Moto Hagio is a founding mother of modern shoujo manga and one of the pioneers who shaped shounen-ai into its own thing. She's part of the Year 24 Group, that influential crew of female manga artists who basically invented the genre.

She broke in professionally in 1969 at age 20 with a short story called "Lulu to Mimi" in Nakayoshi, then churned out work for Shogakukan across various magazines. Two years in, she published "The November Gymnasium," a short story that didn't shy away from depicting romance between two boys at boarding school—part of a larger wave of female artists creating comics centered on love between young men. She expanded that concept into the longer "The Heart of Thomas" in 1974, and the work resonated enough to define a lot of what came after.

Her 1976 Shogakukan Manga Award win came on the back of two standout series: the sci-fi classic "They Were Eleven" and the sprawling gothic "The Poe Clan." Throughout her career she's racked up serious accolades, including Japan's Order of the Rising Sun and recognition as a Person of Cultural Merit.