are noted for their slightly askew plots and exploration of the human psyche. Even her lighthearted Shōjo works usually have darker underlying elements. X-Day follows a group of teens whose mounting stress during senior year finals culminates in a plan to blow up their high school; the author has indicated that the series was written in response to the Columbine High School massacre. In her After School Nightmare series, she explores both sexual and gender identity issues. After was so successful in France that the French publisher released an exact replica of the key in the series as a limited edition gift. This led to a fierce online bidding war amongst Japanese fans, with the keys selling for outrageous prices.