Hiromu Arakawa (author:
荒川弘) is a Japanese manga artist, best known for
Fullmetal Alchemist (鋼の錬金術師
Hagane no renkinjutsushi).
Her real name is Hiromi Arakawa (荒川弘美).
Arakawa was born and raised on a dairy farm in Hokkaidō.
She thought of being a manga artist since she was little. After graduating high school, she took oil painting classes while working on her family's farm. During that time, she also created dōjinshi manga with her friends and drew yonkoma for a magazine. After eight years she moved to Tōkyō and started out as assistant writer for Hiroyuki Etō.
Her debut as manga artist is in 1999 with
STRAY DOG. In 2001 she started working on her famous and award winning series
Fullmetal Alchemist, that soon gets a successful anime adaptation.
Other works include
Silver Spoon (銀の匙 Silver Spoon,
Gin no saji Silver Spoon).