Misako wanted to move to American since she was 11 after she got a crush on Michael J Fox in Back to the Future. At age 19, she won a scholarship to come to American as an exchange student.
Her first break came when The Onion decided to use her illustrations for their “Savage Love” column. Shortly after Misako scored a two-book deal with Hyperion and a three-book deal with Henry Holt. Her autobiographical comic, Rock and Roll Love was featured in Best Teens Book List by NYPL.
Outside of U.S., she has published four books in Japan. Her latest book “How to learn English with Misako’s method” became the bestseller in Japanese amazon.
Her manga graphic novel, Bounce Back, was released from Feiwel & Friends, an imprint of Macmillan. It is selected to be on the list of 2021 BEST GRAPHIC NOVELS FOR CHILDREN by American Library Association. The second in the series, Bounce Back 2: No Such Thing as Perfect, released in November of 2023.
She was selected as one of outstanding Japanese artists in NY and invited to meet Japanese Prime Minister Abe and the first lady. After that she started appearing on multiple Japanese TV and radio shows. Also, the BBC and NHK featured her in a documentary about her comic book life. Recently she was featured on NBC TODAY show and collaborated with Playstation to promote Ghostwire: Tokyo.
She has taught manga drawing classes at Metropolitan Museum and Brooklyn Cherry Blossom Festival and given many speeches in various schools all around the U.S.
Besides her book projects, she currently teaches Manga at her online community Learn Manga with Misako where she helps kids learn kawaii manga drawing.
“Our students were so excited to learn the art of drawing Manga characters; they soaked up every minute of instruction and many of their end results were amazing. We have true talent at our campuses. Thank you to Misako for bringing out their talent.” — George Washington Middle School, 2023
“Many times, Misako Rocks has encouraged me with the phrase ‘Ganbatte’ – roughly translating to ‘Go for it!’ in Japanese. Her characters – especially Jermain – impart this same inspiring energy… take-charge girls that don’t wimp out in the face of adversity!” — Craig Thompson
