Hiromu Arakawa was born on May 8, 1973 in Hokkaido, Japan. She was raised on a dairy farm with her sisters, which may explain her obsession with bovine. As a young adolescent she spent her time doing chores around the farm, as well as enjoying playing outdoors. Of course, reading manga was also a hobby of hers, and she enjoyed all genres, but was partial to those published in Weekly Shounen Jump and Weekly Shounen Sunday. A favorite of hers growing up was Kinnikuman, a parody of Ultraman created by Yudetamago. Growing up, she dreamed of discovering what was beyond the mountains of her hometown, and imagined the life of a manga-ka to be carefree and ideal.

After finishing school, she worked on the family farm for seven years before beginning her ventures in drawing manga. She started by illustrating things with friends, such as Shishi Juushin Enbu, a doujinshi that was self-published by Arakawa and a group of her peers under the collective name Huang Jin- Zhou, which is made up of the Chinese characters for 'Golden Week.' Over time, she began writing her own stories as well. That led to drawing yonkoma for the video game magazine Gamest that parodied many of the games featured in their issues. These were done under the pen name Edmund Arakawa.

Her first major work, Stray Dog, won her the Ninth Twenty-First Century Shounen GanGan Award, and as a result, was published professionally in Monthly Shounen GanGan. Following Stray Dog was Shanghai Youma Kikai which features a myriad of interesting characters as they solve supernatural mysteries around a Shanghai of the future. The first chapter was published in 2000, and then republished in 2004. All but the second chapter were published in Monthly Shounen GanGan, that chapter alone was published in GanGan Wing.

Her claim to fame, however, is the internationally reknowned Fullmetal Alchemist, or as it is known in Japan, Hagane no Renkinjutsushi. Her first long-term series began in August of 2001 in the pages of Monthly Shounen GanGan and has recently celebrated it's 6th anniversary. It's popularity warrented an animated series followed by a theatrical production. Fullmetal Alchemist also won her a prize in the 49th Annual Shougakukan Manga Awards in the Shounen division, a title held by only one other woman in Japan; Rumiko Takahashi, whom Arakawa has mentioned as a great influence on her work. The only known photo of Arakawa is from the award ceremony of the Shougakukan Awards. She seems to be incredibly camera shy, and instead prefers to depict herself as a bespectacled cow, as an homage to her dairy past.

While Fullmetal Alchemist continues its run in Japan, Hiromu Arakawa has also created numerous short series during it's publication. Among those are Raiden-18, published in Monthly Sunday GX, and Souten no Koumori in GanGan Custom. Most recently she has begun illustrating the work Juushin Enbu, found in GanGan Powered in which characters from her amateur days appear once again. Her love of science fiction, as well as Chinese history is evident in her works, as she impletents ideas that range from reanimating dead bodies, to using famous gods as characters, and even to taking a break from writing to simply illustrate a subject she has interest in.

Before she became the famous manga-ka she is today, Hiromu Arakawa was an assistant to Eito Hiroyuki, creator of Mahoujin Guru Guru (a series which parodies early role playing games), which she worked on, as well as numerous yonkoma published in Monthly Shounen GanGan. She is also linked to several other names in the industry; in her amateur days she was a good friend to Yashichiro Takahashi, the creator of the novel series Shakugan no Shana which inspired the manga and anime series of the same name. Also, she and Taishi Mori, the creator of Idejuu!, mentioned being such fans of each other's works, they both created a special gag page for the one another, Arakawa's found in Idejuu!, and Moritaishi's appearing in Fullmetal Alchemist. Neither authors appear in the same magazine publications, so their collaboration is something of a rarity.

While Hiromu Arakawa has reached international status so early in her profession, she continues to find time to work on multiple projects at once, and looks to be in the early stages of an incredibly promising career. Her ability to create interesting characters and compelling stories makes her a very exciting author and illustrator and definitely one to keep an eye on.