Hiromu Arakawa's BIO:
(according to this site (Japanese info site for manga artists), posted by GaluxKitty here, and translated by AA battery and posted here.)


Pic of Arakawa-sensei

Gender: Female, married, mother of two (first child, son, was born in Fall of 2007, second child was born in Summer of 2011). (...husband is said to be a municipal government employee, but found no official source to confirm this yet. ^^)
B-day: 1973 May 8th (that means, she is 38, as of Aug. 2011)
Born in: Chuurui village, Tokachi, Hokkaido, Japan.
Currently lives in: Saitama, Japan
Family: Dairy and crop farmer in Tokachi, Hakkaido Japan. Helped family farm before debuting as a manga artist.
Education: Chuurui Junior high school, Obihiro Agricultural High School (said to be the model for the school in her current weekly series manga, "Silver Spoon")
Blood type: A
Astrology Sign: Taurus
Hobby: Loves cows a whole lot
Favorite place: Mountain
Fav color: Skyblue
Fav food: Miso soup
Fav country: Japan, then China
Fav sport: Karate (holds Black Belt) & Volleyball
Fav novel: Kino's Journey
Fav saying: People who don't work get no food
Her manga Studio: Ushigoya (cow barn/shed) Firm
Offical Site: n/a

Awards:
"Stray Dog" 9th Shounen Gangan Manga Award of the 21st Century
"Fullmetal Alchemist" The 49th Shougakugan Manga Award
"Fullmetal Alchemist" 2011 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize - "New Artist Prize" category
"Fullmetal Alchemist" 2011 Japanese SF "Seiun" Award - Manga section
Experiences:
*Hiromu Arakawa first began as a 4koma (4 panel comic strips) artist for video games in a game company.
*She had the promise with her family that until age 25, she has to work in her family farm (with cows and other stuff) until her younger brother has a stable career.
*Then finally at 1999, when she was 25, she submitted a short story to monthly magazine Shounen GanGan, and won the Shounen GanGan's 9th Manga Award of the 21st century.
*At 2001 August, "Fullmetal Alchemist" began to appear on Shounen GanGan, then got published into manga books, and that piece of work won the 49th Shougakugan Manga Award at 2004.
*In May, 2011, Arakawa was nominated for the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize and won the New Artist Prize category.
*In July, 2011, Fullmetal Alchemist won the manga section of 2011 Japanese SF "Seiun" Award.

Works:

Stray Dog (one-shot) 1999

Totsugeki Tonari no Enix (突撃となりのエニックス) (one-shot) 2000


Shanghai Yōma Kikai (上海妖魔鬼怪, Demons of Shanghai) (manga) 2000


Fullmetal Alchemist (鋼の錬金術師) (manga) 2001-2010


Raiden-18 (manga) 2005, 2011


Souten no Koumori (蒼天の蝙蝠) (one-shot) 2006


Juushin Enbu (獣神演武, Hero Tales) (manga) 2006-2010


Hyakushou Kizoku (百姓貴族, Noble Farmer) (manga) 2006-


Silver Spoon (銀の匙) (manga) 2011-


Raiden Tameemon (one-shot) 2011


==============


~ Um....abt Hiromu Arakawa Sensei... ~

i really want to know whether Arakawa sensei is a male or female...i know his name was a male name (and i believed that he's a male)...but there are some people saying that they saw in the GANGAN magazine said that he is a female...so...i don't really know whether he is a male or a female...?

Haven't seen any photos of him, but I've always been sure he's male.
The whole manga and those 'covership flaps' made me think he's surely a man. I don't know...

Browse through the following thread (warning: large thread, the relevant posts are scattered throughout it)
http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=9524

Read the following for support of what was discussed in above thread
http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=18292

Read them and decide yourself

maybe i will have to start to convince myself that she is a female....

mangaseek.net says Arakawa-sensei is a female, so I guess we can be pretty sure Arakawa-sensei is a she.

must be a she.

dunno...just my opinion, but i always though that was a he

Agree... I always refered to Arakawa-sensei 'he'. Looked at those pictures and texts given by Guest. It's so logical.

well, Yebyosh post a pic that he thought it's Arakawa-sensei.. and it's a girl..

Arakawa uses a cow for her depiction of herself, which is considered rather femme in Japan...

but its a little ugly cow !! XD

but, Yukiru Sugisaki (DNAngel) always draw herself with bunny mask and short hair, not looking very much like a girl.

Well, i don´t really care if is a she or a he, i just want a cute a happy end T.T

I think the cow's cute..

Me too - it looks dorky and wears glasses and DIES IN THE 2ND FMA RPG GAME BUWAHHSLSFJKSKFJL. >__>

yeah~ that's a cute cow...how can u say that's ugly.....~

It has character. I draw myself as a dorky glasses kid.

The cow is really cute ^__^ But I was really-really sure that means mangaka is male

*raises an unrelated question about the mangaka since unregistered=unable to start a new thread

Is it possible that this person (since I don't know if it's a he or a she yet) was somewhat influenced by Takahashi Rumiko (creator of Ranma 1/2). The surprised look on FMA characters always seem to remind me of the one on Ranma's face. There are also other scenes that remind me of Takahashi's style but I can't remember what chapters they are in so can't point them out for now.

