Kazue Kato

Did You Know?

• Kato has cited Kentaro Miura's Berserk as a major influence, specifically the relationship between Guts, Griffith, and Casca.
• She has mentioned that authors and stories from the shōjo manga magazine Ribon were early influences.
• She also cited Gosho Aoyama's Yaiba and the works of Katsuhiro Otomo as influences.

Biography

Kazue Kato was born in Tokyo on July 20, 1980, and grew up with a younger brother and sister. During high school, she wanted to become an animator, but her father doubted her commitment and sent her to college. She dropped out and chose to pursue manga instead. After creating several one-shots, she launched her first full series, Robo to Usakichi, which ran in Monthly Shōnen Sirius from 2005 to 2007.

When that series ended, the editorial team at Jump Square asked her to produce a manga for them. That led to Blue Exorcist, which debuted in Jump Square on April 4, 2009. Its seventh volume had an initial print run of one million copies, a first for any manga in that magazine. In early 2017, Blue Exorcist ranked as the eleventh best-selling manga in Japan.

The series has spawned multiple adaptations, including an anime with five seasons and a film. In 2020, Kato handled character designs for the Godzilla Singular Point TV series. In July 2021, she put Blue Exorcist on hold to start a manga adaptation of Fuyumi Ono’s novel series Eizen Karukaya Kaiitan.