Aya Takano is a Japanese painter, illustrator, sci-fi writer, and manga artist, whose images depict young girls in scenes of reverie, often detached from reality. The girls' sleepy eyes and their sumptuous surroundings, always drawn with a spirited yet sedative haziness, offer a glimpse into an alternate world that exists beyond its hypnotizing protagonists' fantasies. Symbols and landscapes emblematic of Japanese culture often make appearances in her universe, yet it also transcends into a whimsical utopian amalgam of eroticism, sci-fi, and mythology. In her world, girls are imbued with a fluid freedom which recalls exactly that which they may be escaping.