Hirame

Thus far I’ve been fairly hesitant to use gendered pronouns when discussing manga creators. As they frequently work from behind pseudonyms with some degree of anonymity, their genders are frequently up for debate if not entirely unknown. Personally, if pressed, I would tend to assume that creators whose work I enjoy are male. However, of the creators I’m a fan of, there are two who I am fairly sure are women. One is Yonekura Kengo, on whom more later. The other is Hirame (also known as Fishine or Karei).

Hirame has thus far produced mostly erotic fancomics. Working in the circle Turtle.Fish.Paint, she drew porn parodies of Little Red Riding Hood and The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats, as well as fan comics for KantaiCollection, Dragon’s Crown, Kill La Kill, Street Fighter IV, and League of Legends. At some point the Turtle.Fish.Paint circle dissolved, and she has since published work with the Bear Hand circle: a pair of Overwatch fanbooks and a Kemono Friends book.

In terms of content warnings, Hirame leans into noncon and young characters. Also note that the Kill La Kill book goes pretty hard into the canonical relationship between Worst Mom and her daughters, which I can easily see being a hard pass for some. That said, in general her work is marked by a loopy cartoony style on top of solid fundamentals that often lends an air of mischief and hijinks to what could otherwise be some pretty nasty material. The Bear Hand works in particular find time to mix in some solid comedy moments alongside the action. Her page layouts have become steadily more dynamic and busy, with characters frequently breaking outside panel boundaries for full-page poses. I find her free talk endnotes to be particularly charming; her dismay after drawing a book full of some of the more complex Overwatch designs will surely be relatable to many.