Riyoko Ikeda

Riyoko Ikeda (池田 理代子) is a Japanese manga artist and singer. She is included in the Year 24 Group by some critics, journalists, and academics, although her inclusion has been debated due to a focus more on epic stories than the internal psychology of those mangaka. She was one of the most popular Japanese comic artists in the 1970s, being best known for The Rose of Versailles.

Education
Ikeda attended a college and became a philosophy major, while working various part-time jobs. Influenced by the Japanese New Left and student protest movements in the late 1960s, she became a member of the Democratic Youth League of Japan, the youth wing of the Japanese Communist Party. In her sixth year of college, she started serializing her most famous manga, The Rose of Versailles, and subsequently dropped out after seven years of college due to busyness with serialization.

Career
Ikeda began publishing manga in the magazine Kashihonya while studying philosophy. She debuted in 1967 with Bara Yashiki no Shōjo.

Ikeda has written and illustrated many shōjo manga, many of which are based on historical events, such as the French Revolution or the Russian Revolution. Her use of foreign settings and androgynous themes made The Rose of Versailles and Orpheus no Mado enormous successes.

Her most famous manga is The Rose of Versailles, also known as Lady Oscar in Europe. This manga, loosely based on the French Revolution, has been made into several Takarazuka musicals, an anime series, and a live-action film. After Rose of Versailles concluded, Ikeda wrote articles for Asahi Shimbun. In the 2000s Ikeda studied at a music school and became a singer. Her voice is in the soprano range. She made a comeback to the comic industry as a script writer in 1999. Her recent manga includes Der Ring des Nibelungen. It is a manga version of the opera written by Richard Wagner.

In 2008, she was awarded France's National Order of the Legion of Honour for her contribution to Japan's cultural awareness of France and received the medal of Chevalier from the French ambassador to Japan. She was also a guest at the 2011 Angoulême International Comics Festival.

Works

 * Bara Yashiki no Shōjo (1967) — short story
 * Soyo Kaze no Mary — short story
 * Francesca no Shouzou (1969)
 * Sokoku ni Ai o (1969)
 * Freesia no Asa (1970)
 * Futari Pocchi (1971)
 * Ikite te Yokatta! (1971)
 * Jinchouge (1971)
 * Mariko (1971)
 * Sakura Kyou (1972)
 * The Rose of Versailles (1972)
 * Shiroi Egmont (1973)
 * Yureru Soushun (1973)
 * Shōko no Etude (1974)
 * Dear Brother (1974)
 * Orpheus no Mado (1975)
 * Claudine (1978)
 * Ayako (1980)
 * Epitaram: A Wedding Song (1981)
 * Aoi Zakuro (1982)
 * Jotei Ecatherina (1982)
 * Versailles no Bara Gaiden (1984) — extra chapters for The Rose of Versailles
 * Eikou no Napoleon – Eroica (1986)
 * Glass no Yami (1987)
 * Mijo Monogatari (1988)
 * Kasuganotsubon - Kefuzo Kataku o (1989)
 * Porando Hishi Ten no Hate Made (1991) — Poland's Secret Story: To the Borders of Heaven
 * Shoutoku Taishi (1991)
 * Fuyu no Shukusai (1997)
 * Elizabeth (1999) — text only; art by Erika Miyamoto
 * Niberunku no Yubiwa (2000) — Der Ring des Nibelungen
 * Ikeda Riyoko the Best: Ai to Tatakau Onnatachi (2001)
 * Falcon no Meikishu (2004)
 * Ai wa Waltz ni Nosete (2005)
 * BeruBara Kids (2006) — The Rose of Versailles Kids (parody)
 * Haru no Yuki (2006) — Spring Snow
 * The Legend (Taiōshijinki) (2007)
 * Taketori Monogatari (2014)