Ume Aoki
Japanese manga artist
Ume Aoki (Japanese: 蒼樹 うめ, Hepburn: Aoki Ume; born August 3, 1981) is a Japanese manga artist, illustrator, animator, voice actress, and dōjin artist from Hyōgo Prefecture. She officially romanizes her name as aokiume. She illustrates under the pennames apricot+ for many of her dōjinshi, and Apply Fujimiya (藤宮 アプリ, Fujimiya Apuri) for the visual novel Sanarara.
Aoki provided the voice for her Metapod persona in the Shaft anime adaptation of her four-panel comic strip Hidamari Sketch. She later created the original character designs for Puella Magi Madoka Magica, a Shaft anime production; and has been involved with the franchise—spanning several films, mobile games, manga, novels, and further television anime series—since then.
Works
Hidamari Sketch (2004–present; original manga published in Manga Time Kirara Carat) – Voice of 'Ume-sensei' in anime adaptation
Sanarara (2005) – Character design, artwork
Tetsunagi Kooni (てつなぎこおに; lit. Hand Holding Little Demon) (2006–present; original manga published in Dragon Age Pure)
Puella Magi Madoka Magica (2011–present) – Original character design
Mado no Mukōgawa (マドの向こう側; lit. The Other Side of the Window) (2012–present; original manga published in Manga Time Kirara Carino)
Binetsu Kūkan (微熱空間; lit.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Ume Aoki” is japanese manga artist. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Aoki, Japanese and manga, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “japanese manga artist” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1152527. VIAF identifies the subject as 257661175. The Library of Congress control number is nb2009016819. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1981, 2004, 2005 and 2006.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
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- Building a first chronology
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
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- Expand the search: follow Ume Aoki primary sources, Ume Aoki archive and Aoki research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Ume Aoki” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.