Katsura Hoshino

In 2013, she was the original character designer for Valvrave the Liberator by Sunrise, making it her first original work on an anime as well as her first new work since D.Gray-man. Additionally, D.Gray-man resumed serialization in July 17, 2015 in Shueisha's quarterly magazine, Jump Square Crown.

In Japan, D.Gray-man has been put on hiatus many times; once due to Hoshino falling seriously ill with Norovirus and another because of an injury to her neck. However the series continued shortly after in both cases. In November 2008, Weekly Shōnen Jump announced that Hoshino was again putting the series on hold due to an injured wrist. Publication resumed in March 2009. The series once again went on hiatus on May 11. The series resumed in the seasonal magazine Akamaru Jump on August 17, 2009. Following the release in Akamaru Jump, D.Gray-Man resumed its serialization on November 4, 2009 in the monthly-release Japanese manga magazine, Jump Square. Additionally, Hoshino was one of the multiple manga authors that celebrated the 10th anniversary of the manga series Naruto by drawing her own rendition of the main character, Naruto Uzumaki.

The D.Gray-man manga series has been adapted into various forms, including an anime series and three light novel adaptations. Three volumes placed in the top fifty of Japan's bestselling manga of 2008 and the series is one of Weekly Shōnen Jump' s bestselling manga series. It has gained attention in North America; both the manga and anime adaptions are licensed for English language releases. The manga series has been well received in France; it was awarded the prize for Best Manga Series 2006 at the Anime and Manga 2007 French Grand Prix organized by Animeland. It also won Webotaku's prize for Manga of the Year 2006.

The series was well received in Japan. D.Gray-man was Weekly Shōnen Jump' s ninth bestselling manga in Japan in 2007 and 2008. The fifteenth volume ranked twenty-second in 2008 manga sales in Japan while the fourteenth and sixteenth volumes placed at twenty-seventh and thirtieth respectively. The manga received the prize for Best Manga Series 2006 at the Anime and Manga 2007 French Grand Prix organized by Animeland and received Webotaku's prize for Manga of the Year 2006. In 2006, the second novel was the third bestselling novel in Japan.

When Hoshino was 17, she aimed at getting animation jobs against her parents' wishes but she failed. Next year, she tried doing it again and was accepted. Hoshino moved to Tokyo to become an animator. Despite becoming an artist, Hoshino found problems with her job. Due to financial issues, Hoshino was thinking about going back to her parents but her sister convinced to go to Kyoto. At that time, her sister motivated her to get a job but she failed most of them. At an unknown time, Hoshino was motivated by her mother to start writing manga. She still felt troubles in her new job, due to the multiple hours at work, the problems with storyboards and having to take the bullet train. Nevertheless, Hoshino succeeded in her work. She dreamed of bringing her mother to the city and was able to in 2006. After graduating from high school, Hoshino did not know what career should she follow as she was offered the work of joining video game companies. Ultimately, she decided to become a manga author despite her fears of the difficulty it takes.

Hoshino's first publication Zone, a one-shot title, appeared in Akamaru Jump in December 2002 and was followed by her first series Continue (コンティニュー , Kontinyū) , which was published in Weekly Shōnen Jump in July 2003. Due to lack of popularity of Continue, the Shueisha staff recommended Hoshino to make a series based on Zone. As a result, the one-shot Zone was succeeded by the D.Gray-man (ディーグレイマン , Dī Gureiman) series, which began publication in Weekly Shōnen Jump in May 2004 and contains multiple themes from Zone. The series is over two hundred chapters long in Japan and is sold in over ten countries, including the United States, France, and Germany. An anime adaptation, directed by Nabeshima Osamu and produced by Dentsu, was aired from October 2006 to September 2008. Funimation licensed an English-language version, the first thirteen episodes of which were released on DVD in March 2009. Based on Hoshino's work, Kaya Kizaki has written three novels, commonly named D.Gray-man Reverse, and Konami has developed two video games and a trading card game. The fanbook D.Gray-man Official Fanbook: Gray Ark and the art book TV Animation D.Gray-man Official Visual Collection: Clown Art were released in June 2008 and September 2008 respectively. This was followed by an illustration book titled D.Gray-man Illustrations Noche in February 2010 and another character book titled "D.Gray-man Character Workbook CharaGray!" in July 2011.

Katsura Hoshino (星野 桂 , Hoshino Katsura, born April 21, 1980) is a Japanese manga artist from Shiga Prefecture. She made her debut in July 2003 with the publication of her first manga series Continue and is known for her work, D.Gray-man, which began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump in May 2004. She most recently designed characters for the 2013 Sunrise anime, Valvrave the Liberator, making it her first original work on an anime.

Hoshino was born on April 21, 1980, in Shiga Prefecture, Japan, as the younger of fraternal twin girls and the second of three children. As a child, she originally dreamed of becoming an astronaut. Hoshino confessed she was not too interested in school, often making excuses to avoid taking classes. Additionally, she added that would often practise drawing in the middle of the classes which gave her doubts when she had to erase them. She drew her first manga at twenty-one. As a child she used to read the manga Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibōken that her brother collected, as well as series by Fuyumi Soryo and Makimura Satoru, which her mother bought. However, she instead preferred anime, most notably Studio Ghibli films. Her favorite film was Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) to the point of watching it multiple times. When watching Castle in the Sky (1986), Hoshino decided she wanted to become an animator, inspired by director Hayao Miyazaki mostly. When going to highschool, Hoshino started drawing which she believed to be the result of reading Naoko Takeuchi's manga Sailor Moon. She often showed the 4 panel drawings known as yonkoma drawings to her sister who was in the same college. These yonkoma often involved a monkey. Additionally, Hoshino stated she was a fan of the comedy genre as she aimed to make people laugh.

Hoshino has named Takeshi Obata and Osamu Akimoto as inspiring her work. Her most notable work D.Gray-man is greatly influenced by her previous titles. Characters are often carried over from unpublished manga Hoshino worked on early in her career. D.Gray-man and its predecessor Zone share many major concepts, such as the creation of demons known as akuma, the Exorcists' role to eliminate these demons, and the overall plot of both works. The main antagonist of Zone, known simply as the Millennium Earl, retains his appearance and name in D.Gray-man while the features of the female protagonist were changed to create the more masculine appearance of D.Gray-man' s male protagonist Allen Walker. The characters Lavi and Yu Kanda were carried over from two unpublished titles. In making the demons known as "Akuma" from D.Gray-man, Hoshino was inspired by the 1973 film, The Exorcist, even though she was afraid of the movie. By the release of the series' 13th collected volume, Hoshino revealed the material she uses when working: a PlayStation Portable, an iPod and a glove her mother made to her.