Moto Hagio (b. 1949) is one of the central figures of the Year 24 Group, the cohort of women born around Shōwa year 24 (1949) who restructured shōjo manga in the 1970s. Her works — including The Poe Clan (1972), The Heart of Thomas (1974), and They Were Eleven (1975) — introduced long-form psychological complexity, queer subject matter, and science-fictional ambition to a genre previously edited mainly by men and aimed primarily at younger readers.
Position in shōjo history
Until the late 1960s, shōjo manga magazines were almost entirely staffed by male editors and largely produced by male artists. The Year 24 Group, of which Hagio is among the most studied members, is the cohort credited with transferring authorship of shōjo to women and expanding the form's subject matter from short, gag-led pieces to multi-volume serial narrative. Hagio's contemporaries in the group include Keiko Takemiya, Yumiko Ōshima, Riyoko Ikeda, and Ryoko Yamagishi.
Key works
- The Poe Clan (1972) — vampire family chronicle assembled from non-sequential vignettes spanning two centuries.
- The Heart of Thomas (1974) — boarding-school tragedy and one of the foundational works of shōnen-ai.
- They Were Eleven (1975) — short science-fiction work, later filmed.
- A, A' (1981) — three linked SF stories on cloning and identity.
- Otherworld Barbara (2002–2005) — late-career return to long-form SF.
Influence
Hagio's adoption of cinematic page composition — varied panel sizes, full-page spreads at emotional pivot points, frequent silent panels — is among the most cited stylistic innovations of 1970s shōjo. Her writing on her own practice, collected in interview volumes, has become reference material for manga studies departments in Japan and abroad.