Hiroshi Aro
| Hiroshi Aro, the star of the short "The Flying Alligator" and the various omake pages at the end of each chapter, but also seen throughout the story too, doing things like censoring private parts, explaining certain aspects of the story, or apologizing for whatever action's going on at the time ^_^;. Why, you may ask? What does an alligator have to do with Futaba-kun Change? THIS alligator happens to be the brilliant mind that came up with the series. That's right, Hiroshi Aro is the author of Futaba-kun Change. In addition to the shorts at the end of the first volume, there's also little omake things at the end of all the chapters, sometimes spotlighting his assistants or himself. I'm going to venture a guess and say that these alligator shorts in volume 1 only appear in the American manga. Basically, there about his trip to Otakon, huge American food, and otaku in America. Now for a little biographical information. Hiroshi Aro is a penname, his real name is Yoshihiro Tamogami. He was born on May 15, 1959 and his studio is called Studio Paranoiya. Hiroshi Aro worked first as an assistant to Osamu Akimoto (he writes Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kouen-mae Hashutsu-jo, which translates into something like "This is the police box before Katushika-ku Kamearei park", it's the longest running series in Japan, currently at tankoban 121 or some insane number like that). He also co-runs the quarterly manga magazine Comic Will with Kentarou Yano. According to accounts by his co-workers and comments he made himself in the Otakon shorts, he's a big guy, standing over 6 feet tall (that's rather irrelevant, but you know, I need content here!). Aro is also a friend of Studio Ironcat in the US, and they are the ones who publish his work. Since the completion of Futaba-kun Change!, they've moved on to Yu and Mii, or just plain ol' You & Me in English.
What would a mangaka be without manga? And what would a bio page be without an explanation and list of said mangaka's work? Hiroshi Aro's debut manga was Supecoma E-1, which is a short story that can be found in Omisore! Toraburikko. He's currently working on two series, Pink House and Mikoto ... (couldn't figure out the romanization ^_^;). For the most part, Aro seems to work in mostly comedy and sci-fi genres, but judging by the covers of some of his more recent work, it appears as if he's perhaps venturing into hentai or really, REALLY erotic comedy :p The official Studio Paranoiya website is here I believe. His most popular work by far is You and Me, the one currently being translated by Studio Ironcat, as I mentioned earlier. This work had a drama CD produced in conjunction with it, and is what most people think of when they hear the name Hiroshi Aro, if I understand correctly. However, it was never animated. On the other hand, there WAS a series that was made into a 4-part OVA, and if I'm not mistaken it was a novel series, called Lunar something (I need help with the romanization of this one too ^_^;) I'm not sure if he wrote the novels (of which there were 12 total) since they're not listed under the works section of his site, but since they are listed in goods I am led to believe that he at least illustrated them or something. If anyone has more information about that series, please share it ^_^; As another point of trivia, the covers to all the Aro Hiroshi Collections have the cover art within an alligator silhouette, which I think is quite nifty ^_^ If you care to see a list of his work, what follows is what was in the Futaba-kun Change! volumes, as well as a little of my own reasearch. Some of the titles have ellipses because I romanized them myself from the Paranoiya page and Rumi-chan can't read Kanjii... ;_; Help would be appreciated if you could translate the title. They're not, for the most part, in any sort of chronological order. The ones marked "unconfirmed" means that they were not listed on his website, but PRISMS has them listed as his work, so... I dunno. I don't wanna delete them, because 4 Spirits Plus 2 of them has a pretty glowing review at that site ^_^; They mention Takaramono as part of the series, so it's possible that it could just be some kind of strange compilation, although I don't know why it wouldn't be listed at his site... Boogie Woogie Alligator (1 vol)
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