A self-portrait included in the back flap of Hetalia Volume 3.
Hidekaz Himaruya (日丸屋 秀和 Himaruya Hidekaz, born May 8th, 1985, in Fukushima) is the creator of the series Axis Powers Hetalia.
Himaruya started the original Hetalia webcomic while he was attending college at Parsons School Of Design in New York City, with the storyline still going at the present time. He is currently an art design major and makes posts about his day-to-day life on his blog the Bamboo Thicket, along with the latest character designs and sketches.
Besides Hetalia, his website Kitayume (which started on June 19th, 2003) also showcases his other manga projects and artwork. His latest series, Chibi-san Date, currently runs in the magazine Comic Birz by Gentosha Comics (who also published the printed versions of the Hetalia manga).
Himaruya had continued to live in New York up until some point in early 2009, when he moved back to Japan following the release of the Hetalia anime and his deal with Comic Birz.
Works
- Axis Powers Hetalia/Hetalia: Axis Powers (Series: 2006-present)
- Barjona Bombers (2004-?)
- Chibi-san Date (2009-, serialized in Comic Birz)
- Advance! Kitakou Broadcasting Club (2003-?)
Discontinued Works
- Bubutan
- Live-A-Live (fancomic of the 1993 SNES game, 2004)
- MoeKan (2006)
- Shimojirou
- Advance! Kitakou Broadcasting Club Pure (2004-2006)
Trivia
- In the earlier days of the Kitayume site (2003-2007), he used the name Kazuyoshi Himaruya (日丸屋 和良 Himaruya Kazuyoshi), which most notably appears in the credits of the Gakuen Hetalia demo.
- Estonia's character design is based on his appearance, although probably not his hair and eye colors.
- On his blog and update logs from archived versions of Kitayume, Himaruya mentions that he's a fan of both South Park and Happy Tree Friends. In some instances, he has referenced the song Let's Fighting Love (from the South Park episode Good Times With Weapons) by using the phrase and replacing "Fighting" with another word of his choice, such as: "Let's Flying Pan-ing Love" and "Let's Englanding Love".
- He is also a fan of the horror visual novels Higurashi When They Cry and Umineko no Naku Koro ni by Ryukishi07, which coincidentally, both received animated adaptations by Studio DEEN.
- Himaruya's hobbies (mentioned on the bio page at Kitayume) include photography, architecture, and collecting postcards.
- The programs he uses to color and ink his artwork are: SAI Painter and Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.
- He allows the usage of images from his site and blog as long as no profit is involved, and encourages fans to create their own original characters, fan videos (MADs), or cosplay inspired by his works, though he actively discourages fans from copying CDs. Selling any of the downloadable site games for profit is also prohibited.
External Links
- Kitayume Himaruya's homepage (Japanese only)
- Bamboo Thicket Himaruya's art blog (Japanese only)
- Bamboo Gallery Artwork gallery (Japanese only)