Yes, Takahashi Rumiko is one of the artists that Arakawa-sensei look up to. "Kinnikuman" affected her as well. But the two manga that she influenced FMA was Guru Guru (forgot the rest of the name >.< It's the anime/manga where the girl is a magician and draws arrays in order to use magic) and another manga which I've never heard of and have no idea what the japanese or english name is (but from the chinese translated name, it looks like it's about a wanderer.)

can't really says that.. the male cow is called a bull, and it shows a cow, which is a female

That actually doesn't have much to do with it. Arakawa-sensei spent 7 years feeding cows (her family owns a farm) so her avatar is a cow because she likes cows. My point is, even IF Arakawa-sensei is a male, the cow avatar can still be used.

@___@ I'll keep calling them they, until proven otherwise... Or... is it proven otherwise?

Due to the cow avatar, somewhere in the Perfect Guide Book, Arakawa-sensei was referred to as 'it.'

lolz... anyways, I have a feeling that she'll reveal herself/himself in the end of FMA

I wonder what Arakawa-sensei would think about people being confused with his/her gender. xD

I just read Full Metal Panic and the mangaka revealed herself as a female.
It's gonna be a deja vu...

This is really scary...
As soon as I started reading the manga, I somehow got a subconscious impression that the artist was female. The thought just wouldn't go away for some reason. After reading several chapters, I decided that it made no sense for me to consider Arakawa-sensei female because FMA had all the elements of a shounen manga, and there aren't that many female artists who draw shounen manga. After a while, I pretty much convinced myself that Arakawa was male.
THEN I started reading posts about this. A lot of them said that Arakawa is actually female, and I got really confused. Somehow, I still believe that if she is female, it's not that far-fetched.
I actually got the same feeling about Yukiru Sugisaki, although she draws shojo manga. That time I was right though.
Maybe female manga-ka choose not to reveal their gender to their readers to stop criticism. I know some authors do that.
Either way, I'm really curious because Arakawa is one of my absolute favourite manga-ka ever (followed closely by Sugisaki).

well, in the pic posted by Yebyosh in Animesuki.. the only person that for me look like Arakawa Sensei is the female, after all, the cow wears glasses

Too bad we don't have a better/close-up of that picture. Else, we would be able to compare...

Oh, and I agree with wolfi, the woman in the middle does look like Arakawa-sensei (the cow anyway )

I haven't seen that picture. What was it about? The cast & crew behind FMA?

I think Arakawa-sensei is female.
in the managa she always appear like a cow (not a bull)

It was the 49th small publication awards.

Here's the picture:

Thanks! Hmmm, Arakawa-sensei would probably be the person in the center, right? So~ that's a woman?

The lady in the middle looks a little like Paku Romi . . . or maybe it's just me. It can't be Romi though, since this is a photo taken at a publication award ceremony . . .

But wow . . . if Arakawa-sama is really a lady, then I am even more impressed. With FMA's somtimes "gory" scenes and dynamic plot, she's absolutely amazing! Inspires me to become a better writer as well, although my plots will never be as good . . .

Well.. Arakawa can still be a man, you know. A very feminine man, but so's Gackt. Hmmm, wonder if there aren't any head-shots. Or zoomed-in full body shots.

Though the question now is, Which one is s/he/it?

It is assumed that the woman in the middle is Arakawa-sensei. The other four artists has been identified, EXCEPT the woman in the middle. However, one can still doubt, was Arakawa-sensei in this picture in the first place?

ICICICICIC... hmmmm.... even if the mangaka was a he I wouldn't mind... but if the mangaka was a SHE.... that'd be SERIOUSLY COOOL!!!

when Riza_Hawkeye announced that Hiromu arakawa-sensei was a woman, for some reason, i couldn't help but believe her. i've been calling arakawa-sensei "she" for quite sometime now.

rumiko takahashi's works are shonen in genre, but one could still feel the romance, nonetheless with all that action, blood and gore. the only reason that i didn't think arakawa-sensei wasn't female was the lack of romance in the story as compared to most female mangakas in this genre.

anyway, yeah, the arakawa-cow avatar is cute... my choice of weaponry in the tobenai tenshi game :,3

Yeah, it didn't come to me as a shock when I heard that Arakawa-sensei is a female.

Hm...I wonder if the cover flaps say anything about Arakawa-sensei's gender...probably not, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to check.

If anyone else has read Ranma 1/2 you can understand how a girl can write shounen O.o.
I thought she was a guy at first but now I think shes a she. I cant remember what changed my mind.

Royai! Royai!

All those RoyxRiza moments scream in evidence of a female touch!!!

can't argue with that, hehehehe....

NOBODY can argue with that.... *drooooolllllsssss*

Even I can't.

i like arakawa-sensei's style. actually, after reading about the fact that that greed and lust's deaths correspond to the punishments that the 7 cardinal sins face in hell (accdg. to the mythology from which they came), got me more interested with the manga... the humonculi are more significant now.

quoting yebyuosh straight from animesuki,



not likely arakawa is a 'he' now is it?

PROOF!!! PROOF!!!! AT LAST!!!!

...disappointing. *makes self scarce*

hehehehe... i never doubted her gender when riza_hawkeye announced with proof that arakawa-sensei was a girl

Why?

Well, at last, the mystery has been solved. Arakawa-sensei is a 'she'.

I dunno. Maybe because the manga had those emotional bits (Al & Ed angsting over the events after Lab 5, Winry & Hughes talking about how women and men dealt with their feelings & It just seemed so special if a man wrote and drew all this, you know? But now it turns out Arakawa's a woman and now it doesn't seem so special anymore...