! is a Japanese manga artist from Shiga Prefecture. She made her debut in July 2003 with the publication of her first manga series Continue and is known for her work, D.Gray-man, which began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump in May 2004. She most recently designed characters for the 2013 Sunrise anime, Valvrave the Liberator, making it her first original work on an anime. The D.Gray-man manga series has been adapted into various forms, including an anime series and three light novel adaptations. Three volumes placed in the top fifty of Japan's bestselling manga of 2008 and the series is one of Weekly Shōnen Jumps bestselling manga series. It has gained attention in North America; both the manga and anime adaptions are licensed for English language releases. The manga series has been well received in France; it was awarded the prize for Best Manga Series 2006 at the Anime and Manga 2007 French Grand Prix organized by Animeland. It also won Webotaku's prize for Manga of the Year 2006. Hoshino has been highly praised for her art, which has been compared to the works of Joe Madureira, Kelley Jones, and Chris Bachalo by one reviewer and described as "some of the best artwork in the business" by another. Her character designs received many positive comments ranging from "especially lovely" to "the most visually striking element" of her art and it is said that both male and female readers will enjoy the designs. Early life Hoshino was born on April 21, 1980, in Shiga Prefecture, Japan, as the younger of fraternal twin girls and the second of three children. As a child, she originally dreamed of becoming an astronaut. Hoshino confessed she was not too interested in school, often making excuses to avoid taking classes. Additionally, she added that would often practice drawing in the middle of the classes which gave her doubts when she had to erase them. She drew her first manga at twenty-one. As a child she used to read the manga Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibōken that her brother collected, as well as series by Fuyumi Soryo and Makimura Satoru, which her mother bought. However, she instead preferred anime, most notably Studio Ghibli films. Her favorite film was Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) to the point of watching it multiple times. When watching Castle in the Sky (1986), Hoshino decided she wanted to