Yamato Waki

Birthday: March 13

Birth Place: Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

Gender: Female

Zodiac: Pisces

Yamato Waki is a Japanese mangaka who's been a major figure in shoujo manga since the mid-1960s. She debuted in 1966 with a short story called Dorobou Tenshi, and pretty much never looked back.

Her early work established her as one of the genre's biggest names. Mon Cherie CoCo hit in 1971 and was popular enough to get an anime adaptation. But it was Haikara-san ga Tooru (1975–77) that really cemented her reputation—the series won the inaugural Kodansha Manga Award for shoujo in 1977 and was even adapted into a stage musical for the Takarazuka Revue, which is basically the gold standard for manga-to-stage adaptations in Japan.

Throughout her career, Waki has maintained a steady output across various shoujo titles, building the kind of sustained success that's rare in manga. Fans often credit her early work with helping define what shoujo manga could be during a formative period for the genre.