Sugar Salt
Chiyoko "Shio" Satō (佐藤 史生, Satō Shio) (6 December 1952 – 4 April 2010) was a Japanese manga artist. Satō is often regarded as a member of the Post Year 24 Group, a group of female manga artists considered influential in the development of shōjo manga. She wrote under the pen name Shio Satō – as her surname Satō had the same pronunciation as satō (砂糖, sugar), she combined it with shio (塩, salt), with the kanji form modified as 史生. She made her professional debut in 1977 with the publication of Koi wa Ajinomono!? in Bessatsu Shōjo Comic. Her definitive works include Yumemiru Wakusei (The Dreaming Planet) and One Zero .
Her stories were usually serious science fiction (SF) drawn in a "subdued" style. Satō regards her interest in science fiction from the patience and thorough answers of her father when she was young and asking "Why?" to everything. Her science fiction influences include Isaac Asimov, Cordwainer Smith and James Tiptree Jr. A major influence on her work Yumemiru Wakusei (1980–1984) was the film Lawrence of Arabia.
Her another focus was on Asian myths, animism, and traditional arts like masks and statues of gods. The first publication featuring these elements was Yume Kui (Dream Eater) in 1982. Satō further widen her perspective to integrate these elements into SF. In One Zero (1984–1986), she depicts future technologies such as artificial intelligence encountering the endless war between Buddhist and anti-Buddhist gods.
In spite of the small number of publications and no adaptation to other media, Satō's manga works have a devoted fan base. Her works mostly appeared on shōjo manga magazines such as Bessatsu Shōjo Comic, Petit Flower (Shogakukan), and Grape Fruit (Shinshokan). "The Changeling", an SF short story published on Petit Flower in 1989, is her only story translated in English to this day. In addition to being published in the English-language anthology Four Shōjo Stories, it was serialised in Animerica in 1995 (Vol.3 issues 5 and 6).
Similar Artists